
Handwritten PDP-6 hardware log from the Stanford AI Laboratory (1967) [pdf] - gruseom
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:hb976hq8639/apr67hardwarelog.pdf
======
greenyoda
Some interesting stuff in here.

On page 4, a note from Raj Reddy about a tape drive not working correctly.
Reddy was an assistant professor at Stanford at the time (1967). He went on to
win the Turing Award in 1994 for his work in AI.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Reddy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Reddy))

But apparently he had time to play computer games. On page 15: "SPACE WAR
BUTTONS DO NOT WORK. - Pingle and Reddy".

On page 1: "TTY 3 threw its drive belt". Anyone else here remember the days
when terminals had drive belts? (On page 6, some output from one of their
printing terminals pasted in.)

On page 10: "MY HARDWARE WORKS!". Looks like they were building custom
hardware and hooking it up to this machine.

Here's the Wikipedia page for the PDP-6, complete with a photo:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-6)

~~~
kjs3
_Anyone else here remember the days when terminals had drive belts?_

Yeah...ASR-33s. But TTYs are just character devices and could be other things
that had belts.

------
whatshisface
I still keep a paper notebook in the server room. Why? Because the logbook
needs to work when the servers don't!

~~~
kjs3
My neckbeard and I tip our hats to you.

But dead serious...we had an outage recently where everyone knew the answers
were in a Confluence site, which of course no one could get to. Cloud will be
the death of us. :-)

------
jasoneckert
The amount of sarcasm in that log is both hilarious and validating (for my job
today, of course).

------
sebras
If this interests you then are two more scanned hardware logs at:
[https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ai/catalog/rn367gp7801](https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ai/catalog/rn367gp7801)
and
[https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ai/catalog/gq025tt6144](https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ai/catalog/gq025tt6144)

------
metaphor
Cherrypicked a few gems:

p. 28: _Console teletype sometimes gives two line feed for the price of one._

p. 29: _REJOICE! PDP-10 COMPATIBILITY IS HERE NOW!! ...EXCEPT FOR UINS5, WHICH
DOESN 'T SEEM TO APPRECIATE THE GLORY OF THE NEW ORDER, ALL NON-PORNOGRAPHIC
POGROMS WILL WORK AS BEFORE._

p. 31: _GLORIOUS PROGRESS MARCHES ON!!_

p. 34: _BUG WORKS AGAIN. TROUBLE WAS CAUSE BY SOME J. RANDOM BENEDICT PLUGGING
TWO THINGS INTO SAME INPUTS._

p. 34: _TTY3 STAYS AT LEFT MARGIN & PRINTS BLACK RECTANGLES. I DON'T NEED
BLACK RECTANGLES. YOU DON'T NEED BLACK RECTANGLES._

p. 36: _" It's a NonExMem", said Steve haltingly._

p. 44: _< something?> is not a bug, it is a feature!_

p. 50: _DOOM!_

p. 51: _The stupid brushes are worn out AGAIN (so soon?) on the mag tape. Some
idiot carefully hid the spares. Probably said idiot should replace them.
Perhaps someone should send a bomb to DEC or at least find out why we go
through brushes so fast._

p. 52: _We have no bananas?_

p. 66: _MORE GLORIOUS PDP-10 COMPATIBILITY (AND OTHER GOODNESS)._

p. 67: _OVER FOR BIG MSG. -- >_ p. 68: _TTY2 DON 'T WORK WORTH SH!T_

p. 81: _FIX THESE GOD DAMNED TELETYPES!!_

------
abrax3141
21 April: “There was a wiring hack in the disk kludge...”

------
inetsee
This reminds me of when I was working with a PDP-8 back in 1975. We had a
hardware failure, I ran a diagnostic which confirmed the problem was in the
hardware. I called DEC (we had a maintenance contract), and they sent out an
engineer. He looked at the output of the diagnostic, then he pulled out a
circuit board and he _proceeded to unsolder a transister and solder in a new
transister_!

------
zeta0134
> BOTH Scopes Down

> Old scope loses focus, sync, mind in dramatic fashion

> New scope blows fuses instantly.

My housemates must think I've gone mad, giggling like this. Bless these
engineers, this is a fun read. Thanks for sharing!

------
jerome-jh
Page 5: "4-18-67 TTY 1 doubles characters - Fred Hansen"

Different handwriting, unsigned: "(IT WON'T IF YOU DON'T BANG ON IT)"

