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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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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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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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