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Guest_DragonLoaf_*

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This may not be of interest to anyone but me... how many Train Geeks could also be Computer Geeks? Anyhow, was in Union Station in Portland, Oregon watching the attendant reboot the Quik-Trak machine as I waited to use it to print my ticket. During the very long booting process, I noticed that the operating system was OS/2 Warp! I didn't think anyone but a few scattered hobbiests were still using that, and here Amtrak uses it for their Quik-Trak machines (and maybe there entire computer system???) I got a chuckle out of that... hooray for antiquarian computer technology!
 
I guess you could say I'm a computer geek, but computers do get me very frustrated. I'm sure Amtrak and everyone could solve most of their computer problems by getting rid of Windows!
 
Guest_DragonLoaf_* said:
This may not be of interest to anyone but me... how many Train Geeks could also be Computer Geeks? Anyhow, was in Union Station in Portland, Oregon watching the attendant reboot the Quik-Trak machine as I waited to use it to print my ticket. During the very long booting process, I noticed that the operating system was OS/2 Warp! I didn't think anyone but a few scattered hobbiests were still using that, and here Amtrak uses it for their Quik-Trak machines (and maybe there entire computer system???) I got a chuckle out of that... hooray for antiquarian computer technology!
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OS2: "Better DOS than DOS, better Windows than Windows" Oh well. Nice try, IBM.

For what it's worth, Amtrak will be replacing all the QuikTrak's in the next year or so.
 
Guest_DragonLoaf_* said:
This may not be of interest to anyone but me... how many Train Geeks could also be Computer Geeks? Anyhow, was in Union Station in Portland, Oregon watching the attendant reboot the Quik-Trak machine as I waited to use it to print my ticket. During the very long booting process, I noticed that the operating system was OS/2 Warp! I didn't think anyone but a few scattered hobbiests were still using that, and here Amtrak uses it for their Quik-Trak machines (and maybe there entire computer system???) I got a chuckle out of that... hooray for antiquarian computer technology!
Click to expand...

computers and trains... man, that combination rings a bell ;)

There are more of us than you might think!
 
Guest_DragonLoaf_* said:
This may not be of interest to anyone but me... how many Train Geeks could also be Computer Geeks? Anyhow, was in Union Station in Portland, Oregon watching the attendant reboot the Quik-Trak machine as I waited to use it to print my ticket. During the very long booting process, I noticed that the operating system was OS/2 Warp! I didn't think anyone but a few scattered hobbiests were still using that, and here Amtrak uses it for their Quik-Trak machines (and maybe there entire computer system???) I got a chuckle out of that... hooray for antiquarian computer technology!
Click to expand...
Actually, it shouldn't surprise you that the older kiosks are running OS/2. For whatever reason, most ATM-esque machines today are running Warp, although I don't know why. That said, from what I've been able to observe, most new ATM/kiosk installs are not running the OS. The new Quik-Trak kiosks that Amtrak is rolling out now actually run XP, in fact.

-Rafi
 
This is why banks did not like to transition to Windows XP-based ATMs.

Admittedly, students attending this school were around. Even so, if I'm a bank executive, I'd think I'd pay IBM to keep OS/2 around, based on those pictures. No OS is 100% hacker free, but some OSs are better than others.

Oh, yes. To keep this on-topic, I've been playing with microcomputers since the days of the S-100 bus. I liked trains before I liked computers. B)
 
Lots of us. I have a half dozen computers set up here at home, with another half dozen at my church. Wired networks in both places, plus broadband and WPA2 wireless b/g here and most are dual boot, XP (or old 98e2) and Mandriva Linux, mostly running in Linux mode. Was fluent at one time or another in BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, SAS, SPSS, and a little Assembly, COBOL, and FORTH, and now I'm doing HTML I think you will also find a lot of us are ham radio operators as well (since 1967 for me, and about 15 years of it now for my wife).
 
Of the 4 of us here in our little computer shop, 3 are train buffs, interested

in model railroading and/or riding the full-size trains.

I guess there's some common ground: trains go where you put the tracks, and computers do what you tell 'em to.

Most of the time.
 
AmtrakWPK said:
Lots of us. I have a half dozen computers set up here at home, with another half dozen at my church. Wired networks in both places, plus broadband and WPA2 wireless b/g here and most are dual boot, XP (or old 98e2) and Mandriva Linux, mostly running in Linux mode. Was fluent at one time or another in BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, SAS, SPSS, and a little Assembly, COBOL, and FORTH, and now I'm doing HTML I think you will also find a lot of us are ham radio operators as well (since 1967 for me, and about 15 years of it now for my wife).
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Wow, now that is impressive! Only 3 desktops in my house, and my 2 sons' laptops when they are here and not away at college or working. We all run XP on a wireless broadband network and only tinker occasionally with linux. My kids are quite skilled with the HTML, but I just haven't tried it yet.

Interesting that you mention ham radio; I have been interested in that and radio in general all my life, though I have never pursued ham radio myself. I wonder if there is some common gene or sociological meme that engenders passion for computers, trains, and radio?

I noticed something odd with the Quik-Trak machines in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The one in Vancouver seems quite a bit faster than the one in Portland. They look the same on the outside, but I wonder if the guts are different? A faster processor, perhaps? Or maybe it's just a better connection to the Amtrak Reservations Electronic Hall of Records? Hmmm...
 
haha, 73s from an inactive (but still licensed, since 1993) ham

I think you're right, train + radio + computer is a common combination.
 
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And for those of you who always wanted to get a ham license but found that the morse code requirement was too big of a hurdle, there is now NO morse code requirement for a U.S. ham radio license. Sooooo, if THAT was your excuse for not getting a ham license, your luck just ran out. Go get that license!!
 
AmtrakWPK said:
And for those of you who always wanted to get a ham license but found that the morse code requirement was too big of a hurdle, there is now NO morse code requirement for a U.S. ham radio license. Sooooo, if THAT was your excuse for not getting a ham license, your luck just ran out. Go get that license!!
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Ham radio lost its appeal for me when it changed from 'stuff you can build' to 'stuff you can buy'.

A similar thing happened to pretty much all types of electronic hobbies,

and photography went downhill as well, once digital took over.

We've gone, in just one generation, from people who could invent, improvise, build and fix things, to people whose only skill is waving a charge card at a walmart clerk.

Just my personal opinion. YMMV.
 
sportbiker said:
Mac consultant by trade. OS experience also includes DOS, Windoze, Unix and Cromix. Programming background includes Basic, Pascal, C, XBase.
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Wow... Mac consultant here too, although those are my roots (used to be with Apple). Now a web editor and in charge of a DC News Bureau's Technology Operations.

-Rafi

P.S. And while we're tooting horns about #'s of computers in the house, I'm at 9 desktops (only 3 of which are operable, of course), 5 laptops, 3.5 of which are operable (don't ask). <grin>
 
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