XKL TOAD

[Ethan Dicks]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote:
>> From: Ethan Dicks
>> That is small and cute.  I worked next to some Systems Concepts
>> ... in 2003... I _think_ it was a
>> small wall of SC30s, but I could be wrong.  I was told that because of
>> how CompuServe was carved up between MCI/Worldcom and AOL,
>> MCI/Worldcom was still running billing jobs on the 36-bit machines...
>
> Those were SC40s.  Mike and Stewart licensed CompuServe to build their
> own for a discounted fee (IIRC 40% of list).

Ah, yes.  I kinda missed that era.  I was a contractor at CompuServe
in 1994/1995, then worked other places until I was a CompuServe/AOL
employee in 2001, quite a time after the heyday of the SC machines
_and_ the "silver bullet" 32-bit servers.  As of a couple of years
ago, the SC40s at the old CIS headquarters were still up and running,
but they've laid off so many from that facility that I don't get news
like I used to.

> Around 2001 we got a call from someone in one of those offices, but by
> then we were completely out of the business of selling Toad-1 systems.
> Too bad, because the CEO of CIS blew off a meeting (with people waiting
> in his outer office) the day of the NT announcement.

That was right about the time I was coming back, I think.

>> For what I do (Zork regression testing for ZDungeon), I don't really
>> need to own real 36-bit hardware, just an account is enough, so that's
>> what I'm doing.
>
> Happy to help!

Yes.  Thanks for the assistance over the years!

-ethan