On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 10:30:13AM -0800, Joseph McAllister wrote: > > On Mar 4, 2009, at 08:53 , Larry Colen wrote: > >> On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 07:19:22AM -0600, Bob Sullivan wrote: >>> Larry, >>> 35 years or so of the internet? >> >> OK, technically back then it was the arpanet. >> >>> In 1974 it was TTY terminals and time sharing. >> >> And your point? >> >>> Personal computers were a hobbiest thing. >> >> People had computers at work and school. > > Sure, if you were into bootstrapping a PDP-11 with the toggles ...
>From memory, of course. Real programmers don't use documentation. (although in my case it was initially a PDP-8, not a PDP-11) > so it > knew it had a TTY keyboard into which you keyed the start command so it > would read the paper tape that loaded the program that put into RAM the > instructions for running the 80 col. card reader that loaded the > instructions for using the cassette tape drive that loaded the software > that told the computer it had a 9" reel to reel tape drive which loaded > the software program that allowed you to use the serial port and a 9" > green screen monitor to view the the 300 baud ASCII modem data as you 300 Baud? You was lucky! We only had 110 Baud Modems. And ASR-33 terminals (the ARDS-1s and Tektronix 4010 Storage Tube displays were upstairs in the main computer room). > accessed the ArpaNET on which you could communicate using the TTY > keyboard, as well as command the IBM 360 mainframe to run real programs > to accomplish real work using the info stored on "Data-Pac" 4 disc hard > drives that plugged into the drive motors in the refrigerator size > enclosure with underfloor air for cooling. Data-Pacs? Removable drives? Luxury! We had one Burroughs hard drive (around 4MB total, I think) - around 4' in diameter, vertically mounted. Unless you were a staff programmer you had no logged-out quota, so all your files had to be saved on DECTape. And that was on the main system; hard drives were too expensive to be put on satellite computers. But, despite that, there was some level of networking. Besides the ARPANet there were also corporate networks (DECNet was probably the largest of those). And, of course, Usenet came along a bit later, with dial-up email, bang paths, and all that fun. Personal computers were standalone toys for a long time - most of the conventions about mail/forum/newsgroup etiquette were established long before all but a very few people were using personal computers to access bulletin boards. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
