Word: acadeno
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Meanwhile, the aging systems continue to deteriorate. "We are holding some of this equipment together with bubble gum and baling wire," says Pete Acadeno, a technician at New York's terminal radar approach control. Such heavily trafficked air centers as New York and Chicago rely on the IBM 9020E, a mainframe computer of 1960s vintage. Unlike modern computers, with their tidy array of microchips, this dinosaur is stuffed with thousands and thousands of feet of wire. "The technicians tell us the wires are so brittle they sometimes break when you just touch them," says Mark Scholl, president of the Chicago...
...repairs. Many of the technicians acquainted with the 9020E's innards have long since retired. "We are down to two trained technicians specialized in the IBM 9020E in New York Center," says Henry Brown, a power-systems technician. The FAA has tried to hire contract workers. But, says Acadeno, "a contract technician is not going to come to work in a snowstorm." And those who finally do show up are trained to work with microprocessors, not primitive circuit boards...
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