[Myrddin]

I still recall the joys of entering bootstrap code in octal on an HP2100 computer. I was getting fair proficient at getting 3 fingers to drop in the "bits" in 7 groups of 3 bits for each word. That computer was an early Magnavox satellite navigation system on a tuna boat. That was 1977. A year later, they put out a BIG improvement based on an 8080 microprocessor. The boards were priced around $30k. I was one of two field service engineers in southern CA for those systems. Today's GPS systems run circles around those early attempts. The high end box included 150 MHz, 400 Mhz for satellite and an Omega receiver. Satellite passes occurred about every 20 minutes.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

I was getting fair proficient at getting 3 fingers to drop in the "bits" in 7 groups of 3 bits for each word.

i'm happy that we've moved beyond those days, though i miss the black art of coding in machine language...those guys were the wizards.

Unfortunately, the arthritis has taken away a lot of the dexterity that is needed for octal coding these days. Some days it's all i can do to form a decent C chord on a guitar.