Easter Moon Mission and Its Reminder of IBM's Demise
First of all, happy Easter to those who celebrate it. Earlier today we mentioned NASA's moon mission and someone has just posted this reminder of prior such (or similar) missions:
NASA’s 1977 computers aboard Voyager are still working in interstellar space
When IBM dominated. Sadly now, not any more.
https://www.popsci.com/science/nasa-voyager-computers-video/
From the video embedded in the article, decent amount of IBM equipment shown, but the highlight of the video is from 7:10-8:49, showing an IBM punch card machine in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_bqc76_3xU
Also in the video, gotta love the mention (4:04-4:28) of the fact that no one but one guy who's left knows how a lot of the old equipment works because all the rest of them have been laid-off.
That first link says there was an "assortment of refrigerator-sized computers made by Univac and IBM."
A lot of NASA operations now rely on GNU/Linux (not Red Hat), more so after ISS had issues with Microsoft Windows malware on laptops.
People are now joking about NASA's "can't say that!" ordeals:
Posted a day after April Fools. █
Image source: Clover Flowering Wildflower Plant