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my dad put a rubberband on an ibm mainframe printer in 75 to make it work while ibm showed up to fix it. They came in and didn't get it to work. So my dad as he

my dad put a rubberband on an ibm mainframe printer in 75 to make it work while ibm showed up to fix it. They came in and didn't get it to work. So my dad as he needed to print millions of water bills on time put the rubberband back in and ran his job.

jftuga 9y ago
This reminds me of a car hack I once had to do: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/10cwhb/til_how_to_fix_my_cars_transmission_with_a_silly/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/10cwhb/til_how_to_...
fao_ 9y ago
My dad had a similar thing with his car. An old jalopy, I don't remember exactly what was wrong, something slipped out of place in relation to the engine, miles away from any support. He happened to have clamps in the back, put a clamp on it and a few rubber bands for good measure. When he finally got to the garage they looked at it, laughed, then suggested that he keep it that way, given that the parts for the car were rare and the fix was reasonably expensive. I believe that he ended up driving on that for a couple of years until the car broke down from an unrelated part failure.
Dr_Jefyll 9y ago
Glad to see confirmation of using a rubber band to fix an IBM mainframe. Been there done that, but the story is so loony I wondered if anyone would believe me. http://laughtonelectronics.com/oldsite/comm_mfg/commercial_ibm1130.html http://laughtonelectronics.com/oldsite/comm_mfg/commercial_i...
- eitland 9y ago
  Love that you've updated your page with a reference to this discussion already :-)
  - Dr_Jefyll 9y ago
    I was delighted at being able to cite an independent source saying such a thing was possible! In the 2016 HN thread "Strange bug workarounds" I posted a much gnarlier problem (and oddball solution): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12485921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12485921
    - eitland 9y ago
      Read it yesterday as I was reading your previous posts :-) (I often check the posting history when someone posts something interesting.)

jftuga 9y ago

This reminds me of a car hack I once had to do: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/10cwhb/til_how_to_fix_my_cars_transmission_with_a_silly/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Cartalk/comments/10cwhb/til_how_to_...

fao_ 9y ago

My dad had a similar thing with his car. An old jalopy, I don't remember exactly what was wrong, something slipped out of place in relation to the engine, miles away from any support. He happened to have clamps in the back, put a clamp on it and a few rubber bands for good measure. When he finally got to the garage they looked at it, laughed, then suggested that he keep it that way, given that the parts for the car were rare and the fix was reasonably expensive. I believe that he ended up driving on that for a couple of years until the car broke down from an unrelated part failure.

Dr_Jefyll 9y ago

Glad to see confirmation of using a rubber band to fix an IBM mainframe. Been there done that, but the story is so loony I wondered if anyone would believe me. http://laughtonelectronics.com/oldsite/comm_mfg/commercial_ibm1130.html http://laughtonelectronics.com/oldsite/comm_mfg/commercial_i...

eitland 9y ago
Love that you've updated your page with a reference to this discussion already :-)
- Dr_Jefyll 9y ago
  I was delighted at being able to cite an independent source saying such a thing was possible! In the 2016 HN thread "Strange bug workarounds" I posted a much gnarlier problem (and oddball solution): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12485921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12485921
  - eitland 9y ago
    Read it yesterday as I was reading your previous posts :-) (I often check the posting history when someone posts something interesting.)