Windows Essentials

[XS11E]

My science teacher was onto the idea that computers were being
developed and would soon be a part of our lives. He encouraged us
to learn to type, even though, at that time typing was thought to
be "only for the girls." I took Mr, Carrier's advise and enrolled
in the typing class. I learned to type very well, and have been
very grateful for Mr. Carrier's advise.

I took typing BECAUSE that's where the girls were! Like you, I've
never regretted it and much enjoyed the scenery in class! <G>

 

[XS11E]

You two guys are even older than I am! I wasn't graduated from
high school until 1955.

Yeah, and we're better looking, too! ;-)

 

[Antares 531]

In

No, no, no! That was all a cover story. Sputnik was nothing but a box
with a tiny transmitter which transmitted beeps and nothing more. The US
was far more capable of doing far more, but feared what the world
community would say if the US had spy satellites cruising around the
globe. If the US did it first, they feared there would be an outcry and
have a total ban on any satellites.

So the US waited until the USSR launched theirs first (which was a
worthless do nothing satellite) and to see what would happen. Well I
guess the outcry wasn't a big deal, as the US now had the green light to
launch their own satellites. After all, if the USSR could get away with
it, so could the US.

I agree Sputnik was nothing impressive other than that it showed us
that a satellite could be launched into space. The thing I was talking
about was they must have had some advanced computers at their launch
control stations or they would never have been able to put that little
box into orbit successfully. Gordon

 

[XS11E]

I had a "personal computer" in the '60's. Of course, it filled a
whole room on the Stanford campus, and I had to share it with a
few thousand other people.

Understood. I should mention there were several devices that qualified
for the term PC prior to 1975 but they weren't PCs as the term didn't
exist then.

 

[Antares 531]

The 7090 was a big machine in those days. But as far as I know, there
was never a 6090.

I may be confused in my recollections here, but I was thinking the
7060 was what we used on the tracking ships and down-range tracking
stations. Gordon

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

At least, I'm fortunate enough to have my 8-bit brain at the top end
of my spinal column. Some seem to have their brain at the lower end.

Gordon

You da metaphor man!

 

[Ken Blake]

I may be confused in my recollections here, but I was thinking the
7060 was what we used on the tracking ships and down-range tracking
stations. Gordon

There was never a 7060 either. In the 7xxx series, there was 7030
(the biggest computer, in its day, and there were very few of them
made--seven I think), 7040, 7044, 7070, 7074, 7080 (the only one of
the 7xxx series that I ever programmed on), 7090, and 7094.

 

[Ken Blake]

Yeah, and we're better looking, too! ;-)

LOL! Could be, but never having seen you, I'll withhold judgment.

 

[Antares 531]

There was never a 7060 either. In the 7xxx series, there was 7030
(the biggest computer, in its day, and there were very few of them
made--seven I think), 7040, 7044, 7070, 7074, 7080 (the only one of
the 7xxx series that I ever programmed on), 7090, and 7094.

Thanks, Ken. It has been so long that I simply do not remember the
specifics. I do seem to remember that the 7090 was at first called a
709, then the added a T for some reason. This 709T drifted into what
became a 7090, which was the way most people pronounced it.

Too long ago and too many other things have soaked up all my memory
cells. Gordon

 

[Antares 531]

You da metaphor man!

Then, there are those who seem to have both their neurochord and their
gastro-intestinal tract inverted. They are the ones who have their
brain in their butt and their anal orifice in the middle of their
face. Know any like this? Gordon

 

[XS11E]

LOL! Could be, but never having seen you, I'll withhold judgment.

I have a picture here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tarangire_Warzenschwein1.jpg

 

[Ken Blake]

I have a picture here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tarangire_Warzenschwein1.jpg

LOL!

 

[Ken Blake]

Thanks, Ken. It has been so long that I simply do not remember the
specifics. I do seem to remember that the 7090 was at first called a
709, then the added a T for some reason. This 709T drifted into what
became a 7090, which was the way most people pronounced it.

Too long ago and too many other things have soaked up all my memory
cells. Gordon

I never heard of a 709T but if I remember right, there was a 709 (but
it was before my time). As a general rule, machines with three-digit
numbers were vacuum tube machines, and those with four-digit numbers
had transistors instead of tubes.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Gordon - and XS11E.

Class of '52! Me, too! And I'm a lot older than Ken: I'll turn 76
tomorrow. ;<)

I'm glad that I took typing, too, on the old Royal and Underwood manual
typewriters. I didn't see electric typewriters until years later.

The next year, my first working-my-way-through-college job was working for
the Head of the Business Department at my junior college. His title will
sound less impressive when I tell you there was only one teacher in the
Business Department besides himself. My main job was grading papers turned
in by his typing and shorthand students. But there were about a dozen
"business machines" in his office and I got to play with them a lot. These
were full-keyboard and 10-key adding machines and calculators - and a couple
of Comptometers. Ever see one of those? (Hmmm... I'm surprised that the
spell checker didn't flag that word.) At the university later I had a minor
in Business Statistics and got some actual hands-on experience with wires
and plugs, programming circuit boards for IBM accounting machines.

In 1959, as I was finishing my short (2 years) career as a USAF Auditing
Officer, we got a slight long-distance exposure to computers used by the Air
Force supply organization; these used the memory drum you mentioned in your
next post - so we heard; we never saw them. Later, as a very junior auditor
for a "Big 8" accounting firm, I got to see boxes and boxes of IBM punched
cards used for checks, inventories and lots of other stuff.

But it wasn't until 1977 that I got my first computer, the original TRS-80.
(They didn't call it Model I yet.) With a strictly non-techie background in
business, my path through the maze has been different from many of you guys.
But I've been learning about microcomputers/PCs ever since - and expect to
continue up the learning curve for a few more generations yet. (When is
Win8 coming?)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Antares 531" wrote in message

The year I left high school (1952) there were no classroom computers
AFAIK.

Nobody missed them IIRC.

NOTE to Thanatoad, there are multiple decent OSs, Windows, Linux, iOS,
all work well doing the jobs their designed to do. Thanatoad's
inability to successfully use an OS reflects more on his incompetency
than on the OS. Don't reply, Toad, you've been in my BOZO bin for
years.

BTW, the first personal computer was 1975, that's when Ed Roberts
introduced the Altair 8800 and coined the term "Personal Computer", no
personal computer existed prior to that because the term didn't exist
prior to that, so we've had "personal computing" for 36 years, no more,
no less.

I also graduated from highschool in the spring of 1952. We, nor any
other schools that I knew about had anything more sophisticated than
those old times adding machines...calculators.

My science teacher was onto the idea that computers were being
developed and would soon be a part of our lives. He encouraged us to
learn to type, even though, at that time typing was thought to be
"only for the girls." I took Mr, Carrier's advise and enrolled in the
typing class. I learned to type very well, and have been very grateful
for Mr. Carrier's advise.

After graduating from college with a degree in Physics, I worked for
RCA Missile Test Project, at Cape Canaveral. We installed those early
generation IBM Punched Card computers at the Canaveral Launch Center,
on the tracking ships and at the down-range tracking stations.
Checking those things out and getting them "fine tuned" was a real
struggle.

Gordon

 

[XS11E]

Hi, Gordon - and XS11E.

Class of '52! Me, too! And I'm a lot older than Ken: I'll turn
76 tomorrow. ;<)

Beat ya by a month.

I got to see boxes and boxes of IBM punched cards used for checks,
inventories and lots of other stuff.

I can still read the Hollerith code but I haven't seen a punched
card in years. Don't miss 'em.

But it wasn't until 1977 that I got my first computer, the
original TRS-80. (They didn't call it Model I yet.)

The TRS-80 Model 3 was the first I actually owned, I still have
it, it's still functional.

(When is Win8 coming?)

Don't know, don't care, I'm fascinated by this:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/22665/run-android-on-your-netbook-or-desktop/

Dunno why but it's my next project....

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I never heard of a 709T but if I remember right, there was a 709 (but
it was before my time). As a general rule, machines with three-digit
numbers were vacuum tube machines, and those with four-digit numbers
had transistors instead of tubes.

Yes, there were a 704, 7044, 709, 7090, 7094, and others. I never heard
of a 709T. I started with the 7090, then graduated to the 7094, which
was so similar that it was not really a graduation...But the cycle time,
at a microsecond, was half that of the 7090.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

LOL!

He's better looking than I thought he would be. You agree?

 

[Charles Tomaras]

Thanks, Ken. It has been so long that I simply do not remember the
specifics. I do seem to remember that the 7090 was at first called a
709, then the added a T for some reason. This 709T drifted into what
became a 7090, which was the way most people pronounced it.

Too long ago and too many other things have soaked up all my memory
cells. Gordon

Here's a fun walk down old computer memory lane from Paul Allen and Bill
Gates.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20054448-10391709.html?tag=mncol;lst;1

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

He's better looking than I thought he would be. You agree?

That's not really him. That's the picture he posts on his dating service
account.

 

[Ed Cryer]

There was never a 7060 either. In the 7xxx series, there was 7030
(the biggest computer, in its day, and there were very few of them
made--seven I think), 7040, 7044, 7070, 7074, 7080 (the only one of
the 7xxx series that I ever programmed on), 7090, and 7094.

Did you program in machine code? Or was there an assembler available?

Ed