Gerry Creager wrote: > Robert G. Brown wrote: >> On Thu, 10 Jul 2008, Tony Travis wrote: >> >>> Chris Samuel wrote: >>>> [...] >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Yorkshiremen_sketch >>>> >>>> I remember when I could bring the complete kernel sources >>>> home on a single 3.5" floppy disk. Compressed, mind you, >>>> not this new fangled gzip! Then came 0.9.15, 1.8MB compressed.. >>> >>> Hello, Chris. >>> >>> 3.5" floppy - you were lucky! >>> >>> I 'ad t' run th'entire Minix on half a broken low-density 5.25" >>> floppy, and father would beat me wi a stick for wastin' precious disk >>> space... >>> >>> ...and he'd complain that there's nowt wrong wi' th'old 8" floppies! >>> >>> Eee, by gum them were probably th'happiest days of mi life... >>> >>> [I'm from Lancashire, not Yorkshire, BTW] >>> >>> Tony. >> >> OK, in a minute you'll have me reminiscing about booting from paper tape >> and havin' to drill me own 'oles wit' me teeth... >> >> ;-) > > Glad you smiled with that. Seems I find myself teaching an OS class all > of a sudden this summer. I recounted my experience with an old HP > system where the boot-loader was toggled in on front panel switches and > the OS was loaded with paper tape. The kids (whose language experience > ranges from Java to PHP, with C# thrown in for good measure) looked at > me like I was reciting either fiction or lore.
I seem to recall that Seymour Cray toggled in the operating system code on the CDC 7600 by hand, from memory. Perhaps that's just an urban legend. _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
