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jaciii · 07-22-2001, 09:34 PM

I appear to be significantly older that the forum. My first computer experience was in programming was plugging wire. My mother had my father take me to his office on a Sat. They had just started using computers to run payroll (father was an accountant.) That was in 1955.
It was fun to make the machine work. I then was able to mess with the main frame as an undergrad. My professor who wrote one of the first Data Processing text books, would perk coffee on the IBM's and drive the IBM rep crazy. The room was secure and had a false floor and ceiling to run the cable through. Special air conditioning was needed because the machine ran so hot. The PDP's came out and they were personal when my dept. had one. Everything was leased, no could afford to buy one. I would waste time in the lab playing Star Trek on teletype, there were no crts. Punch cards that made great confetti for parties but were a pain if the ribbon was wearing out and made your , look like a . and trying to figure out what was wrong with the program because the it showed a period. You learn to read the punches in card. ( Don't drop that box of cards!!!) Trying to find $617 to buy cpu time to run my dissertation on a machine slower than the laptop I'm using now. Using arpnet to "talk to other researchers wink, wink (girlfriend at another univ." and email them. The apple 1 (a kit) was the first functional personal computer I saw, then the apple II. Money was tight with babies. The first IBM PC came along and grant money to buy one. IBM was the "evil empire" then before Mirosoft. Mirosoft were the radicals that were going to change the world. But computers were tools, granted fun ones, but tools to accomplish work. The house is totally wired with ethernet and wireless ethernet on it is a Sun Machine, a power mac, x86 machines running linux, win98,winMe, and OS X on a G4 laptop. Do I work with computer no they are a hobby, I am a child psychologist.

07-22-2001, 09:34 PM	#8
jaciii Kinda New Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 1	Way before. I appear to be significantly older that the forum. My first computer experience was in programming was plugging wire. My mother had my father take me to his office on a Sat. They had just started using computers to run payroll (father was an accountant.) That was in 1955. It was fun to make the machine work. I then was able to mess with the main frame as an undergrad. My professor who wrote one of the first Data Processing text books, would perk coffee on the IBM's and drive the IBM rep crazy. The room was secure and had a false floor and ceiling to run the cable through. Special air conditioning was needed because the machine ran so hot. The PDP's came out and they were personal when my dept. had one. Everything was leased, no could afford to buy one. I would waste time in the lab playing Star Trek on teletype, there were no crts. Punch cards that made great confetti for parties but were a pain if the ribbon was wearing out and made your , look like a . and trying to figure out what was wrong with the program because the it showed a period. You learn to read the punches in card. ( Don't drop that box of cards!!!) Trying to find $617 to buy cpu time to run my dissertation on a machine slower than the laptop I'm using now. Using arpnet to "talk to other researchers wink, wink (girlfriend at another univ." and email them. The apple 1 (a kit) was the first functional personal computer I saw, then the apple II. Money was tight with babies. The first IBM PC came along and grant money to buy one. IBM was the "evil empire" then before Mirosoft. Mirosoft were the radicals that were going to change the world. But computers were tools, granted fun ones, but tools to accomplish work. The house is totally wired with ethernet and wireless ethernet on it is a Sun Machine, a power mac, x86 machines running linux, win98,winMe, and OS X on a G4 laptop. Do I work with computer no they are a hobby, I am a child psychologist.