On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Al Williams wrote:

> I found this out the hard way when I worked at an IBM shop that had key
> to disk "keypunches". The idea was that the keypunchers would type onto
> 8" floppies that the computer thought were decks of 96 column cards (the
> System3 had 96 column cards instead of 80). Then the key operator would
> take the floppy and put it in an 8" floppy "card reader" that "read" the
> deck.

Hmmm...  3780?  I don't remember, but I worked on a ton of them.  Key to
diskette, key to tape, diskette to tape, etc.  Single green-phosphor
monitor centrally mounted with a two-mirror arrangement so two operators
on opposite sides could see their input...  man, somebody in Armonk or
wherever was smoking some bad weed when that thing was designed!

> I assumed she was just ditzy and called the IBM guy. Nope. They in fact
> had a little "clicker" thing (looked like a doorbell buzzer with no
> bell) and its sole purpose was to make these folks (who were trained on
> 029 keypunches) to feel like they were punching something.

Weird thing was, they DID use keys with a nice SNAP feel to them, just not
a lot of noise.  The solenoid was there to make the whole keyboard shake
like the old 029/129.

Dale

--
http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body