How To Get A Computer Get Stuck In A Lift? Ask An 'Illegal Engineer'
The Register, Friday, August 4,2023
Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's regular Friday frolic through readers' memories of tech tasks that turned terrifying before trending towards triumph. This week meet "Tyler" who wrote to inform us he once worked as an illegal engineer.
A word of explanation is perhaps in order. Tyler's actual title was "Customer Engineer" and he worked at IBM, in the fine state of Texas.
"The designation is/was actually illegal in Texas," Tyler told us, as in the Lone Star State "all persons called Engineers actually have to be both graduated and accredited." This FAQ suggests he's right - which explains why he told us IBM changed the job title to "Service Rep" about 1985 or so, "after legal threats from the state."
But we digress. When Tyler was a Customer Engineer/Service Rep, he often found himself working with the IBM 402 - an infamous accounting machine that ingested punch cards and spat out useful financial calculations.