Re: Lest I disappear

On Oct 17, 12:47 pm, Fred J. McCall <fjmcc...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Robert Peffers" <peffer...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

::"Happy" <a...@xxx> wrote in messagenews:hbchbg$6ua$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

:>:> "HardySpicer" <gyansor...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

:>news:31a45982-179a-42e8-bb91-0553f82ef90f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
:> On Oct 17, 12:43 am, "Robert Peffers" <peffer...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:> wrote:

:>> "La N" <nilita2004NOS...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
:>>
:>>news:VL7Cm.49168$PH1.46301@xxxxxxxxxxx
:>>:>> > Scotty wrote:

:>>
:>> >> And Dos didn't support folders!
:>>
:>> > Yikes. DOS! When I saw my first real computer and witnessed the first
:>> > flashing C prompt, I knew that modern technology was not for me!
:>>
:>> > (then I was introduced to an Apple Mac)
:>>
:>> > - nil
:>>
:>> Huh! You're all Johnny & Joanna come lately.
:>>
:>> I worked on computers before MS-DOS was heard of. In fact I worked on
:>> them
:>> before CP/M was thought of.
:>>
:> Me too! I arrived at the time of IBM 370s and punch tape. Around 1975.
:> not as far back as Bob I am willing to bet.
:> I have been through IBMs,Dec-10s,Mascomp,Prime,Trash-80,Sun and Apollo
:> Worksations and finally PCs around 1998 when they became useable.
:>
:> Hardy
:>
:> **********************************************************
:>
:> The first mainframe I saw, the size of a wall, was in 1957.
:> My first course was in 1965 on the new (1964) IBM 360 mainframe.
:> At that time I considered myself an expert on the "K&E Log Log Duplex Trig
:> Slide Rule";
:> I thought that sliderule would last me a lifetime; there was computing
:> before the computer.
:> My first personal computer was a Zilog Z-80, an 8-bit machine running
:> CP/M - about 1980;
:> it had a C language compiler.
:> My next computer will be 64-bit; I wonder how high I'll go? Surgery will
:> get me there.
:> If you like adventure, try "The Soul of a New Machine", Tracy Kidder,
:> 1981 - it's the
:> story of the design of a new minicomputer.
:> I think the most fun I've had is playing with voice recognition many years
:> ago on a
:> Digital PDP machine with a real-time operating system. To read data
:> streaming from a voice
:> radio broadcast; put it through an analog to digital converter; remove
:> every fifth word using
:> double buffering; put the result though digital to analog and out to the
:> speaker and never
:> miss a beat.
:> I'm disappointed that I still don't communicate with my computer by
:> voice - I  tried
:> some years ago but it was just too time-consuming. Maybe things have
:> improved.
:> It's mind-boggling how the brain does voice recognition - I don't think
:> what the brain
:> does is remotely possible.
:>
:>
:
:Well some of you may share this story. In the very early 50s I had a spell
:working on an MOD top secret machine. This thing was built into joined,
:double aircraft hangers. There were various lean to bits sticking out the
:sides too. Anyway this thing had rack after rack of drawers. Each drawer had
:banks of boards with valves, uniselectors and PO type relays. The power for
:the twin triode valve heaters alone needed as much power as light a decent
:sized city.
:
: Now valves are rather temperature sensitive so the whole thing was
:temperature and humidity controlled. These conditions were ideal for all
:insect life and every flying or climbing thing within 5 miles ended up in
:those bloody racks. We were all equipped with a couple of small special
:tools. One end of these had a small blade like the emery boards ladies use
:for their nails. The other end had a reverse action pliers like thing. What
:you did was place these pliers things between the contact blades and press
:then apart. You placed the emery board of the other between the contacts
:gave it a couple of wipes and removed both tools. Now to the point of all
:this, you know the expression, "A bug in the program"? Well that was where
:it came from and they were real insect bugs. The expression is still used to
:this day but I wonder how many of the whiz kids ever know where that
:expression came from?
:

Damn, you must really be old, Bob, since Thomas Edison used the term
in 1878.  You were also at least a decade after the incident at the
Harvard Computation Laboratory, where a problem (a moth caught in a
relay) was 'debugged' and the moth dutifully taped into to operating
log for the computer.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
 man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
 all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
                                      --George Bernard Shaw

I think Bob KNEW Thomas Edison! Thats how f*** old he is!
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lest I disappear
    ... I think the most fun I've had is playing with voice recognition many years ... Anyway this thing had rack after rack of drawers. ... Now valves are rather temperature sensitive so the whole thing was ... One end of these had a small blade like the emery boards ladies use ...
    (soc.culture.scottish)
  • Re: Lest I disappear
    ... before CP/M was thought of. ... not as far back as Bob I am willing to bet. ... I think the most fun I've had is playing with voice recognition many years ... banks of boards with valves, ...
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