Tony Harminc wrote:
>Also in 2004 I was surprised to see a short string of 3420 drives, all
>powered up and lights on, at one of our UK banking customers. I asked,
>and it seems they were used only for data exchange. A nightly courier
>would arrive from each of the other big banks with tapes, and be
>dispatched with the ones from this bank. I had a vision, perhaps not
>inaccurate, of each bank having such a dusty set of drives used only
>for the same purpose.
>Maybe someone at a UK bank can tell us if that scheme survives today...
Heh, I believe that. My dad was doing camera-ready copy in the late 70s and
early 80s--long before it was common--and had to deliver it on 8" floppies.
Mutual Life of Canada ("MuCana") was still using 8" floppies on a daily basis,
and he somehow made a connection there and would run a 3420 over and get back a
floppy. This went on MUCH longer than sanity would suggest.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"; such things usually get fixed when it does
break, and either parts are no longer available or the only guy who knew how to
fix it is retired or DEAD. Like the dude in Pennsylvania who was still
servicing keypunches in the early 2000s. That stopped when he passed away--at
86.
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