If the radar signal was strong enough to wipe the core, I wonder what it did to the synapses of the person posted to guard the door. In the early '80s, the state of Missouri bought a fleet of new patrol cars for the highway patrol. After a few days, many of the officers started complaining about headaches, Upon investigation, it was determined that all of the officers who had reported the headaches had been using their radar units extensively. After more investigation, the problem was solved by moving the radar units so that they did not point directly at the back of the driver's head.
I wonder if all of these systems that used paper tape were programmed so that they could properly read the tapes no matter what the orientation - frontwards or backwards, right side up or wrong side up. Some of the early readers could read the tape regardless of the orientation; however, the data would look very odd if the orientation were wrong. It is scary to think what would happen to an ICBM's targeting if the tape was not fed in correctly. I hope there was something done to prevent that type of problem. Regards, Richard Schuh > -----Original Message----- > From: The IBM z/VM Operating System > [mailto:ib...@listserv.uark.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Walter > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 10:35 AM > To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU > Subject: Re: IBM 1401 > > Paper tape is immune from magnetic interference (of course, > back then there was no public documentation of EMF weapons, right?). > > Another paper tape story... when I was in the US Marines > (1971-1977) working in the Tactical Air Command Center at > MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina one summer, an important > computer kept failing at random intervals. That computer > translated radar "screen paints" (bright blobs) into symbols > that we could interpret on large displays (i.e. different > symbols for different aircraft; and different symbols between > friendlies and bogies). > > When examined after each failure, the core (yes, real core) > memory was always wiped clean. That computer (and its tech) > was housed in a metal box (IIRC, about 6'x10', 8' high) which > was transportable on the back of a > 2 1/2 ton ("6-by") truck, or by helicopter> It was located > about 15 feet from another similar box with all the radar > gear inside, and large radar dish on the top. After a few > days of random core wipes, someone noticed that the core wipe > only happened when the door to the computer hut was > momentarily opened as the radar dish swept past. While aimed > much higher, there was enough residual power from the dish to > wipe the computer's core memory clean. Memory was reloaded > (back on track now) from dependable paper tape. > > Someone was stationed outside the computer hut for the rest > of that day until it could be turned around with the door > faced AWAY from the radar dish sweep. > > Mike Walter > Hewitt Associates > Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not > necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates. > USMCR Sergeant, 1971-1977 > > > > > "Huegel, Thomas" <thue...@kable.com> > > Sent by: "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU> > 05/29/2009 11:49 AM > Please respond to > "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU> > > > > To > IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU > cc > > Subject > Re: IBM 1401 > > > > > > > Trivia.. Recently I went to the Titan-II ICBM silo (now a museum) just > outside Tucson, AZ .. > Interesting fact, they loaded the program for the nucleaur tipped > ballistic missiles guidence system from a paper tape.. > > -----Original Message----- > From: The IBM z/VM Operating System > [mailto:ib...@listserv.uark.edu] On > Behalf Of Jim Bohnsack > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 10:40 AM > To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU > Subject: Re: IBM 1401 > > No, the IBM 2671 paper tape device was a reader only. The paper tape > punches were from older systems. I guess paper tape got punched on > teletype machines in S/360 days. I had a customer with a 2671. > > I started keeping IBM sales manual pages that were "discard > this page" > when updates came out in about the 1970 time frame. I realized that I > was throwing out history, so I kept some that I thought were > important. > > Also I hung on to old IBM Blue Letters as product announcements were > called. When I moved last summer, I shipped about a 6" tall stack of > them to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_History_Museum > > Jim > > > > Mike Walter wrote: > > And just this morning I had been wondering about those who have > > contributed to this thread, wondering how they could > remember so much > > detail (even if some memory had a few parity checks). > Thus, how much > > truly important personal information had been paged out of > their real > > memory (perhaps to paper tape?), being forever lost to permit these > > technical details to remain? :-) > > > > Obviously, over the years Lynn has kept more records than a radio > > station > > (oops: wrong media -- and now: wrong era). > > > > Mike Walter > > Hewitt Associates > > Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not necessarily > > represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates. > > > > > > -- > Jim Bohnsack > Cornell University > (972) 596-6377 home/office > (972) 342-5823 cell > jab...@cornell.edu > > > > > > > The information contained in this e-mail and any accompanying > documents may contain information that is confidential or > otherwise protected from disclosure. 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