February 9, 2005 at 5:08 pm
I ran into an article while checking for some Database Daily news that mentioned looking back ten years. After all, it was 10 years ago in 1995 that NT Server 3.51, the first really stable, usable release of the server operating system (please no Microsoft people knock me for that), was released, at least according to this timetable. Since I hadn't written any retrospectives this year, I decide today might be a good day to take a look back.
In 1995, I was still working for Dominion Resources, transitioning from a network admin at the Surrey nuclear power plant to a developer/analyst for the corporate offices. We'd just completed an upgrade of our SQL Server 4.2b OS/2 2.1 database server to our spiffy 486DX66 server running Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1 and were we thrilled. We'd had 100 hour work weeks where we had to man the server room 24x7 to reboot the OS2 box when it hung and it wasn't thrilling. But Windows changed that and although it wasn't very fast, it worked way better than OS/2 for SQL Server.
I'd spent much of my time on OS/2 learning about SQL Server since I had been convinced it was the problem. I'd learned about the probe account (anyone remember that one?), used it to poke around our server as well as a few others, written a few batch scripts to connect to the server and alert me when it was down, and more. I changed jobs later that year to another company that had just upgrade to NT 3.51 for their File Net imaging system, which ran on the same SQL Server 4.2b and was it ever spiffy. Finally a nice marriage of a great database system and the underlying OS in a stable manner. I kept that 4.2 SQL Server around until late 97 when we finally moved it to SQL Server 6.5 and new hardware, all the while it performed wonderfully with hundreds of images being stored daily.
What else happened in the digital world in 1995? See if you remember any of these:
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Boy it seems like forever since 1995. I only had one kid, was 20 pounds lighter, and it seems like 20 years younger. The Windows world has come a long way since 1995 and it's been an amazing 10 years. If I look back I'm not sure I would have imagined much about today's world from then except for the idea the Internet would grow tremendously. How about you?
Steve Jones
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February 14, 2005 at 8:00 am
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February 14, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Well I don't have the details, or the time to find all of them. That is some great work Steve.
I've been in this industry 35+ years, not bad for an aging 51 (last Saturday). How many people back then could operate and program a computer before they could drive. Heck how many knew what a computer was back then ??
First real job, (I worked in HS and college for the schools), was on a 64k, yes k, ram (possibly actually CORE Memory) 360/20. About the size of 3 small full sized fridges. Thats just the CPU. Disk drives were external, the size of a washing machine each, plus the controller, 7.25 meg each. The actuators were hydralic, saw one blow a line once.
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/2311.html
Years later had to convince an employer to move from 512k, to one meg so we could better run DL/I, an early heirarchectical DBMS. And that 512k cost probably half what most of us make in a year today. Can you even buy 512k memory anymore ??
After a number of MF gigs, finally moved to "Fischer Price" stuff :-}, what the Dinosaur keepers here call non MF hardware.
Today, both my personal workstations have a gig of RAM, my personal DB server supports 2 (4 hopefully soon) gig. DASD, probably close to a terra byte at home, and I haven't added any of the newer really big drives out recently.
It has been a long ride, and an interesting one.
KlK
February 14, 2005 at 9:46 pm
That reminds me of the old Westinghouse computer in the nuclear reactor. The one that actually drove the very basic functions of the original control room. It was a 1MB drive, about 2 or 3 feet in diameter and you could actually see it spin. When it started, it was neat to see it slowly spin up to it's working velocity.
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February 15, 2005 at 7:28 am
Yea Steve, the 2311 was a clear cover. You could see it spin, the arm also move straight in and out.
One of the links indicated the platter assembly, removable, weighed in at 10lbs, plus the cover etc used to remove it.
KlK
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