Chapter 11.0: Headwinds -- IBM
That afternoon, while I was folding newspapers, Ms. Bight called.
"How's it going?"
"Not bad."
"Making progress on your computer?"
"Yeah. I discovered that what I thought was MFM when we talked last is not exactly what IBM calls MFM."
"Ah. Good for you. How did that happen?"
"I bought a couple of raw drives, and I'm doing research on how to build the interface electronics and driver software."
"Raw drives? How raw?"
"No op-amps, no electronics. Just the chassis, heads, motors, worm gear, solenoids."
She laughed. "Are you regretting that yet?"
"No way! I'm learning a lot. I just got some raw track writing and reading, with lots of errors, this afternoon. Then I got some FM tracks written and verified, so I'm pretty sure the heads are working . Should be able to work up a state machine for the data separator and modulator state machines for group code recording within a week or so."
"GCR? Not MFM?"
"Well, I'm working on compatibility with a variety of machines, so I'm planning to add the circuitry to do both."
"That's definitely ambitious. Raw tracks. Hot dang." She was quiet for a moment. I have some bad news, but I don't want you to think it's a permanent decision."
"Oh. Okay." I could feel disappointment draining the adrenaline of the afternoon's success.
"My boss questioned me closely about your interest in Motorola."
"Oh?" The adrenaline drain slowed.
"He didn't specifically say that was the reason, but said he would not approve the internship."
"Oh. Well, ...." With the bad news real, my heart settled down a bit.
"I was already intending to go over his head anyway, but, if what you're telling me about being able to read and write data is real, I think I have a strong chance of getting him to change his mind."
"Without FM, the raw read tends to lose sync and drop lots of bits over a track's length, of course."
"Of course. It's to be expected."
"FM encoding was pretty solid."
"Interesting. Sector size?"
"Whole track, not doing sectors yet."
"That's still impressive. Can I come take a look at your experimental rig?"
Knowing what the worst could be, it was easier to be positive.
"I think so, I'll check with Dr. Brown."
*****
While I was out delivering the newspapers, I thought about air.
When I was twelve, I would ride my bike and throw the the newspapers onto the customers' lawns, porches, sidewalks, and driveways as I road past. I learned how to bank the papers off the wind as if the newspapers were Frisbees, using the air to help me land the papers (usually) in safe, soft, dry spots.
But it only worked well when the wind was fairly constant, which meant I had to be careful not to be too ambitious about where I tried to place the newspaper.
I never broke any window or door glass, but came too close on one or two occasions.
Now I was walking the route instead of riding my bike. Walking was good exercise, and it allowed me to drop the newspaper directly on most of the customers' porches. For some customers, walking to the porch would require either walking through their flower gardens or backtracking, so I would still throw the paper there.
Air friction was useful, but wind could also make the throw tricky.
Before I got on with TI before my mission, I spent a little over a month working for a local small business machines company. They sold and serviced copiers, faxes, and similar machines as an independent dealer. The boss had hoped I would be able to help them get into the nascent small office computer market, but I had trouble getting into their workflow.
The company was close enough to home that I could ride my bike, so I did. Part of the road to work was uphill, and the west Texas wind was often in my face as I took that hill. I'd run out of energy at the top, and have to slack back on the pedals for a minute or two while I caught my breath. And it didn't help that I was often running too close to the wire, feeling like I needed the minutes lost to the wind.
Ideas from novels I had read would come to mind as I pumped the pedals, and I'd imagine things like gravity-normal propulsion for my bike, and friction-negating stasis fields to get rid of the push-back from the headwinds.
And one day I had this conversation with God:
No friction? Been reading too much Sci-Fi?My mind's eye was directed to my feet on the pedals.
This wind bites. A friction negation field would let me slice through it like a knife through margarine that's been sitting out of the fridge all day in summer.
Friction, huh? All friction?
Well, it's easier to imagine a non-selective field.
Hmm. Okay, lack of friction could make it hard to keep my feet on the pedals.Then my focus was directed to my brakes,
True.
Okay, it would be hard to stop, too, ...... and to my tires.
... if I could even get started, or keep the bike in an upright position.Now my focus was directed to the various threaded parts -- axles, cranks, brake levers, and so on.
Okay, okay, lack of friction could make it hard to keep the bike itself from falling apart.Then I saw the bike frame at the molecular level, and the inter-molecular ionic forces which cause friction.
Where does friction come from?On that job, I took the blame on myself for the times when I would get out to deliver supplies or do some simple maintenance, and the customer had problems that I did now know how to handle. After a month, I had no more room for self-blame. I took a day off, interviewed at TI, got an offer, and gave the business machines company notice.
Arrgghh. Interstitial ionic forces. Lack of those forces would lead to universal sublimation. The parts themselves would disappear in various vapors. I get it now. Friction is my friend. I'll quit complaining.
Heh. Just trying to help you get to work on time and in a better mood. Shall we talk about gravity again?
Heh. No thanks. I'll focus on pumping. I do remember that gravity is helpful, too.
So, you ask me why God didn't explain to me that the boss was making a mistake trusting the office manager to see to my training? Why God wouldn't encourage me to ask the boss for some different way to train?
I'm not sure He didn't try. Even now, I have a bit of pride that keeps me from hearing a lot of things He tries to tell me.
But maybe God wanted me to go to TI instead.
That office manager at the small business machines company tended to waste a lot of my training time talking about getting his metaphorical tubes cleaned, and other things a young single Christian shouldn't be thinking about.
Not that the exposure to his ideas was going to somehow put a permanent curse on me. It might have caused me problems, or I might have found valid ways to deal with other people having problems they needed to talk about. Or both. And it might have been a chance for me to set a better example for him.
But it was not good technical training, and the boss really didn't have anyone else who could train me. The other technician who could have trained me had a bad habit of going on benders and disappearing for a week or a month, and he went on one about a week after I started.
That doubled the pressure on me, because I felt I was expected to miraculously know all the things he hadn't had time to teach me. And I worried that I had precipitated him worrying about his job, and that might have been the cause of his going on the drunk. I didn't see him again before I quit.
They did end up getting into the small office computer market after I left, and last time I checked they were still in business, which is good.
So, how about the wind on your way home today?I don't really remember if I had a tailwind that specific day. I do recall that, by the time I quit, I had gotten somewhat used to the winds, and to getting out of the house at least five minutes earlier in the mornings.
It would be nice if it were a tailwind for a change. Sometimes I take it personal when the wind reverses directions before I head home.
And, no, I did not try to ride my bike to the TI plant near the Midland Airfield. Not more than once, anyway. Mom and Dad arranged for me to be able to drive the Colt.
As I delivered those papers, I resolved myself that the world is not supposed to be frictionless. If things didn't work out with the internship with IBM, I could handle it.
[Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2020/03/bk-33209-headwinds-ibm.html.]
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