Posts: 9 Location: Virginia Piedmont Joined: 06.02.08
Posted on October 09 2008 06:46
I've been monitoring the forums here for a good while but have only posted twice, and never introduced myself.
I'm a long time VMS user/system manager/programmer--started all of these c. 1982 when I was early in my career and working for Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, CA.
I started out on a 96 Kbyte PDP-11/45 running RSTS/E V5 in college (Cal State, Hayward), programming in Basic-Plus (pretty much the only choice at the time.) Once V6.x arrived with the RSX and RT runtime systems, I began programming a lot in Macro-11 and Fortran as well. I also worked as a lab assistant in the campus computing lab and did some programming for the CDC 3150 and the Cyber 174, picking up some APL, LISP, SNOBOL, COMPASS, PL/I, PASCAL, etc., along the way, some on my own, some in class.
My first real job was also programming PDP-11's, now running real RT-11, RSX-11M, RSX-11S, and later 11M-Plus, at Lockheed Martin. We did some interesting projects in real time control systems with closed loop feedback, and I learned the internals of the RSX-11M family and wrote drivers and other OS level code. I used DECUS C for several of the software packages I did on this project, but also a lot of Macro-11 and Fortran 77, and even a little bit of APL-11.
A few years later I changed projects and worked with RSX and shortly thereafter VMS, and also (again) CDC Cybers. I learned a lot about VMS internals and system programming, and a little about the same aspects of the Cyber (boy, talk about major differences in architecture!)
I stayed with Lockheed Martin for 19 years, almost all of them with VMS on the VAX and, later, early Alpha systems. I've since worked VMS at Raytheon in McLean, VA, and at Booz Allen Hamilton in Chantilly, VA.
Recently I had to find another project due to funding issues, so I've moved to the BAH McLean campus and am working exclusively with Windoze. Though I don't like MS much, the project itself is an enjoyable one and I still have my hands on the actual equipment every day.
I have a DS10 Alpha at home running VMS V8.3, though I've been too busy to do anything real with it for a few months. Also I occasionally run a simh VAX on my Mac OS X system and a PersonalAlpha on my wife's laptop.
I have a VMS hobbyist blog at http://galens-vms.blogspot.com. It isn't very active but some of you might find of interest my experiences getting a Radeon graphics card working. If you're interested in awk I also have a few comments there about things I've been doing with it on VMS the last few years.
Over the last 15 years or so you may have seen some of my posts on comp.os.vms or the VMS ITRC forum. It's been too long since I've contributed anything significant there but I hope to be more active once I have some more time with my DS10 and/or simh VAX.
I'll be glad to contribute here, too, if I can be of help to anyone somehow or provide the occasional lame joke or really bad pun.
Posts: 9 Location: Virginia Piedmont Joined: 06.02.08
Posted on November 12 2008 05:48
Still haven't had/made time to do much with my home VMS systems. But now that my job no longer involves VMS, I'm in serious need of a fix and may have to burn some time and watts on VMS just to settle down the jitters.
malmberg August 04 2022 No more VAX hobbyist licenses. Community licenses for Alpha/IA64/X86_64 VMS Software Inc. Commercial VMS software licenses for VAX available from HPE.
ozboomer July 20 2022 Just re-visiting.. No more hobbyist licenses? Is that from vmssoftware.com, no 'community' licenses?
valdirfranco July 01 2022 No more hobbyist license...sad
mister_wavey February 12 2022 I recall that the disks failed on the public access VMS systems that included Fafner
parwezw January 03 2022 Anyone know what happened to FAFNER.DYNDS.ORG? I had a hobbyist account here but can longer access the site.
gtackett October 27 2021 Make that DECdfs _2.1A_ for Vax
gtackett October 27 2021 I'm looking for DECdfs V2.4A kit for VAX. Asking here just in case anyone is still listening.
MarkRLV September 17 2021 At one time, didn't this web site have a job board? I would love to use my legacy skills one last time in my career.
malmberg January 18 2021 New Hobbyist PAKs for VAX/VMS are no longer available according to reports. Only commercial licenses are reported to be for sale from HPE
dfilip January 16 2021 Can someone please point me to hobbyist license pak? I'm looking for VAX/VMS 7.1, DECnet Phase IV, and UCX/TCPIP ... have the 7.1 media, need the license paks ... thanks!
