Computer Printers will get your hands dirty

Over the years I have worked on many printers, usually the ones attached to computers. One of my first experiences was a rack mounted impact printer that printed on a roll of paper. Also in the 19 inch rack was the Model 513 Stored Program Simulator. It was probably a first of its kind. It was designed by my boss Mei Wong. The 513 had a core memory of 256 x 24 and all the logic boards to store and read from the core. The front panel had 24 toggle switches and several buttons to load or read the data. On the left was a set of toggles to address the core locations.

Bell Rock

The 513 had a list of computer instructions that when followed could control a PCM stream of data. Outputs could be digital or analog. The little printer was noisy and was always a source of problems until the cause was discovered. We worked around the clock on various projects and there was a support group for fabrication and one of the workers had decided to cease the noise by squirting oil on the print head causing it to keep sticking. After cleaning and halting the oil things started to work.

Back yard

That all happened in Gardena, California at a company called Telemetrics. As the company kept growing we all moved to Santa Ana where the bubble broke. I went back to work at Autonetics where the only printers were in the payroll department. The VERDAN computers we worked on didn't have any printers. I bounced around between companies and wound up at El Pac by the Orange County Airport. We were working on a large telemetry system and I was doing some design work. When the system was finished it was shipped to Lockheed in Sunnyvale for installation. The system was hidden behind a large blackboard and you had to move the board and go through the hole in the wall. Inside the system room the windows looking down at the missile bay were blacked out as every thing was so top hush hush. Next to our system was a line printer connected to a cpu. No body wanted to fly back and forth from south to north and most of the engineers left leaving me in charge to finish the dam thing which I did. 

Front yard

I was then sent to Florida to finish more installing next to a submarine and we worked in a blockhouse. Florida and I didn't agree  so I quit. My wife worked at Pacific Telephone so I laid around the house, rode motorcycles and drank beer. 

Local buddy

To keep up with the want ads I would go to the library and read the papers. One day I saw an ad where my old team member had moved to Fullerton. I called up the company and talked to my good friend Roy. He said come over for lunch. I rode my Kawasaki over and shot pool with Roy and had lunch. Roy didn't like working there and was going to quit. He told me what he was designing and described the project to me in detail. So the plan was he would go back to the office and quit and I would call and apply for a job. When I was interviewed on the phone they asked me what I had done so I told them I was experienced in IBM 1130 typesetting.

Buddy out for walk

So next day I arrived and completed the interview and they were so happy to find me. I didn't look forward to riding from Huntington to Fullerton everyday but I rode a motorcycle. I spent two weeks with Roy learning the hardware while the IBM hardware was being installed in Canada. That would be my next stop.

see form house with 300 mm lens

The system was located in Vancouver at Pacific Press the newspaper chain. The 1130 did have a typewriter for output, paper tape readers and paper punches. 

hot air in flight

Story to be continued. As all the hardware mentioned above I don't have any pictures of but I have plenty of pictures of Arizona.

Trying Again

I started making postcards on my Epson printer. Having had some experience with computer printers I find it frustrating how complicated the new ones are.

Burro

Getting an image from a file is rather simple but sizing it on the postcard and getting the borders correct is not easy.

My German Shepherd

Both Avery and Epson have special paper for the post card application. To use the Avery template you have to create an account and download the template. To print the return address I use Word Pad and getting the print correct took a while.

Court House Butte

For printing the image I use Paint 3D by Microsoft that is part of the Windows 10 OS. My previous HP laptop had to be replaced because the disk space was too small to allow any upgrades. I bought a real nice used HP with a touch screen. With the touch screen you can post to Instagram directly.

I also purchased a large format Epson to print my photography. Ink jet supplies don't come cheap.

The pictures shown here are in monochrome as my latest Nikon has a b/w mode. And of course I had to buy another set of color filters.

Yucca

I go back several years with the Epson printer. When the first Epson arrived we would purchase in cash all the printers we good get our hands on then modify them and resell them. I also used to buy for cash all the first IBM PC and assembly them and resell them. 

Mail Boxes on Country Road

Missing What ?

Several people asked me if I would miss living on the boat and being next to the Pacific Ocean. I was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Santa Monica. I lived on Tenth Street and at night you could hear the fog horn on the pier or the waves crashing if the surf was big. Yes, there are certain things that are not available from the mountains of Arizona. One is an ocean but the Gulf of California is about 250 miles away but since I don't have a passport or a stand up paddle board anymore I will pass.

Negative problems about on-boat living is storage. Before I move out from under a house roof I had several yard sales and got rid of lots of things. After a couple of years my bicycle inventory got smaller. Then for around a year I moved to South Pasadena to live with my daughter. Then my bicycle collection started growing again. I restored my Paramount and Bob Jackson. Upgraded an English Bike that had been left behind by the previous owner,

My dog digging for moles

The English bike was then stolen from in front of my boat and the marina could not figure out how to operate the dock cameras. 

He loves to dig

When we lived on the boat shore power would fail from time to time or the power cord would melt down. While entering this blog it started to rain here in Arizona and the white clouds look very large. Then the power in the ranch house quit, no A/C. 

More dirt

y 

My lap top was fully charged and my 4G Verizon does need A/C until the battery runs low/ I try to keep all my stuff charged.

Road Kill

Since I only have a flashlight I must close soon. The thunder is getting closer and louder too,

Turkey Vulture

More rain and thunder.

6 foot wind span

Bandwidth

Last August I left California and moved to Arizona. Several trips back and forth at 500 miles each way was a total pain in the pocket and ass. Gas prices were cheaper in Arizona but the traffic in the Los Angeles traffic jungle are painful.

Yucca at sunrise

In Arizona I have Direct TV and can watch the morning news. We (my two dogs) are several hours drive from the Interstate 10 and the morning traffic reports. All of this reporting in a waste of time as where I am we don't even have a traffic signal and the country road is at the end. 

my house

The pictures here are entirely random as I need to do some planning.

My connection to the internet is through a Verizon phone that has a mobile hot spot. It is not surper fast but it does work. On the Telly several vendors are pushing for DSL sales but I am beyond their reach. 

spring flowers

The elevation here is 4250 feet and the mountain across the way is 2 thousand higher. This winter it snowed several times breaking some snowfall records. 

Court House Butte

Since I moved here I bought a 29 inch bike on EBay that was a total POS, then other one that was much better but the front shocks needed upgrading. So I got the upgrade discount and the front fork was tapered so my headset didn't work. I made a bushing out of discarded copper wire and it kinda worked but not very well. 

So after much wasted time I bought a Marin hard tail bare bone frame. It took quite a while to build it using parts from another bike but now it is almost finished, no bicycle is ever finished.

Big Dog in Creek

Another waste is television trying to sell me something I can't buy. The Village of Oak Creek which is 2 miles away has a Subway and a Wendy. No Starbucks, no Big Macs, No Taco Bell but three bicycle stores.

second 29 inch

My mailing address says Sedona but It is a ten mile drive to get there. Cottonwood is 22 miles if you drive through Cornville on the way to Wally Mart.

Flagstaff is an hour drive away. 

More Winter

The last day of the year is here

Looking out my window to the south I see two dozen small birds

Scurrying in the snow

They are flying about from the tree branches

They dive down to the bird feeder below

It has been snowing since early morning

The weather man on Channel 5 said the mountain snow would start at noon

But he lives in Phoenix or maybe Yuma

The snow is almost a foot deep

My German Shepherd thinks he is in heaven

By three o'clock the snow still in falling

One minute from the north, then from the south

More Winter Trilogy

Drawing in the afternoon became a problem when the temperature started falling

The drawing desk is next to the window

The window faces south by north

The room can get cold

The whole house can get cold

My hands get cold, my gloves , well they suck

Double up with two pairs, one over the other, makeshift

My big dog as a nice fur coat imported from Germany

He doesn't seem to mind the cold

Our little dog would rather lay in his corner, with his two pillows

Waiting for the sun to reappear over the eastern mountain

Winter Trilogy

Two days into Ghost Face

The sun moves from a final hidden setting

Revolving around like a Colt revolver and sets one click along the cylinder

Outside my window the small birds feed in the gravel after cleaning out my bird feeder dish

Thirty or forty peck, skip and hop

Scratch at the seeds

After Ghost Face departs and it is Early Eagle time these seeds will sprout

And the gravel will turn from red to green