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Sue

By Sue
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Spartacus

Spartacus

Posted
Posted

Dial up ? Wow that was posh. I used punch cards and mounted tapes to get a computer the size of a room to send a message to another computer (equally the same size) in the next building


Them were the days when the ARPANET wasn't cluttered by trivia and malice 😱

Sue

Sue

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Dial up ? Wow that was posh. I used punch cards

> and mounted tapes to get a computer the size of a

> room to send a message to another computer

> (equally the same size) in the next building

>


In the seventies, to do a straightforward statistical analysis for some research, I had to punch out a card for each piece of data, and a load of cards for the actual statistical thing (it had some long name, can't remember what).


Then all the cards were put in a box and had to be in exactly the right order. If you dropped the box, God help you.


Then you took them to the computer lab (as you say, computer the size of a room) and left them there for a day or so.


Then when you collected them, generally there was a long scroll of paper saying error error error and you had to go through all the cards to find the error, and then take them back to the lab again.


Oh happy days.


I've just remembered the name of the statistical test, it was the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test 😶


You can probably do it these days by pressing a button on a calculator on your mobile (once you've input the data) 😶

JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------


> Them were the days when the ARPANET wasn't

> cluttered by trivia and malice 😱


usenet was my earliest memory of arguments - alt.alien.visitors and the type - tame by todays twitter standards.


My first proper forum was Gwladrugby where we had so many disagreements there was a sinbin area for them to continue the argument away from the rest.

KidKruger

KidKruger

Posted
Posted

Ha ha - I used to program in Assembler and hex !

Them wo t?days..🤣


Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Dial up ? Wow that was posh. I used punch cards

> and mounted tapes to get a computer the size of a

> room to send a message to another computer

> (equally the same size) in the next building

>

> Them were the days when the ARPANET wasn't

> cluttered by trivia and malice 😱

Sue

Sue

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sue

> A diagonal line in marker pen across the top of

> the punched cards helped get them back in order if

> you dropped them.

>



I think somebody once told me that!


It was more finding the error/s that was the problem. I used to go running off to somebody who knew more about it all than me :))

Sue

Sue

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Let it all out Kid, free your mind as its put "a

> hex on you"

> You will feel a whole dos better once you can get

> back to basic86



I once tried to learn Fortran. I went to classes, in the seventies it must have been.


I can still recall sitting in a room and realising I had reached a point (not long into the course, lol) where I just couldn't get my head around whatever was being taught at that session. I never went back.


I was gobsmacked when somebody told me recently that Fortran is still used - surely this can't be true?

Spartacus

Spartacus

Posted
Posted

Sue

Not only still used by vital in some businesses as legacy systems are running on it and can't easily be converted or not worth converting


COBOL is also still in use as well as some if the 4gls (forth generation languages) that emerged in the mid 80s


Some people make good money supporting legacy systems 🤔

KidKruger

KidKruger

Posted
Posted

I knew a few people who either charged massive contract rates or were kept on payroll as permanent employees - but effectively were retired - just because they were the only legacy staff remaining who could fix fundamental issues when they arose in really old systems. They were treated like royalty because the impact of them not supporting were unthinkable !!

One of them I remember having the latest Aston Martin when it came out!

JohnL

JohnL

Posted
Posted

maxxi Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I remember being in awe after being shown an Apple

> computer and an Apricot computer (early 80s?) and

> having a little 'go' on them and confidently

> predicting the Apricot would prove the better

> computer and Apple would fade... Pls get in touch

> for stockmarket tips etc.


Apple did fade .... but recovered in the 90s. At one point they were only in newsrooms and the like. I remember the recovery started with the iMac - a big bright colourful thing that cheered you up :)


This thing - the G3


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3

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