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Computer memories.

DavidApp

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Doing a bit of clearing out of junk and other items I came across these items.

I think the card came from a college class where I decided that computers were not for me.

Set the problem out on a legal pad.
Took the pad to the card puncher where someone produced a pile of cards.
Took the pile of cards to the computer operator who fed the cards into the computer and after a while gave me either the answer or some more cards with the answer. I can not remember that step.
I had already got the answer as I had done that on paper. The computer seemed like a waste of time.

I preferred the AOL adverts on floppy disks as you could reuse them.

David
Computer stuff.jpg
 
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I still have a small deck of cards at home somewhere, along with a large reel tape. Kep only because today's generation has no clue what they were for. And reminds me how much things have changed since I started in the field 40 years ago.
 
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DavidApp

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My computer awakening came when I realized that the electronics guy could completely change how my machine worked bu changing the computer program. Felt I needed to get a better understanding of these computers. Bought an Amstrad with 2 5 1/4" floppy drives.

David
 
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I was never exposed to computers until college, beyond what you'd see on TV that is. Found I had a knack for the software side. I could in most cases just "see" what I needed where others I studied with would come up with much more complicated answers. Got to the point when I worked the student computer room I think there were classes where helped design/write half or more of the class projects turned in when kids couldn't figure out what to do. Those were the fun days when I didn't have a mortgage and bills dependent on what I was doing..
 

Gliderman8

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My first intro to computers was with 8-level punched paper tape. Punch the code then take the spooled roll and feed it into a reader. 8-level ASCII tape.... eons ago

1A7E9B60-FEF6-47A4-B646-06F62093E276.jpeg
 

Boink

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I also remember emptying the punch-card machines of "punches"... which made the best (nastiest) confetti you could possibly get. I found a "7" in a scarf (from a football game) many years later.

I hated those boxes of FORTRAN cards. You'd drop the box off (to be run on an IBM 370 as I recall) only to have the compiler reject it for a variety of syntax or typing errors.
 

TR3driver

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Cards were lots of fun, especially when you dropped the box. Threw all mine away when I discovered that the computers at college used a different code than the computer I used in high school.

At my first job in the field, we used miles and miles of punched paper tape. Nothing quite like standing in the middle of a pile of the stuff, unable to move for fear you'd damage the tape before you got it rolled back up. I didn't save any of that either, but here's a photo from Google:
pt1.jpg


Ah yes, the good old days. Not really all that good, just old. I looked it up; a mile of 8-level punched tape is a bit over 7 megabytes. Today I can walk around with a terabyte in my shirt pocket.
 
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And that terabyte is not even the size of your little finger...

Used to move or add a couple to boxes of cards belonging to people I didn't get along with back in my college days. In assembler would a B B B card at a random point to create an infinite loop.

And I remember punches, collected them all one semester and a buddy with a jeep and I went out the end of the year creating a "snow storm" up and down the streets...
 

DrEntropy

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Mike said:
Used to move or add a couple to boxes of cards belonging to people I didn't get along with back in my college days. In assembler would a B B B card at a random point to create an infinite loop.

And I remember punches, collected them all one semester and a buddy with a jeep and I went out the end of the year creating a "snow storm" up and down the streets...


Any of you guys familiar with the BOFH? After reading Mike's last, I started laughing and thought of it.
 

NutmegCT

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BOFH describes just about every system admin and help desk guy I ever worked with.

Like the guy who deleted every single user rights parameter, email account and password on my school-wide server. Said "it needs cleaning up".

yeesh
 

DrEntropy

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That started back in '95, been a source of entertainment (and sometimes inspiration) here ever since. :smirk:
 

John Turney

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My first class was on the ALGOL language. At the end of the class they told us it was being discontinued. Punch cards came later.
 

NutmegCT

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Funny. My first experience with computers was the mainframe at TCU when I was an undergrad. We created a simple Fortran program which did nothing but play the TCU fight song on the mainframe's line printer. Different combinations of print head positions produced different musical "sounds".

Similar to:


Tech guys weren't very happy ... but everyone else was!
Tom M.
 

DrEntropy

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:lol: That takes some dedication to both programming and music disciplines.

Fast forward to a more recent machine music demo:

 
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BOFH describes just about every system admin and help desk guy I ever worked with.

Like the guy who deleted every single user rights parameter, email account and password on my school-wide server. Said "it needs cleaning up".

yeesh


One of the first I learned back in the late 70s was HMFIC, was applied to the guy in charge of the university computer center and the student machine.
 
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DavidApp

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My Dad worked at the Commercial Cable Company in Waterville Ireland.
Usually at Christmas time they would get a message from the US office with one of these pictures made up of typed letters to form the shading. It was on the punched tape like all the messages so they could print multiple copies.
Took a long time to come through the cables so it was always a night transmission. Probable breaking a lot of company rules as well.

David

Funny. My first experience with computers was the mainframe at TCU when I was an undergrad. We created a simple Fortran program which did nothing but play the TCU fight song on the mainframe's line printer. Different combinations of print head positions produced different musical "sounds".

Similar to:


Tech guys weren't very happy ... but everyone else was!
Tom M.
 

DrEntropy

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David said:
Probable breaking a lot of company rules as well.


One of the joys of later ASCII. My .sig file as example. :grin:
 
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