Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:07:41 -0700 From: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> To: Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, Bob Hall <rjhjr0@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Greybeards (Re: Netbooks & BSD) Message-ID: <20101020220741.GC26611@thought.org> In-Reply-To: <4CBF4CB4.6070902@qeng-ho.org> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1010171215030.96626@wonkity.com> <20101019074615.GA2183@current.Sisis.de> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1010191448390.6689@wonkity.com> <20101020022946.GA23035@thought.org> <20101020052601.GA1977@current.Sisis.de> <4cbe9e9a.3qT7q8JUqJxSD8/V%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <20101020165526.GA25310@thought.org> <4CBF21EB.1080003@tundraware.com> <20101020194605.GA78565@stainmore> <4CBF4CB4.6070902@qeng-ho.org>
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On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 09:10:28PM +0100, Arthur Chance wrote: > On 10/20/10 20:46, Bob Hall wrote: > >On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:07:55PM -0500, Tim Daneliuk wrote: > >>On 10/20/2010 11:55 AM, Gary Kline wrote: > >>>On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:47:38AM -0700, perryh@pluto.rain.com wrote: > >>>>Matthias Apitz<guru@unixarea.de> wrote: > >>>>>El d?a Tuesday, October 19, 2010 a las 07:29:46PM -0700, Gary Kline escribi?: > >>>>>> PS: I really _was_ current on hardware stuff. Back in the VAX > >>>>>> 780 days :-) > >>>>>I booted my first UNIX V7 tape on a PDP-11 around 1982, I think. > >>>> > >>>>Gotcha beat :) UNIX V6, PDP-11/34, RK05 disk cartridge, 1975. > >>>>The whole runtime fit on one RK05. The sources took a second one. > >>> > >>> I remember the 11/34 fondly. The whole EE department at Cory > >>> Hall was running one one; then when I interned at Livermore my > >>> job of porting the "Portable F77 Compiler" was done with vi and > >>> the source code that Stu Feldman wrote. I love[d] those bloody > >>> old computers, :-) Dunno why. Maybe because they really > >>> *were* about computing. Not streaming [[whatever]] or having > >>> php running. (Blah^9^9^9) > >>> > >>> :) > >> > >>Heck, when I started out, they didn't even have zeros and ones yet. > >>We had to settle for "o"s and "l"s ... > > > >When I started out, we didn't have read/write heads for the hard disks. > >We had to copy the data from the screen to the disk by hand using > >magnetized sewing needles. In order to read the damn things we had to > >pass a compass over the disk and see where the needle deflected. > > Enough Monty Python Yorkshiremen claims, already. :-) > > Getting back to reality, although I never did it (fortunately), a > friend of mine who was about a decade older than me (I'm mid/late > 50s) had the experience of programming microcode on a machine by > inserting brass slugs for 0s and ferrite slugs for 1s on a pin > board. Anyone got any idea what that was? He was (UK) military so > maybe it wasn't a generally known box. > This microcode programming sounds just vagely familiar; seems like mid/late-80's or early-90's. Am i right? --Most uses for supercomputers are mil/spooks/<<>>; that's the only reason the idea might have floated past me. Anyway, enjoyed the laughs... . -- Gary Kline kline@thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix The 7.90a release of Jottings: http://jottings.thought.org/index.php http://journey.thought.org
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