Technology "Remember when..."

[Iowashooter]

Learned COBOL in the early 70’s

Made a 45-year career out of data processing (now called I.T.)

worked as a tape librarian, operator, programmer, systems analyst, project manager, I.T Auditor, etc etc etc

computers have been berry, berry good to me

still working on the periphery of I.T… But no longer understand sheet about many of the current technologies (and no longer care… I’m one year from retirement)

 

[striker55]

When I graduated highschool in 69 I was going to get a loan to take computer classes. The draft was taking guys via the draft pool, I didn't want to take the loan with the possibility of getting drafted. Big mistake, I didn't get drafted.

 

[no2gates]

When I graduated highschool in 69 I was going to get a loan to take computer classes. The draft was taking guys via the draft pool, I didn't want to take the loan with the possibility of getting drafted. Big mistake, I didn't get drafted.

Computers were just a fad that was going to pass anyhow.

 

[oldag]

When I worked for Tower Records IT department in the late 80's, we used those to do inventory.

Tower Records. What a great place to spend a week.

Incredible selection, unmatched in its day.

 

[oldag]

I've got four or five IBM Selectrics I'd be willing to part with. I typed all of my high school and college papers on them when all my friends were using PC's. None of them currently work, but all of them are complete and not missing any parts.

I learned to type on the old Royal manual typewriters. The Selectrics were great when they came along.

 

[jmohme]

I learned to type on the old Royal manual typewriters. The Selectrics were great when they came along.

I took drafting my freshman year in high school. I liked it and was good at it, so I signed up for the advanced drafting class for my second year. Turns out it was just myself and one other student so they canceled the class. Now I had to scramble to figure out something to fill the gap.
Not much that excited me, so I decided to take a worthless typing class. Little did I know that it would probably be the most usefull class in my sophmore year.

And for the record, while I did learn to type fairly well, but I actually passed the coarse by fixing the broken mechanical typewriters.

 

[oldag]

I took drafting my freshman year in high school. I liked it and was good at it, so I signed up for the advanced drafting class for my second year. Turns out it was just myself and one other student so they canceled the class. Now I had to scramble to figure out something to fill the gap.
Not much that excited me, so I decided to take a worthless typing class. Little did I know that it would probably be the most usefull class in my sophmore year.

And for the record, while I did learn to type fairly well, but I actually passed the coarse by fixing the broken mechanical typewriters.

Funny you mention that. My mother forced me to take typing in high school, over my loud and long protests. Ticked me off because I made a C in the class. And that only because I was friends with the cute teacher's aid, who let me use erasable bond on the long assignments.

And the same as you, now look back and see how worthwhile that turned out to be.

 

[Iowashooter]

The best thing I ever did was excel at typing class in 1967, and English

Paid dividends my entire career

 

[Mohawk600]

I learned to type on the old Royal manual typewriters. The Selectrics were great when they came along.

lol.......I took typing in high school. One of the best classes I cold have taken. Actually comes in handy every day.

 

[Bigguy]

I also took it in high school. I an't imagine not being able to type.

 

[Rafe]

Sigh. The nostalgia is just a bit overwhelming.

A friend and I--neither of us knowing a thing about computers or computing--started up a bootstrap company in '81. We did what research we were able to, and decided that the computer we needed to be the heart of this thing was an IBM 5120. A massive 32K of RAM with a positively huge 9-inch monochrome monitor and dual 8-inch floppy drives in a tidy 99-pound package. And it cost us a little over $14,000...accounting for inflation, that's over $48,000 in 2024 dollars.

Long story about how two kids in their 20s managed to swing that, but that 5120 was what I wrote my first BASIC routine on. Don't worry; we hired a part-time actual coder to do the real work on nights and weekends, a second job for him.

My first home computer was a TI-99/4A. I use a cassette recorder to store my programs instead of manual entry every time.

Same! I was never on the writing-code side of things, but was fascinated all the same. Call it a nerdobbyist...a nerd hobbyist.

You had the nice newer one. I had the giant suitcase one my company gave me:
View attachment 465500

Same again! Though the bootstrap company eventually ended up doing very, very well, in the early days it was slim pickens and slimmer personal income. After three years I was recruited by a company in a similar but non-competitive business to be a one-man office on the west coast. To facilitate that, they gave me one of those Compaq Portables to use--even had the optional 10MB hard disk and an "advanced" Hercules amber monochrome graphics card and an acoustic coupler 300 baud modem to go with it. I thought I had the ultimate personal technology in the palm of my hand!

Well, in a suitcase-sized, almost-30-pounds sitting on a drafting table. Interestingly, same 9-inch size monitor as the IBM 5120. But that didn't stop me from trying a flight simulator and a golf game on it. As rudimentary as they seem now, at the time they were almost science fiction compared to Pong and PackMan.

I discovered dial-up bulletin boards and even helped run one for a university where I was taking a few post-grad courses. In fact, was a beta tester for McAfee software back when most people thought the notion of a computer virus was a myth. Was there for CompuServe and the General Electric Network for Information Exchange (GEnie). Been using HTML since shortly after it was birthed, and was even fortunate enough once to have dinner with Tim Berners-Lee.

How time flies as you age...

 

[Iowashooter]

We had traditional, non-electric typewriters in 7th grade then came the IBM selectrics (electric typewriters) in 8th grade

I was magnificent … can’t remember for sure… but something like 150wpm in the timed tests

 

[striker55]

I used a program called Mavis Beacon on a computer to learn typing.

 

[Rafe]

We had traditional, non-electric typewriters in 7th grade then came the IBM selectrics (electric typewriters) in 8th grade

I was magnificent … can’t remember for sure… but something like 150wpm in the timed tests

Wow! That's impressive! A WPM speed of 120 is considered "competitive" (70 and over is "high") and the world record is 191.

I, too, can type 150. 'Course, what comes out aren't exactly what you'd call identifiable "words"...

 

[Iowashooter]

Wow! That's impressive! A WPM speed of 120 is considered "competitive" (70 and over is "high") and the world record is 191.

I, too, can type 150. 'Course, what comes out aren't exactly what you'd call identifiable "words"...

i could be wrong… but that was 1967 or so and I was young and fast (And now my memory is fading)

maybe it was 90? 120wpm?

all I remember is that I was about the fastest in school

 

[Rafe]

Oh, I should add that I was covetous of IBM Selectrics. Saw them in office environments and really wanted one at home. Mid-'70s maybe? But the price was out of reach. Along came Italian firm Olivetti with an electric typewriter in the $200 range. Used a plastic/carbon ribbon and everything. Even had a ribbon that was half black, and half overwrite white. The machine had a special shift key to swing the whiteout portion into position. Earliest instance of DEI I directly experienced.

It wasn't in the league of the Selectrics that could change the typeface just by swapping out the "ball," but that Olivetti served me well.

 

[billtool]

My Ex switched her major from Comp Sci to radiology because she dumped a shoebox full of cards on her way to a final exam.

 

[Rafe]

i could be wrong… but that was 1967 or so and I was young and fast (And now my memory is fading)

maybe it was 90? 120wpm?

all I remember is that I was about the fastest in school

I was young and fast once. But I never typed very fast. Certainly never reached any sort of rarified air like that. Regardless what the speed logged in '67 was, I'll remember it as 150 WPM.

Foreigner did Jukebox Hero in, what, '80 or '81? You're officially the Keyboard Hero.

 

[oldag]

i could be wrong… but that was 1967 or so and I was young and fast (And now my memory is fading)

maybe it was 90? 120wpm?

all I remember is that I was about the fastest in school

I could type that fast. But then it took the rest of the day to count all the errors.

 

[HKSig]

I took typing in junior high. 100WPM or so, and was business school student of the year. (Because I beat all of the girls in the class. First day of class, the teacher said "you boys (2 of us, I think) won't beat the girls. Right.