Thread: Poll: you and computers

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I worked on the computer staff at Bradley University in 1962 when I was a sophomore. Our main computer was an IBM 1620 with a whole 16K (that's K, not M) of memory. It was the size of a small car. I learned Fortran - punched cards in and out. No tape, no disk. I also learned and taught Basic as a grad student.

In the 60's and 70's, I did quite a bit of application work on Burroughs B5500 and B6700 mainframes. We had moved up to teletype input and line printer output.

In 1982, the company I worked for equipped most of us with the first IBM PCs - with a mind-boggling 64K on board. Our main applications were Basic and VisiCalc.

The PC sitting on my desk now is more powerful than the Burroughs B6700 mainframe that did all our corporate systems and accounting back in the day.

Commodore Vic-20 was my first.
5 kb of RAM and a cassette drive for sequential data storage - Oooooh Too Cool -

Once I wrote and executed my fist 'Hello World' code, I was hooked.

Commodore VIC-20 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Our main computer was an IBM 1620 with a whole 16K (that's K, not M) of memory. .

Hard to imagine isn't it Jack. My first job after the USAF (1970) was as a production expediter at Teledyne. We were making guidance computers for the Atlas Centaur missles. We hand wired a memory board (thin gauge copper wire through ferrite rings, if I remember correctly, on a board about 1' sq), also a mere 16k! The enclosure was a clamshell affair milled from solid billet aluminum.

Anyway, very interesting and revealing responses. Thanks folks.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Hard to imagine isn't it Jack. My first job after the USAF (1970) was as a production expediter at Teledyne. We were making guidance computers for the Atlas Centaur missles. We hand wired a memory board (thin gauge copper wire through ferrite rings, if I remember correctly, on a board about 1' sq), also a mere 16k! The enclosure was a clamshell affair milled from solid billet aluminum.

Anyway, very interesting and revealing responses. Thanks folks.

Bob, yeah that's Torodial Core Memory. I made a subtle joke about it in a computing thread on the board a while back. I had begun to think that nobody knew what it was.

Anyway, we had the same thing in our Delco Carousel IVE Inertial Navigation Systems. They were manufactured beginning in the late 70's we had a whopping 32K in them. Technology came a long way though in a short time and shrunk the size necessary as our "board" was (as I recall) a type of fabric that was folded over and over and eventually came out to about the size of two 9 volt batteries stacked together on their sides.

Amazing how much things change in such a short time....

The first computer that I got was in 1985. I have been working on them pretty much since.

Spent 15 years working on IBM Midrange systems (AS/400). Then moved on to software support (PC). Then on to PC repair. Now I do pretty much anything at work that involves a computer. I support approx 5000 computers at work. And 6 at home.

Not many dull moments with 3 teenage kids trying to mess everything up all of the time!

First exposure to these infernal machines was in the Navy in the early sixties; that's all it was, though, exposure - I never touched one, then. The company I spent my working life with started using them in local offices in about 1965, for accounting, meter reading data, and inventory control and planning. Our first home unit was in the mid to late seventies, IIRC, and the names of Atari, Commodore, and Radio Shack keep passing through my memory. Since then, we've had Apples, Macs, and Dells; have one Dell running, at this time, and two others in reserve, plus two Macs on the shelf. I sure wish I could figure out just how to really put these things to work, but when faced with a recalcitrant unit, I tend to revert to caveman, and reach for a hammer - not such a good thing.

Bttt if you haven't already, please vote above.

I just Reread my old post.. it's interesting because a couple months ago, I bought a Commodore 64 off Ebay to relearn the old Basic computer language, and ended up downloading or buying the old games I used to play on it as a kid..

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Hard to imagine isn't it Jack. My first job after the USAF (1970) was as a production expediter at Teledyne. We were making guidance computers for the Atlas Centaur missles. We hand wired a memory board (thin gauge copper wire through ferrite rings, if I remember correctly, on a board about 1' sq), also a mere 16k! The enclosure was a clamshell affair milled from solid billet aluminum.

Anyway, very interesting and revealing responses. Thanks folks.

Hey Bob, betcha remember these!
The last one is a close-up of a core plane. The distance between the rings is roughly 1 mm (0.04 in). The green horizontal wires are X; the Y wires are dull brown and vertical, toward the back. The sense wires are diagonal, colored orange, and the inhibit wires are vertical twisted pairs

Yes Larry, I do. And I remember ours were all hand threaded while looking through a magnifier! Those gals had a lot more patience than I could have mustered.

I got my first computer around 1994, couldn't even switch it on

I went on a course 1 night a week to learn as i didn't want to be left behind
These days i build my own PC's and can cope with most stuff.

My first computer exposure was with a 'dumb' HP terminal in 1988/9 at GE. Then in about 1990 we went to some version of an IBM - which was only a minor step above the 'dumb' terminal as we still were not on the WWW until 1991. I then had a buddy build me a computer with 16mb of RAM and a tiny hard drive - and was that hot!! Now - I build my own. I still don't understand much of what make 'em tick, but they usually work just fine with 4Gb RAM, 1Tb worth of hard drives, nice AMD mobos, a 4-500watt ps and a couple of laser readers (and of course - a 3.5" floppy).........all it seems to just to fix and store pictures and surf the internet.

First "taste" of computers was back in the early 60's. As an accounting student, the firm I was with did the audit of a major University here in Canada. Not sure what computer it was (I only dealt with reams of paper) but it took up an entire air conditioned room and used punch cards for input.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I had my first personal computer, a Commodore 64, then progressed to IBM compatibles which I am still trying to use today.
Poll says I have already voted but I don't remember doing it.....CRS I guess.

What a great thread!

Like many on this site, I was drafted one year out of high school and opted for the Air Force. My first real job in the Air Force was an assistant crew chief on C-141 aircraft than as an Airman First Class (yup, a two striper) I became an “acting” crew chief because there was a shortage of NCOs at the time.

I was involved in a little “mishap” in Southeast Asia involving a rocket, a real loud noise, and a crippled aircraft that destroyed a lot of my hearing (another story) and the Air Force cross trained me into “Data Automation”. I schooled on Burroughs B-263 and later moved to B-3500 and B-4800 machines. As mentioned above, we’ve got more compute power on a laptop today that those monsters had in a whole raised floor data center. Lots of time on 026 and 126 IBM keypunch machines, 082 sorters and man did we go through the “green-bar” paper as output. Learned COBOL and Burroughs Advances Assembler

I got out of the Air Force in 1981 and went to work for a grocery wholesaler in Tacoma Washington called “West Coast Grocery.” They were a Burroughs shop, B-6800 and B-6900 however; we were some of the first corporate users of IBM PCs – 64K, 2 floppy drives running DOS with a green-screen monitor.

Left there for First Interstate Services Company (subsidiary of First Interstate Bank) in 1985 and got my first PC shortly thereafter. Left First Interstate in 1990 (I’m sure that’s why they were bought by Wells Fargo!). I’ve been through 286, 386, 486, etc and now have latest generation quad-core machines for work as well as high-end laptops. I have a telecommunications and technology consulting firm and try and stay current as I sit on several national engineering committees that are responsible for crafting telecommunications and technology standards.

While I couldn’t work without PCs, I certainly have no aversion to a weekend of camping without as much as a cell phone. I’m following another post, re; “Lots of silent members here” and find myself smiling at the conversation – wanting to chime in, but really rather enjoying being a “bystander”.

Ah the PC – blessing or curse - depending on the perspective. On one hand, we have access to literally millions of informational resources and knowledge that would be otherwise unattainable (like the great minds on this site and I mean that literally!) On the other hand, we have a generation of fat people (have you seen our teenagers lately) who plop in front of a PC and surf for hours - pondering useless drivel. At the extreme – we invite filth and corruption into our homes and minds with Internet pornography being the number one money maker on the net.

Like most tools – used properly they are indispensable. In the wrong hands, even the best tools can be destructive beyond belief.

I really do enjoy this site – you are the cream of the crop when it comes to all thing hot rod related as well as just good conversation and the occasional debate!

Regards All,
Glenn

Bob,
Sorry I missed the poll somehow. I was a slide rule guy back in the early 1960s and was hooked on computers by being spoiled with access to an IBM 7090 in 1963 which was the supercomputer of the day. It inflamed my mind to realize what the computer could do compared to tedious slide rule operations. Perhaps Quantum Chemists use as much computer time or more as the obvious Physics researchers. There are groups of Chemists who have developed programs to compute just about everything about compounds and their reactions and the main limitation is that we can never get enough computer time. I spent 35 years as a Quantum Chemist and still teach part time. I have built my own PC cluster of four duocore PCs in parallel and found the parts are amazingly standardized to the point that I constructed the entire cluster using only a single cross-point (Philips head) screwdriver! I have been busy since last November working on a textbook in which I use my own computer program designed for student use on PCs and I have justifably neglected my car through a long cold winter but need to finish the book by September in time to put a few months of work on the car in the mid-temperatures of the Fall. At present we have at home seven PCs, four of which are in my cluster but I am retired and no longer use the university computers of my former employer. I have used large parallel clusters and supercomputers in my former research on molecules.

Best Wishes,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder