This picture is a Johnson bar, similar to the ones we used to move computer modules, which I will address later in this post.
I was thinking today; (yes I occasionally do sit and think about things). I was remembering an event back in the early eighties. Kevin and I were working in the product engineering lab along with Mike Myers and several others. Kevin took great delight in playing tricks on Mike. Mike hated answering the telephone and the phone was right behind where Mike worked. Kevin would hide behind the memory tester and call the number of the phone behind Mike's work station. Mike would act busy and wait for someone else to answer, until the phone rang multiple times before Mike would grudgingly get up to answer. When Mike lifted the phone, Kevin would hang up and wait for Mike to sit back down and then call again. It drove Mike nuts.
On the day I was thinking about the story is different. Mike liked to get his lunch tray from the cafeteria and go back to the lab to eat. After finishing lunch, Mike would grab his ash tray and put it on the lunch tray while he had his smoke. Mike left the lab the day I am writing about to go out on the test floor and while he was gone Kevin went over and super glued Mike's coffee cup, plate and ash tray to the lunch tray and waited for Mike to return. Shortly after that, our engineering boss (Rich Mathews) came in to talk with us about something which I do not remember. As the boss spoke he lit a cigarette and reached for the ash tray, but the whole lunch tray lifted. Rich was not amused at all. As I remember, he left and later called Kevin to tell Kevin he wanted to speak with him in his office. Kevin went over to Rich's office, knowing why he was to be there. The conversation went like this:
"Kevin, now I have a sense of humor like everyone else but this is going too far."
Kevin's response "Rich the fact that we are here shows me you do not have a sense of humor."
Things got a little tense after that.
Sometime after that, Kevin transferred from product engineering into the computer data center to work on our massive computers which were bigger than a full sized car in those days, but less powerful than the cell phones we carry around in our pockets these days. I followed not long afterward. They were so big that when we moved them we had to use a Johnson bar (which has a 6 foot handle of seasoned oak about 8 inches wide and 3 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick steel tongue at the end and can lift 4250 pounds of weight) that was enough to lift just a corner of the computer processor module so we could use galvanized steel pipes under the modules to roll those modules across the data center floor. Those things had cables 2 inches in diameter and 20 feet long which we had to drag across the floor to reconnect all the modules back together.
Those days in product engineering were a lot of fun. Kevin was a brilliant field engineer in the data center. I was only moderately capable on disk drives, power supplies and tape drives and less than mediocre on mainframes. I required a lot of help from Kevin and still rely on him 31 years later when I have a difficult problem with a Windows based computer, while I am pretty good on Chromebooks these days.
Kevin has been a great friend all the years I have know him and even though Mike Myers was his foil for many years, Mike thought highly of him.
On the day I was thinking about the story is different. Mike liked to get his lunch tray from the cafeteria and go back to the lab to eat. After finishing lunch, Mike would grab his ash tray and put it on the lunch tray while he had his smoke. Mike left the lab the day I am writing about to go out on the test floor and while he was gone Kevin went over and super glued Mike's coffee cup, plate and ash tray to the lunch tray and waited for Mike to return. Shortly after that, our engineering boss (Rich Mathews) came in to talk with us about something which I do not remember. As the boss spoke he lit a cigarette and reached for the ash tray, but the whole lunch tray lifted. Rich was not amused at all. As I remember, he left and later called Kevin to tell Kevin he wanted to speak with him in his office. Kevin went over to Rich's office, knowing why he was to be there. The conversation went like this:
"Kevin, now I have a sense of humor like everyone else but this is going too far."
Kevin's response "Rich the fact that we are here shows me you do not have a sense of humor."
Things got a little tense after that.
Sometime after that, Kevin transferred from product engineering into the computer data center to work on our massive computers which were bigger than a full sized car in those days, but less powerful than the cell phones we carry around in our pockets these days. I followed not long afterward. They were so big that when we moved them we had to use a Johnson bar (which has a 6 foot handle of seasoned oak about 8 inches wide and 3 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick steel tongue at the end and can lift 4250 pounds of weight) that was enough to lift just a corner of the computer processor module so we could use galvanized steel pipes under the modules to roll those modules across the data center floor. Those things had cables 2 inches in diameter and 20 feet long which we had to drag across the floor to reconnect all the modules back together.
Those days in product engineering were a lot of fun. Kevin was a brilliant field engineer in the data center. I was only moderately capable on disk drives, power supplies and tape drives and less than mediocre on mainframes. I required a lot of help from Kevin and still rely on him 31 years later when I have a difficult problem with a Windows based computer, while I am pretty good on Chromebooks these days.
Kevin has been a great friend all the years I have know him and even though Mike Myers was his foil for many years, Mike thought highly of him.
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