Alarm bells started going off in my head. This guy is an electrician. What else might electricians carry in their shirt pockets? Small screwdrivers like the one I had hanging from my office bookshelf, hanging by a magnet! Not necessarily the best companion for a magnetic data disk. This started the following conversation:
"So after removing the disk, you put it in your shirt pocket?"
"Yes," he replied.
”Do you have anything else in that pocket, like maybe a screwdriver?”
"Yes, I do," he said.
"Would that screwdriver happen to be one that is magnetized?"
The light obviously came on in his head, too. "Oh... yes it is. Let me try putting the disk someplace else," he said.
The issue immediately disappeared and the maintenance station functioned productively for many years.
This entry was submitted by Jack Rupert and edited by Rob Spiegel.
Jack Rupert, PE, MBA, is an engineering and project manager with business, leadership, and technical experience. His background includes automation and control system, software development, and global project management. He is the author of various articles, presentations, and training and marketing materials for multiple audience levels that introduced new technologies and launched products. Currently, Jack is a contractor leading a team of professionals in the commercial engineering group for a large control and automation company in the Milwaukee area.
Tell us your experience in solving a knotty engineering problem. Send stories to Rob Spiegel for Sherlock Ohms.
Talking about the era of disks, I recently noticed that the icon for saving Word files (in the upper left-hand corner) is a floppy disk. Funny that's still the image that Word uses all these years after the disk era.
The other big change is that back then the Maintenance Station was considered a tool for the Maintenance Department, just like their meters and scopes. Same thing for the "lunchbox" computers (i.e., the precursor to the laptops and tablets) that were used for system support. Today's systems for those functions require multiple layers of signoff by IT.
Reading through all the things you had to do in that era brings back memories. The third party memory manager, the floppy disks to transfer data. The problem with the magnetized screwdriver... Much has changed, and improved, since those days. Fortunately, the storage devices we now have are much more resilient.
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