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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>One of the programs I was assigned to maintain early in my career
had a comment in the front. Requires 64K of main memory – will not
run in 32 K. This was an IBM 370 mainframe program, although the program
hasn’t been updated since the 360 era. I just checked and that
program is still in use and it hasn’t been updated in 25 years. The
comment is still there too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>My first linear storage was punch tape.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
color:red'>Murray McKee</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><br>
</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>Operating Systems Engineer</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br>
</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>WFFIS - Wells Fargo Financial Information Systems</span><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> <br>
</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>800 Walnut Street</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:
"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br>
</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>MAC F4030-037</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><br>
</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>Des Moines, IA 50309-3605</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br>
</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>WORK (515)557-6127 Cell<b> </b>(515) 343-6630 </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:red'>FAX (</span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:red'>515)
557-6046</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'> <br>
</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:red'>MurrayMcKee@WellsFargo.com</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> <br>
</span><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>"This message may contain confidential and / or privileged
information. If you are not the addressee or authorized to receive this
for the addressee, you must not use, copy, disclose, or take any action based
on this message or any information herein. If you have received this
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delete this message. Thank you for your cooperation."</span></i><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
cialug-bounces@cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces@cialug.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Matthew
Nuzum<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, July 29, 2010 11:31 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Central Iowa Linux Users Group<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Cialug] I Remember When Computer Specs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Todd Walton <<a
href="mailto:tdwalton@gmail.com">tdwalton@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>I saw a person's Outlook cache
file the other day that was 19GB large.<br>
A friend pointed out to me that his first computer (he's a youngin')<br>
had no more than 4GB of hard drive space total.<br>
<br>
You know how people compare memory and hard drive space like that?<br>
They scratch the salt on their shoulder and say <mock deep voice> 'I<br>
remember when computers only came with 500 MB of RAM.' Well, it seems<br>
to me like that can only go so far back. There was a certain point<br>
(the mid 80s?) where there started to emerge a PC standard, in the<br>
form of the "IBM PC compatible". I'm a latecomer to this scene,
so<br>
correct me if I'm wrong, but before that time computers were largely<br>
packaged as complete products where you got what you got, and there<br>
were several different types.<br>
<br>
Comparing the amount of RAM in a Commodore 64 to a modern PC doesn't<br>
make sense. The Commodore 64 or others didn't have the same<br>
architecture, they didn't use RAM in the same way. Obviously it's<br>
amazing that we can package several gigs of memory into a single stick<br>
of silicon these days and it's actually affordable. That's clearly<br>
better than we could do in 1985. But there's something not quite<br>
right about comparing them as if there's some linear scale they both<br>
exist on.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>There are a few important considerations in here.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>1. User productivity - presumably, more powerful computers
with more resources allow computers to do things automatically that make end
users more productive. For example, squigly underlines telling you of spelling
errors as you type replacing a manual "check spelling" button and a
dialog showing each error separately<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>2. Developer productivity - early computer software required
very careful resource planning. From the amount of RAM used to the number of
floppy disks required to ship it. Modern computers resources are ample enough
that developers don't have to think about this too much enabling them to bring
software to market more quickly.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>I'm certain older non pc hardware had serious constraints
that users thought about. The old emacs joke says that emacs stands for
"eight megs (of ram in my computer) and constantly swapping" implying
that a machine with a whopping 8 MB of RAM was not enough to get good
performance out of emacs. And you should see the hurdles people jumped in order
to accommodate linear access storage mediums. (yes, I am old enough to have had
a computer with a tape drive as the main storage, but I was only about 8 at the
time)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><br>
-- <br>
Matthew Nuzum<br>
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, <a href="http://identi.ca">identi.ca</a>
and twitter<br>
<br>
"Never stop learning" –Robert Nuzum (My dad)<o:p></o:p></p>
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