Anyway, I’m just perturbed because it’s crashed twice today so far, which really interferes with my job (though frees up the time to get on line to rant about it).
Is anyone else having to deal with ancient software or hardware? Have any of the young whippersnappers on this board even heard of WANG? (Outside of Stephen King’s short story, “Word Processor of the Gods,” that is–that’s the first place I ever heard of WANG, and never dreamed I’d actually have to work with it in real life.)
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
One positive thing about WANG is it does occasional provide us with a chuckle, as in “Oh no, the WANG is down again,” or, before we got PC’s, “May I see your WANG?” “No, don’t touch my WANG!” Ha ha. We’re pretty childish here.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Back in 1987 we began using Dictaphone Dual Display units for word processing and database management at the agency I worked for then, and had considered getting Wangs (consider the pun already made, OK?) but decided they were too expensive. (ditto)
I used to work at a hotel that used (still uses, for all I know) ECCO.
I am still in awe of the computer techie who used to work there, because he got ECCO talking to Windows 3.1 talking to Windows 95 talking to Windows 98. Without crashing.
– Sylence
And now, for my next trick, I will talk in spooky half-references.
Well, I’ve never actually seen a real WANG (insert sexual connotation here), but we’ve always used it as a metaphor for slow and inadequate computer equipment. A friend of ours in school who always had substandard things (rebuilt truck, do-it-yourself furniture, mismatched stereo equipment, and generally hillbilly setups). He had a computer which he upgraded in odd ways and it had trouble doing certain simple tasks, so we nicknamed it The WANG DOT, in honor of the loud useless wang dot printers used in ancient libraries.
At my last job, we had some machines that used WANG stations to control a few functions (wierd machines, they used WANG for one part, IBM DOS for another and the main software was a mutant VAX/basic proprietary setup.)
In any case, we used to have real hassles getting the WANGs to boot up (oh, go ahead, kid away on this one!) They would never boot and the manuals didn’t give us enough info to learn the software. We fought this for months until one day, we noticed that one machine had been running just fine for weeks with the WANG turned off. We never told management.
I’ve seen WANGs, but I’ve never had the pleasure of trying one out (titter). But seriously, whatever happpened to the WANG company? In the computer industry, quality is not the first priority (look at Microsoft), so WANG should be sitting on top of the world right now. Where have all the WANGs gone?
Modest? You bet I’m modest! I am the queen of modesty!
We have NCRs. With WordPerfect Version 5.1. Can’t use a mouse. They’re for forms that have to be sent to the national office… Supposedly they’re working on replacing them.
Hate 'em. Thank God we have PCs too.
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, dogs are from Pluto. - Anonymous
IIRC, the company pretty much shot itself in the foot by refusing to license its OS. Apple pulled the same stunt with the Mac, with similar, if not quite as disastrous, an effect.
It’s a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell.
The first computer I ever bought for myself (as opposed to used at work) was a WANG. This was in 1988 and, believe it or not, it was a portable! (This meant it took up the entire briefcase bag and weighed about 12 pounds.) This was important, given how much I travelled at the time.
I still remember sitting on the floor of a really crowded British Rail train trying to get some work done on this machine and all the wierd looks from the other passengers. (Uh, yeah, sure it was the computer…)
The computer had its own OS but could run/emulate DOS.
As for WANG, a big part of their demise was because they decided not to get on the MS-DOS/Windows bandwagon (or did - but too late)and so got steamrolled by Bill & co. (or rather the other PC manufacturers that did sign up with MS). I think they also stayed in “big iron” too long.
There was actually a Mr. Wang - can’t remember his first name - who founded and ran the company for a while. Lucky for him he grew up in Japan, IIRC. Would likely have been hellish for him in the schoolyard in an English speaking country.
This is a little off topic, but my father used to work with a lot of Wang products back in the eighties. For some reason the founder of the company (I believe his name is An Wang) sent my father an autographed picture, which he displayed proudly on his desk at work.
The thing is that was the only picture he had on his desk at work! None of my mom, or us kids, or even the family dog. Nothing!
And he wonders why his kids turned out so screwy (drugs, premarital pregnancy, pointless off-topic posts…)
BTW, Wireless, I think my dad had the same laptop you did. Us kids thought it was cool!
