The Kermit factory (2001)
A portion of the Kermit production area in the Penthouse of Watsun
Laboratory, Jan 2001. From here you can step out onto the roof and get a
great, if not exactly panoramic,
view of the Hudson
River. The cabinet in the center of the
photo contains Watsun (a Sun Sparc-10) on the second shelf (just a beige pizza
box, not much to look at); disks on the top and third shelf. Fourth shelf:
assorted tape cartridge drives (8mm, 4mm DAT; QIC). Fifth shelf: a genuine
9-track trape drive in a pull-out drawer (HP).
The bottom two shelves contain Sun and Rolm serial ports. A shrinkwrapping
device is on the table; a supply cabinet is to the left, the official Kermit
Handtruck to the right. Not so long ago we made and shipped hundreds of
tapes, cartridges, and diskettes each week from this room. In the Internet
era, the demand for magnetic media (but not kermit software itself)
shrunk to about zero. (This room was vacated by the Kermit Project in
January 2004 and became offices for other AcIS groups.)
