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#13535 12/20/00 03:36 PM
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I did manufacturing test of Univac main-frames in 1966...

Hey - I used to program Univac 418s, using a peculiar assembler language called "ART" - is you that we have to blame for all of the grief the machines gave us?



#13536 12/20/00 03:37 PM
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that doesn't surprise me, tsuwm, I felt there were many here with lots and lots of computer experience-- in 1966--last year of elementary school-- or first of HS-- i think.. (but i had already learned octal & binary. My school was a "pilot" for new math, and "alternate numbering systems" was part of curriculum-- ) I "forgot" most of it, till i needed it-- my first computer (TI99/4A) used Hex--since it was a 16 bit OS. graphics required binary (you could turn an individual pixil on or off using commands--the binary code got shorthanded to hex-- )
I had a eurika! and realized, i knew binary-- and hex was easy to learn.

Xara is up there too, for being computer whiz-- and Faldage too..

I got the impression, many if not most, could slip into geekdom--if we wanted to-- but to be true geeks, we would have to be almost illiterate-- and only able to code.. so we'll never quite make it. (we're all to sociable and chatty too!--not real geeks)
Sorry if i offended CK-- You might well be the most computer literate person on the board-- but the rest of us are hardly a bunch of luddites..(Not that luddites are welcome too!)-- Who knows maybe someone will choose "Jethro Tull" as a sign in name.


#13537 12/20/00 03:40 PM
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I installed a system written in CP/M - bet you don't remember that

I'm impressed. Jo - my beautiful old Amstrad PCW used C/PM (I used to know what it stood for - forget now -) and I could never really get my head round it. I used to programme that machine in Mallard Basic - now there was a language for you. Talk about duck-speak!

Mind you, I wish I was still using LocoScript - much easier than Word.


#13538 12/20/00 03:44 PM
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the rest of us are hardly a bunch of luddites

Part of me wants to start off on a history rant to show you that the Luddites weren't really anti-new tech, for the most part.

But it's too near Christmas, and this is my last day at work for thirteen days.

Ask me in the New Year - if you dare!


#13539 12/20/00 03:45 PM
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I didn't do any "real" (ie commerical) programing-- but went out with a guy who was programing in Nixdorf-- any one else familiar with that language?


#13540 12/20/00 03:59 PM
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CP/M: http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/TERM/C/CP_M.html

{just kidding about the steering committee, jo 8}


#13541 12/20/00 04:10 PM
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>Hey - I used to program Univac 418s, using a peculiar assembler language called "ART" - is you that we have to blame for all of the grief the machines gave us?

nope, I worked on 1108s (the 418s were just across the aisle); there were probably never more than ten processors, in various states of assembly, on the test floor at any one time (and fewer 418s). I don't remember the 1108 assembler having any particular name other than "1108 assembler".


#13542 12/20/00 04:17 PM
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>just kidding

Shame, I would have thought that you would have been about the right age.

Crucially, it was an ICL machine. ICL is a big UK-based computer company and in the olden days there was competition between IBM and ICL in the production of individual stand alone workstations. ICL went with CP/M and the rest is history, the rise and rise of the PC.


#13543 12/20/00 05:17 PM
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I don't really have a clue about a great deal of what you people are talking about . . . probably because I wasn't born yet, but I do consider myself more computer literate than most. I worked for my school district with computers over the summer, but I'm mostly self-educated with web design: http://www.lovelandjazz.com.


#13544 12/20/00 10:16 PM
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I don't really have a clue ....

It's our age Jazz. You know how grandparents ramble on about their role in the second world war. We like to ramble on about the days when the NASA computer that put man(kind) on the moon was impressive, rather than something with rather less computing power than a common or garden laptop. Of course with a little more foresight we could have all overtaken Bill Gates years ago, we were just to busy doing other things while he made his zillions.

You just have to humour us a little.


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