OT: "Old" people stories
- Thread starter AgSurfer
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I weep every day for Lotus Improv. It was a fundamental improvement in the traditional spreadsheet, but Lotus screwed up the marketing and mortally wounded 1-2-3 as well, by claiming Improv was better than 1-2-3 and confusing people.
It sort of has survived with Quantrix, but that's $1500/license.
I had an interview forty years ago next month with a now long gone Wilkes Barre bank, United Penn for the position of credit analyst. I was taken to meet my potential co-workers and saw 1-2-3 for the first time on tiny monochrome monitors. I could see how powerful it would be. My sole comp sci class was Fortran on punch cards so that was an "oh sh**" minute.
Way back in the early 80’s, I visited my brother for a few days and he took me in to his work place to show me what he was doing. He had a monochrome monitor on his desk with a bunch of little, simple pictures (i. e. Icons) and I thought to myself “So what? “ I didn’t see any real value in what he was working on.
I was looking at the first prototype version of Microsoft Windows.
Way back in the early 80’s, I visited my brother for a few days and he took me in to his work place to show me what he was doing. He had a monochrome monitor on his desk with a bunch of little, simple pictures (i. e. Icons) and I thought to myself “So what? “ I didn’t see any real value in what he was working on.
I was looking at the first prototype version of Microsoft Windows.
Still felt the same when I saw Windows 2.0 in the late 80's. Just didn't see what the fuss was about. Me of little vision. 🤣
I had a well earned "D" in Fortran. Punch cards! Got a chance to see Microsoft's campus on a trip west in the late 1980's. Never thought that company would be pushing nuclear power these days.
I was a huge Dan Fogelberg fan back in the day. For you youngsters, play Face the Fire on your music box. Times they are a changing. Again.
I was a huge Dan Fogelberg fan back in the day. For you youngsters, play Face the Fire on your music box. Times they are a changing. Again.
Punch cards!! I did that in high school, and then I had to walk the mile to Lock Haven State College and feed the cards into the only computer in the county. Simple if/then statement programs. The good old days as they say lol.
Punch cards! Ha ha ha! You just reminded me of a student prank when I was at PSU!
Someone noticed that the guys at the IT center would always stack the student program cards on the card reader right before lunch break and let the programs run during lunch. Then when they got back, they would gather up the output printed by the line printers and put them on the shelves for the students to collect.
So someone wrote a program that was just a big Do Loop with the only executable statements in the loop being ASCII 12 and ASCII 13 which meant Form Feed and Carriage Return.
So when the program ran, all it did was cause the line printer to spit out tens of thousands of blank pages. When the IT guys got back from lunch, the entire room was filled with paper that had been ejected from the line printer!
Note: This was probably one of the earliest instances of malicious code being used in a computer system.
Remember when the first Texas Instruments calculator came out? Mind blowing
How many kids these days would even know what this is, let alone how to use it?
The TI-50 was an absolute necessity for every engineering major when I was at Penn State.
Some early computers I and my friends had:
Commodore Vic20
Commodore 64
Apple IIE
Texas Instruments TI 99/4A
I thought the Commodore 64 was the best but my older cousin said the TI 99/4A was better.
The Commodore 64 had some awesome games. Load “*”,8,1.
Commodore Vic20
Commodore 64
Apple IIE
Texas Instruments TI 99/4A
I thought the Commodore 64 was the best but my older cousin said the TI 99/4A was better.
The Commodore 64 had some awesome games. Load “*”,8,1.
lol back in my day no computers we had to write everything and add with our hands and minds not so much anymore!
Early on, I was all about the Radio Shack brands. Color Computer II (hooked up to your TV) and the Tandy 1000.
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I took a “lugable” KayPro Portable (64k) with software called Perfect Calc) to work at a Johnson & Johnson division in 1982. I was in Logistics and using a spreadsheet to model various transport cost structures. The guys in accounting were agog as they had been reading about spreadsheet in their trade publications, but, had never seen one in action. Wasn’t long before the CFO wanted to get a “lesson” and borrow my “personal”
Computer. This little demo was fortuitous in regard to getting ahead in in a big ass corporation. Lotus 1 2 3 …. that was a big step up when it was launched along with the IBM PC. Wasn’t long before my little 64k KayPro was seriously outdated. I still have it after all these years . . . and it still works.
When I need to feel younger, I read this thread. Thanks guys!
8+ years Navy here... 1st enlistment assigned to Camp Lejeune as Fleet Marine Force Corpsman then 2nd enlistment went to Nuclear Medicine School (GWU degree) and was then at Naval Regional Medical Center, Oakland CA... Met some of the most amazing medical folks ever... Our department at Oakland was doing some high-end procedures even before Stanford! Department chair was a Fulbright Scholar and was 2nd highest ranking officer at the hospital... Made E6 in 5.5 years and offered to re-enlist if they would send me back to Lejeune, but the Navy had other plans... so in 1984 I went to Atlanta to pursue MRI. Would not trade the Navy experience for anything...
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one good thing about Nam being on a tin can every sunday we had felit mignon spelling??and they were the thick ones not cheap!
good to know the right people on ships I was good friends with the guy that does all the paperwork when I transferred from the west coast to the east coast he gave me 30 days leave that I didnt have!
How's this make you feel? Found in a Commonwealth of PA Gov't Office in 2022, with rulers, adding machine "rolls" and "white-out".
Hey, they could be mine if there was also 14" × 16" sheets of carbon paper.
How many kids these days would even know what this is, let alone how to use it?
Thankfully, Irwin Mainway exposed the choking hazard associated with corded phones almost fifty years ago.
BTW, adding to your post, how many people on this thread ever saw a slide rule? Or better yet, how many learned how to use one?
When I was in elementary school, one of the teachers had an abacus to show us how the old timers did it.
Advanced technology compared to what FAA airport towers use for traffic control.
Hold onto it. It might be worth some $$$ in the future. Don't forget the Mickey Mouse wristwatch.
Still have my K&E log/log decilon with trig functions. Won it in a high school math competition. Used it at Caltech and still have it. Often much easier than waiting for a turn in the calculator room. Feynman used to show us all sorts mental shortcuts in solving problems. Still see classmates from time to time, but lose a few between each reunion.
It's buried right now, but pretty sure it's an all metal yellow Pickett with a black leather scabbard. I have some other K&E stuff. Lots of drafting tools, a Rapidograph pen set (who's seen one of them). I used to do my own simple drawings. I've spent a lot of time reviewing old mining maps and building plans on linen and the quality and detail is amazing. I was investigating a massive retaining wall along a river and had a drawing on linen from 1903 showing each support pile, their driven depth, and the number of hits to drive each pile. Amazing stuff.
This talk of coincidental meetings reminded me of something that happened to me, though not PSU related.
My secret vice is that I like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Sometime in the 00's I saw they were appearing at a festival in Arkansas and flew out. I'm talking boondocks. I kept thinking I was hearing "Dueling Banjos" on the radio. But this was a country-rock festival with the Dirt Band, and a few other bands that became big, as well the Daredevils, plus a lot of nobodies with 4 or 5 stages scattered around. We were sitting on beach chairs in the woods with a stage carved out between the trees listening to Mountain Sprout singing the Marijuana Song, I kid you not. We could barely see the stage, there was so much smoke in front of it. Outta the woods, some guy walks up to me, stops and asks, "Where are you from?" Startled, I replied, "Philadelphia". He asks, "Mississippi?" I say, 'No, Pennsylvania." He says, "No way!" I said, "Well, suburban Philly actually, Chester County." He says, "No way! Where in Chester County?" I said, "Exton, well actually Downingtown," He says, "No way! I'm from Downingtown." I asked, "When did you graduate?" He said, "1965." I said, "I graduated in '65 too. Did you know Mark Stephenson?" He replied, "He was my best friend." I said, "My brother beat him in the District 1 finals in '65 at 112." He said, "I wrestled 103 for Downingtown." I said, "I was Region champ at 103 in '65. And my son wrestled 103 for Downingtown."
Those are a string of coincidences occurring in the most obscure place I've ever been in.
My secret vice is that I like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Sometime in the 00's I saw they were appearing at a festival in Arkansas and flew out. I'm talking boondocks. I kept thinking I was hearing "Dueling Banjos" on the radio. But this was a country-rock festival with the Dirt Band, and a few other bands that became big, as well the Daredevils, plus a lot of nobodies with 4 or 5 stages scattered around. We were sitting on beach chairs in the woods with a stage carved out between the trees listening to Mountain Sprout singing the Marijuana Song, I kid you not. We could barely see the stage, there was so much smoke in front of it. Outta the woods, some guy walks up to me, stops and asks, "Where are you from?" Startled, I replied, "Philadelphia". He asks, "Mississippi?" I say, 'No, Pennsylvania." He says, "No way!" I said, "Well, suburban Philly actually, Chester County." He says, "No way! Where in Chester County?" I said, "Exton, well actually Downingtown," He says, "No way! I'm from Downingtown." I asked, "When did you graduate?" He said, "1965." I said, "I graduated in '65 too. Did you know Mark Stephenson?" He replied, "He was my best friend." I said, "My brother beat him in the District 1 finals in '65 at 112." He said, "I wrestled 103 for Downingtown." I said, "I was Region champ at 103 in '65. And my son wrestled 103 for Downingtown."
Those are a string of coincidences occurring in the most obscure place I've ever been in.
None of that happened... you were high and hallucinating. 😉
