Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: vanpelt@unisv.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Urban legends
Message-ID: <1927@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Apr 88 23:34:00 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: Unisys Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA
Lines: 12
Approved: taylor@hplabs

The story Larry Kollar wrote about CDC disks in a truck sounds very
similar to a Univac legend, which I've been told was true.  They put a
Univac 1108 on a destroyer, complete with Fastrand drums.  (A Fastrand
drum is defined in "The Devil's DP Dictionary" as "A non-floppy rotating
medium for the storage of angular momentum.")  As in the CDC 18-wheeler
story, everything was just fine until they tried to turn.  There are two
versions of the results:  (1) They turned the wheel over, but the
destroyer just kept going straight, and (2) the Fastrand drum cabinet
ripped up out of the floor and rolled through a bulkhead.

This really does have that "Urban Legend" sound to it...

Mike Van Pelt