@blaineg Big Red Switch. On some of the early PCs, the BRS was a very literal big red toggle switch on the right side of the case near the back, and that was what powered down the system. This switch echoed the also-literal Big Red Switches of many mainframes, and those performed the same function. On a PC, flipping the BRS was the intentional last thing one did when shutting down. On mainframes, the BRS was a last-resort measure that should only be employed when no other measure could prevent a looming or in-process bigger disaster.
There is extensive lore. Particularly amusing is the origin of the protective cover and/or physical interlock lever on many such switches, and its name, the “Molly-guard”.
@capnjb@f00l Way back in the early 80’s, when SCSI was a new thing, one of my coworkers was given the task of writing a driver for the new SCSI hardware. Naturally, this earned him the nickname “Scuzzy Bob”. (Forever after… So glad I didn’t raise my hand for that one! )
But does it have a BRS on the right side?
@werehatrack BRS?
@blaineg Big Red Switch. On some of the early PCs, the BRS was a very literal big red toggle switch on the right side of the case near the back, and that was what powered down the system. This switch echoed the also-literal Big Red Switches of many mainframes, and those performed the same function. On a PC, flipping the BRS was the intentional last thing one did when shutting down. On mainframes, the BRS was a last-resort measure that should only be employed when no other measure could prevent a looming or in-process bigger disaster.
There is extensive lore. Particularly amusing is the origin of the protective cover and/or physical interlock lever on many such switches, and its name, the “Molly-guard”.
@werehatrack Ah yes, I’m well familiar with the Big Red Switch, both on computers and industrial equipment, but the TLA wasn’t clicking.
Parallel and serial port counts?
@f00l We need SCSI or it’s just your dad’s PC
80’s beige is beautiful. #RIPCompaq
@f00l Maybe you can go here and count them! Pretty sure the answer is 0 and 0, since the case wants to hold a modern motherboard.
@capnjb @f00l scuzzy scuzzy scuzzy
@806D2701 @capnjb @f00l 1394OGTFO
@806D2701 @f00l @werehatrack This thread is one of those times when it feels good to be old
-Changes a dipswitch-
@capnjb @f00l Way back in the early 80’s, when SCSI was a new thing, one of my coworkers was given the task of writing a driver for the new SCSI hardware. Naturally, this earned him the nickname “Scuzzy Bob”. (Forever after… So glad I didn’t raise my hand for that one!
)
@806D2701 @f00l To this day, almost every Asus and Gigabyte motherboard I’ve bought has a serial port header on the board. They get used too.