I've spent nearly my entire career on that platform. There is always something new there to learn and try and build and carry forward, usually things I can't do at work, for various reasons. If I want to extend my career forward, there's a lot more to learn in this environment that I am going to need to know, things I can't do on a tablet/phone/laptop/desktop. I recently bought a nice, fast, gamer-type desktop, but it doesn't have the capabilities to do what I need to do. Sure, it can do normal office stuff, zoom/webex, connect me to my email, let me do nice presentations, connect to my home NAS, do my taxes....but the question was about home office, and if I want to do Work, even Work For Fun, this is the wrong platform for me.
I'll stop there, so we don't restart the Operating System Holy Wars. B-)
R;
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Rob Hamilton
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-15-2021 17:52
From: Walter Kiess
Subject: Considering a Mainframe for your Home Office?
Why Rob? What on earth are you going to do with that ancient power sucker? Surely there are better things to do in life than huddling around a mainframe just to keep warm? Let's face it, it's of little use for home automation and way too expensive to run 24/7 ... Bigger is not always better.
As much as the idea of having a huge machine is tempting, maybe use all that money and buy a better PC/Laptop/Tablet/Phone. So much more can be done with these and they're cheaper to run... You can always warm your hands on the power supply... :)
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Walter Kiess
SA Police Super
Original Message:
Sent: 03-12-2021 11:32
From: Rob Hamilton
Subject: Considering a Mainframe for your Home Office?
I know I've been dreaming of having a Real Computer at home since the System 360 days. Before going much further, let me detail a few issues Connor had:
The frame itself (z800, IIRC) was _HEAVY_, even after all the hardware inside had been removed.
He had to reapply a lot of heat sinks where the elelectrolyte paste had cracked and some sinks had fallen off.
Had to rewire for 3-phase power.
Had to get an MCL update (that wasn't readily available) to allow IPL via CD/DVD to get Linux installed.
He got a donation of DASD from an interested party just to have disk available for storage.
ESCON/FICON cabling, which is available now at the local MicroCenter.
It reminds me of the TV I got one Christmas from my son. The "free" TV cost me several thousand for a new A/V receiver, new speakers, new DVD/VCR, rewired my house for Ethernet everywhere...
But, I have available space in my basement...I could wire it for 3-phase...My company migrated off a z114 just a few years ago that was destined for the scrap heap. And I could use the extra heat in my basement right about now. Hmmmm...
B-)
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Rob Hamilton
Chemical Abstracts Service
Original Message:
Sent: 03-11-2021 15:54
From: Dave Andrews
Subject: Considering a Mainframe for your Home Office?
I was actually searching for some gaming content (per last week's post) and ran across this humorous presentation by a guy who bought a used mainframe for $200, just because he could. I don't think he had gaming in mind, or really anything it seems from the story. It got a good deal of press at the time and Connor did land a job with IBM, so some of you may know the story already.
Here's a video IBM made about his story a year or so later.
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Dave Andrews
Head of Customer Engagement
Rocket Software
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