A:CHKDSK - August 1989 Newsletter
by Gary Schweinshaupt,
Vice-President/Newsletter Editor
I
had my first exposure to ‘‘high-tech’’ was when I was in the Air
Force. During my tour, I worked on F-102 and F106 jet fighter aircraft. These
planes had very sophisticated electronic equipment. Even in 1963, the on-board
computers were astonishing. The radar/fire-control/navigational systems could
just about fly the mission without a pilot.
After the military, I stumbled into
electronics via a friend getting me into then EMR (now Fairchild-Weston).
During my stay there, I pursued a degree in electronics (going to college at
night) and watched the company go from vacuum tubes to manufacturing their own
large-scale integrated circuits. I started with them in 1963 just when the
U.S. Government decided to scrap the Dyna-Soar Space Glider Program. I can remember
fellow employees speculating that the space effort was dead before it started.
Half the work force was laid off shortly afterward. It was just shortly after
that John Kennedy was killed (and I do remember where I was when I heard about
it).
I left the company in 1971 after
working in the test and design end of PCM (pulse-code-modulation) in-flight
measurement equipment for the Mercury Space Program. This company also made
the ground communications equipment the orbiting spacecraft used to
communicate with the earth. I was fortunate to have worked on some major
projects in our aerospace history. As a lead technician, I helped install and
test the PCM measurement equipment on the first couple of Lockheed C-5A
aircraft at their plant in Georgia. I was able to spend a lot of time over at
Cape Canaveral during the building of the launch control facilities for the
Saturn V spacecraft. Our equipment was installed in the launch pad and the
crawler that carries the Saturn V to the pad, to monitor high-speed vibration
and temperature events during launch. The last project I worked on was a
computer test-set for the Air-Lock Space Orbiting Module (paper-tape program
storage and teletype machine as an output)!
At that time, it seemed to me that
there was more money to be made in the selling field. Being relatively secure
when I left EMR, some of my friends thought I was crazy to leave, but I had a
growing family that needed more food, clothing, etc. I spent the next eight
years with Lanier, a manufacturer and marketer of dictating machines and
reseller of 3M Business Products. During my stay with them, I received some of
the best sales training offered by any company. In 1971 they were a little
known regional company, when I left they were international (even had Arnold
Palmer hitting golf balls down Wall Street for advertising). This was where I
was first introduced to computers in the business office. After a couple of
years in education audio-visual equipment, I went into micrographics
equipment. The indexing of microfilm and microfiche was a major concern of
companies filming their vital records. If they ever needed them after they
were filmed and destroyed, how would they find images quickly? Manual indexes
were used up until 1977/78, then (before CP/M or MS-DOS) we started using
desk-top microcomputers to store the indexes for micrographics. Bigger
companies had already been using mini/main-frame computers to produce film
indexes, now the smaller companies get into the game. These early machines
would die if you walked up to the operator and put your hand on their
shoulder, static electricity was a real menace to these electronic
"marvels" (grounded floor mats and static sprays were common
accessories). Eventually we would have computer controlled film readers with
indexes photographed on the film right along with the documents.
Micrographics equipment was the most
expensive equipment in that company then (highest commission potential!), but
in 1977 when the company started going after IBM electronic typewriter market
(any one remember magnetic-card typewriters?) with dedicated wordprocessors, I
not only saw a potential for even higher commission producing products, but
was fascinated by the "miracles" these devices produced in the
document producing office environment. When I left this business in 1979,
wordprocessors were being networked and the first "business
software" was starting to show up. Time and billing, accounting, even
CP/M operating systems, were being offered to owners of these dedicated
wordprocessors (maybe they were starting to notice what some business people
were doing with the Tandy TRS-80’s and the Apples). Then, of course, in 1978
IBM got into the desktop microcomputer market, it hasn’t been the same
since.
After a couple of years managing the
sales force for a multi-state telephone answering service company (they were
using computers to maintain message bases), I found myself back in the
business computer market. Initially, was involved with Tele-Video CP/M
equipment; they also had a multi-user system that would support up to 16
workstations, actually was very similar to today’s local area networks. We
all know what happened to the CP/M dinosaur. We started marketing the very
first IBM-XT compatible, the Columbia MPC; like Eagle, Osbourne, Molecular and
many others, Columbia meet its demise, have they ever located the CP/M -
computer white-elephant burying grounds? I still have one of those Columbias,
still works fine—where to get it repaired though?
I have been involved ever since in
business microcomputers, a couple of years with one of the many companies that
couldn’t survive the adversities of this business, many computer ships have
sunk in the Sarasota market sea.
I spent a couple of years managing a
Computer Center for Tandy/Radio Shack (my first experience with retail, let me
tell you about that sometime!) Business people don’t give credit to Tandy;
however, for some of their contributions. They were right along with Apple in
the beginning. One of the first to offer multi-user Xenix computer systems.
Who knows were they would have been if they had not refused to recognize
IBM/MS-DOS early on.
I have been with ComputerLand since
mid-1987. I prefer to concentrate on the larger business applications;
accounting, networks and desktop publishing. For sure, anyone in this
computer marketing business today is in a constant state of education.
Customers tell us they can’t keep up with the advancements—I got news for
them, we on the selling end have a very difficult time keeping up, but I guess
that’s one of the reasons I spend a large part of my working day around
these addictive machines, as well as, a fair amount of my non-working time.
Maybe I’ll have to go into therapy to break the habit.
(Editor’s Note: I’m also an avid
telecommunications buff, I am a subscriber to CompuServe, Delphi and GEnie.
Hardly a week goes by that I’m not on one or more of the local bulletin
boards— locals are either low cost or FREE! There is a wealth of information
with all kinds of shareware and the supported and echo’ d conferences. I
think everyone with a computer should have and use a modem. Try it—YOU’LL
LIKE IT)
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