"Techie Inventor Botches Fix: Bits of the Box He Was Repairing Still Broken!"

A techie invented parts of the system he was repairing but still managed to mess up the task.

Greetings and salutations, dear readers, and welcome to "Who, Me?"—our corner of the internet where Reg readers share their tales of tech tasks gone awry.

Apologies if my bright and cheery attitude seems out of place. I'm trying out being a "Monday person," and it feels a bit strange.

Anyway, our story this week comes from a reader we'll call "Howard," who many years ago worked with an OS kernel called MagicSix at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) labs while he was a student. Howard had managed to make an Interdata 7/32 system use virtual memory in a way that its designers never intended, showcasing his technical skills.

After graduating, Howard continued his education, and the MIT lab upgraded to an Interdata 8/32, which properly supported virtual memory. Howard was hired as a consultant to help get MagicSix working on the new machine.

This process involved installing the OS on a disk pack on the 7/32, removing the disk pack from that machine, installing it on the 8/32, and checking if it would run. This was repeated as necessary until it worked.

In 1978, hard drives were different from today's technology. Disk drives of that era resembled top-loading washing machines, and the disks themselves were stacks of platters that looked like eight metal LPs. This may sound unfamiliar to younger readers, but Howard provided a link to an image of a similar system from that time, which can help you visualize it.

Moving a disk pack from one machine to another involved stopping the drive, screwing in the carrier (which would simultaneously unscrew the disks from the drive), and then lifting the carrier out. An interlock on the lid of the drive prevented opening it while the disks were in motion.

The disk stacks were typically labeled on the top platter, often with the MagicSix logo. However, during the process of transferring to the 8/32, Howard encountered difficulties. Despite numerous attempts and hours of shuffling disk packs between machines, he faced repeated failures, leading to frustration.

During one attempt at 3 o'clock in the morning, Howard noticed a missing label on the disk but proceeded to insert the carrier cover. This resulted in a disastrous outcome as the spinning disk pack collided with the cover teeth, causing a loud buzzing noise and plastic shards flying everywhere. It turned out the drive's interlock was faulty, and the disk was still spinning at high speed.

Fortunately, with assistance from a fellow night owl, Howard located a vacuum cleaner to clean the plastic debris from the drive. Despite this mishap, he eventually succeeded in getting the OS to work on the 8/32.

Reflecting on the incident, Howard admitted that he didn't learn his lesson about working while half-asleep, a habit that persisted for another decade or two.

Have you ever made a mistake while tired that you wouldn't have made while alert? Share your story with Who, Me?, and it might be featured in a future edition.