[Cialug] I Remember When Computer Specs

[Matt Breitbach]

My father told me about his computer programming days in college in the
1970's.  He was going to Loras, and they didn't have a punch card reader on
campus so he had to go across town to run his programs.  On his way he
slipped on some ice and dropped his box of cards and they all fell out of
order.  That was the last computer programming class that he took, and
switched his major to accounting.

Could you imagine dropping a USB key and scrambling your computer program
all out of order?  That'd be enough to drive you crazy....

-----Original Message-----
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf
Of Morris Dovey
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 8:42 PM
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [Cialug] I Remember When Computer Specs

On 7/29/2010 8:17 PM, Nathan C. Smith wrote:

> Boot from paper tape.  That is fantastic!  I wish there was a way to
> experience some of this today.

No you don't - trust me. That machine had no RAM, and only about 2k or 
so storage on a magnetic drum. That is _not_ fantastic unless all you'd 
ever seen was a slide rule. :)

> I think there was a lot more ingenuity at work "back in the day".
> Now people solve problems by replacement and throwing money at them
> to add more RAM or storage people replacing their computer because it
> is struck by a virus.

I think there's at least as much ingenuity at work today, and at least 
the major players have always solved problems by smothering them under 
piles of money.

> Probably why I like Open Source so much, a little more ingenuity is
> involved.

Hmm - I don't think there's more ingenuity involved; there's just more 
opportunity to see it.
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