minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (02/28/86)
Sean Colbath mentions the old story of the computer front panel that lit up with "Times Square" flashing messages, suggesting that it was probably "wildely apocryphal". Well, the 7090 I used to work on could display text. Unfortunately, you only had four lines to work with, so the display wasn't too good. Here's another lights story from way back. I heard this second hand and won't vouch for the truth. The Sage air defense computer system consisted of two computers, one online and the other offline (for testing or repair). One day, just after the officer of the day stepped out for coffee, the technicians switched to the other computer and ran the test program that turned all the console lights on (to check for burned out bulbs). The officer came back in, glanced at the computer, then tossed his coffee cup in the air and sprinted to his battle station. The online computer got a large red light shortly thereafter. Martin Minow decvax!minow