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Early computers of Chernobyl

A co-worker visited Bulgaria in the 1970s and reported seeing pretty much exact replicas of IBM 2311 drives at one of their factories.
Note that, at the same time, many US nuclear power stations were running with core memory and paper tape. A friend who worked for GE Nuclear told this to me.
 
There is certainly something to be said for reliability through simplicity. Perhaps there's some amount of apples to oranges here, but I have tractors that were built in the 1970s that are less troublesome than the ones built post-2000-ish. Direct mechanical linkages to everything. It's obvious how everything works, and likewise when there is a problem it's almost always obvious what the cause is. On the newer machines, it's a week of tracing through wiring harnesses until you find one little wire out of 200 that a mouse chewed through, and it's of course always between the cab and the fuel tank or some other place equally odious to get to.

I remember when that article came out about the government finally replacing the 8" nuclear missile control systems. My first thought was, "Heck, if it works, just put a gotek in it instead of paying someone to completely reengineer the thing and go back through the bug-fixing iteration all over again."

I think there'd be a heck of a market in plain old simple robust stuff that just works and is easy to fix, without any bells and whistles. Of course that would ruin all the planned obsolescence I suppose, so that will never happen again...........

And on that note, I need to go shout at those d*** kids to git awf muh lawn.....
 
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My 1967, and 1971 Simplicity snowblowers both agree with you. My 1981 John deere tractor feels the same. My 1977 Motorcycle went by, but I think I can speak for it in agreement as well.
 
I'm about to take a plunge into battery-powered chainsaws. I'm getting too old to handle the big old saws (e.g. Stihl 056) and I want something to handle the occasional 12" log without fussing. I'm already using a rechargeable string trimmer and am impressed with it--if you've got a few batteries and a fast charger, it will last longer than you will.
In this case, the new stuff is less complex than the old.
 
I have used plenty of electric saws.. All of them cheap. Buy a Stihl or HusQ and pay a fair ammount for it. The rest will just burn up motors.

I had really good luck with the harbor freight electric saw from a few years ago but then they changed the design and the new model was complete trash.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I'm about to take a plunge into battery-powered chainsaws. I'm getting too old to handle the big old saws (e.g. Stihl 056) and I want something to handle the occasional 12" log without fussing. I'm already using a rechargeable string trimmer and am impressed with it--if you've got a few batteries and a fast charger, it will last longer than you will.
In this case, the new stuff is less complex than the old.
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If you've not made a commitment to one, I can readily recommend a PWR CORE 40 from Skil. I was impressed by it's simplicity, and like you, I'm far too old (62) to be hurling around the old 16" McCullough from c.1976. I got both the trimmer and the chain-saw (batteries supplied with each and are interchangeable between the two) for around $300 last summer.
 
I'm leaning toward a Makita saw, as I've got a bunch of batteries already for my tools, but I'll have a look at the Skil.
That 056 of mine has a 32" bar and is a real hog of a saw. Been using it to mill boards from logs.
Similarly, I've got a Robin NB04 (made by Subaru) brush cutter with a 38 cc engine. I can still handle it, but it's not getting any easier.
 
I spent some time at a Russian RBMK reactor and they only had one computer doing the core follow calculations in the control room at the time of Chernobyl as I recall.

The simulator was an experience though. Their training was so different to ours.
 
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