On Sunday 22 July 2018 11:04:32 cyaiplexys wrote:
And I finally figured out why this thread is sorted to the spam folder
here, one of my spam detectors is an excess of ???? or more question
marks in the subject line. Spammers do that to make their bs look more
important. So please don't use more than 3.
> On 07/21/2018 09:43 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Saturday 21 July 2018 18:01:07 cyaiplexys wrote:
> >> On 07/21/2018 12:20 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> >>> On Saturday 21 July 2018 11:42:31 Richard Owlett wrote:
> >>>> When I'm "ignorant" and know it, I refer to myself as a "newbie".
> >>>> My first contact with Linux was when Squeeze was just introduced.
> >>>> I've been around computers for a while [remember 12AX7 based
> >>>> CPU's?].
> >>>
> >>> No, but I recall seeing, in Iowa City in the very early 1950's, a
> >>> bit of a monster that had 12,000 12AU7's in it. Used at the time
> >>> to grade the Iowa tests, the same one I had taken in school and
> >>> got a quite high score on. They had rigged a Harris Stream fed
> >>> printing press with a photocell at every mark location on the
> >>> paper and were calculating the scores from that.
> >>>
> >>>> As a BSEE student 50+ years ago I took an introductory
> >>>> programming course. Later I programmed in 8080 assembler - at the
> >>>> time we were moving to 8085. As a consumer I ended up in the M$
> >>>> land.
> >>>
> >>> I started with the rca 1802. Still an interesting architecture,
> >>> one that was able to function in several rads a minute of atomic
> >>> radiation. But I tried the z-80, found it wanting, then the 6809
> >>> which put me firmly on a unix like path, and to this day I still
> >>> don't have a winders box on the premises. Quite a few linux
> >>> machines though.
> >>
> >> OS-9 Level II on a CoCo 3 by any chance?
> >
> > Actually level 1.01 on a coco2.
>
> I remember that as well. But I only had it because I snarfed up some
> old stuff when the local Radio Shack was liquidating. I also had a
> couple CoCo 2's. I never really did anything with Level I though since
> the 512K CoCo 3 and OS-9 Level II was my main system at the time.
>
> >> I had one of those systems
> >
> > So do I but the two 1 Gb hard drives are seized from stiction.
>
> I no longer have the CoCos unfortunatley. 1GB HDs on a CoCo? That
> would have been totally awesome! The most modern thing I had at the
> time was sticking a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive as the second drive in
> with the 5.25" floppy drive in the FD-502 disk box. That way I could
> use the Tandy 1100FD laptop I had (which had the 1200 baud modem) to
> go on the BBSs and download CoCo/OS-9 stuff and then easily read it
> off the disk.
>
> >> and then I went to DOS and Windows. That to me was a step down
> >> until Slackware came along. Then Red Hat, then Mandrake ('scuze
> >> me...er... Mandriva), then Mint, Then Solyd, now full on Debian. I
> >> only used Ubuntu as a web server at work and in test VMs. Oh, and
> >> there was a stint in there somewhere where I was dabbling on a
> >> real-life Unix system.
> >
> > We had an AT&T 3b2 in between motherboard fires for a network
> > message system for about 3 years, replaced by a pdp-11/23. It also
> > was a major pita, crashing for no reason and dec's incompetant
> > service techs replaced everything in it except the frame rail with
> > the serial number on it. I finally cajoled the network tech at CBS
> > into trading my machine for his test mule. Worked fine, but my
> > machine he then had was worthless as a test mule, so we got, as did
> > all the affiliates, at CBS expense, an industrial IBM with an ARTIC
> > card that actually did all the work. That, once I had edited the
> > sat table, worked well until a newby tech dialed into it one day and
> > helpfully fixed my tables. Took me about 3 days of waving a 7 meter
> > dish around to find all the birds again. That got the phone line
> > unplugged unless they called me ahead of time. Most of its data by
> > then was sent over the teletex path in the ntsc vertical interval.
> > I was the CE at that tv station for the last 18 years I worked. I
> > had found my nitch. And it was a good one, getting raises I didn't
> > have to ask for, so I was making about $15k a year more than any
> > other similar market sized station could afford.
>
> Sweet job! I been working for a small mom & pop web hosting company
> for the nearly 15 years. Very easy stuff, actually, as I don't have
> much to do overall (boss is very laid back and also likes to do plenty
> of stuff himself). Before that I worked in electronic assembly jobs.
> Got out of that mostly due to chemicals, and non-OSHA-compliant
> companies getting away with (slow) murder. I think it was then that I
> decided to pursue a career in programming.
>
> >> My ISP back in the day had "shell accounts" and a wizard (RIP)
> >> who worked there took me under his wing and taught me how to use it
> >> and saved my sorry butt when I screwed up. :)
> >>
> >> The VERY FIRST computer I ever used was a teletype terminal on a
> >> DEC Rainbow (TeleWriter) at the Jr. High School. I was one year too
> >> young to technically be allowed to use it but they let me anyway.
> >> Only a few whiz kids were allowed on it. Me? I couldn't do a damn
> >> thing with it so gave up. :-/ Then I started tinkering with the
> >> Bell & Howell and Apple Computers at the school. I think that came
> >> after I bugged my parents for a computer and they came home from
> >> Radio Shack with a Trash-80 Model III with 4K RAM, cassette
> >> interface (later CGP-115 4" roll paper 4-color plotter).
> >
> > I still have one of those someplace in the midden heap of a
> > basement.
>
> You should put up an online museum! :) I haven't seen one of those
> since my Jr. High years!
>
> >> They never put disk drives in the thing.
> >> I spent HOURS programming stuff and got good enough to do labels
> >> for my dad's business and title screens for family videos (VHS - my
> >> dad would record the screen, and tape-splice VHS tapes). From there
> >> they gave me a Trash-80 (called "Tandy" by then) PC-4 pocket
> >> computer. When I got a job I got a Tandy CoCo 3 and OS-9 Level II
> >> and let's just say that was the beginning of everything Unix-like
> >> for me. Though it was more a VAX/Unix blend I think. And Basic09
> >> was more a Pascal/Basic blend.
> >>
> >>> And I'm still a new bee... But a fading one due to the age of the
> >>> wet ram now.
> >
> > Which I didn't state, but I'll be 84 this fall.
>
> Much respect to you, sir! You've seen it all. Literally. I just turned
> 52 a little over a week ago. I was fascinated with computers and
> electronics since age 7 (blame too much sci-fi for that). I soldered
> my first electronics kit (Radio Shack AM Radio kit) at that age. My
> mother told my dad I was too young but my dad said no that it would be
> OK and gave me his soldering iron to put the kit together with. It
> turned out really good and worked for years after! That I think really
> got me started on my electronics path. Now I guess you can see why I
> am interested in Arduino.
>
> >> I'm also a bee of some kind. Probably a drone or worker bee. I'll
> >> always be a bee of some kind though. I often find myself getting
> >> sidetracked and wanting to learn new things, not realizing just how
> >> old I got already!
> >
> > Theres an echo in here. :)
>
> That'd bee me. And to keep this somewhat on topic - I do enjoy using
> my DeBEEian system (couldn't resist). :P
>
> >>>> So, how would this group have me to refer to myself without
> >>>> claiming competency I just *DO NOT* have?
> >>>>
> >>>> P.S. I've saved ~6 years of useful posts from this group. I've
> >>>> been trying to figure out how to organize it in order to create a
> >>>> QWSBFA rather than a FAQ. QWSBFA=="Questions Which Should Be
> >>>> Frequently Asked" ;/
> >>>
> >>> That sounds like a heck of a usefull project.
> >>>
> >>>> OWL ducks fer cover ;}
> >>>
> >>> If you find a good cover, see if there's room for me too.
> >>
> >> And me too, along with a good flame-retardant suit and a nice, cozy
> >> rock to hide under. ;->
> >>
> >> That's the one cool thing about this group and groups like it is
> >> the conversations where you learn a little bit about those folks in
> >> the group in between learning other useful things. Reminds me of
> >> the old FidoNet days (and later newsgroup days - do they still even
> >> have either anymore??)
> >>
> >> ---
> >> TAGLINE: "Wait-a-minit. Almonds don't have legs."
> >
> > Take care guy.
>
> Best wishes to you as well. I hope that I'm still playing around with
> this stuff at that age. I remember taking an online C++ course years
> ago and there was another student in the class that was 92. He was
> taking the course to help him stave off Alzheimer's! He did really
> good too. As for me, I got a 100% on my final exam. And here I am
> still not great at C or C++. No I didn't cheat. Brain cells up and
> aged on me since then!
--
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
