who here already worked with these ?

[C M Reinehr]

On Tue 15 December 2009 01:04:46 pm Michael Hipp wrote:
> vu Pham wrote:
> > Cool !!!  So far our list found three supergeeks who used supercomputers
> > :)
> >
> > I remember one time one pretty old IBM technician came to my office for
> > rescuing some problems on the old IBM server ( not that old as listed in
> > the link ) my manger who used to be a system programmer for banks talked
> > to him and both were glad with conversation like "Haha, do you remember
> > the printer ... of the system ... ?", "Do you remember the huge disks
> > ... of the system ... ?"
> >
> > I guess three of you will be very happy to talk together about those
> > supercomputers :)
>
> I only go back far enough to remember 1978-79 and being a console
> operator on the University's IBM 370/168. These machines were "super"
> only because it was super to have access to *any* computer. As an
> Operator, I had an unlimited job card. WooHoo! That is, if FORTRAN on
> punched cards could be called computing. I bought the PL/I book but
> never managed to slog all the way through it.
>
> I wonder what kind of psychosis I have to still remember the exact
> version numbers of the operating system (OS/MVT 21.8F with HASP version
> 4.1).
>
> Think I'll go sit in the rocker on the front porch and cover myself with
> a warm blanket.
>
> Michael

Ok, Michael, you're making me feel old. I wasn't going to jump into this 
thread because I felt I wasn't old enough, but you've forced me into this.

I wrote my first computer program during the summer of 1965 in Fortran (Daniel 
McCracken, of course) on an IBM 7094. Later, wrote a little Algol on a 
Burroughs B5500. Then, a while later, wrote Basic on an RCA Spectra 70 (I 
haven't heard anyone mention that one yet.

The Spectra 70 bears a special mention. That was my first multi-user 
experience. Instead of submitting a punched card deck at the operator window, 
there was a room full of Western Electric teletypewriters, which we could use 
to write & run programs in Basic. Backup was a roll of yellow paper tape & a 
tape punch mounted on the side of the tty. (And, we thought we were _really_ 
cool! ;-) We got good use of the backup tapes because the system would crash 
about every 30 minutes.

My first experience with Unix was, actually, with Xenix on a microcomputer 
powered by a Zilog Z80 (8-bit, don't you know), with a 5-1/4" floppy & and 
something like a 5 or 10 MB "Winchester" hard drive.

There now. I've done it and it's time for my afternoon nap!

Sláinte Mhath

cmr



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