03 October 2022

Computer Memories

This is my 'response' to the video I just posted 'Are you ready for the internet'.

A while back I posted a computer problem I was having on Facebook. Someone solved the problem for me, but another friend made a wisecrack about 'old people' and computer problems. I answered him thus,

I was working with computers probably before you were a twinkle in your father's eye! I've been around since the Hollerith (punch) card era. The first machine I worked on was a Honeywell 6660 that cost ca. $6,000,000. My job ws to feed punch cards into the reader that transmitted the data to the mainframe. We were just getting CRTs (computer screens to you youngsters). Our data storage was on cards and tape, and a few 'hard drives'. The tape drives were about 6' tall by 3' wide and the hard drives were the size of a small deep freeze. I learned to program in BASIC.
There were no word processors. If you wanted a document, you had to code each line in a programming language. Later, my first home computer was pre-DOS, running CP/M-80. It had WordStar loaded into it. The PCs available at our public library basically had no firmware. If you wanted a word processor or a spreadsheet, there were disks available. You inserted the 5.25 inch floppy disc, downloaded what you needed and away you went.

 When 3.5 inch 'floppies' came out, our first reaction was 'Why? You'll never be able to fill one of them'. Not too many years later the first digital camera I used required 3.5s as storage. You could take, maybe, three pictures before you had to insert a new disc.

Oh, and before the world wide web, FB and instant messaging services there were things called bulletin boards, free-nets, and news groups. It was all on dialup, but we thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. My first email address was something like ae512@cleveland.freenet.edu (The first free-net online, with which I had an account). We didn't get to choose, they were were randomly generated.

I remember the first time I ever used broadband. My brother-in-law was a professional game developer so he had the most up to date equipment. We were visiting and I needed to use his computer. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! No sitting watching the loading bar slowly move across the page!

Anyway, thanks for your wisecrack. It certainly brought back memories!

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