Posted on 06/07/2012 10:43:43 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
I started working with computers when I got put of the Army back in 1967. I was an operator on a 705 for awhile. It was a vacuum tupe computer and one could get a sunburn simply by standing next to the banks of vacuum tupes too long.
The room was filled with a soft orange glow of the tubes accompanied by a fairy loud 60 HZ humm.
The click when somebody hangs up on you.
That’s awesome!
Now we communicatin’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcFpaI1Y_SE&feature=relmfu
In our day, if there wasn’t alot of noise in the backgound, nothing was going on.
USS Intrepid. ‘70-’71.
How about the screams of the programmer who just dropped his 500-card stack of IBM punchcards that used to be his FORTRAN program? :=)
I never rewound my personal tapes. It made them last much longer. If you look at a tape that has been played all the way to the end through the little window, you'll see how smooth the wind is. If you look at a tape that has been rewound, you could see the edges of the tape were uneven. For long term storage it was definitely better to have one played to the end.
It was also a good idea when you first watched a new tape (or first used a tape before recording on it), to fast wind it to the end, then rewind.
You had a PS/2 in 1982?
I have watched it several times... obamao just wants us dead... take no chances... take no prisoners... that is just how he rolls.
LLS
“”How about the screams of the programmer who just dropped his 500-card stack of IBM punchcards that used to be his FORTRAN program? :=)””
Assembler on punched cards was even worse than Fortran!
I learned most of the dinosaur languages, including COBOL, Fortran and Assembler on punched cards.... They sucked!
That happened to me once and thereafter I put sequence numbers in columns 73-80 (IIRC). We had a card sorter machine that I learned to use. That thing was noisy as hell but the next time I had a card shuffling accident it sure saved my bacon. Then they replaced card punches with key tape. That was the berries.
In old communication ‘central offices’, there would be
floors of mechanical step relays (called selectors) that move “click” and move to the next connection with every digit that was dialed.
So if you dialed a “5”, it would go to the first set, and
and move over “5” physical connections, and andvance to
yet another bank of selectors.
With scores of calls occurring at a any given point it
was like being inside a giant machine.
When there were ‘call-ins’ for a radio station, thousands
of people would try to call in at the same time and the
sound was quite impressive.
They were later replaced by ‘electro-mechanical’ devices,
and then yet again by ESS offices - which were completely
computer driven.
So long ago....
My bunk was 04 level all the way forward (just aft of the Chain Locker)... when launching and the cat comes to a stop it was loud as hell.
When I first arrived I would sleep with earplugs, then got used to it... a cold cat or any sound that was different and we would just automatically jump out of our racks and get dressed because in 15 seconds there was gonna be GQ
My error, it’s not 1982.
I still have it in my basement, but I found the yellowed, crinkled receipt, and it’s dated May 1988, not 1982. I don’t know how I came-up with that date, honest-to-heck.
The numbers on the back of the unit are:
IBM Corp, Armonk, NY
(c)1981-1987
IBM 8550
S/N 72-8118522
Type 8550-021
Here: http://www.supervinx.com/Retrocomputer/IBM/8550/021/
My error, it’s not a 1982 IBM PS2/50.
I still have it in my basement, but I found the yellowed, crinkled receipt, and it’s dated May 1988, not 1982. I don’t know how I came-up with that date, honest-to-heck.
The numbers on the back of the unit are:
IBM Corp, Armonk, NY
(c)1981-1987
IBM 8550
S/N 72-8118522
Type 8550-021
Here: http://www.supervinx.com/Retrocomputer/IBM/8550/021/
In the summer of ‘65 our highway construction field office had a Telex installed.
I loved the urgent clatter of incoming messages.
Leading edge, at the time. ;^)
I used to record my own 8-track tapes. I got real good at timing the songs end before the track change. Sometimes it was very difficult, especially with albums like Led Zeppelin IV.
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