Re: Free software
On Wednesday 19 July 2017 19:04:33 Doug wrote:
> On 07/19/2017 05:44 PM, Joel Rees wrote:
> > This is another aspect of "closed source" gratis technology that is
> > often swept under the rug.
> >
> > It used to be, for instance, that a TV in the US had a full diagram
> > of working parts in the back case, so that the TV could still be
> > fixed even if the manufacturer suddenly wiped their books and
> > disappeared.
>
> Not at all true! As a sideline I was a TV serviceman in the 1960s.
> There usually was a drawing of the tube numbers and positions
> somewhere in the set--more usually on an inside surface of the
> wooden box. There certainly was no schematic diagram.
> However, it was almost always possible to obtain real service
> information including schematic diagrams of the circuits from
> a paid service, the name of which escapes me now. (The pages
> always included useless ones for record players and such that
> nobody ever heard of!)
>
> --doug--almost 80!
Doug is correct. Every shop had a subscription to SAM's and toward the
end as many as 9 or 10, tall 4 drawer fileing cabinets to keep the stuff
in if the subscription was for all of the stuff.
Doug is chasing me, I'll be 83 in October. But by 1962 I had a 1st phone,
and put it to work in 1964 by getting a job as transmitter operator at
KOTA-TV in Rapid City. Never really left broadcast engineering until I
retired from the CE position after 18 years in that office at WDTV here
in WV, at nearly 67 yo, in 2002. Very little went out to be repaired,
if I could get the parts, I could fix it.
Pretty good for a guy with an 8th grade (State of Iowa version, USA)
education. :)
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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