You know you're getting old when...
- Thread starter Chris Allingham
- Start date
John G (Boston)
TVWBB Super Fan
Place I worked at had a bunch of those dual port (serial / parallel) Okidata printers. I think the heads were nine pin. We had both the narrow (letter) size and the wide carriage. They NEVER failed. Some of them ran long hard hours. The ones near windows (real windows that let sunlight in, not the troublesome OS by that name) turned yellow but still worked fine. When that system (a Unix based system) was disbanded I removed all the Oki's - still working fine - and put them on shelves in my storage area. Eventually, the company threw them all out.
I saved two of the printers - one was used and one was never opened - NOS in the box. I hooked up the used one for my brother to print oil delivery tickets, gosh could it be 15-20 years ago? It's still working today. He has the NOS one, still unopened, sitting on a shelf in case the used one dies.
DanHoo
TVWBB Olympian
I think I still have some COBOL code on some IBM punch cards in a box in the garage somewhere.
I tossed a complete set of manuals around the IBM 360 principles of operations.
my first "PC" was a Z80A and I splurged for a second 5 1/4 floppy drive as an "upgrade" in addition to the 8 inch floppy.
SBUS with dual serial ports. One went to a modem. I don't recall but it was 300 or 1200 baud
I tossed a complete set of manuals around the IBM 360 principles of operations.
my first "PC" was a Z80A and I splurged for a second 5 1/4 floppy drive as an "upgrade" in addition to the 8 inch floppy.
SBUS with dual serial ports. One went to a modem. I don't recall but it was 300 or 1200 baud
Phil Perrin
TVWBB Hall of Fame
This just crossed my tiny little brain.
Almost 15 years ago, when Dad was still actively farming, he was griping that his sprayer calibration jar had finally broken for the last time. For all intents and purposes, unrepairable and irreplaceable. I told him that I'd stop in some of the ag shops out here...... and found a model that fit his requirements. I'll take 2, please..... and not in stock, see you in 2 weeks.
When I went to pick up the jars, I was asked if I needed a slip. It'd be nice, but not the end of the world, what's up? Oh, somebody replaced the ribbon (Oki 193,) and now nothing lines up. I'll bet this is easy, can you print a slip a few times? Yup, bash the font selection and size buttons until it works again. Apparently, this knowledge was hoarded by somebody who felt the need to be critical. Okay, gents, after you replace the ribbon, make sure that these lights are lit, and use these buttons to change states until they're set right, and you can print a test slip. The folks behind the counter were really happy that morning. That printer still had a lot of life left in it.
This is going to be a real problem, if it isn't already. I see by the website that Oki has completely ceased hardware distribution in several major countries. Epson still appears to be making impact printers, and there may be a few more. While I see the usefulness of NCR continuous feed forms, business people really do need to think about re-engineering their business practices to get away from those. IT may be able to put a band-aid on this, but this isn't an IT problem to solve.
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
The ones I saw were made by Epson. Same principle just different brand.
Timothy F. Lewis
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I think one is “old enough” when this kind of thing can be someone else’s problem.
Mark Foreman
TVWBB Wizard
Mine was an Apple IIE with 2 floppies and a 5 MB hard drive.
Now all I have is an iPad Pro with 12.9” screen. No PCs or MACs.
