AMRAD reservation for Winterfest, 22 FEB 2009

[Robert Stratton]

-- Bob S.

...... Original Message .......
On Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:49:49 -0500 "Michael O'Dell" <mo at ccr.org> wrote:
>,,. I believe Burroughs was the big
>user of DTL for the longest time, and the US Postal
>Service kept an old Sylvania line making DTL parts
>long, long after everyone else quit because the big
>mail sorting machines that did the address recoginition
>were built by - you guessed it! - Burroughs! my
>ex-father-in-law was one of the most senior backup
>repair techs for USPS and they could keep the sorting
>machines running, but they couldn't add new features.
>he and his buddy came up with a Z80-based adjunct
>processor - the ZMT (Zip Mail Translator) which
>connected up somehow to the system and was the vehicle
>which allowed deployment of full zip-code routing
>on all 5 digits instead of the first 3 (last two
>were done by the station hand sort) and eventually
>ZIP+4.  I would *hope* that stuff has been phased-out
>by now, but if i were a betting man......


Well, I do remember a few years ago that Unisys was the big winner of a 
USPS modernization contract, so maybe old habits die hard..

ObDisclaimer: my did was an early  Sperry Univac veteran, so I have 
followed the spectacle that is Unisys over the years.