Barely spa related

[Chas]

Hahaha, GE made a ship control system that looked something like that. That would be the engine room wheel that corresponds to the topside wheel so when the helmsman makes a bridge adjustment the engine room tracked it. What was really funny was that on the inside of the panel was only a 1 inch diameter potentiometer connected to the big wheel. In ancient times the wheel was connected under the deck with rods and universals to the actual valves that required some effort to turn. The gages would have the volts, amps, watts etc for the generators and the commands and data as things went in and out of alarm would be printed out on what GE used to make at Waynesboro, VA plant, some sort of clone of the IBM Selectric. (I think they were called Terminet and were line printers for those of you who know) These were called the bell logger to log the speed and directions commands and the alarm logger. I don't remember them having monitors but maybe this is Super Custom model. Oh, it was called COS or Central Onboard System if I am remembering correctly. Wow, from the way back machine deluxe!

Awesome! I have a friend who pilots merchant marine vessels - he says today's huge ships are 'driven' via joysticks. He says his ship has three huge diesel engines which are mounted on top of a drive system that amounts to a huge "outboard motor."

The main difference is size, of course, but also that these drives stick through the bottom of the ship, and can turn a full 360 degrees as needed. One near the bow, and two near the stern. They can 'hold station' in a gale force wind, or cruise right up to a dock.

[Brewman]

Wow, FORTRAN!  Anyone remember COBOL?

 

I took a FORTRAN program class in college.  That was before video monitors, all was done on roll paper.

There are a lot of companies using COBOL still.  Remember the Y2K scare?  Lots and lots of mothballed COBOL programmers made a small fortune during that time.  I work for a multi billion dollar financial company and our main processing system is COBOL based.

Brewman

[UnderTheStars]

no, this is a legit picture.  The prediction was pretty accurate but they missed it slightly.  This baby is still a bit out of the average home user's reach (cost.)  However, this is the exact model we currently use at work.  Technological advances have allowed us to eliminate fortran (& cobol.)  We've modified ours and run Java, Perl, & Win78 as an OS.

[Chas]

no, this is a legit picture, ... this is the exact model we currently use at work.  Technological advances have allowed us to eliminate fortran (& cobol.)  We've modified ours and run Java, Perl, & Win78 as an OS.

My son went to an Army recruiter, told them that he is licensed in some IT stuff, and they said, "oh, well how would you like to work with the most expensive, cutting-edge computer systems in the world?"

Then they had him take a simple test on a laptop straight out of the 80's......

Go figure...

[HotTubMan]

My son went to an Army recruiter, told them that he is licensed in some IT stuff, and they said, "oh, well how would you like to work with the most expensive, cutting-edge computer systems in the world?"

Then they had him take a simple test on a laptop straight out of the 80's......

Go figure...

Those recruiters can be pretty aggresive. So the question is who is the most aggresive salesman type out there:
a) army recruiter
b) ThermoSpas salesperson
c) MLM salesperson
d) other____________

[wmccall]

I guess I'll say A, the Army recuiter. In my junior year of HS, I took the AFVAB  (Armed forces Vocational Apptitude Battery) and scored in the 99 percentile.  I think my parents still got phone calls 7 years later, I had moved 250 miles away, got married, and had a child.

[Chas]

I guess I'll say A, the Army recuiter. In my junior year of HS, I took the AFVAB  (Armed forces Vocational Apptitude Battery) and scored in the 99 percentile.  I think my parents still got phone calls 7 years later, I had moved 250 miles away, got married, and had a child.

My son has a friend who went in and basicly just hit random keys on the computer. His answers didn't even form words or make sentences. He was told he was officer material.

Kidding - I don't remember the number, but the recruiter (who couldn't possibly have looked at his answers) said he rated 'very high.'

I wonder what it would take to score 'very low?"