by VM44 37 Replies latest jw friends
Does anyone know anything about the Watchtower's Computer Engineering Research Lab?
There was one once, when they designed and built their own system for composing and formatting text.
Where was it? How many people staffed the facility?.
And, what sort of hardware/software did they come up with? Is it still being used today?
They must have had some talented engineers and programmers working for them at one time.
Also, it takes a lot of money to support such projects.
--VM44
There was one once, when they designed and built their own system for composing and formatting text.
They call it MEPS ("Multilanguage Electronic Phototypesetting System"), and it's still in use today as far as I know. They brag about it every chance they get. It was developed over 20 years ago by brothers in Brooklyn Bethel.
A misunderstanding is that this program translates.... It does not, just typesets diffrent character from diffrent languages?!*$%^&*&%@#
Yeah, I had a guy that worked there let me in oh back in 89 or so. I got to talk to the man who was in charge of the operation. .
It did indeed exist. At the time the WTS was under ban in Kenya, and they were developing a very cool secret press setup. They used a laptop (with no markings that I could recall.. and this was in 88.. there were no whitebox laptops to my knowledge so they were probably deliberately making them generic), with a small laser printer (remember the year), packed together so that the whole tihng could fit in a small suitcase. I guess someone else carried the suitcase full of reams of paper. Anyway they used that setup for awhile. They were ahead of the curve, esp when dealing with third world countries.
While I remember the name of the guy that let me see the whole thing, I didn't remember the name of the guy in charge. I was 16 and I was desperately trying to get into the pants of this girl who was on the same trip with me, so the other details of that boring ass trip were mostly forgotten.
And no, I didn't score. Hell not even first base.
A misunderstanding is that this program translates.... It does not, just typesets diffrent character from diffrent languages?!*$%^&*&%@#
That misunderstanding annoyed the programmers a great deal. I feel sorry for those sons of bitches. They could have been making megabucks on the outside working for Apple, Adobe, Micro$oft, Lotus. This was the time frame when desktop publishing was the biggest development in computers.
And all this Sturm und Drang over getting out the word that Lord Jesus crept back into our lives while everybody was asleep in 1914. What a tragic waste of money, time and the prime years of bright, talented young men.
A misunderstanding is that this program translates....
Exactly! I remember thinking this back in the eighties and so did most of the other Witlesses. It is for *typesetting* only.
Yes, I remember reading about MEPS in the Awake, many years ago. A lot of people were in awe of the society for being able to pull off an automated translating machine when the world could not do it. When I read the article, I remember specifically thinking, "Well, this is OK, but it's not exactly the invention of the microchip". You'd think they had set the scientific world on its ear with their development.
I beleive Dean Songer was the one in charge, and he was touted as a former NASA man. He was always up there when I was in the factory, and he was quite intelligent. Many others came and went, some got the bad end of the ego stick from their overseers who were jealous of their positions but who knew little or nothinmg about the tech. :-))
Randy
Net Soup! http://www.freeminds.org
Randy,
I've known some NASA people, esp the old NASA, and this guy looked like a NASA guy (they do have an aura or something,, it might be the hair), so we must be talking about the same man.
