Thread: Poll: you and computers

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Originally Posted by Firechicken

Oh sure, that's just great! Tamper with the data and skew all of the survey results. Destroy the pure scientifically collected results we could have had. Go ahead and add items that weren't selectable by the rest of us....Now we'll never know what the true results would have been.

While you are correct, you and good folks like Ken (NTFDAY) understand, Bill felt it important to overlay what he thought was important, rather than let me get the data I was looking for. But I think I can adjust the data accordingly.

I got hooked on computers in 1963 using FORTRAN II when "Graphics" consisted in sending a comand for a 35 mm camera to take a black and white picture of a CRT display and the output (from an IBM 7094) came back to you as a 35 mm film strip. I used FORTRAN and ALGOL-60 till sometime in the 1980s when I bought a Sinclair for home use (with extra 16K of memory!), then a Commodore and then a scratch built XT. They did not get office PCs at my job until the mid-80s and we had a series of research computers such as an HP 7000 and other mid-size computers. Before I retired we used desktop WINDOWS applications along with connections to several UNIX machines. All along I have just been a programmer/user and although I modified my first XT it is only this year that I have tried to build my own system and found I have a lot to learn about the hardware. I am trying to build a small 8-core Beowulf using four PC boxes with duocore CPU, but I see the way the hardware improves/changes rapidly so it will be obsolete in a year but still a good learning experience and maybe my son can use it as a "Lab" while he works on a part time online MS. I am hoping to get this system running while the cold weather holds so I can get back to the roadster when Spring breaks here.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Ok, so I added another choice I was a Unix man in a DOS world back in the early 80's

God I hope not! When I was starting out in the IBM world we were told that Unix and eunuchs were words that were spelled differently, pronounced the same, and were similar in meaning.

I got my first computer around 1994, couldn't even switch it on

I went on a course 1 night a week to learn as i didn't want to be left behind
These days i build my own PC's and can cope with most stuff.

My first computer exposure was with a 'dumb' HP terminal in 1988/9 at GE. Then in about 1990 we went to some version of an IBM - which was only a minor step above the 'dumb' terminal as we still were not on the WWW until 1991. I then had a buddy build me a computer with 16mb of RAM and a tiny hard drive - and was that hot!! Now - I build my own. I still don't understand much of what make 'em tick, but they usually work just fine with 4Gb RAM, 1Tb worth of hard drives, nice AMD mobos, a 4-500watt ps and a couple of laser readers (and of course - a 3.5" floppy).........all it seems to just to fix and store pictures and surf the internet.

First "taste" of computers was back in the early 60's. As an accounting student, the firm I was with did the audit of a major University here in Canada. Not sure what computer it was (I only dealt with reams of paper) but it took up an entire air conditioned room and used punch cards for input.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I had my first personal computer, a Commodore 64, then progressed to IBM compatibles which I am still trying to use today.
Poll says I have already voted but I don't remember doing it.....CRS I guess.

What a great thread!

Like many on this site, I was drafted one year out of high school and opted for the Air Force. My first real job in the Air Force was an assistant crew chief on C-141 aircraft than as an Airman First Class (yup, a two striper) I became an “acting” crew chief because there was a shortage of NCOs at the time.

I was involved in a little “mishap” in Southeast Asia involving a rocket, a real loud noise, and a crippled aircraft that destroyed a lot of my hearing (another story) and the Air Force cross trained me into “Data Automation”. I schooled on Burroughs B-263 and later moved to B-3500 and B-4800 machines. As mentioned above, we’ve got more compute power on a laptop today that those monsters had in a whole raised floor data center. Lots of time on 026 and 126 IBM keypunch machines, 082 sorters and man did we go through the “green-bar” paper as output. Learned COBOL and Burroughs Advances Assembler

I got out of the Air Force in 1981 and went to work for a grocery wholesaler in Tacoma Washington called “West Coast Grocery.” They were a Burroughs shop, B-6800 and B-6900 however; we were some of the first corporate users of IBM PCs – 64K, 2 floppy drives running DOS with a green-screen monitor.

Left there for First Interstate Services Company (subsidiary of First Interstate Bank) in 1985 and got my first PC shortly thereafter. Left First Interstate in 1990 (I’m sure that’s why they were bought by Wells Fargo!). I’ve been through 286, 386, 486, etc and now have latest generation quad-core machines for work as well as high-end laptops. I have a telecommunications and technology consulting firm and try and stay current as I sit on several national engineering committees that are responsible for crafting telecommunications and technology standards.

While I couldn’t work without PCs, I certainly have no aversion to a weekend of camping without as much as a cell phone. I’m following another post, re; “Lots of silent members here” and find myself smiling at the conversation – wanting to chime in, but really rather enjoying being a “bystander”.

Ah the PC – blessing or curse - depending on the perspective. On one hand, we have access to literally millions of informational resources and knowledge that would be otherwise unattainable (like the great minds on this site and I mean that literally!) On the other hand, we have a generation of fat people (have you seen our teenagers lately) who plop in front of a PC and surf for hours - pondering useless drivel. At the extreme – we invite filth and corruption into our homes and minds with Internet pornography being the number one money maker on the net.

Like most tools – used properly they are indispensable. In the wrong hands, even the best tools can be destructive beyond belief.

I really do enjoy this site – you are the cream of the crop when it comes to all thing hot rod related as well as just good conversation and the occasional debate!

Regards All,
Glenn

Bob,
Sorry I missed the poll somehow. I was a slide rule guy back in the early 1960s and was hooked on computers by being spoiled with access to an IBM 7090 in 1963 which was the supercomputer of the day. It inflamed my mind to realize what the computer could do compared to tedious slide rule operations. Perhaps Quantum Chemists use as much computer time or more as the obvious Physics researchers. There are groups of Chemists who have developed programs to compute just about everything about compounds and their reactions and the main limitation is that we can never get enough computer time. I spent 35 years as a Quantum Chemist and still teach part time. I have built my own PC cluster of four duocore PCs in parallel and found the parts are amazingly standardized to the point that I constructed the entire cluster using only a single cross-point (Philips head) screwdriver! I have been busy since last November working on a textbook in which I use my own computer program designed for student use on PCs and I have justifably neglected my car through a long cold winter but need to finish the book by September in time to put a few months of work on the car in the mid-temperatures of the Fall. At present we have at home seven PCs, four of which are in my cluster but I am retired and no longer use the university computers of my former employer. I have used large parallel clusters and supercomputers in my former research on molecules.

Best Wishes,
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Ok, so I added another choice I was a Unix man in a DOS world back in the early 80's

Uhhhhh but now the first two choices are not mutually exclusive and we have poll muckage.

I was lucky ..I guess, I had a commador vic 20 in 80 ,81 when they first came out ....I was age 11 approx.Then at 14 I was able to attend a summer college course on basic os....not sure of the laguage name anymore,but still remember the basics.

Then ,I drifted away from them untill around 97 ,now I am back into them ,not only using them , but able to build them now also.
It has reduced my television time to almost 0 now ...a good thing...and has given me the ability to research or look up anything in the world I want,most network stations broadcast all content on the internet ,plus the news ,weather etc can all be obtained by me when I need it.
Most radio stations broadcast on the internet,I would say my primary use is the internet or being online ,whichever terminology you prefer.

I use mine as a tool ,entertainment a learning aid etc,but I must admit ,its the closest thing I have seen to time travel or time loss.... .... you can loose 3 to 5 hours in a few minutes on a computer......

Prior to 1980 (your first choice) I was dealing with IBM 360's (actually as early as 1965) No such thing as a PC back then. We had IBM 407 Accounting Machines and IBM 360-20'2, 30's and a 40. Used punch cards and actually had fun.

Move forward a couple of years, I worked on a Commodore and a Sinclair, then graduated to a Radio Shack TRS80 (Trash 80). Then it was an Osborne (CP/M machine). Got my first IBM PC in 82 at work, and followed it up with a Compaq portable for home. Have had 5 store bought (2 desktops and 3 laptops) and 5 home built PC compatibles desktops since. Currently own one desktop and two laptops, last one acquired in 2006.

I don't think I will ever not have a PC of some flavor again. Too much fun.
Of course this association with computers is solely responsible for my mental state today.

I had a Commodore 64 with a dot-matrix printer back in the late 80's that I used as a word processor. Since I never really did anything else with it, I don't count it. Later, in the early 90's, I had an old IBM at school that I used only as a word processor again. Finally, in 1996, the school offered a week-long computer basics course for teachers and I took it. Before that week was over I had bought my first "real" computer and went online. Been surfing the 'net ever since.

I have a love-hate relationship with these things. When it's working good, I love it ; when it doesn't do what I expect, it can put me into a screaming rage in a matter of seconds. I have threatened to stick my 12-gauge in the CD slot and blow it to Hell; I have threatened to throw it through the window behind it; I have threatened to pummel it with my 10-pound sledge hammer; I have threatened to plug it into some 220 power and watch it burn! The stupid thing just ignores me when I get like that which makes me even more irate. Actually I think this thing has a mind of its own and it likes to go visit the computer tech guy at the local Staples store. I take to him, pick it up a couple of days later, and the dumb thing is happy again for another year or so...

In 1988, and coming back to the office after building a garbage burning plant in Maine, the powers above sat me down in front of a Digital dumb terminal and said that I should now start designing turbine modifications and uprates. Two years later they plunked an IBM 286 in front of me a told me to do the same thing, but now we are Intranetted. From there - newer, bigger, faster, (more fragile units) were plunked down for me to work on - then I cashed in my chips and retired.

My first home unit was a real POS that died very quickly. The next was a home built with some help from a friend. Two or three Dell's later, I'm back to a pretty nice homebuilt - finished a couple of months ago. There is another ~165 post thread somewhere(Need a New Computer) here that describes my angst and some help from friends here coping with my new build. And again, would like to thank them for their help.

We fed punchcard machines in place where I was in the 70s but I refuse to call them computers relative to PCs which I got my 1st about 1985??--That was before they had hard drives.

My kid had a Comadore 64, if that counts...I was not interested. About 1990, the father in law got the wife interested on these BBs(Bulletin Boards).we got a used 286, windows 3.1.............have had about 10 since....now, the wife has hers and I have my laptop in the living room with my 50 in big screen.............