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	Sunshine	The Stapler		New Phones
	Walrus et Farber	Homeowner Haiku

Sunshine at NUBS

Note: These notes contain e-mail headers that have been sanitized.

Delivery-Date: Thu May 30 11:15:56 2002
To: XXXX@********
Cc: rsc@merit.edu, James.E.Knox@**SOMEPLACE**.edu, David.G.Snyder@**SOMEPLACE**.edu
Subject: Sunshine at NUBS
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Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 11:15:55 -0400
From: "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>
Message-Id: <20020530151549.4DFB35DD92@********>

A long, long time ago, in a Computing Center Confer (MTS:CONSULTANTS or
something like that), there was a discussion about getting a window in
the Consultants' office at NUBS. (I believe there was a renovation at
that time. I think this was around the time the user area was expanded
with "the Ontel room", and the old IBM 029 mechanical keypunches were
upgraded with electronic keypunches.)

The window didn't happen that time, but some years later it did, and it
did much to make the room less of a bleak, subterranean cave that was
regularily assaulted by long lines of people desparate for help with
some problem they were having. (From students who were totally lost,
up through researchers with defective or strange tapes, and so on.)

With the window, is was a dim, subterranean cave that was regularily
asaulted by long lines ... well, I needn't go on.

Today, while stopping off at the CCRB to correct a billing problem
with KidSport (a summer camp-like program for kids), I saw that NUBS
was almost completely torn down.  The huge cylindrical pillars that filled
the users' area are partially torn down, showing the massive amounts of
steel reinforcing bar, etc.  I stopped to watch a moment.

$SIG $

... reply

Delivery-Date: Thu May 30 12:18:43 2002
To: Russell Dwarshuis <rjd@********>
Cc: "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>, michnet.operations@********,
	XXXX@********
Subject: Re: stuff: Sunshine at NUBS 
In-Reply-To: Message from Russell Dwarshuis <rjd@********> 
   of "Thu, 30 May 2002 11:22:44 EDT." <Pine.GSO.4.10.10205301121180.17248-100000@lowracer.********> 
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Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:18:42 -0400
From: "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>
Message-Id: <20020530161836.98A4C5DDD3@********>

> originally from: Russell Dwarshuis <rjd@********>
> date: Thu, 30 May 2002 11:22:44 -0400
> --------
>On Thu, 30 May 2002, Richard S. Conto wrote:
>
>> The window didn't happen that time, but some years later it did, and it
>> did much to make the room less of a bleak, subterranean cave that was
>> regularily assaulted by long lines of people desparate for help with
>> some problem they were having.
>
>If you ever get nostalgic for such an experience, you're welcome to spend
>a day in the shop ;-)

The shop isn't regularily assaulted by long lines of people desparate for help...
And, I think people in the shop bathe more frequently too.

However, the presence of teetering towers of cabinets, equipment, and boxes
was never matched by the users' area at NUBS.

In my experience, the Shop is a kind of inversion of NUBS.  Where the CC staff
at NUBS were few and at the mercy of a large body (unwashed) of users in a dark
underground vault, it is the few visitors to the shop who are at the mercy of
the (largely washed) Shop staff ... in a dark, underground vault.

It has been many, many years since I worked as a MTS Consultant at NUBS, so
I can't compare the levels of surliness (of both visitors and staff) between
NUBS and the Shop, but I think there was more surliness at NUBS, especially
when several big programming classes had assignments due and MTS was being flakey.

-- 
--- Richard		     phone:         6-2080
                             pager: (734) 651-9018 (pagers make me grumpy)
    1st floor Cubicle Farm
    Arbor Lakes

... reply

Delivery-Date: Thu May 30 13:49:48 2002
To: Andy Rosenzweig <andyr@********>
Cc: "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>, rsc@merit.edu
Subject: Re: stuff: Sunshine at NUBS 
In-Reply-To: Message from Andy Rosenzweig <andyr@********> 
   of "Thu, 30 May 2002 12:25:16 EDT." <880867.1022761515@torrent.********> 
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Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 13:49:47 -0400
From: "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>
Message-Id: <20020530174941.18E6F5DDBC@********>

> originally from: Andy Rosenzweig <andyr@********>
> originally to:   "Richard S. Conto" <rsc@merit.edu>
> subject: Re: stuff: Sunshine at NUBS 
> date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:25:16 -0400
> --------
>I've often wondered if maybe you were one of the consultants I bothered at 
>NUBS or UNYN back when I took a PASCAL class in the fall of 1983.  Possible?
>
>--Andy

I started as a MTS consultant in the summer of '83.  I knew FORTRAN, PL/1,
and 370 assembler then. Algol was still big, but Pascal was being introduced
and I knew neither. It was quite a learning experience!  If you came to me
for help about Pascal, I doubt I was able to help you much. But I could help
with some aspects of MTS, like $EDIT, printing, etc.

I don't recall how long it took me to learn Pascal. It seemed like a very long
time, but that whole period of my life seemed like a very long time, although
in retrospect it was only a few years.

MTS Consultants weren't supposed to be surrogates for the TAs.  We weren't
supposed to teach the language or algorithms.  We were willing to teach
debugging, however, and we would help students out with what the various
messages meant.  We were supposed to be "hard nosed" about students so that
they wouldn't lean on us to teach them programming. (Even if it wasn't for
some sense of "professional courtesy" to the TAs, it was because we'd get
swamped otherwise.) Of course, we were supposed to provide all necessary help
to faculty, researchers, and other paying customers of MTS.

Some of us favored a sort of Socratic method, whereby we lead the students to
the answers they sought (in terms of learning debugging). Some of us favored
the "answer-em-quick-and-get-to-the-next-one" method.

We saw a lot of poorly written code. We saw even more badly written code.
And we saw a few jewels of extremely well written code.  Those jewels
were precious!

-- 
--- Richard		     phone:         6-2080
                             pager: (734) 651-9018 (pagers make me grumpy)
    1st floor Cubicle Farm
    Arbor Lakes

... reply

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Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 18:52:31 -0400
From: Scott Gerstenberger <XXXX@********>
To: XXXX@********
Subject: Re: stuff: Sunshine at NUBS
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I'm pretty sure I have a picture around here of horses behind NUBS.
I believe that building was at one time the home of the Plant Dept.

Of course, it wasn't called NUBS. In fact, the building was never
named NUBS (North University Building Station) even though lots of
people called it that. The building was really the North University
Building.

NUBS was an acroynmn in HASP (the MTS batch spooler) for the remote
batch entry station in the North Univerity Building. NUBS was created
in about 1972 when the Computing Center moved from the North Univ
Bldg to the brand new Computing Center Bldg on North Campus. Fred
knows all about this.

Scott

--On Thursday, May 30, 2002 15:15 -0400 Ann Harmon <ann@********> wrote:

>
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> Date: Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:33 PM -0400
> From: owner-XXXX@********
> To: stuff-approval@********
> Subject: BOUNCE XXXX@********:    Non-member submission from [Jim Knox <jimbo@**SOMEPLACE**.edu>]
>
> thanks for the observation, richard.  i still have
> fond memories of NUBS.  i remember someone saying
> during that earlier renovation that NUBS was the original
> university stable.                       - jim
>
> On Thu, 30 May 2002, Richard S. Conto wrote:
>
>> A long, long time ago, in a Computing Center Confer
>> (MTS:CONSULTANTS or something like that), there was a discussion
>> about getting a window in the Consultants' office at NUBS. (I
>> believe there was a renovation at that time. I think this was
>> around the time the user area was expanded with "the Ontel room",
>> and the old IBM 029 mechanical keypunches were upgraded with
>> electronic keypunches.)
>>
>> The window didn't happen that time, but some years later it did,
>> and it did much to make the room less of a bleak, subterranean cave
>> that was regularily assaulted by long lines of people desparate for
>> help with some problem they were having. (From students who were
>> totally lost, up through researchers with defective or strange
>> tapes, and so on.)
>>
>> With the window, is was a dim, subterranean cave that was regularily
>> asaulted by long lines ... well, I needn't go on.
>>
>> Today, while stopping off at the CCRB to correct a billing problem
>> with KidSport (a summer camp-like program for kids), I saw that NUBS
>> was almost completely torn down.  The huge cylindrical pillars that
>> filled the users' area are partially torn down, showing the massive
>> amounts of steel reinforcing bar, etc.  I stopped to watch a moment.
>>
>> $SIG $
>>
>>
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>

... reply

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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 00:13:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Eileen Peck <eileen@********>
To: Scott Gerstenberger <wsg@********>
Cc: XXXX@********
Subject: Re: stuff: NUBS
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Given the fact that I have a toddler and an infant at home, this evening I
(inexplicably) chose to do a little research on Ann Arbor in 1924 instead
of going to sleep. Even if you don't give a hoot in h*ll about Ann Arbor
in 1924, just nod and smile when you see me in the office tomorrow. (Or
is it today, yet?)

George Lewis was the mayor in Ann Arbor in 1924.

The Ann Arbor Railroad stopped providing passenger, light rail and mail
service between Owosso and Cadillac in 1924. The run was made daily and
took five hours each way. The cars were equipped with electric lights and
fans. At one point, the Ann Arbor Railroad offered passenger service with
pickups at every rail crossing from Toledo to Cadillac. Most passenger
service was stopped in 1920, due to a serious decline in revenue
attributed to the rise of the automobile.

The Sisters of Mercy opened Mercywood on Jackson Avenue as a 40-bed
psychiatric facility in 1924.

The Ann Arbor #4 car ferry out of Ludington ran aground at Kewaunee in
1924. There was no apparent damage.

Soldier Field opened in Chicago in 1924.

The Ann Arbor Credit Bureau opened in 1924.

Jacobson's opened in downtown Ann Arbor in 1924.

WCBC was broadcasting from AM 1070 in Ann Arbor. WKAR was broadcasting
from 1070 in East Lansing.

Russel T. Dobson founded the Ann Arbor Trust Company. (Later renamed
Dobson McOmber Insurance Co.) Still downtown at 301 N. Main.

Gerald R. Ford was 11 years old and living in Grand Rapids in 1924.

Francis Kelsey, for whom the Kelsey Museum was named, was teaching at the
University in 1924.

The FBI, then known as the Bureau of Investigation, opened its Detroit
office in 1924. The Ann Arbor office was not opened until 1956.

University High School opened in 1924 and closed in 1968. Students served
as subjects for psychological and medical testing, including orthodontics
research at the U of M.

The Wolverines defeated Miami of Ohio 55-0 on October 4, 1924 in the first
of only two football games these two schools have ever played against each
other. 

1924 was the last year streetcars operated in Ann Arbor.  Routes included
Huron/Jackson, Main Street/Packard, and a loop around Central Campus,
using State, North University, Washtenaw, Hill, Monroe, Lincoln, and
Wells.

Jimmy Carter was born in 1924.

Margrett Ann Ellis, the first black teacher in the Ann Arbor school system
was 4 years old in 1924.

The Lawyers Club (UM Law School) was completed in 1924.

The first car to bear the Chrysler name, the Chrysler Six, was sold in
1924.

In 1924, the Members were known as: 
The University of Michigan
Michigan State College at East Lansing
The Normal School at Ypsilanti
The Normal School at Kalamazoo
The Normal School at Mount Pleasant
The Detroit Medical College
Northern State Normal School
The Michigan Mining School/Michigan College of Mining and Technology*
(name change in 1924/25.)
Ferris Institute
LSSU was founded in 1946.
Oakland University was founded in 1957.
GVSU was founded in 1960.
SVSU was founded in 1963.

And there were horses outside of NUBS.  (Undoubtedly double parked at
expired meters without permits in the loading zone or in a space for
University Horses Only,  unlocked with the keys left in them and the
lights on and a note explaining to the meter maid why their owners should
not get a parking ticket.)

Eileen Peck
TTI Coordinator
Merit Network, Inc.
4251 Plymouth Road, Suite 2000
Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2785
(734) 763-6425
(734) 647-3185 (fax)

On Thu, 30 May 2002, Scott Gerstenberger wrote:

> Yes, indeed, I do have a picture (clipped from some old University
> Record) that is captioned "MICHIGAN YESTERDAY April 1924 Horsepower
> in front of Building and Grounds" which is clearly the back (southwest
> side) of NUBS. I'll put a copy on the tack board on the second floor
> and make copies for the 1st floor and Shop.
> 
> Scott
>

	Reveries	Coo Coo		36 Hours
	Sunshine	The Stapler		New Phones
	Walrus et Farber	Homeowner Haiku