Geeks of the '70s unite...

[David Powell]

Wow, this thread really takes me back. I recall taking a computer course in 1968 as a required engineering course. The language used was Fortran IV. I recall having to punch the cards after writing the program, then submitting the cards to be run. The next day I would get the results back; many times I had miss-punched a card (or cards) and having to correct those and resubmit to run. And, the computer center was on the other side of the campus which was a struggle to walk there and back during the winter.

[Lee DeRaud]

Algol on a Burroughs 6800? It was an old computer in 1970.

B6800 didn't come out until '77 or so, more likely a B5500/6500. (I learned Algol on a new one of those at DU in 1968/69.) The IBM1401 was quite a bit older, dating back to 1959. The one I worked on was 2nd or 3rd hand, leased by the Fairfax County (Virginia) school system to do payroll and such in 1967.

And yes, I also did DG Nova assembly language at Rockwell in 1974-75.

[Bruce Volden]

Who are you guys and where did you come from?

Bruce

[Aaron Rosenthal]

You folks with FORTRAN experience need to migrant to New Jersey.
I was reading the other day that their computer systems are still running FORTRAN and they can’t find programmers, since their health care computers are old, and doing the Covid-19 modelling requires new instruction sets.

[Doug Weiner]

I was working at a firm with a disk based database and it was reaching the 4GB capacity. We called in IBM for adding more disk space and they proposed an additional 4GB. It involved 3 towers that were 3 Feet square by 9 feet high and a 4th tower that held the air conditioner for the 3 towers. Today you can hand a 256GB Drive on a keychain.

You folks with FORTRAN experience need to migrant to New Jersey.
I was reading the other day that their computer systems are still running FORTRAN and they can’t find programmers, since their health care computers are old, and doing the Covid-19 modelling requires new instruction sets.

[Lee DeRaud]

You folks with FORTRAN experience need to migrant to New Jersey.

Gawd. Move to New Jersey and program in Fortran.

That's a solid "no thanks" on both counts.

[Kev Williams]

My fondness of old computers wasn't because I was a 'geek', it was because in late 1969 computers got our engraving business rolling. An old work buddy of my dad's (forget his name) was working for Beehive Medical Electronics, which were building computers for hospitals. The computers resembled the TRS-80's, with the display, keyboard and computer incorporated into a 'box'. Back then they were afraid of 'naked' CRT screens being too bright and/or prone to breaking, so they wanted a full-face cover for the screen. Dad was asked if he could make them, no problem. And they needed their logo engraved and painted. These went on for about 5 years. Sometime in 1975 (I think it was) another work buddy of my dad's who worked for Sperry Univac called him one day, wanted to show him something. I went with dad that day, and his friend had me hold out his hand, which he filled with about a dozen of Sperry's blank keyboard buttons... "Can you engrave and paint these?" From that day on everyone in town building computers found out they didn't have to pay exorbitant setup fees to have new keycaps made with new wording, and all hell broke loose around here. Dad bought an old 1940's Gorton 3-U pantograph and a crapload of brass to make masters out of, and four New Hermes IRX-IV 'table top' pantographs.

This pic is circa 1977-? Before floppy disks to be sure
- this was System Concepts 'flagship' character generator.
SystemConcepts.jpg
--this was before all the new and improved models. They sent us this photo as a 'thank you', it's still hanging on the wall to my left

In late '81 we bought our first computer engraver, a New Hermes Concept 2000. It was so much more efficient we bought another one a year later. My BIL still uses it daily. I learned 'basic' on the Apple IIe that drove the machine, I remember it took like 8 seconds to draw a circle. Had 64k ram. I did successfully write a program that would roll dice and play 3 sets of craps at one time, using my betting strategies. It worked too, until it ran out of memory, which was about 20 minutes after starting. To this day I never learned how to fix that problem

[Roger Feeley]

Michael,
the bagpipe joke made me think of a bit of grisly band history. At one time they marched with bassoons until some missed an about face and ran the bocal through the back of the mouth right into the brain. The story goes that the bassoonist dropped dead on the spot. Then for a while you could buy a single reed mouthpiece for a bassoon. By the time I came up you were expected to have a saxophone or something.

I can’t imagine taking a $10K instrument out in the cold anyway. I was lucky. My high school had a pre-war Heckel bassoon in pretty bad shape. I rebuilt it (nothing drastic. Just new corks, pads and adjustments ) and played for a couple of years. I was told at the time that it was quite valuable. I fixed up the English Horn too. It was also a Heckel. I think I enjoyed working on the instruments more than playing them.

[Norman Pirollo]

I was a total microcomputer and minicomputer geek in the 70's. Worked for a string of computer companies from 1976 on including Data General, Digital Equip., Hewlett-Packard, etc. Lived and breathed computers. Built a IMSAI 8080 in the late 70's and (yes) still have it today and it runs CP/M on 64kb memory fine! Sports DD 8 in. floppies and currently runs Turbo Pascal V1.0. Has an upgraded Jade Floppy controller with its own Z-80 on board. Otherwise it is fairly stock. Put me through my early years of Comp. Sci with Pascal as the language. Fun and exciting times!

IMSAI8080_01_full-ePub.jpg

[John K Jordan]

[QUOTE=Norman Pirollo;3012334]Built a IMSAI 8080 in the late 70's and (yes) still have it today and it runs CP/M on 64kb memory fine!

And unlike the SWTPC, The IMSAI has all those great blinky lights!
I eventually traded my 6809 system for a boat and motor and trailer. The guy wanted it to burn eproms.

I once saw both an IMSAI and SWTPC computer in a display at the Smithsonian.

JKJ

[John K Jordan]

I just saw this.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/rip_john_conway_2x.gif

rip_john_conway_2x.gif

JKJ

[Michael Weber]

I just saw this.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/rip_john_conway_2x.gif
J
rip_john_conway_2x.gif

JKJ

just what I need to see

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Oh, I did not know Mr. Conway was passed away. RIP.

Anyway I was in my early teens on 1970. I was geek´ed only by the end of 1970s and very beginning of 1980 when I was a PDP-11/70 and B6700/7700 programmer at the university.

I felt in love for Motorola 6809 (and afterwards 68000) as they were architecturally very close to PDP-11/70 and Intel iAPX432 (really an advanced architecture for that time and reminded me the Burroughs mainframes). I designed and constructed computers using most of popular microprocessors at their times: Intel 8080, Zilog Z80, Motorola 6800, 6809, 68000, 68030 - just a few it is fresh in my memory. Great times!

Thanks to bring me back those times!

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