consp21@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Ken Hoover) (10/08/89)
I went to buy computers and they said a million bucks.
For a brand new mainframe IBM; now that price really sucks.
So I looked at all the pictures and I chose to build my own
For you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home
Refrain:
[ Oh IBM Dec and Honeywell, HP DG and Wang.
[ Amdahl, NEC and NCR, they don't know anything!
[ They make big bucks from systems, so they never want it known...
[ That you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home.
Now take the CPU, you see it's only just a box.
With blinking lights and whirring fans and lots of cable slots
So I spent an evening working with some wire and bolts and pins
then I hauled it to the basement and I plugged the freezer in.
(Refrain)
Well next I needed tape drives, my tape drives were a steal.
I climbed into the attic for my Dad's old reel to reel
some cable and some binder twine and soon it was complete.
my CPU and tape drives at a price that can't be beat.
(Refrain)
So then I looked for disk drives but it didn't take me long
Function follows form they say or have I got it wrong?
So I found a drive with five new modes that blows the rest away:
Cottons, linens, wash-and-wear, rinse and lingere!
(Refrain)
I had to have a console just to make my system run
Without a fancy console then my system wasn't done.
So I tied to a ten buck typer to a broken TV tube
And now I've got a console that can write the evening news.
(Refrain)
I've had my system running - I'll admit it's not the best
The data isn't right and the response time is a mess
It crashes every hour and it isn't worth a damn
But I'm satisfied because it runs just like an IBM
(Refrain)
... from a tape my girlfriend brought to me. Anyone know who sings it?
Dedicated to our IBM 3090-180 VF and poor Randy who had to keep putting
back together all summer...
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Ken Hoover [ consp21@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu | consp21@bingvaxa.BITNET ]
Resident computer jock and Mac hacker, SUNY-Binghamton Bio dept.
Senior undergraduate consultant, SUNY-Binghamton Computer Center
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" The two most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. "
- Harlan Ellison
------------------------------------------------------------------------------rlcarr@athena.mit.edu (Rich Carreiro) (10/08/89)
In article <2497@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> consp21@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Ken Hoover) writes:
]I went to buy computers and they said a million bucks.
]For a brand new mainframe IBM; now that price really sucks.
]So I looked at all the pictures and I chose to build my own
]For you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home
Just a note, this song can be sung to "McNamara's Band," for those
who wish to seranade others. :^)
--
Rich Carreiro - Most Biased New England Patriots Fan Play Flutie!
ARPA: rlcarr@space.mit.edu Bury Berry!
UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!space.mit.edu!rlcarr Crush Eason!
BITNET: rlcarr%space.mit.edu@MITVMA Can Kiam!leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (10/11/89)
The song is called "Do It Yourself" and was written by filksinger (no that *isn't* a typo!) Bill Sutton. Ask around on rec.arts.sf-lovers for addresses of companies that'll gladly sell you *lots* of this sort of music. -- Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard CIS: [70465,203] "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short