On Tuesday 08 January 2008, John Summerfield wrote: >Gene Heskett wrote: >> On Monday 07 January 2008, John Summerfield wrote: >>> Gene Heskett wrote: >>>> Well, there is just me, some dummy users like amanda for the backup >>>> proggy, and root. I made an account for the missus, but she is >>>> 'computer illiterate' in the classic Joe Sixpack mold and has only sat >>>> in this chair 2 or 3 times in 15 years. Humm, no wonder the chair is >>>> getting lumpy... >>> >>> I bulldozed mine:-) >>> >>> Lots of people start out like you are doing now, then go on to manage >>> systems for others. Best to start out right. >> >> At my age, 73, I'm not really interested in expanding into steady IT work. >> I think I have enough trouble of my own for one guy to manage... > >There was me thinking I was probably the oldest one here:-) No, I think that 'honor' probably belongs to Karl L. >Surely, you're not the only one who's reading the answers. > >> I was one of those nerds/geeks back in the later 40's that had to suffer > >Scroll down http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/comp641E.html to >Control Data to see the first computer I used. >"The Control Data 3200 computer (Ref. CDC 3800 information) had a memory >of 32K words of 24 bits, a cycle-time of 1.25 microsecond and an >extended set of peripheral equipment, as hard disks, tape units, a card >reader, a printer and a plotter. >CDC 3200 systeem." I saw one at ISU back in the 50's that had about 12,000 12AU7's in it, but didn't work on it personally. It was hooked up to a modifed Harris stream fed printing press to read the Iowa Test scores from the forms used at the time, at about 1 a second when running at full song, and printing the individual results out with a line printer of some sort. A precursor to the printer in the IBM 402 family. I don't recall if it had a card punch though. >We had no disk or plotter, but we did have a card punch. > >Here's some RAM from a computer we had at a later job: >http://www.thegalleryofoldiron.com/MISC.HTM >we had one or two of these, depending on how it was configured at the >moment: >http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/events/anniversaries/40th/images/ibm370_1682/index.h >tml It was possible to split one computer into two while it was running and > run them independently. We did that one time, when I wanted to borrow one > to run OS/VS1. Before, during and after the split, the other half of the > pair was running OS/VS2-MVS 3.8. > >> But tell ya what John, its been one hell of an interesting ride so far. >> Except for the first wife's death from a stroke at age 34, and the deaths >> from cancer of the 2 girls we made together, and the shingles after being >> nearly electrocuted about 12 years ago, I wouldn't have missed very much >> of the rest of it. :-) > >Albert Facey might have described it as "A Fortunate Life." (Google and >Wikipedia know him). > >> Thanks John & the rest of the list for your patience & tolerance of >> occasional OT traffic. Its appreciated, a lot. > >-- > >Cheers >John > >-- spambait >1aaaaaaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Z1aaaaaaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >-- Advice >http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php >http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html >http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375 > >You cannot reply off-list:-) -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) What is food to one, is to others bitter poison. -- Titus Lucretius Carus
