Historical Thread ... Just remembering

Smoke

Distributed Computing Elite Member
Jan 3, 2001
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Here is a picture of an award that belongs to all of us.

kVa7BNI.jpg
 

iwajabitw

Senior member
Aug 19, 2014
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I miss the old bb smileys too, popcorn, rockband, machine gun, "In before the lock", and sigs, expecially the DC sigs from boinc stats or Free-DC. Just my rant .02. All my classic Seti tasks were hard to get, old AMD K6-2 and 3. Wont be much longer and DC will hit 20yrs for me.

Edit: Forgot to say I was crunching for the old Hardware Central back then. Anandtech and Ars I think were one of the better competitors at the time.
 
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iwajabitw

Senior member
Aug 19, 2014
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Not to side track this thread. I stayed home today, hurt my back this weekend helping my future son in law clean his 94 SVT Cobra up he just bought. So, AMC was showing an old movie that got me into computers in the first place, "Wargames". Man an IPhone, S7, or my 950xl phone has more power than the WOPR in that movie. Those gigantic floppy disks had me rolling laughing. But still a classic, and what we do here in DC, is just a stepping stone to what others will build on later. Cheers guys!:beercheers::beercheers:
 

TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
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20 years ago, the major automotive factory in which I work (DENSO, 2nd only to Bosch) had AS400 systems, using massive 8 inch floppy disks, and green screens. Even then that was wayyyy outdated. :D

I may need to rewatch that movie, it was a good one. Sorry about your back. I carry a cane in the car for emergencies...been over a year since I've needed it though, and no complaints about that.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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And I learned my first computer language on a Tektronix 4051. I will reply later with the details on it, if anybody cares, or knows anything about it other than me.

I even taught a class on it as a community college. Circa 1982. I want to see who else knows the history on these.

(Hint dual 8086's,storage display, 8 inch floppy, and a tape drive for primary input.)

And what famous TV show were they the major prop on ? Extra points for that.
 

Orange Kid

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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First experience with computers...High school using a telex machine to communicate with the local Universities main frame. Too much typing.
Next....Apple ii...too addicting, stayed away till the 386's and it's been a money pit and time consumer ever since;)
But ya gotta love it. Never a career for me, but a definite power user and amateur web programmer of sorts.
 

Smoke

Distributed Computing Elite Member
Jan 3, 2001
12,649
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The highest form of technology available at the university where I graduated in 1962 was a electrically powered multiplying adding machine.

QQWhiRs.jpg


While serving as a 1st Lt at one of our TS Munition Depots I actually developed from scratch a program to account for the location and disposition of "empty box cars" around the USA. This was all done with absolutely no computer experience using IBM 90 digit punch cards.

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The program I developed was used for several years. :eek:
 
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Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,542
14,496
136
And I learned my first computer language on a Tektronix 4051. I will reply later with the details on it, if anybody cares, or knows anything about it other than me.

I even taught a class on it as a community college. Circa 1982. I want to see who else knows the history on these.

(Hint dual 8086's,storage display, 8 inch floppy, and a tape drive for primary input.)

And what famous TV show were they the major prop on ? Extra points for that.

ok, no takers ? It was most of the consoles on the original Battlestar Galactica's bridge. Also, I had the "upgraded version" with 16k ram. The tape drive was where is read from, 16k at a time. So you load 16k of code, run it and at the end of that code it would say something like "find 2" (2nd tape file) and then "run 2000" the line number. Later we got to use the 8 inch floppy drive which help 500k of space ! The unit was 2-3 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and a foot tall ! For one 8 inch disk.
z104Xih.jpg
 
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