SLIGHTLY OT: What's he sitting in front of

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Walter Vaughan" <wvaughan at steelerubber.com>
> To: filepro-list at celestial.com
> Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 11:23:43 PM
> Subject: SLIGHTLY OT: What's he sitting in front of
> Last month's news, but notice the computer he is sitting at. And the
> awesome external drive array...
> 
> http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-frank-pierson-20120724,0,3655207.story

That's the normal Mod 2 three drive bay with only one drive installed (both of the visible slots are the cover blanks).  Common for a system set up for just Scripsit.  Which is the only package he bought with the system.

He bought the system at the Beverly Hills RSCC (8500 Wilshire Blvd at La Cienega Blvd), near the end of 1981.

I wasn't involved pre-sale (I'd just transferred there from the Las Vegas RSCC, a temporary holding pattern waiting for the downtown L.A. RSCC to open) but as the backup instructor/CSR with no established dependent customers, I set up the stuff in his office.

It's an old picture, that's the desk I set things up on.  Not only does he not look any older than when he bought the system there's been nothing a Modem I or II could talk to in at least 20 years.  The modem wasn't part of the initial installation.  The DWP-II is out of frame toward the photographer unless it was moved.
-- 
Ward Griffiths        wdg3rd at comcast.net

<home.comcast.net/~wdg3rd>

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who _smiles all the time_.
    -- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)