<![CDATA[big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment.]]>
all will be photographed (and posted here), also videographed!

the equipment is being moved to my place, where pubvm.org will be ran on an actual IBM System/370 mainframe!!!!

this is a six-sigma event, this is unfathomable rarity omg
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/47ffa652-ce4d-45d9-8b7c-3edc89fbb79f/big-announcement-for-friday-i-have-acquired-a-datacenter-that-has-not-been-touched-since-approximately-2002-and-is-full-of-old-80s-90s-2000s-ibm-mainframe-equipment.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 08:18:13 GMTWed, 22 Apr 2026 13:41:04 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:14:06 GMT]]>@SamanthaJaneSmith @wec My initial satellite stuff was back circa 1971 when we built a satellite system for a US military group to monitor and track all kinds of things around the world - we essentially built the system shown in the movie War Games - all the way from the satellites, to ground stations around the world, to big war rooms. (And I can say this: watching, and participating, in a simulated nuclear attack and response played out in a Dr. Strangelove like war room is seriously spooky.)

Later (early 1990's) I worked on satellite stuff at Sun where we were trying to re-purpose a Soviet, then Russian LEO constellation to get data coverage (much like today's Starlink) over the continental US to support highly mobile computing. (We even had a bicycle on the net.) One of our team members even had the "fun" of sitting atop a flaming flying Saturn rocket.

More recently our social circle has had included several astrophysicists (with leanings towards astrobiology. One of whom helped repair the Hubble.)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116454670088423402https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116454670088423402Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:14:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:28:35 GMT]]>@kkarhan @WizardOfDocs @wec Connor brought some ancient stuff from the archives to TechXchange last October. He had a working S/36 that was running a banner print program. It was super popular especially with the young uns.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/zarchasmpgmr/statuses/116454491139018345https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/zarchasmpgmr/statuses/116454491139018345Thu, 23 Apr 2026 14:28:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:18:41 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec

And I would be confident that none of that amazing hardware will ask you for your age or date of birth 😄🖖

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/simonzerafa/statuses/116453272582627590https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/simonzerafa/statuses/116453272582627590Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:18:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:22:50 GMT]]>@karlauerbach @wec I love the idea of doing it for fun! I am now nostalgic for tape drives and i hear you about the paper piles 😁

Ah yes I remember putting a job to run in on a Monday and getting the results in a Friday. We did one run every two weeks. So it meant you really had to check the code thoroughly!

I also had the pleasure of using a CDC6700 and 7600 at the University of London computer centre. I really liked using them despite the large card decks due to the use of update and insert cards.

You said you worked in "satellite stuff" can I ask who for. I spent my whole career in the space industry hence the interest.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116453052943606913https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116453052943606913Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:22:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:20:30 GMT]]>@SamanthaJaneSmith @wec We did the JCL-on-Unix thing for the fun of it - and to show people who did not comprehend time sharing.

I got really good at JCL - I was doing satellite stuff and we had compilation jobs that could take 18 to 24 hours. So I rebuilt the JCL to optimize things and got it down to roughly 6 to 8 hours. Most people at that time did not realize that for sequential files - like compiler intermediary files - tape was much faster than disk. So I had umpteen tape drives spinning away. (Each run produced a mountain of printout - about eight feet high!!)

Another yuck-thing we did was to put the Unix swap onto a DecTape. Poor tape drive, but it did work.

BTW, out at the Livermore labs we used an old CDC 7600 and an obsolete Cray 1 to manage our tape library for the newer Crays. (I ported Unix onto those machines.)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116451156335232630https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116451156335232630Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:20:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:59:14 GMT]]>@wec Wait, are you gonna outdo me on 3174s now? I thought I had cornered the market! (Had 20+ at one point, down to like 12)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/jgeorge/statuses/116451072720227952https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/jgeorge/statuses/116451072720227952Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:59:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:57:02 GMT]]>@karlauerbach @wec Oh yes! I can imagine although I don't know why anyone would want to do that. Although I do remember some really complex JCL for when the 370 acted as a front end for a Cray 1s... That was horrendous and generated a few forests of LP paper with stack overflow errors... I am going to have nightmares tonight!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116450828138076313https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116450828138076313Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:57:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:13:04 GMT]]>@wec @blackbit

Just bear in mind that you can't get spare parts or maintenance for 3745s any more. (The $Dayjob quartet (split over two datacentres for resilience) were finally shut down after this moose retired; when the last remaining user "You can't shut us down, it's Safety Critical!" was advised of the running cost for their _eight_ sessions, and they would be charged for licenses, power, aircon & maintenance...) I spent 4 years trying to persuade them to switch to TCP/IP. 3:O#>
🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 💀

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/Cadbury_Moose/statuses/116450655256912474https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/Cadbury_Moose/statuses/116450655256912474Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:13:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:08:13 GMT]]>@SamanthaJaneSmith @wec Way back in the depths of time one of the folks at Interactive Systems (the first commercial Unix company, circa 1980) wrote a JCL interpreter and job processor for us by those who wanted to treat Unix as a batch processing machine. We copied the job pages and other stuff from UCLA's data center. It was quite impressive - an entire JCL deck just to copy a file, including several pages of resulting printout.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116450636193159083https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/karlauerbach/statuses/116450636193159083Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:08:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:20:18 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec fits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toolsforthought.social/users/billseitz/statuses/116450211845997569https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toolsforthought.social/users/billseitz/statuses/116450211845997569Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:20:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:18:19 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec Something like this?

Link Preview Image
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/955_36/statuses/116450204025307767https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/955_36/statuses/116450204025307767Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:18:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:29:51 GMT]]>@blackbit @wec How about those G3s? The last generation capable of running 370-mode guests!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bitbang.social/users/d_j_fitzgerald/statuses/116450013474444895https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bitbang.social/users/d_j_fitzgerald/statuses/116450013474444895Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:29:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:25:08 GMT]]>@wec You need to acquire a Bond Villain chair and a fluffy white cat for your mainframe lair. Just saying.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116449994871824194https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/cstross/statuses/116449994871824194Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:25:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:18:36 GMT]]>@wec OMG the first programming I ever did was on a 370 and all that JCL!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116449969212068480https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/SamanthaJaneSmith/statuses/116449969212068480Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:18:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:48:32 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec @lemay ahem @tpolecat

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/chetman/statuses/116449850983832697https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/chetman/statuses/116449850983832697Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:48:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:24:59 GMT]]>
CC: @WizardOfDocs@wandering.shop
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776882299.918522https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776882299.918522Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:24:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:20:08 GMT]]>@wec @WizardOfDocs Glad to see there continues to be exceptions to the rule

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.eu/ap/users/115601049471092408/statuses/116449739320331110https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.eu/ap/users/115601049471092408/statuses/116449739320331110Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:20:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:04:05 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec What about 90s computer hardware?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.restless.systems/users/CursedSilicon/statuses/116449676165640405https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.restless.systems/users/CursedSilicon/statuses/116449676165640405Wed, 22 Apr 2026 18:04:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:50:13 GMT]]>
CC: @WizardOfDocs@wandering.shop
]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776880213.220117https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776880213.220117Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:50:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:45:16 GMT]]>@WizardOfDocs @wec "But you can actually do shit with vintage computers!"

Do you do anything with those computers once you restore them?

"...no, but I--"

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.eu/ap/users/115601049471092408/statuses/116449602203146114https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.eu/ap/users/115601049471092408/statuses/116449602203146114Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:45:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:42:02 GMT]]>@wec 3745!!! i am so excited!!!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blackbit/statuses/116448881688983044https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blackbit/statuses/116448881688983044Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:42:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:38:58 GMT]]>]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776868738.338151https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fv390.hs.bam.moe/wec/p/1776868738.338151Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:38:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to big announcement for Friday: I have acquired a datacenter that has not been touched since approximately 2002, and is FULL of old 80s/90s/2000s IBM mainframe equipment. on Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:28:38 GMT]]>@wec You gotta be kidding! Spill it, is it a ES/9000? jaw: dropped!!!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blackbit/statuses/116448829036322800https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/blackbit/statuses/116448829036322800Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:28:38 GMT