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Got anything vintage related at work/in your office to remind you of our hobby?

snuci

snuci

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Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
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Location
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
A recent thread at the New Zealand Vintage Computer forum got me thinking about cool office momentos and what others may have at their place of work to remind them of our hobby. Do you have anything at work/in your office that you have hanging on your wall or sits on your desk that's a cool vintage computer item? If so, let's see it!

I, myself, have an IBM Semiconductor Technology manufacturing display that depicts the process of creating old SLT chips. I looks great on the wall in my office. Comes with a little portable microscope so you can see the wafers close up. The photographs depict the manufacturing process.

IBM Semiconductor Display.jpg

Let's see what you've got.
 
I have a Tektronix TDS310 oscilloscope (built in 1993) in my office at work. Got it for just over $100 on ebay with two P6109B probes. I even use it occasionally. Does that count?

In the early 80s I had a crashed platter from a CDC Hawk cartridge disk drive hanging on the wall, but it wasn't a vintage item at the time.
 
I wish I would have kept a few etched silicon wafers from AMD and IBM that were floating around the office in the late 90's (before I got the retro bug).
 
I have a color 'plot' of a 1983 Ford Thunderbird, about 42" x 36", that was processed by Ford Engineering, Dearborn, MI. It was processed using my company's new electrostatic paper line on one of the first multipass high speed color printer-plotters of the day. This was the early 80's, and once the engineering types saw a color rendering, everyone was screaming for a color plotter. IIRC, the plotters were going for about 60K a pop back then.
 
g4ugm said:
I have an IBM hex key on my keying that was used to open the cabinets on the IBM 4381 Mainframe I worked on in the 1980's
Click to expand...

I carried an XX2247 key on my ring for years after it stopped being useful (power key for DEC PDP-8, etc.).
 
I sometimes would have a retro book or vintage calculator/Pocket Computer but I usually end up taking them back home after a while. I wear retro shirts generally (today I have a Nintendo controller on my shirt) and we had a project to create a flag that represents our team with some drawings from our personal hobbies, so there's a poorly hand drawn Commodore Pet hanging above me that I enjoy any time I look up.
 
The company I work for has about 35 IBM Wheelwriter typewriters from the 1980s still in active use -- and I'm in charge of maintaining them.

And our supply closet still has a box of 5.25" HD disks in it, although it's been years since anyone asked for them.
 
A guy I used to play poker with years ago had made a replacement toilet seat cover from an old 14" removable disk cartridge case.
 
On my PC I have a cube of core store that holds about 512 bytes, an un-punched punch card and a Wang Daisy wheel. I also have the "Ladybird" book of computers from the early 1970's


Cheers,

Andy.
 
Cargolux Airlines in Seattle, last i checked, had a northstar horizon bolted to a printer of equal age for their telex machine, and they refuse to sell it. I have worked inside it ONCE. This was when i was working air cargo, so that counts as an office right?
 
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barythrin said:
What's the Ladybird book? I found this one with some great pictures but was just curious.

lol ok :stupid: I posted based on the pictures and not the text which obviously implies this is fake (also didn't notice boingboing as the reference).
Click to expand...

IIRC, that spoof is in fact based on a real book from around that time (sort of a meta-Look Around You). Not sure which one Andy has, though.
 
I have the HyperDiagnostic panel from a DSD880 disk drive. Saw it on top of a scrap pile at a recyler years ago, and thought it was neat and bought it for $1.00.
 
I have found pictures of an old empty PC-XT case, in a home office, that had been used as the entrance to a cat's den. The mother cat used it as an entry point for her and her kittens. The pictures are of one of the kittens sitting in the right drive bay staring at the floor.
 
My Book is the Ladybird "How it works The Computer book" as above but the 1971 edition.

It's really nice. I particularly like the fact that the pictures are paintings. There isn't a photo in it. It doesn't know about micros (obviously) and the smallest machine half fills an office... Classic. :)
 
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