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O/T Checkin' Yer Age

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Allan in NE

02-18-2006 18:17:50




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Hi Guys,

Just wonderin' how many of you fellas started this computer age doin' things this way:

Allan

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Tim...Ok

02-20-2006 05:23:28




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Nope,hated computers,didn't want nuttin to do with them ..first one I ever learned to use was an HP Unix ,course the code does look familiar..

I think I need to save this..

tar cvfb - 20 . | remsh trs3 dd of=/dev/rmt/0m obs=20b :^)

Tim



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Jerry/MT

02-19-2006 17:30:56




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Heck Allan, whe I first got involved with computers, we wrote code in machine language(0's and 1's) for an IBM 1620 that was little better than one of today's hand calculators. That was in engineering school at Purdue in about 1962.



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Paul Shuler

02-19-2006 13:22:28




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Hey Allen, My dad has two photo's of him working on a computer in the 1940's. Lost most of his buddies in the beach landings in Normandy so he got attacthed to an anti aircraft squad. They had a computer they pulled behind a duce and half truck that helped them lead airplanes to shoot them down. After most of Hitlers air force was kuput he got to spend some easy time with the infantry and got to spend Christmas in the Arden forest. Dang all the good luck. He said he saw that early computer shoot down one of the new fangled German jet fighters. Those guys who figured all this stuff out had to be pretty sharp.

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John S-B

02-19-2006 10:31:26




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
I remember doing some graphics stuff in 8th grade and using punch cards to plot locations for the computer to draw a picture.



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Bill in Colo

02-19-2006 10:57:49




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to John S-B, 02-19-2006 10:31:26  
My first experience was with the US Army,Ft Sill,Ok. back in 1967 with the the Field artillay fire direction control computer, took up a large area of a 2 1/2 ton and the Q 10 counter mortar and artillary radar which had a built in computor to calulate where the round had been fired from allowing you to send return fire before the round hit the ground, both were a great leap ahead.



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Rauville

02-19-2006 09:22:54




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
About 1967 our architectural office designed a new building for a small, area insurance company. They wanted a state of the art computer room for their first computer. The room was about 400 square feet, with a double door entryway similar to a hospital isolation unit, where you put on a sterile gown and shoe covers. The entire room had it's own heating and ventilation system, along with a static control copper grid in the floor.
Today, the company is still in the same building. That expensive little room has become an employee coffee break area.

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MN Bob

02-19-2006 09:14:36




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Memories; You sure know how to wake them up. I had my first experience in Duluth in 61 while in the Air Force. The big block house the U of M (I think) has now. Changed tubes in there for a week before I seen the programmers and operators area. Punch cards were the thing. My first was an early Apple, then gave it away when IBM came out. Wish I still had it for nostalga. Still have the IBM and an old 286 Sanyo. Have had Gateway and Dell, now on a newer one, put in 2000 and wish I had gone with XT. Sure has come a long way. Warmer here today in N. MN. Stayed above 0 all night. about 8 above now. Stay warm, Bob

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farmboysteve

02-20-2006 18:08:33




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to MN Bob, 02-19-2006 09:14:36  
MN BOB that was the FSQ-7. great heat source. i was at osceola, wi in that time frame repairing the AN/FST-2. went on with the FAA in computers for the rest of of my civil service. nothing like writing a program on punch cards. for extra memory, we used tape drives.



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mnjoe

02-19-2006 08:25:39




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
1969-1970 High school computor class was my first touch with a computer. Either this or typing. We had a student in class that knew more than the teacher. He would write programs that would shut-down the computer when the teachers pets would sign on. Our programs looked like cash registered paper with holes punched in them. They sure have changed but so has everything else...



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Billy NY

02-19-2006 08:01:08




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Wow, I can recall the day my father brought home one of the first home PC's, in the 70's not sure what he was doing at the time, I think he had borrowed it for something, orange led display, smoke coming out trying to remember what it was, but, was the first time I had seen a computer.

In highschool the punch card system was just phased out, I remember the computer room and the set up, we started on commodore 64's, did basic, cobalt and fortran and I did have a hard time with all of it, while others really did well and probably pursued it. I barely made it though basic, others were into fortran in no time it seemed, we used to learn to write programs for applications, one of which was like a dept. motor vehicle program to keep track of things, which was soon adapted by the vice principal to keep tabs on tardy students and assign detention based on the number of occurences, and or at his whim, he got out of line with it, and we retalliated wiped it out of his system, but he was smart and had it backed up, could not win with this weasel ( and he was one, suspended me numerous times until I had enough of him and put him in his place). When we crashed his system, it was like the Caine mutiny, of course I was No. 1 suspect, LOL. We never gave in and that was that, nothing ever came of it. I think some of the administrators were onto him. My senior year, was a military school, just had enough BS by this time, and he was a problem for our last year, with a few months to go and after 6 years in the school, a lot of us were getting anxious to get out, after working hard, playing sports and partcipating in the military training, one of the underclassman snapped, he burnt the entire adminsistrative offices one evening with gasoline, and this VP guy came after myself and a friend, we were working at a benefit for the school, a horse show, that night, legit alibi, it was over and we were on clean up, I was hogging manure with small ford front end loader, remember it well. Then they accuse us, after my father had put this benefit together, he was an alumnist too. Unfortunately for the perpetrator, he burned himself in the process and was caught while seeking medical attention, the weasel VP never apologized to us either, what a wild last year it was, I sold myself the winning school raffle ticket, arrived at school with a Matt's beer ball in the trunk the next day LOL, they hated me for winning, it was great, I still graduated as a cadet captain, with honors, but was not much for taking crap even at that age LOL, the military instructors were straight forward, hard but good guys, not that far removed from another job they had in Southeast Asia, the laymen were absolute weirdos, not sure how some of them became educators. We were amazed though, at how organized and quickly this VP guy was to adapt computer technology, no other schools were close to doing what he was into, and he would use it to badger the students, some of which were afraid to fight back, we certainly did and he was finally removed after we graduated, but was unfortunately sent to another school though, he was a brother, this was a christian brother school with laymen, brothers and military instructors. They were allowed to smack the students, some used a clenched fist, by the time were getting out, a few of us had taken a few good whacks, they can't do that anymore. Was $800/ year when I started, $1500/year when I left and now well over $10,000/year, things have gone up a little, the school is much improved, but I was never impressed with any of it. We did have computer programming though!

Then I vaguely recall using MS dos 5.0 in college and what I remember a girfriends dad would call bulletin boards or something he used to dial into, when 386's were the rage, getting fuzzy, been connected since '94 though, boy has time flew by. Have known some people who were against computers, some my age, good friend running a business too, but last year, he finally hired a girl to help keep an office while he's in the field, she bought a PC and he's probably realized the benefits now. Could not mention the word around him.

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K Smith

02-19-2006 07:53:53




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Yeah I worked for a company about 9 years and they still run a multi-million company on this doss everyday. System would shut down or lock up and cost hundreds of dollars just to get the thing up and runnin again.



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Ron in AR

02-19-2006 07:52:59




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Remember it well! My first computer was a dual 5.5 inch floppy drive (no hard drive). One floppy for whatever program you wanted to run, the other to save the data on. I sat in shock for the first couple of days in front of my first Windows based machine (Win 3.5). It just seemed too easy! Talk about a speed demon! 33 MGZ, 8 MEGS of RAM, and a 40 MEG hard drive!! When I first went online, Prodigy cost me $29.95 a month and $1.50 a minute for anything over 120 minutes each month. Seemed like a good deal. Who would ever be able to do more than two hours a month online? Right? Hah! Racked up some pretty hefty bils at times!

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dan67

02-19-2006 07:47:26




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Been there done that, Still use DOS in one of my engine diag. programs



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RickL

02-19-2006 07:29:01




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
yes,and the misses was earlier when the computor filled a whole room by itself in the grain elevator



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R. John Johnson

02-19-2006 06:16:47




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
My first computer experience was in my second year of University. You handed your punch cards to the person at the desk and walked around the corner to pick up the print out. Next experience was with apple II's

John



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hayray

02-19-2006 05:59:42




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Started once I was a senior in college and had to take a GW Basic programming class to graduate from the college of agriculture, had never used one up to that point, wow that was tuff.



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barnrat

02-19-2006 05:14:18




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
I remember before computers even looked like that and I'm only 30. I got my first computer when I was 6. A Tandy MC-10.



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Dixieland

02-19-2006 04:51:17




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Hi Allen, I still have some old packard Bell computers that used to be a real hassle. The dos screen you show reminded me of some long nights in the beginning. I never did get any technical support so everything was trial and error. One of the biggest hassles was getting the cd drive in gear. Things have changed a lot now but when you buy a new computer these days you get no original software, just a restoration disk. Back then it was a challange. Now I take it for granted.

Thanks,
Rex

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Mark - IN.

02-19-2006 04:44:05




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Yeah, but do you still remember the DOS Commands? The *.*'s and what not? They're still used in windows, just not by the users. Every now and then a need to get into the Command Prompt comes up to go in and alter, add or delete DOS files. To think, Gates picked that up from IBM for...nothing?

Know of a guy (knew the sisters) whom graduated from Notre Dame, an accounting major. That worked and was lucrative for some years. Then came the computer age, and he refused to adapt. Still hasn't adapted and refuses. Eventually was forced out of his profession. Now walks meters for a gas company making far far less. True story. To each, his or her own, I guess.

Mark

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Nebraska Cowman

02-19-2006 03:38:37




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Not me. I swore for years I would NEVER buy a computer. But i'm sure glad you pioneers got the gliches worked out to what a wealth of information that is accessable today. But hey, I stll use the Radio Shack calculator that was given to me in 1980. Does that count?
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Sloroll

02-19-2006 00:37:35




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Usta work in assembler. Did my first programming in punch cards. Got out of it and ran as hard as I can. I like to sleep nights. :? )



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37 chief

02-18-2006 23:22:15




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
I put this computor thing off as long as I could. Wish I would have started sooner. I haven't had one very long, even though I have worked for a large computor company most of my working life. I have been with the Unisys corp. (formally Burroughs corp.) 35 years. If I have a problem I call my Grand Daughter. Stan



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big fred

02-18-2006 21:42:55




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
IBM 360, punched a mess o' cards with the old IMB 029 keypunch machine.



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KEB

02-18-2006 21:13:05




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Allen, got you beat by a mile. I started out with FORTRAN & punch cards in college. Only the computer science geeks got access to teletype machines, and no one outside of the computer science department had ever even seen a CRT display. An IBM computer was something that had it's own building on campus, and communicated with us lowly engineering students via a line printer.

Anybody remember what "core memory" is? How about programming in "assembly language" or "machine code"? Remember when JAVA was a cup of coffee? How many of you know how to drive a slide rule?

First personal computer was an Ohio Scientific motherboard with a homemade case & power supply. 8K BASIC in ROM, 4K RAM (later upgraded to a whopping 8K), mass storage was an auido cassette tape drive (manually started & stopped, by the way), and the display was an old CONRAC video survellience monitor I picked up at a flea market. Eight-inch (yes 8, not 5-1/4) floppy drive was an option I couldn't afford at the time.

Come a long way in the last 30 years, haven't we.


Keith

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Buzzman72

02-19-2006 06:33:35




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to KEB, 02-18-2006 21:13:05  
Sounds like MY experiences at Rose-Hulman...they told us in the early '70's that Fortran IV was the computer language of the future. Guess their crystal ball was a little cloudy. Of course, if you wanted to go beyond a slide rule, a good Texas Instruments engineering calculator was around $800 back then. Now, I'm not sure what that translates to in 2006 dollars, but I'm betting you could buy a room full of PC's with that money today, adjusted for inflation.

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Keith-OR

02-18-2006 21:00:43




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Allan, you sure know how to bring back old memories.I can remember Fortran. We designed and built a micro computer in college. IT ran on binary. octal and Hexe decimal. Man how I hated binary and bulian(sp) algabra.

I still have an old Epson 286 w/8 meg ram, upgrade 30 meg HHD. It runs on an above board memory card.

I still have 2 user guides, MS-DOS 4.0 and 6.0 gave away guide for 6.2

How many remember these. Just can't bare to get rid of them. Antiques like me :>) :>)

Keith & Shawn

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old_bc

02-18-2006 20:42:27




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
My first computer was a Commadore 64.
old_bc



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Kelly C

02-18-2006 20:34:56




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Been there done that.
I used to love to play with my AutoExe.bat
Remeber you used to have to edit a cfg file for every stinkin program you wanted to run?
Or typing modem strings manualy?
remember before the internet was big you used to dial into local BSB boards to keep updated on what was going on?
Whew... dont miss it a bit.
Although you can still get that manual feeling with Linux.

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Allan in NE

02-19-2006 05:05:22




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Kelly C, 02-18-2006 20:34:56  
Yes Sir,

I was totally dumbfounded the day I accidently deleted the winsock on a machine and an ol' boy reinstalled it for me. Over a phone line. :>)

Allan



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Jubal Lee

02-18-2006 20:22:24




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Still have a Ziess program called "U-soft" driving a Coordinate Measuring Machine in our lab. Unlike the Windows based softwares, it is just about crash-proof. Just keeps on going and going. . . (like an old Ford tractor.)



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Dug G.

02-18-2006 20:01:22




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
If its any consolation, we stil use a DOS based program at work for grain handling and retail applications (when the computers actually work!!(rarely))!



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stickler

02-19-2006 10:36:06




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Dug G., 02-18-2006 20:01:22  
We still use 2 programs at work that date back to the Commodore 64 days. I was ready to quit my job when they first brought those in circa 1982....I still have two of them at home, I remember well the dial-in BBS days, over a 300 baud modem, long distance. I still have a slide rule in the shop. it always works. And I'm still a pup at 47. We used to love to trip the 'puter geek guys in highschool when they'd be carrying their shoe boxes full of punch cards.

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Coloken

02-18-2006 19:58:54




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
My first had a row of light bulbs. Below were plugin connectors and switches. I used little jumper cables pluged into the plugins. It would add and subtract like crazy but I never got it to do square root.



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TomH in PA

02-18-2006 19:10:52




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
Punched cards? Ha! We used clay tablets. Had to scratch the 1's and 0's with flint spear points.

Actually, I started on punched cards too. The "glass teletype" was a big improvement. First computer I owned didn't really have an OS, it just ran a BASIC interpreter (Copyright 1978 Microsoft); it had a whopping 4k of memory (but I doubled that by soldering another 4k of chips onto the board).



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Pappy

02-18-2006 19:09:24




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
I started out way back at the beginning. Our real advancement was when we went from wood-burning to electricity. What modern marvels!!!!! !



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old

02-18-2006 18:55:46




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
The ones I start out with had Mag tape units and paper tape programs. And that was around 1975 give or take a few years. That was top of the line for the Navy.



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Fawteen

02-19-2006 02:32:32




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to old, 02-18-2006 18:55:46  
Oh yeah, BTDT. Can't remember the AN/ designation, but our Outstation Processor Unit consisted of a box about 2 feet square and 6 feet high for the CPU and another box just like it for the 64K of RAM. Loaded the program with punched 8-bit mylar tape. Took about 20 minutes, if it worked the first time. Which it rarely did...



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bo

02-18-2006 18:44:30




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Allan in NE, 02-18-2006 18:17:50  
I started out with punch cards...DOS was much later.



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Dave H (MI)

02-18-2006 19:00:13




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to bo, 02-18-2006 18:44:30  
Ditto...learned computer programming in college on a keypunch machine. DOS was a world of change and is still my favorite when I work 'cause it's a lot faster than windows for what I do.



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4010guy

02-19-2006 08:36:08




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to Dave H (MI), 02-18-2006 19:00:13  
O god now i know why i feel like such a fool on hear,untill two years ago i had seen pitchers of them in catalogs and thats as close as i got to them oya my ol calkulater if that counts for anything! geeez think i will just go back outside and stay thear! ha lol



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Mark

02-19-2006 20:53:57




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 Re: O/T Checkin' Yer Age in reply to 4010guy, 02-19-2006 08:36:08  
$hit that ain't nothin'! My first computer was a pencil and a 5 cent writing tablet...all written in B.R.A.I.N code, still works too...a bit slow, but far more reliable..doesn't even require electricity.



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