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Tell that to the kids of today, and they won't believe you

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    Tell that to the kids of today, and they won't believe you

    When I started work Daisy Wheels were top of the range printers, we had one green screen vdu to share, we used to have to hand write our programs on Coding sheets, a punch card machine had just been decommissioned and was sitting in the corridor, people used to smoke at their desks, the internet did not exist and Apple was still a fruit.
    "why ride a vespa when you can push a lambretta?"

    As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood."

    #2
    Ah yes, the good old days....

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by greenlake View Post
      Ah yes, the good old days....

      Actually that would make a great advert.


      Indeed and the swearing & casual sexism. Plus the drinking at lunchtime.

      Good thing we kept the incompetence & politics.
      Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

      Comment


        #4
        When I was fourteen or so I decorated my bedroom at Christmas with streamers made of punched paper tape containing development versions of a load of matrix manipulation programs I'd written on the school's PDP-8/e

        Comment


          #5
          Doing stats on one of these:

          https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aDN4s8ElxqE/maxresdefault.jpg

          Entering code on one of these:

          http://www.bytecollector.com/images/asr-33_vcf_02.jpg

          Writing in basic on one of these:

          http://oldcomputers.net/pics/pet2001-black.jpg

          Toggling bootstraps and writing FORTRAN IV/66 on one of these:

          http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/ga/large/spc16-1.jpg

          Punching cards on one of these:

          https://www.technikum29.de/shared/ph...univac1710.jpg

          Verifying said card deck on one of these:

          https://www.technikum29.de/shared/ph...ation-m200.jpg

          Printing out Fairchild 4000 tester programs on one of these:

          https://ub.fnwi.uva.nl/computermuseu...writer2201.gif

          Punching mylar tape on one of these: (it's not the right one but similar):

          http://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/sa...2/001/full.jpg

          Hard drives using 5440 cartridges:

          http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tt8Jd97U-Z...0/IMG_1940.JPG

          and these:

          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...sk_2009_G1.jpg

          All of which being replaced with

          https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9-RyvZxKufo/hqdefault.jpg

          and, alarmingly:

          http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...g-gwecv9vw.jpg

          As you say, kids just wouldn't believe it.

          One of the strangest things was the inability to read back punched tapes, so if one got damaged you were royally screwed if the source file didn't exist. Much typing would ensue of 60 character records that told the Fairchild 4000 tester what to test and how to test it.

          This being a Fairchild 4000:

          https://www.chiphistory.org/product_...1960_intro.jpg
          Last edited by zeitghost; 4 March 2017, 14:45.

          Comment


            #6
            Terminals? Keyboards?
            Luxury.....

            http://oldcomputers.net/pics/Altair_8800.jpg

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
              When I was fourteen or so I decorated my bedroom at Christmas with streamers made of punched paper tape containing development versions of a load of matrix manipulation programs I'd written on the school's PDP-8/e
              And......

              Look how far you have come
              The Chunt of Chunts.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
                When I was fourteen or so I decorated my bedroom at Christmas with streamers made of punched paper tape containing development versions of a load of matrix manipulation programs I'd written on the school's PDP-8/e
                ....using primitive editing tools, no doubt....

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by greenlake View Post
                  ....using primitive editing tools, no doubt....

                  Taken!!!!!
                  Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The old man is still a fruit.

                    Comment

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