sad to report...

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: sad to report...
>   From: Don North <ak6dn at mindspring.com>
>   Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:39:32 -0800
>     To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>     Cc: Classic Comp <classiccmp at classiccmp.org>
>
>When I worked for DEC back in the late 70s / early 80s, they had a 
>wonderful scrap / salvage center in the Mill complex (basement of 
>building 5 IIRC) that sold off  'scrapped' DEC parts to employees that 
>would have otherwise gone to the smelter. Just about anything DEC made 
>could show up there (albeit in pieces, not whole systems).

I took advantage of it as often as I could.  I thingk I have every 871A
I got from there still.

>I seem to remember that DEC mgmt finally shut it down when they 
>discovered that some employees were internally buying new DEC equipment, 
>dismantling it and sending the pieces to 'scrap', where they would then 
>go buy them for 'personal' use at a deep discount (I think the person 
>running the salvage operation would put this good stuff aside when it 
>arrived, for a small fee, of course).

It was that and also there were people decomissioning good scopes and 
the like and "picking them up later".  I got po'd there when I'd seen
a 575 scope in pristine condition and they wouldn't sell it to me.  I 
think it was less than a month later that it all hit the fan.

>I don't think it ever reopened after this fiasco.

No it didn't.  I worked a special deal with my manager to get the 
PDP-8E off of a permenent property pass and in my hands along with 
a PDP11/23 in the lab that I was the only user.   


However, I've been in several places and seen similar abuses cause 
problems.

Allison