Meet Connor Krukosky - the "Mainframe Kid." At 18, Connor bought, disassembled and rebuilt a 1,500-pound IBM mainframe. Now he's an IBMer. Watch to learn about his inspiring story.
I watched the original video where he presented his work - I recommend everyone watch it. The sheer amount of hard work and research the kid put in, and the wonderful assistance he received from the computing community, makes for an amazing story. I'm glad he landed his dream job!
Agreed. I thought it was gonna be like 'idiot kid buys ridiculous computer that he has no idea about just like... because'. Also not my thing but I agree about the job security. Lots of large organisations I've worked for have mainframes for all their records.There's always a few people who are printed out blank paycheques every month to source parts for them, update the software and keep them running. We're talking global systems here that would cause chaos if they went down. Well done to him! IMO the title almost discredits how much work he's put in. He's a good presenter too.
Kudos to IBM for recognizing talent in someone who was unabashed in his interest in all things computational, particularly his ability in making the IBM mainframe operational.
I applaud this kid. I'm in my mid-60's now, and when I was 20, I went through Control Data Institute Computer Tech program. We trained on a CDC 3300 discrete transistor "supercomputer". In the late 70's I bought an IBM 370/145 mainframe from a local University, installing it a bedroom in my own house. It was a blast to play with.
When I was a teenager I threw away my bed, put a server rack in its place, and slept on the floor but this kid puts me to shame. I'm blown away and inspired by what he's accomplished. Connor, you are an amazing person. Never stop learning. You have a wonderful future ahead of you.
m8ur88 I sleep on a yoga mat on the floor. Saved money and space and it’s good for alignment. It started because I sold my bed to move and then ended up to broke to get a new one after I moved. By the time I had the money I couldn’t sleep as well on a bed anyway.
Hey Connor , boy you really bring back memories. I use to work for Stanford Research Institute in the 1970's and we had IBM mainframes, then I went to work in silicon valley, and mainframes were the rage ...lol Eventually I ended up at Apple, yep, mainframes there as well, who would have thunk it huh ? Thanks for the memories , and good luck in your career, never stop doing what you love... :-)
@Ho Lam There was this famed encounter we heard about in the 1980's tech community where Seymour Cray (the godfather of supercomputing) was told that Apple had just used a Cray to design the new Macintosh whereupon Seymour Cray replied, (something like) "That's funny, I just used a Mac to design the new Cray".
It was about 300~ USD extra a month with the mainframe running for a full month. It consumes about 2.2kW Electric is expensive where my parents live though.
@@Conmega1 your parents are lucky you didn't get an IBM 3083 E with 20 tape drives, numerous 3330, 3350 and 3380 DASDs, three StorageTek high speed chain printers, like what I was lucky to start out my job career with in 1983 ... they'd have a pretty solid central heating system for the house that way, I remember opening a door on a rack and being shocked by a water pipe with a man's diameter ...
My grandfather worked in Poughkeepsie on the exec level for IBM for many years before retiring. He has several patents that were credited to him. Passed away last year around this time. IBM will always hold a special part in my heart because of him :(
He got a job at IBM! I literally watched that talk he gave last night, wow thats amazing! Well done Connor and now you can get all those parts you needed!
That's how powerful support is. Especially if it's from parents. I saw a lot of grown-up kids doing exceptional things on what they are good at just because these parents are in full support.
What a pair of absolutely amazing parents.. We all could only dream to be this fortunate, or looking at it another way, we could strive to be those parents.
Back in the 80's it was my C64 that kept my interest launching me into technology before it was cool. The C64 was quite a bit smaller, less complex and a fraction of the power consumption of any mainframe yet a ton of fun. Whenever I could sneak on the single home phone line and connecting to local BBS's going 300 Baud, the experience a gift and has lasted a life time. This kid has a cool future ahead of himself. Good to see his parents and people praising his passion.
It sounds like your story is similar to mine. I started on a Timex-Sinclair 1500, but quickly switched to a c64. 300 baud shoved in the wide slot in back. I was so cool. No acousti-couple! I even ran a BBS for a short while on an IBM PCjr.
I started on an Apple II E in HS, and the next year, my parents surprised me with with a TI-99/4A for my birthday, which is in the summer, so school was out. I would spend Hours in my room coding Basic. they also bought me the speech synthesizer module. Man, I was totally in my element! 😀
It not "faster" it's just different. Most computers (super and consumer grade) calculate floating points much better than any mainframe can. But mainframes exist to calculate decimal floating points. They are also far more reliable. That's why most financial transactions (stocks, flights etc..) are calculated via mainframes.
Followed this story and completely amazed. I've spent almost 10yrs in the IT, infrastructure and seeing this level of interest renews my own into keep learning.
I watched the video of Connor's talk at SHARE and I have to say it was impressive. That kind of tenacity and initiative to basically teach himself about incredibly complicated topics that corporations spend big bucks learning is just amazing and inspiring. He's the kind of person you want on your team. Good job, Connor! Good move, IBM.
Wow, I`ve just watched his video on Share, really glad to see him getting endorsed by and get a job at IBM. Now I say we'll be hearing more about him in the future.
Great job!!! Another follow your passion example with IBM in the story. Working for IBM was one of my goals and following my passion led to it happening as well.
If he is into legacy hardware and legacy programming he can make millions as a government contractor. A lot of government agencies specially military still use 70s era technology and the support system is depleted.
@@nojatha4637no. It’s because when you have a critical system that works reliably you keep using it. There’s no point in incurring the cost of rewriting that mainframe software to run on anything else as long as there’s a mainframe to run it on.
@@tripplefives1402 would pci passthrough be possible at all in this, I really dont know much about mainframes or how the hardware interfaces with the os
Great story Connor! I had the privilege of operating IBM mainframes in Boulder, CO in the 80s after testing 9" magnetic tape and assembling 8" diskette drives for many years. What a workhorse the mainframe was and still is.
Just stumble on this video. Saw the original one and was wondering what ever happened to the kid. Glad to see it's working out for you. Keep up the work.
There was a kid a decade or more ago that was younger than him that bought a mainframe that is older than this one and set it up in his basement. I can't find anything about it online, but he was the original mainframe kid, not this guy!
The talk was intriguing and this video just completes it for me. Great work Connor. (BTW, there's an Apache 500 error when connecting connecting to your website, might want to fix that ;))
My Cousin Scott Murray worked for IBM and was picked up when he was spotted at 11 years old for his programming skills in Aylesbury area. Very proud of him and now he lives in America. I personally went for more all types of electronics pulling them apart and making something completely different. Still do it to this day. My favourite is communications and do it all solely on my own.
10/10 parents though, the whole, no idea what he's doing but he's not hurting anyone and he's passionate about it and it could become something.... and it did!
@herbert first sort of problem: IBM mainframe is usually PowerPC I think, which isn't x84/amd64, so lots of programs don't run without getting the original developers involved. Yes, I do believe you can turn part of it off. No graphics I think. Best thing a mainframe can do is pushing data around. It has the best I/O paths of it's time and good system for when hardware fails it will continue doing what it did before. So it's great for databases, etc.Games, not so much, not even number crushing really. Well, if you pay a lot you can have a lot of cores.
In this shitty little world : "It is better to be lucky than skilled". "You have to stand up and proclaim yourself a master/genius/special". Actually the opposite of what a responsible parent should teach their children. Ofcourse history might prove such a person to have been a fraud. However even decades later their supporters are likely to have more power than their opposition, so they will just change the history books just a tiny little bit ...
I like the dad in the end saying: "It was a fantastic inve... opportunity for Connor." Freudian slip, maybe? ;) Regardless, fantastic that they supported Connor throughout and equally fantastic that he's gotten to where he is because of it!
Great project! For those of us who don't have the space or time to rebuild the MF hardware, you can run licensed copies of VM and MVS under Hercules under Windows or Linux..
@@AliGameZz wasn't commenting about that. I was commenting on the fact that the dad had to stop himself from saying "investment" to say "opportunity for Connor" instead. It's him first 100%. That's just how people think and that especially seems to be how most parents think.
ilusions4 Well raising a kid is expensive and probably the mainframe is costly. They will sell it at a higher price later, when the kid has studied it all/is bored with it... I don't see a problem. Money keeps the world spinning.
@@kristiyanivanov7414 If you have the excess money to throw at your kid's interest, it's extremely scummy for your first thought to be "how can I get this money back?". It should be thought of as a sunk cost, not an investment. An investment is education.. not a piece of tech you know nothing about that your child is interested in.
I wish my parents would've allowed me to take home a machine this large but we didn't have a basement. At one time I did have about a dozen terminals including a rather nice color graphics terminal. Around 13, got an Altos ACS8000 'multiuser CP/M' machine that was two large boxes, and a trunk full of tapes - still in my computer room acting as a table. Then got an Apollo DN460 which was a fascinating unix machine with a massive coprocessor card - sadly I had to get rid of this. Then found an SGI 4D/780gt, table sized graphics workstation. Both machines ran off 110v and ran for hours on end in my bedroom. Little did I know Apollo and SGI ran a bit shy of max amp rating of household wiring, but never had any problem. Still have the 4D and about 12 other SGI machines, an IBM Power workstation.
Awesome story and great video. Connor and I are in the same vintage computer club in NJ and I never knew about this video intil now. Go Connor! Congrats man!
Obviously this kid is a legend for getting into this kind of stuff at such a young age, but his parents are even more of legends for supporting him and helping him get into this. His dades quote at the end of the video :It really paid off" is so very true.
It is a thinkpad! A T61p. IBM actually used Thinkpads for SEs until they sold the brand off to Lenovo and when they requested a laptop that can run 24/7/365 Lenovo said they were crazy, no laptop can run like that... Has something to say about how IBM made Thinkpads and how Lenovo makes them...
I used OS/2 for 10 years on my personal computer and compared to MS-Windows at the time it was amazing. Sometimes my PC ran for 9 months before needing a reboot. I can't say that about any modern PC operating system sadly.
I like how the mother is very supportive in this interview. she said exactly three words : You never know. I believe that's th extent of her knowledge when it comes to computers, generally speaking. And that's ok
Reminds me of one of my old friends from my teen years. His parents were well off and indulged his hobby of collecting second hand computer gear. His particular specialty was also mainframes -- 1980s Cray Supercomputers, in particular. He was also fluent in Unix back when most kids my age barely knew our way around MS DOS.
Alright, so I need a time machine so I can switch with this kid. Literally would have died for that childhood like that. Kids got a bright future ahead of him. Mainframes are not niche kid. They run the world. You'll get a job, trust me.
The real MVP here is the parents that supported his passion.
Yeah, really illustrates the power of good parenting, not detracting from his personal success
especially when they had to alter the deck to get it in.
He could blow them up with the hydrogen gas otherwise.
Yeah and paying the light bill too.
Kinda faxs
This kid's haircut would make him fit in back in 1982. People like him built the modern computing world that we know.
Or lack of lol
ok boomer
@@elikay2101 Boomer is a good thing
@@georgejetson9801 definitely not
@@georgejetson9801 boomers literally ruined america and doomed the generations after it for short term gains to make themselves feel important.
For anyone seeing this today, he is now a firmware developer on what is basically the current generation of these things.
Connor didn't get into hardcore gaming like his peers, but he got into hardcore computing, instead. Splendid!
Can you imagine the things related to gaming he can do with a IBM mainframe? Imagine the LAN party's...
م@@tripplefives1402
Ok boomer
Actually his original reddit post said that he wanted to run a minecraft server on it :P
@@plantain.1739 Minecraft server. Get on it.
I watched the original video where he presented his work - I recommend everyone watch it. The sheer amount of hard work and research the kid put in, and the wonderful assistance he received from the computing community, makes for an amazing story. I'm glad he landed his dream job!
How is his channel called though?
Agreed. I thought it was gonna be like 'idiot kid buys ridiculous computer that he has no idea about just like... because'.
Also not my thing but I agree about the job security. Lots of large organisations I've worked for have mainframes for all their records.There's always a few people who are printed out blank paycheques every month to source parts for them, update the software and keep them running. We're talking global systems here that would cause chaos if they went down.
Well done to him! IMO the title almost discredits how much work he's put in. He's a good presenter too.
Why did he do this though?
That was so cool. Thank you for sharing the longer video.
His parents are saints. Good on them for going through the hassle of getting the mainframe.
Kudos to IBM for recognizing talent in someone who was unabashed in his interest in all things computational, particularly his ability in making the IBM mainframe operational.
I applaud this kid. I'm in my mid-60's now, and when I was 20, I went through Control Data Institute Computer Tech program. We trained on a CDC 3300 discrete transistor "supercomputer". In the late 70's I bought an IBM 370/145 mainframe from a local University, installing it a bedroom in my own house. It was a blast to play with.
Wow, a 370/145 would have been a much more difficult beast to wrangle than the z890 this kid was working with.
I could not fuckin imagine going to a party in the 80’s and the dude shows me an IBM mainframe in his bedroom
Frankie - tells us about your skills, then.@frankiedettori3932
@frankiedettori3932 about you
HOW?!? What were power and cooling requirements?
When I was a teenager I threw away my bed, put a server rack in its place, and slept on the floor but this kid puts me to shame. I'm blown away and inspired by what he's accomplished. Connor, you are an amazing person. Never stop learning. You have a wonderful future ahead of you.
how'd sleeping on the floor turn out fo ryou
@@m8ur882 I did it for approximately 4 years. I didn't mind it at that age. If I did that now I wouldn't be able to walk. lol
m8ur88 I sleep on a yoga mat on the floor. Saved money and space and it’s good for alignment. It started because I sold my bed to move and then ended up to broke to get a new one after I moved. By the time I had the money I couldn’t sleep as well on a bed anyway.
Allie Doak where tf do u have sex
same but in my closet
Hey Connor , boy you really bring back memories. I use to work for Stanford Research Institute in the 1970's and we had IBM mainframes, then I went to work in silicon valley, and mainframes were the rage ...lol Eventually I ended up at Apple, yep, mainframes there as well, who would have thunk it huh ? Thanks for the memories , and good luck in your career, never stop doing what you love... :-)
@Ho Lam There was this famed encounter we heard about in the 1980's tech community where Seymour Cray (the godfather of supercomputing) was told that Apple had just used a Cray to design the new Macintosh whereupon Seymour Cray replied, (something like) "That's funny, I just used a Mac to design the new Cray".
You didn't work for Stanford, nor did you have a job at Apple.
@@alchemist3724
How do you know?
@@Architector_4 how do you know
@@yarghhargh9345
I don't, hence I'm asking!
I wonder how much their electric bill is each month...
It was about 300~ USD extra a month with the mainframe running for a full month. It consumes about 2.2kW
Electric is expensive where my parents live though.
That's crazy.
Conmega but how did it help out as t the house?
@@Conmega1 your parents are lucky you didn't get an IBM 3083 E with 20 tape drives, numerous 3330, 3350 and 3380 DASDs, three StorageTek high speed chain printers, like what I was lucky to start out my job career with in 1983 ... they'd have a pretty solid central heating system for the house that way, I remember opening a door on a rack and being shocked by a water pipe with a man's diameter ...
10k if they would live in Germany 😂
My grandfather worked in Poughkeepsie on the exec level for IBM for many years before retiring. He has several patents that were credited to him. Passed away last year around this time. IBM will always hold a special part in my heart because of him :(
He got a job at IBM! I literally watched that talk he gave last night, wow thats amazing! Well done Connor and now you can get all those parts you needed!
Mom & Dad…you are the heroes of this story.
"So what do you use it for?"
"Uhh... Games and stuff."
LOL
That's how powerful support is. Especially if it's from parents. I saw a lot of grown-up kids doing exceptional things on what they are good at just because these parents are in full support.
*Imagine being known as the “Mainframe kid”*
Imagine being known as "Pump O Gamer"
shoobopper
*Would be proud lol*
*Imagine bolding your entire comment*
TheLazyKey
*YoS*
Mainframe dude is next
What a pair of absolutely amazing parents.. We all could only dream to be this fortunate, or looking at it another way, we could strive to be those parents.
Back in the 80's it was my C64 that kept my interest launching me into technology before it was cool. The C64 was quite a bit smaller, less complex and a fraction of the power consumption of any mainframe yet a ton of fun. Whenever I could sneak on the single home phone line and connecting to local BBS's going 300 Baud, the experience a gift and has lasted a life time.
This kid has a cool future ahead of himself. Good to see his parents and people praising his passion.
It sounds like your story is similar to mine. I started on a Timex-Sinclair 1500, but quickly switched to a c64. 300 baud shoved in the wide slot in back. I was so cool. No acousti-couple! I even ran a BBS for a short while on an IBM PCjr.
I started on an Apple II E in HS, and the next year, my parents surprised me with
with a TI-99/4A for my birthday, which is in the summer, so school was out. I would spend Hours in my room coding Basic. they also bought me the speech synthesizer module. Man, I was totally in my element! 😀
imagine having a computer thats "faster" than modern computers and it runs a old unsupported os OS/2
No, the control notebook serving as a monitor runs os/2. Not the mainframe.
"""Faster"""
@@badscrewold3162 The ThinkPad T42 probably originally came with Windows XP
The mainframe won't be faster. That's a fallacy
It not "faster" it's just different. Most computers (super and consumer grade) calculate floating points much better than any mainframe can. But mainframes exist to calculate decimal floating points. They are also far more reliable. That's why most financial transactions (stocks, flights etc..) are calculated via mainframes.
Of course mom is tripping but a good man believes in his son
Liberals attack!
Just as long as it's a fantastic invest.. opportunity for him
They're both great parents
Lmao 4:37 “fantastic inves- opportunity for connor”
Yea..lol. He told the full truth there for a sec.
Lol classic dad talk, but very heart warming to see he fully supported his son's hobby
Heh heh
If your parents have money to throw at stuff like that and support you, those are still good parents, it doesn't matter if they have $1 or $1,000,000.
He's not wrong lol. Having kids is an investment when you're spending thousands of dollars yearly for nearly two decades
That mainfrrame is much smaller than the ones I first used. 360 line, then to 370s, and more. Lightly, as I was mostly a mini-computer guy.
Followed this story and completely amazed. I've spent almost 10yrs in the IT, infrastructure and seeing this level of interest renews my own into keep learning.
What a great story! Love that his parents were there for support and love his passion to just do something different.
Good for you Connor! Delighted that you pursued your hobbies, and that you got deservedly recognised (and well done to IBM for doing their parts)!
I love IBM...mainly for the Saturn 5 instruments
unit. I just can’t believe how they manually coded the whole thing.
I watched the video of Connor's talk at SHARE and I have to say it was impressive. That kind of tenacity and initiative to basically teach himself about incredibly complicated topics that corporations spend big bucks learning is just amazing and inspiring. He's the kind of person you want on your team. Good job, Connor! Good move, IBM.
This proves something: Knowledge is something amazing!!! Sharing is rewarding. Congrats, Connor!
Wow, this just shows that a passion really can be a career! Congrats Conner!
I am an IBM z/OS mainframe operator for my state's government. It's cool to see this kid have a real passion for it.
Enjoyed watching the 45 min video before this. Good to see he's still going with it.
Wow, I`ve just watched his video on Share, really glad to see him getting endorsed by and get a job at IBM. Now I say we'll be hearing more about him in the future.
Great job!!! Another follow your passion example with IBM in the story. Working for IBM was one of my goals and following my passion led to it happening as well.
Worked on IBM Mainframes for 35 years, DOS, MVS, and now z/OS operating systems. LONG LIVE BIG BLUE!! Best wishes to you and IBM.
r 00,clpa
r 01 format,noreq
r 02,y
r 03,y
s tso
.... (a year or so later)
z net quick
z eod
quiesce
0:25 - "I just always loved to know what makes something tick."
- Sylar
If he is into legacy hardware and legacy programming he can make millions as a government contractor.
A lot of government agencies specially military still use 70s era technology and the support system is depleted.
Yeah, and that’s because it would be a security risk to update the hardware and software.
@@nojatha4637no. It’s because when you have a critical system that works reliably you keep using it. There’s no point in incurring the cost of rewriting that mainframe software to run on anything else as long as there’s a mainframe to run it on.
Love this , such inspiration for parents and young people. Brilliant
He seems so chill and down to earth. Good for him!!!!
I'm glad kids like him exist to make the world better for the rest of us. Thank you Connor
I love the computer scene. Ya don't need a degree to get a career, ya need the passion
Agree! Passion gets you experience, usually much more useful than education.
Which is why I’m glad my passion is computers!
false
Patrick Glaser Unless you’re a special case then you likely need a degree. They serve their purpose.
Eh, you are completely wrong, generally your still gonna need qualifications and years of experience..
*but can it run cinebench*
@@tripplefives1402 would pci passthrough be possible at all in this, I really dont know much about mainframes or how the hardware interfaces with the os
it cannot, doesnt have the right instruction set
@@tripplefives1402 not a proprietary fan but that's pretty interesting, guess I'll throwaway 10 hours of life and watch more mainframe videos haha
it cannot run cinebench or crysis as normal high end PCs cannot process millions of bank transactions
@@tripplefives1402 The new mainframes uses PCIe expansion cards so I think yes
Great story Connor! I had the privilege of operating IBM mainframes in Boulder, CO in the 80s
after testing 9" magnetic tape and assembling 8" diskette drives for many years. What a workhorse the mainframe was and still is.
This is the inspiration any person just starting in academia in the 20s/30s needs. This is great
Just stumble on this video. Saw the original one and was wondering what ever happened to the kid. Glad to see it's working out for you. Keep up the work.
Nice job on the video! It's nice to have a job doing what you have a passion for.
He really is inspirational. Just did his thing, followed his passions, and it all worked out for him.
There was a kid a decade or more ago that was younger than him that bought a mainframe that is older than this one and set it up in his basement. I can't find anything about it online, but he was the original mainframe kid, not this guy!
he has done very, very well! learning by been hands on. Colleges and Uni courses don't really give that much if any!
The talk was intriguing and this video just completes it for me. Great work Connor. (BTW, there's an Apache 500 error when connecting connecting to your website, might want to fix that ;))
Still true today. Might want to fix that .htaccess (I assume)
My Cousin Scott Murray worked for IBM and was picked up when he was spotted at 11 years old for his programming skills in Aylesbury area. Very proud of him and now he lives in America. I personally went for more all types of electronics pulling them apart and making something completely different. Still do it to this day. My favourite is communications and do it all solely on my own.
That machine brought back so many memories. Thanks!
Lovely IBM 3277! I have one myself.
got any twinax for as400 uk,hell what a chore!
The CZcams recommendation waited 2 years for this. What mainframe do they use?
z890
The world NEEDS Connor. I hope he can be let loose to help design the near future of mainframe technology. He has tenacity and dedication!
10/10 parents though, the whole, no idea what he's doing but he's not hurting anyone and he's passionate about it and it could become something.... and it did!
So…. I have an AS/400 in my basement, along with a few micro channel pc’s - where is my job? Silver Lake?
The mom said nothing.
yeah she did
4:39
@Cory Yikes...
@@cory8837 Woman no speak. Woman make sandwich. No touch my VIDEOGAMES
@@protowalker Issa joke r-word
@@protowalker bro ur comment actually made me laugh, thank u
Such an amazing story. His parents are so supportive as well, going through all those troubles to get the computer in there.
The parents were awesome for helping him with this as well.
Nice to see OS/2 Warp there !!!!
@herbert I know modern mainframes can run Linux as Logical Partitions (sort of between what a Linux container is and a VM, but done in hardware)
@herbert first sort of problem: IBM mainframe is usually PowerPC I think, which isn't x84/amd64, so lots of programs don't run without getting the original developers involved. Yes, I do believe you can turn part of it off. No graphics I think. Best thing a mainframe can do is pushing data around. It has the best I/O paths of it's time and good system for when hardware fails it will continue doing what it did before. So it's great for databases, etc.Games, not so much, not even number crushing really. Well, if you pay a lot you can have a lot of cores.
@@autohmae IBM mainframes run z/Architecture processors, not POWER/PowerPC. Very much a CISC instruction set, where POWER/PowerPC are RISC.
@@datashed ohh, sorry for getting the ISA wrong, the point was: it's not the same ISA, so it needs porting.
That’s just the management console. Not much to do with the mainframe.
I built a massive cluser mode in my basement with only recycled computer parts, where's my TedTalk invite lmao
In this shitty little world :
"It is better to be lucky than skilled".
"You have to stand up and proclaim yourself a master/genius/special".
Actually the opposite of what a responsible parent should teach their children. Ofcourse history might prove such a person to have been a fraud. However even decades later their supporters are likely to have more power than their opposition, so they will just change the history books just a tiny little bit ...
I like the dad in the end saying:
"It was a fantastic inve... opportunity for Connor."
Freudian slip, maybe? ;)
Regardless, fantastic that they supported Connor throughout and equally fantastic that he's gotten to where he is because of it!
Very wholesome and inspiring story. Connor and his parents are awesome!
Great project! For those of us who don't have the space or time to rebuild the MF hardware, you can run licensed copies of VM and MVS under Hercules under Windows or Linux..
you can leap into fizz zeex wiv mansheds too!
Cool!
Finally some computers of decent quality.
This guy is a legend and an inspiration
love that IBM was like "yea you seem chill and know what you're doing you wanna work for us?"
4:35
LOL! I love how parents only see their children's interests as financial investments.
payoff doesn't necessarily mean money... It's about what he got from it. (something to learn from and a job)
@@AliGameZz wasn't commenting about that. I was commenting on the fact that the dad had to stop himself from saying "investment" to say "opportunity for Connor" instead. It's him first 100%. That's just how people think and that especially seems to be how most parents think.
ilusions4 Well raising a kid is expensive and probably the mainframe is costly. They will sell it at a higher price later, when the kid has studied it all/is bored with it... I don't see a problem.
Money keeps the world spinning.
@@kristiyanivanov7414 If you have the excess money to throw at your kid's interest, it's extremely scummy for your first thought to be "how can I get this money back?". It should be thought of as a sunk cost, not an investment. An investment is education.. not a piece of tech you know nothing about that your child is interested in.
ilusions4 yes, you can view it that way. I can somewhat agree
Nice commodore pet & radiochack machines too ... & so you put tthe NES down & started up the mainframe :) ....
Pretty much haha, but hey I still like the NES, I have a few of them laying around... Its nice to relax and play duck hunt every now and then :)
I worked on a lot of old IBM hardware during my tenure for a large telecom. I really like the old IBM servers and mainframes.
I like him and his mindset. He has an interest in something that he loved and pursued it. Great parents for supporting him too.
It’s nice to know some people have supportive parents.
No one ever:
Litteraly not a single soul: "Have you heard about that mainframe kid"
IBM has done everything, yes. Ask them about their punchcard sales In Germany...
They didn't claim to have conquered everything. I was thinking gaming, but I think wii & game cube were IBM as was Sony ps2 I think
Lewis Cowles Not sure what you’re talking about, friend.
@@LewisCowles I don't think the emotion engine was made by IBM, but I'm not too sure.
Ever since I was on a tour in my country's IBM, these IBM videos keep getting recommended to me...
I wish my parents would've allowed me to take home a machine this large but we didn't have a basement. At one time I did have about a dozen terminals including a rather nice color graphics terminal. Around 13, got an Altos ACS8000 'multiuser CP/M' machine that was two large boxes, and a trunk full of tapes - still in my computer room acting as a table. Then got an Apollo DN460 which was a fascinating unix machine with a massive coprocessor card - sadly I had to get rid of this. Then found an SGI 4D/780gt, table sized graphics workstation. Both machines ran off 110v and ran for hours on end in my bedroom. Little did I know Apollo and SGI ran a bit shy of max amp rating of household wiring, but never had any problem. Still have the 4D and about 12 other SGI machines, an IBM Power workstation.
4:38 He wanted to say "investment" and decided to say opourtunity xd
Mainframes are the god classes of hardware.
why is that?
I fit these, well the newer version, it's a beast, well done sir, we might still have one of these still working at IBM....
My great-great-grandfather founded IBM and I approve of this message. Good for his parents for believing in their son.
It looks tiny compared to the 3081/3084/3090 mainframes I used to work with as an IBM CE in the 1980's!
Me too, 32 years as an IBM CE in Scotland. Loved the job ! This video brought back so many memories.
I love how he says computers are bare just catching up to it😉😉 riiiight
And that's why it's posted on this channel
For what it does, he is correct.
Awesome story and great video. Connor and I are in the same vintage computer club in NJ and I never knew about this video intil now. Go Connor! Congrats man!
Obviously this kid is a legend for getting into this kind of stuff at such a young age, but his parents are even more of legends for supporting him and helping him get into this. His dades quote at the end of the video :It really paid off" is so very true.
Time to hack into his mainframe.
Was exciting to see OS/2 Warp Server. Seemed like it was a ThinkPad
It is a thinkpad! A T61p.
IBM actually used Thinkpads for SEs until they sold the brand off to Lenovo and when they requested a laptop that can run 24/7/365 Lenovo said they were crazy, no laptop can run like that... Has something to say about how IBM made Thinkpads and how Lenovo makes them...
I used OS/2 for 10 years on my personal computer and compared to MS-Windows at the time it was amazing. Sometimes my PC ran for 9 months before needing a reboot. I can't say that about any modern PC operating system sadly.
I like how the mother is very supportive in this interview. she said exactly three words : You never know. I believe that's th extent of her knowledge when it comes to computers, generally speaking. And that's ok
Reminds me of one of my old friends from my teen years. His parents were well off and indulged his hobby of collecting second hand computer gear. His particular specialty was also mainframes -- 1980s Cray Supercomputers, in particular. He was also fluent in Unix back when most kids my age barely knew our way around MS DOS.
This is actually one of the weird things that’s interesting
I've had a girl ask Me not to touch her mainframe
I salute you sir thats an even bigger achievement than this guy and HIS mainframe
Eventhought her mainframe remained offlimits,
I sure had some fun with her switches and poweroutlet!
Great kid with a good head on his shoulders, props to the parents!
"Shouldn't this be in a museum? Maybe, but it's in my basement." 😆 And you can see how proud his dad is and how proud and worried his mom is.
I still have OS2 Warp in the box.
Partents: never stand in the way of your childrens dreams... Unless it involves drugs and/or fortnite.
or TicTok
Dennis Wieringa nah leave the kids use tiktok... at least they aren't on youtube u kno
@@kristiyanivanov7414 true :) exept when they are India kiddos :P
Such an amazing story and holy crap he's got awesome parents
Alright, so I need a time machine so I can switch with this kid. Literally would have died for that childhood like that. Kids got a bright future ahead of him.
Mainframes are not niche kid. They run the world. You'll get a job, trust me.
I started hoarding old computers from government auctions when I was a kid. Didn't get a job though. Crap
*Will he allow me to use it for rendering my projects???*
OMM
Wow, that was so savage it almost broke the skin. Maybe you're jealous that he can actually make money renting time on his mainframe.
It's a mainframe but it's an old one, "computers of today are just barely catching up," so yeah probably should get one of those nvidia things instead
youtube just recommended this one again, proud to be a fellow ibmer Connor
Awesome! Not many folks think of buying one of these !