Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: 1EyedJacks

My first computer...

I still have one. It sits over my desktop with the note "in case of power failure". [:D]

ORIGINAL: 1EyedJacks

Ahhh - but you forgot the zero - 0. You can't have one without the other.

(Damn but that was a beautiful line [:D] )

Actually you could.....and did. Western Europeans didn't have zero till the high middle ages , when they imported it from the moors. [:D]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Punch cards? I had paper tape![:D]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I didn't know you went back to the Stone Age. I thought you were from the Dirt Age. [:'(]

Say's the guy who's a runt dinosaur! [:D]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5 ... SY355_.jpg Perhaps this might suit some players? [:D] Seriously , it's ok to vent , we've all screwed up , but do you really want to quit this game? Do you want to admit you were beaten by a player that can only count to one? (one's and zero's). [X(][&:][:D]

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Punch cards? I had paper tape![:D]

I used paper tape!

I also did programming in Hexadecimal.

I'm all digital. I can count to ten. Then I get stuck. [:(]

The first computer that I worked on was a Spectra 70/60.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_Spectra_70#Model_70.2F60

This photo is of a different Spectra 70 model and only shows a tiny bit of the processor (let alone many of the peripherals).

This was a perfectly good whine thread... Just came home from work, checked this thread immediately and you are now discussing computers that Alexander the Great used to do his administration on...

No fun....

My first computer. And, a pretty damn good one at that.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I'm all digital. I can count to ten. Then I get stuck. [:(]

Well, you've got 6 fingers on your left hand, 7 on your right...why stop at 10? [&:]

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Punch cards? I had paper tape![:D]

Paper tape. Hmmph. Noob. We used tanned leather pelts.

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: AW1Steve

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Punch cards? I had paper tape![:D]

Paper tape. Hmmph. Noob. We used tanned leather pelts.

And water power in stead of steam or electricity. [:D]

.

ORIGINAL: Cannonfodder

This was a perfectly good whine thread... Just came home from work, checked this thread immediately and you are now discussing computers that Alexander the Great used to do his administration on...

No fun....

Actually ,it's everyone trying to show how old (and therefore wise[:D]) but unfortunately these punks can't imagine that there was life before computers. I'm tempted to really freak them out and tell them about phone that had wires coming out of them. [:D] Or that my 1st digital electronic calculator (1975) cost over $100 and was the size of a box of cigars. [:D]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert
You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Ok. Lots of people pretend to know about the old days. This is a test. They weren't stacks, they were called decks. Why? There was a specific machine that made them, What was it called? There was a container that people carried, that identified them as geeks. What was it? What color was it? And then, once upon a time, in a place far away, you could hook up with the Dartmouth computer center using a Beehive. What was that? And how was it different? And how could you whack your Phys Prof to give you a cookie?

ORIGINAL: Symon

ORIGINAL: geofflambert
You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Ok. Lots of people pretend to know about the old days. This is a test. They weren't stacks, they were called decks. Why? There was a specific machine that made them, What was it called? There was a container that people carried, that identified them as geeks. What was it? What color was it? And then, once upon a time, in a place far away, you could hook up with the Dartmouth computer center using a Beehive. What was that? And how was it different? And how could you whack your Phys Prof to give you a cookie?

I'll take my shot with what I think you want. They were called Decc-tapes" , made by the DECC company. They were magnetic tapes. You didn't have a main frame (at least my school didn't) , but you used a teletype to connect via phone to Dartmouth (where the main frame was). I never carried any carrier , but DECC tapes came in a metal can that looked something like a movie reel can. I seem to recall blue on stainless was it's color , but that was in the early 70's and my memory's not so good. I never took Physics , but my math teacher would give some of the "computer gang" (this was pre-geek or nerd) a paper copy of "Moonlander" to play if they did well.

Sorry , but that's all my decrepit memory can recall. [8|]

OK, I'm an idiot. I just looked it up. It wasn't a DECC tape. It was a DEC tape. Because it was made by Digital. OOPS![8|]

Good questions... I have worked in a data center since 1983, I'm trying to remember the older machines we had.
The punch cards were made from old IBM machines ... but I forgot the model name. The department that inputted the data physically on blank cards was called 'Key Punch' (duh).
Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) made mid-range systems beck then called VAX (I don't think they made mainframes...we didn't have any at least), but they didn't read cards - they read tapes.

I don't remember the rest of that Symon [:'(]

ORIGINAL: Symon

ORIGINAL: geofflambert
You're ancient. I started with Fortran and stacks of punch cards five inches thick to simulate a game of tic-tac-toe. [:D]

Ok. Lots of people pretend to know about the old days. This is a test. They weren't stacks, they were called decks. Why? There was a specific machine that made them, What was it called? There was a container that people carried, that identified them as geeks. What was it? What color was it? And then, once upon a time, in a place far away, you could hook up with the Dartmouth computer center using a Beehive. What was that? And how was it different? And how could you whack your Phys Prof to give you a cookie?