GACK<
Before there was the internet the company I worked for 'let' me take home one of the communicating 5250 workstations and a modem. It truly was a boat anchor. And I had to lug it up to my 2nd floor office. I think it was over 50#. But it saved me a drive into work when things went bump in the night.
The comm was dial up. It was... "slow" doesn't do it justice. "January" and "molasses" come to mind.
And the screen would paint blocks of rows as each block of data arrived.
And one Saturday I was online and a 'friend' kept sending me break messages, asking where I was and why he couldn't find me in the building. And each message would interrupt what I was doing, re-paint the screen to show me the message, as I desperately tried to insert a CHGMSGQ *NOTIFY into the job stream back to the office.
Speaking of the 'clicker,' it was easy enough to turn the keyboard over, find the wire to the clicker and give a little >tug< and silence the thing. A buzzerectomy or clickerectomy IIRC. Of course, you had to take the keyboard apart to re-attach it; we never did.
The keypunch girls swore that they could type faster with it disconnected; they may have been right-- a psychological effect because they weren't listening for the >CLICK< but relying on their typing.
Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2015 10:34 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Latest geezer contest Was: HMC 5250 console, 132 column support
I've often wondered if the "IBM 5252 Dual Display Station" is what gave
rise to office unionization.
Rob Berendt
midrange.com
