fdavison

I left the company in '87 and lost contact with them years ago. The system was 8085 based, ran a preemptive RTOS written in PL/M and assembler derived from RMX-86. The network was optically isolated RS-485 9600 baud. It was configured using Template Block programming, where the blocks acted like little HP RPN calculators that were linked together to build a control sequence. Its primary distinction was its ability to do user generated "direct digital control logic". The OS fit in 32k.

Barber Colman OEM'd the main logic board from Control Pak and put them in their own box.

Barber Colman's QC engineers were hard core SOB's and they put that system through the wringer, trying to break it in a million ways. They had a special smile when they had found another bug or a screw terminal they could zap with a spark generator and lock the system up. They were unhappy when they could not break it anymore. That's why there are still some Supervisors running today. They are tough as nails. I owe those guys a lot.

Late 70's. I wrote the operating system for the Control Pak EM system sold as the Barber Colman Network Supervisor building automation system. Thousands of systems were installed and many are still in use. By cracky. Er, what was the question again?

http://www.controlpak.com/network.htm

I thought the same thing: Some drunk asshole with a rifle and box of bullets. Shoots the transformers randomly, finds a spot where something finally happens, with the oil pouring out, runs out of bullets, and goes home.

Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Next, bullet holes in rural road signs will be evidence of domestic terrorism.

Same here. Tried latest FF, Chrome and IE and all looked blurry. Win 8.1 with a 1080p monitor.

Oh, the irony: http://i.imgur.com/2qyeEjT.png