On the summit of W7O/CN-074:
Staged to look like I was using it… it was just a fun gag photo. It is a real Altair from the 70s, and has not been powered on in decades.
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Who’s going to take a full rack unit up K2 with them? 
Also, anyone taking a photo with a bit of Solaris tin on a summit is clearly using genAI. Nobody used Solaris! 
Solaris? None of that modern rubbish. SunOS it was …
… never carried a box running it up a mountain though.,
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I can barely remember my time with Solaris and CDE or which Sun box I had on my desk. It had its wrinkles. The alternative was using the PIII 733MHz running NT 3.51 sat next to it. Neither was something you’d make an effort to use again!
I mainly ran Modelsim on the Sun and was so appalled with the speed the embedded processor assembler inside Modelsim (20-25mins to build the code) I taught myself Java and wrote a standalone assembler that did the same job in under 3 mins. And that was using a linear search through symbol table. Next job for the assembler was a hashed search but I jumped ship to a startup and wrote Linux drivers for StrongARM based video systems.
A real MITS Altair is worth some proper moulah nowadays. The toggle switches remind me of the old DG Nova 1200 front panel. The switches on the Nova 3 or PDP-11 were much nicer.
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The Altair above is before my IT time.
I started IT in 1996 or there abouts and we had a Dec PDP11 running a brake dyno machine (testing brakes for trains). Only 1 person had the knowledge to fix it.
I started doing some support on SGI Irix machines, SCO unix machines along with Windows 3.1/NT onwards.
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My first commercial programming was on one of these
Assembler code, TI-9900 based, circa 1982 …
RIck
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If memory serves me correct I only recall ever seeing one comms room with a bit of Sun Systems tin in it. Thats across about 25-30 years.
Personally never used Solaris myself. Always heard it was a pain in the rear to use and integrate with other systems.
The Nascom II and the Merseyside Nascom User Group were my introduction to computing. Meetings were in an upstairs room above a pub on James Street I think. I suspect that I was probably rubbing shoulders with several people in this thread.
Kevin
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I’d recommend CQRlog for Linux, which is a quite sophisticated logging software and it also supports ADIF export for archiving purposes. It interfaces to online services like LotW, eQSL, clublog etc.
73 Jens HB9EKO
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It’s QRZ.COM up or I’ve to talk about my Sinclair ZX81 1982 ?? 
Yes I know It’s up again ! but another Thread was Hijacked
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Tell us all about it 
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No ! 
I spend to much time and was waiting for another winner
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Josh, I had a ZX81, my first computer. That thing actually got me interested in computers. Up to then, even with my job being what it was and the involvement with computers, I hated the things.
But for working RTTY in the BARTG, the following is my favorite computer.:
It’s just not that much fun anymore!
K6YK
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THe printer on the left is a model 35 110 baud ascii in a model 28 cabinet.
The one on the right with all the paper is a model 28 with 3 speed gearshift and
other enhancements, All that paper is what came in on 2 meters whilst I was at
work one day! BTW the only folks who could work me on 110 baud ascii were the local hams that were using computers (mostly Radio Shack COCOs). Those were the days!
K6YK
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In your pic is an SB-200 near the model 28. I have a pair of SB-200 sitting next to a 28RO. Small world.
Elliott, K6EL
I used a Sun workstation running software called Valid for Printed circuit board layout in the late 80’s, the complication was being introduced to it in Italian since that’s where I was posted at the time. I’m mostly a hardware engineer though.
Andy
MM7MOX
El,
I still have that SB200, built it up new. It still works!
JL
K6YK
My favourite Teletype Corporation machine. I last used one copying news broadcasts (TASS etc.) at school 47 years ago.
Hi John,
I’d personally be cautious about relying on a flash drive for backups. Over time, charge that is used to store the information leaks, especially with heat and without power.
Consumer SSDs are typically specified for ~1 year at room temperature when new—and less as they wear. Cheap USB sticks are often worse (lower-quality memory cells, weaker controllers, and little error correction)
They’re generally fine for active use, but for a “just in case” backup that might sit unused, a conventional HDD is often the safer choice.
73, Roman
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