[net.cse] funny money, computer billing

levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (03/13/86)

<Oh oh here it comes.  Watch out boy, it'll chew you up! \
Oh oh here it comes.  The LINE EATER!  [Line eater]>

Waaaaay back when I was an undergrad EE student at the University of Kentucky,
and the mainframe was still a card-eating IBM 370, I was doing some volunteer
programming work to help a campus club keep a membership roster.  (Huge box
of cards :-).  Anyway the club had to use real money for this account; campus
clubs were not allowed 'funny money'.  Well, one night the computer room was
REAL crowded and the queues were like 50 jobs deep, and it was quite late and
I had an assignment due the next day, and I had just applied the finishing
touches to the job input.  So I submitted that job under the club's account,
(to forestall questions, I settled with the club afterward!) and it went
through like a hot knife through melted butter!  I was amazed at the priority
boost, even though I was expecting SOME improvement in the throughput....

In hindsight, I think it would have been well worth it for me to have estab-
lished a 'real-money' account for those pressure situations where I'd have to
wait an hour or so for the class account to get my job through.  Maybe even
today that STILL would be applicable :-).
-- 
 -------------------------------    Disclaimer:  The views contained herein are
|       dan levy | yvel nad      |  my own and are not at all those of my em-
|         an engihacker @        |  ployer or the administrator of any computer
| at&t computer systems division |  upon which I may hack.
|        skokie, illinois        |
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