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Old computer stuff
None | 8/17/2016 | Self

Posted on 08/17/2016 10:29:43 AM PDT by zeugma

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Nerdiness for old computer nerds.
1 posted on 08/17/2016 10:29:44 AM PDT by zeugma
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To: zeugma
There were also things called "magazines" printed on thinly sliced dead trees. These covered just about any topic you could imagine, so of course, there were some dedicated to computers.

Are you talking about punch cards like on an IBM 360 using the Hollerith code, or are you talking even older school like back in my telecom career with punch tapes and the Baudot code used in transmitter distributors for teletype operations?

2 posted on 08/17/2016 10:34:40 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: reaganaut

Old-time ping! :)


3 posted on 08/17/2016 10:35:02 AM PDT by mrreaganaut (May H prove too heavy for the media to carry over the line!)
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To: zeugma

I’ll read this just before bedtime to help me sleep.

J/k


4 posted on 08/17/2016 10:35:53 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: zeugma

I started with a Commodore 64.


5 posted on 08/17/2016 10:38:56 AM PDT by umgud (ban all infidelaphobics)
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To: zeugma

That directory listing at the end looks like *nix, not DOS. “ls -FAC”, I believe.


6 posted on 08/17/2016 10:39:38 AM PDT by NorthMountain (Hillary Clinton: corrupt unreliable negligent traitor)
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To: zeugma

I wrote a few low level hardware programs using debug, mostly for I/O interfaces. Remember Borland Turbo Assembler?


7 posted on 08/17/2016 10:40:39 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: zeugma

Those were the days!

We used to ‘joke’ about a ‘gigabyte of EXPANDED MEMORY and a One Gigabyte Hard Drive as being the ultimate machine!

Windows was a ‘novel’ concept, Version 3.1.

DOS was where the REAL computer guys worked!

I even had some experience with a precursor to MS-DOS, called CP/M......................


8 posted on 08/17/2016 10:41:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Make America AMERICA again!.........................)
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To: zeugma

Been there did that. A good era, much enjoyed, with good riddance.
Spent much time perusing the BIOS source code for graphics calls. If I wanted a game, I wrote it.


9 posted on 08/17/2016 10:42:17 AM PDT by ctdonath2 ("If anyone will not listen to your words, shake the dust from your feet and leave them." - Jesus)
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To: zeugma

beep.com was awesome !!


10 posted on 08/17/2016 10:42:47 AM PDT by SolidRedState (I used to think bizarro world was a fiction.)
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To: Gaffer

No, he’s talking about MAGAZINES, like Computer Shopper and PC Magazine!..................


11 posted on 08/17/2016 10:43:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (Make America AMERICA again!.........................)
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To: zeugma

“In some of these periodicals, you’d sometimes have little programs printed that you could, if you were careful and didn’t make any mistakes, enter into an editor on your computer, save, compile and execute”

LOL! Yes!

Astronomy Magazine used to print out programs in BASIC like that every month. I did one in QBASIC that was an orbital simulator that took forever to do, and the debugging was just as long because there was always some command that didnt work with what you were programming with, but to run that and watch it go after you fixed it? That was art right there.


12 posted on 08/17/2016 10:43:26 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: umgud

My ‘first’ was a Timex-Sinclair TS-1000!...................with 16k memory extension module!...............


13 posted on 08/17/2016 10:44:16 AM PDT by Red Badger (Make America AMERICA again!.........................)
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To: Red Badger

Dont forget Compute!, MacUser, PC Computing, and Byte.

So many great titles back then.


14 posted on 08/17/2016 10:44:56 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: zeugma

I found a bug in BEEP.COM.


15 posted on 08/17/2016 10:45:08 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Every word the "News Media" prints these days are a lie, including "and" and "the".)
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To: zeugma

Beeps were actually a series of clicks that you could program to make wierd sounds.


16 posted on 08/17/2016 10:45:21 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Red Badger
DOS was where the REAL computer guys worked!

Some of us worked in VAX/VMS, MVS, and JCL ... but that was on big(ger) iron.

17 posted on 08/17/2016 10:45:44 AM PDT by NorthMountain (Hillary Clinton: corrupt unreliable negligent traitor)
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To: VanDeKoik

I used to read Computer Shopper cover to cover!

It was as thick as a phonebook!................


18 posted on 08/17/2016 10:46:11 AM PDT by Red Badger (Make America AMERICA again!.........................)
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To: factoryrat

I used turbo c for quite a while.


19 posted on 08/17/2016 10:46:12 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Red Badger

I guess I shoulda took a clue when the dweeb mentioned “DOS”......warn’t no “DOS” when I started.

Sheet, I thought we wuz talking old timer crap here. I remember sending and receiving emails over a Model 204 to someone in Arizona in 1989.... DOS my patootie....


20 posted on 08/17/2016 10:46:26 AM PDT by Gaffer
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