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This user contributes using
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Background
I've been visiting Wikipedia since 2004 and have contributed to a few articles, most notably the
Hercules article. I am an undergraduate computer science student at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I'm interested in programming and use
Python,
C#/
ASP.NET, and
PHP. I'm also interested in less mainstream languages like
COBOL and
REXX. I've been actively using computers since the early 1990s starting with MS-DOS on a 12 MHz Packard Bell 286 and a 33 MHz Apple IIci. I primarily use Windows on the desktop and
Linux on my home servers. I have always had Apple hardware along with the
x86 computers, so I'm relatively experienced with
System 7,
8,
9, and
OS X.
Interests
I'm interested in computers and history, so not surprisingly
data processing (precursor to the term
IT) history is a particular interest. I'm mainly interested in
mainframe and
minicomputer history with a slight interest in
microcomputer history. More specifically, I'm interested in the IBM
System/360 and
System/370 mainframes and
DEC minicomputers such as the
PDP-11 and
VAX, but I'm also interested in some early IBM minicomputers like the
System/3 and its successors.
The age, size, price, as well as the power and cooling requirements of the aforementioned systems make it nearly impossible for people to use these computers anymore. Fortunately, the dedicated work of hundreds of individuals make this possible on PCs. The Hercules emulator emulates
System/370,
System/390, and
zSeries/System z mainframes. The
SIMH emulator emulates many influential minicomputers, including the PDP-11 and VAX, as well as a few microcomputers. I'm an active member of the
Hercules community and I've tried to help new users, find bugs, and contribute a little code.
The sheer number of operating systems running on the computers above make it nearly impossible to learn them all well so I've tried to focus on a few. On Hercules I use the public domain
MVS 3.8 operating system, a precursor to the more modern
z/OS. I've dabbled a little with
VM/370 and even less with
DOS/360. On the minicomputer side, I'm mainly trying to become more proficient with
OpenVMS. Minicomputers have many more Unix-like operating systems available so there is much less learning involved coming from a Linux background.
Since the size and price of workstations and servers have come down greatly, it's possible to own a few. I own an IBM
RS/6000 7043-240 which I run
AIX on as well as a DEC Alphastation 200 4/166 which I hope to run OpenVMS on soon. While operating systems like BSD and Linux distributions are widely available for these platforms, I believe that the system is a waste if its not running a native or unique operating system, after all, you don't need an RS/6000 to run Linux.
More modern(ish) interests of mine include
virtualization and
emulation. I use Hercules to do occassional Linux on S/390/zSeries/z9 testing and VMware Workstation on the desktop for trying out a variety of x86 operating systems. I have a few spare x86 boxes lying around for operating systems which don't run on VMware, notably
OS/2.
I have a personal web page/blog at
http://www.timpinkawa.net which generally deals with mainframe and minicomputer emulation as well as some general computer topics.
Pages I've Started
Pages with Significant Contributions