This washing machine story takes me back to the early 80's when I was writing software for the C64. A story was circulating back then that the Commodore, Atari and other machines that used the 6502 and 6800 chips were banned for export to the USSR, but that they were still getting them in via Finland. Supposedly they were pulling the chi…
This washing machine story takes me back to the early 80's when I was writing software for the C64. A story was circulating back then that the Commodore, Atari and other machines that used the 6502 and 6800 chips were banned for export to the USSR, but that they were still getting them in via Finland. Supposedly they were pulling the chips to use in missile guidance systems. I wonder now if that was actually true, although I do know it could be done. I was using a system called FORTH which was developed for that exact application, although I was using it for more mundane tasks. FORTH ran lightning fast compared to anything else in the field back then, had a small footprint and was very robust, which is what you want for missile guidance.
Yes, the sanctions game's been ongoing for decades. The presumption that Russia hadn't figured a work-around or other substitute displays very faulty thinking.
Here's another sanction story from about the same era, this time it was the USSR doing it. At the time you couldn't import western rock albums, so a friend of mine used to make cassette tapes of bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and sell them in his high school in Yekaterinburg. Where did he get the records from which he made the tapes? His uncle was a diplomat who regularly travelled to West Germany and he brought them back in a diplomatic pouch...lol!
This washing machine story takes me back to the early 80's when I was writing software for the C64. A story was circulating back then that the Commodore, Atari and other machines that used the 6502 and 6800 chips were banned for export to the USSR, but that they were still getting them in via Finland. Supposedly they were pulling the chips to use in missile guidance systems. I wonder now if that was actually true, although I do know it could be done. I was using a system called FORTH which was developed for that exact application, although I was using it for more mundane tasks. FORTH ran lightning fast compared to anything else in the field back then, had a small footprint and was very robust, which is what you want for missile guidance.
Yes, the sanctions game's been ongoing for decades. The presumption that Russia hadn't figured a work-around or other substitute displays very faulty thinking.
Yes, COCOM back in the day.
Here's another sanction story from about the same era, this time it was the USSR doing it. At the time you couldn't import western rock albums, so a friend of mine used to make cassette tapes of bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and sell them in his high school in Yekaterinburg. Where did he get the records from which he made the tapes? His uncle was a diplomat who regularly travelled to West Germany and he brought them back in a diplomatic pouch...lol!