Setting a set of switches on the front of a computer to put in registers just to start a computer was fun in 1960s.
Having to call up the weatherman to find out if the wind was blowing around Tonopah Nevada because the long distance telephone wires on insulators wouldn't support even 110 baud when the wind was blowing in 1970 and the only computer an Undergraduate had access to was a Xerox Sigma 7 five hundred miles away. That was only fun if it would be gentle on Saturday so you could go on a date Friday night.
Writing a single entry bookkeeping program in Fortran was fun 1970, but not some much fun 10 years later when VisiCalc started making money and all I had to show for my similar program was a Mylar tape (
You used inexpensive paper tape for development and punched your finished program on Mylar tape).
Using a Teletype Model 43 to log in from home and write Fortran code was fun in the mid 70s. When the University offered 300 baud access in lieu of 110 baud was even more fun.
Having a LSI-11 to play Original Adventure on was fun in the 1979.
Printing 4 dimensional shadows in pseudo 3D using an Apple ][ and an Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer was fun in 1980; even if it took five hours or more to print a single page.
Playing with a 'Hypercube 7' which had 128 pc boards each with an 80826 and an 80827 was tons of fun at the time in 1982 or 3.
Writing all sorts of programs in Turbo Pascal was fun in the mid 80s was fun. Making money from shareware in the late 80s was even more fun.
Being hired away from the University while still programming on a DEC in February 1st, 1992 was an extra 120 a week pay but with a few exception not nearly as much fun as playing on new things at the University.
Working on a really nifty software project using an writing new mathematical equations on a IBM 486DX2 using DOS was fun, backing up weekly to an external
QIC tape drive which took several hours with available machine and compression was not fun. The program when completed saved environmental air quality entities between $200.000 or $300.000 and six months lag to analyze a days worth of collecting data for Acid Rain and surface Ozone emissions was wonderful fun when I did it.
The 3-man team of a post doctorate Russian atmospheric physicist on an Academy of Science grant, a GS-15 PhD physicist and a humble C programmer was great fun. Implementing an formula that had never been translated out of Russian wasn't so much fun. Giving away that program, worth millions, with my source code on 5¼-inch was part of the job of a government contractor. Presenting an hour keynote talk at an international conference where we gave it away was fun. The fact that the Russian Scientists English wasn't so good and the GS-15 PhD stuttered meant a humble programmer had to present to a room full of PhD physicist when undergraduate physics was all I ever took; that wasn't fun.
The above were fun then but are faded memories now; I sure don't have the time left in my life to go back to punch cards, paper tape, 6502s or CP/M.
Still have the Apple ][ and the daisy wheel printer but junked or found homes for almost everything else. Below are fond memories I almost like to do again for a day or so.
Using a daisy wheel printer to write my Congress critters where they thought I typed a two page document by hand was great fun in the 90s when everyone else used laser printers was not only fun at 5 characters per second but helped pass some needed legislation.
Being paid to program on a Cray even if it was still in Fortran was lot's of fun when you could solve four or five 64 by 64 matrices in a 2 hour allotted time slot. I miss the National Supercomputer Center
Using a Ohio Scientific CIP to score a 400 mile timed motorcycle race in the middle of the desert before Apple ][ came out. Used an ASR-33 teletype, had two people keeping a generator running for 9 hours (
No way to back up, no floppy) and writing the program and entering data using a DATA statement for the 4K rom basic interpreter. When the race was overprinted a half box of 132 column results and a copy of my code and shut off the generator. I might not have been the first to do something like that but I bet I was the first to do it with a total cost of $220.
Those are ancient computers today, you can still do something useful with a 486..
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