2.013: a dr. who blast from the past

For those of you who remember Prime Computer, I'm proud to acknowledge that cut my teeth on high tech pre-sales support, performance engineering, and product marketing there in the late 70's and early 80's.

Back in those days the "Route 128 High-Tech Beltway" was the east-coast precursor of Silly-Con Valley, where the long-haired preppies hippies cut their hair, donned suits and ties, and collectively laid the foundation for the technology transition from the monolithic mainframe to the departmental computer and eventually to the desktop PC.

Back then I had as customers likes of Polaroid Corporation who used the Prime 300 RTOS to monitor the self-contained instant film packaging machines (Polaroid was the largest manufacturer of batteries at the time – go figure!). I also supported Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston of Software Arts, inventors of VisiCalc – inarguably the "tipping point" application to bring desktop computing out of the denizens of home hobbyists and word processors and onto the desktop of knowledge workers worldwide (few know that Dan and Bob used a Prime system to develop and maintain VisiCalc – Bob also introduced me to the first port of Emacs to the Prime platform).

I also helped bring to market the Prime 50 Series, complete with the first-in-the-industry green LED "power on" lamp. All the LEDs on most every minicomputer were red prior to that (mostly because red was the cheapest – or only – color). At my suggestion (which was based on my experience as a computer operator in Prime's IT department) beginning with the 50 Series, green LEDs came to mean "all good," red meant "serious problem" and yellow indicated "caution" (as in, remote access enabled). From then on operators could tell at a glance the state of their systems.

Those were the days, my friend.

This past week we have witnessed the passing of three great icons of the 80's: Michael, Farah and Ed McMahon, and these events caused me pause to reminisce about my life back then. Coincidentally, a fellow co-worker from Prime sent me this link to a series of Dr. Who television ads that Prime had developed for the Australian market, and this post was borne of that inspiration.

They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

If you're not a Dr. Who fan, getting Tom Baker to do adverts for your product back then was huge, as the show was insanely popular in the UK and Australia. Cult-like popular, even – the longest running science fiction television show in the world, according to Guinness World Records.

Thanks for the memories...

P.S.: I'm still looking for the videos of the Prime Australia "Keep Computers Confusing" campaign which featured a "robot" named Dr. Primestein. Leave a comment if you have a link.

 

technorati tags: Prime Computer,Dr. Who,1980's,Dan Bricklin,Bob Frankston,VisiCal,Software Arts

Comments

[Tom Trainer]

Don't have any links to share; only memories. I worked with Prime systems in the years you mention at Electric Hose and Rubber, in New Jersey. I worked for Memorex in those days - we supported a single spindle '677' disk drive attachment. Big capacities in those days: 100MB single density and 200MB double density 'disk packs"...oh so long ago...But good times working with one of the pioneer systems of the "mini-computer" days. Thanks for the memory rekindle!

[Storagezilla]

Brilliant! Is that Patrick Mcnee (Steed from the Avengers and Cylon Imperious Leader) doing the voice of the alien?

Doctor Who is still Saturday evening viewing on this side of the Atlantic. It airs in he US on SciFi but getting Tom Baker would have been some coup. Like getting Connery as Bond to do your ad.

[Mohit]

Here's the one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AYZylJhDTE

[the storage anarchist]

Mohit -

Awesome - that's the guy!

Ironic, isn't it, that 25 years later I work for a company named after the most notable contribution from the guy that Primestein was derived from.

The Primestein series included a couple of episodes of folks fighting to keep computers as confusing as possible so as to limit their access; Dr. Primestein fought valiantly against that notion.

Just as (ironically) I help people understand that simplicity, automation and ease-of-use are indeed the very real foundation of today's Symmetrix V-Max.

(Come on, you knew I'd eventually link this back to my day job :)

[Douglas Johnson]

Nice post.

I spent over 6 years at Prime as a Medusa and Prime Information specialist up until they acquired one of my previous employers - Computervision (for CADDS4x product). Prime was once a great company with a leading solution offering. Their demise is a reminder to us all how quickly any company can die when they lose their focus. Thanks for the walk down memory lane with those Prime videos - Dr. Who, those corporate colors and original logo. How funny. :)

[Scott Wells]

Prime. Who'd have thought that their equipment would still be running into the year 2000, and possibly beyond.