Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!storethat.news.telefonica.de!feedme.news.telefonica.de!telefonica.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "jack" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: 1976 vs. 2016? Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2016 07:03:08 +1100 Lines: 64 Message-ID: References: <977171a2-738d-4405-9241-7cd8f403ef94@googlegroups.com> <56782a70-cc32-4c35-be3c-56d1163bc8ac@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net d1GA1QDsRH++KfREGkZfPgi3dqdSFFsRica+N42GgpESdkFPc= Cancel-Lock: sha1:kcOrRJDJxmyY/tQN4jHnHzIwCvE= In-Reply-To: <56782a70-cc32-4c35-be3c-56d1163bc8ac@googlegroups.com> X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 14.0.8117.416 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V14.0.8117.416 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:156433 wrote in message news:56782a70-cc32-4c35-be3c-56d1163bc8ac@googlegroups.com... > On Monday, January 11, 2016 at 2:10:35 PM UTC-5, Michael Black wrote: >> > --Adult men and women usually wore a tie/jacket or dress (respectively) >> > whenever they went out, and of course at work. >> > >> But did they wear hats? I thought I read once that President Kennedy was >> the first US president to not wear a hat. Of course, Jackie did wear >> hats, was well known for her hat fashion sense, but soon women stopped >> wearing hats. > > As mentioned, I have photos of commuter trains of 1975, > and many of the men passengers are wearing hats. Until about > 1970, an adult man almost always had a hat on outside the house. That certainly wasn't true here. > Working men would often wear a battered hat unless they wore a hard > hat. > > Guys like milkmen and gas station attendants wore a kind of uniform > cap. None of ours did. >> > As to computers in 1976, they were certainly commonplace, but not >> > as widespread as today. A small business would do its work by hand >> > or send it out to a service bureau. I think by 1976 mini-computers >> > were reasonably common in medium sized businesses. >> > >> The average small business wouldn't have much of a need for a computer, >> certainly not at the cost of them. But surely some made use of >> timesharing computers. > > I'm not sure how popular timesharing was in the _overall_ business > community. It could be rather expensive after connect and CPU > time were added in. The applications I saw in use in that era > in business were specialty things, such as special statistical > report or some sort of calculation for a financial report. In > those areas timesharing could beat a desk calculator. > > Small businesses, such as an insurance agency, certainly could've > used a computer to help with the numerous clerical tasks, but back > then they were just too expensive compared to a clerk with an adding > machine. Payroll, even for businesses with just a handful of > employees, was a real pain, but service companies (such as ADP > founded by Lautenberg) filled the need. They had the economies > of scale to justify user a real computer. > > Growing up, the parents of a a friend of mine owned an insurance > agency. In the evening, the mother would be pouring over ledgers > and journals, adding up stuff on the adding machine. Tons of > handwritten records, in tiny lettering. > > Years ago, a small business would have an accounting department with > a battery of clerks and adding machines handling payroll, accounts > payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, etc. Ironically, > despite computers today, such businesses _still_ need a battery of > clerks since stuff has grown so much more complicated today. Not even the banks have those anymore.