[Linux-aus] Linux Australia web / email / etc services transitioning to new server

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

On Wed, 2007-02-07 at 15:17 +1100, Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> Hi LA,
> 
> Over the next day or so the services provided by Linux Australia's
> stalwart but tired server, Digital, will be transitioned to a new
> platform in Melbourne thanks to HP's kind donation of a funky new DL385.
> 
> We hope the transition will go smoothly and that you will be able to
> keep getting your regular fix of the mailing lists, planet.l.o.a,
> website, etc, but if you notice something odd going on don't stress:
> it's all under control. We hope.
> 
> Cheers   :-)

While I applaud the donation of HP's new machine, the "retirement" of
"Digital" reminds me of the many "retirements" of other Stalwart
machines:

o Sail
o decvax (which throughout its life was really a decVAX, decMIPS,
decAlpha)

and I know that others have fond memories of their "first machines",
much like a "first date", or your first child.

Many years ago I attended the "retirement" of DECtape (which some people
called LincTape, from its early association with Digital's Linc
computer, and later the Linc-8).

Before the advent of "DECtape", it took an average of twenty-five
minutes of fat-fingering, switch-setting in binary codes to get the
paper tape that held the real loader to run, then more paper tape with
the editor and assembler, just to make one pass of "edit, assemble, run"

After the creation of DECtape it took only seconds to load in the
editor, compiler and such.  For a student, this was great.  We all had
small spools of DECtape which we carried with us.  I still have two
spools on my bookcase, even though I have not seen a working drive in
years.

Then one year, while working for Digital, I sat in the "retirement
room", where the meetings to "retire" all products were kept.  The
product manager said the necessary words, that all of the support
contracts were up, all of the parts had been retired, there were no more
customers using DECtape on contract...it was effectively (and really)
dead.

The sentence was pronounced, and as I looked around the room I realized
that I was the only one old enough to remember what it was like BEFORE
DECtape....and to realize what it meant to people.

So I stood up, asked for a couple of minutes, and I explained what
DECtape really meant to a kid in college at that time.  Then I asked for
a moment of silence for the passing of DECtape.

And the room gave me that moment of silence.

So I ask for a moment of silence for "Digital", as we move into an era
where computers are no longer named and have become such a commodity
that they tend not to be given even meaningful asset numbers.  They are
"merely an expense".

Warmest regards,

maddog