VSI OpenVMS Forum

Hello Everyone,

In the early days of the VAX/VMS product line, the smallest model (11/730) did not have a built-in clock and so, upon every boot, the administrator had to enter the time of day. Dick Hustvedt once constructed an elaborate April Fool's Day joke to ameliorate this problem, namely a sundial with a single solar cell and a ribbon cable that could be used to track when noon occurred. :^)

I have found a couple pictures of said sundial at the Computer History Museum but no one seems to know where the item itself has gone.

By any chance, does anyone here know the whereabouts of the one-and-only prototype or, perhaps, a copy of the elaborate (and hysterical) marketing materials that were made for it?

Thank you.

Jeff

Hello Jeff,

We had it in our offices in Bolton and Burlington, and then when we moved to Boston, Andy Goldstein took it home for safekeeping. He says, "as a BTW, the sundial was a joint project by Dick Hustvedt and myself. It was his idea and he provided the brass sundial itself. I did the carpentry for the stand, and we jointly wrote the option bulletin. It’s contained in a large plexiglass display case, which was built by the ZKO facilities people."

I'll see if we can locate the marketing materials and post a copy here.