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Groups > alt.folklore.computers > #164867

Re: So, what was your computer birthplace?

From Howard S Shubs <howard@shubs.net>
Newsgroups alt.folklore.computers
Subject Re: So, what was your computer birthplace?
Date 2016-06-10 00:24 +0000
Message-ID <slrnnlk25l.k3r.howard@foxtrot.local> (permalink)
References <njc77f$jot$1@dont-email.me>

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On 2016-06-09, gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339 <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> wrote:
> Apart from the FORTRAN for engineers course in 1969,
> My exposure was to PDP11 and PDP8 in their naked format,
> so that I had complete control and understanding of the machine,
> and, even when I progressed to RSX-11, I had complete knowledge
> of the source and workings of it, having been on the systems
> programmer course at the Butts centre in Reading in 1978.

I would have been three or four years old (1968 or '69) when my mom used
to take me to work (a navy subcontractor of some kind in the DC area) on
occasion. I'd walk down the hall and find myself in a door way (she says
it was a window) looking at this BIIIIIIG machine.  It was talllll and
went out of sight in both directions.  I swear, I imprinted on that IBM
7090 like a baby bird.  I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do
for a living from a young age.

The first machine I programmed in any way was a Digicomp 1 in 1973.  I
never really understood it.  The first machine I understood at all was
some kind of IBM box I never saw, interacting with it using an actual
Teletype and acoustic coupler from Byron Junior High to the Shaker
Heights High School (Cleveland area) during the 1976-1977 school year. 
I programmed it in BASIC IIRC.


> The result of all that exposure was that I feel uneasy with any
> computer system where I am not in complete control or lack
> knowledge about what is hiding under the API with which I interact,
> and it is that sense of unease that motivates me for my language and OS 
> ideas.

I hear that.  Too much abstraction can be an issue, getting in the way
of understanding what's actually happening.  What I'm starting to
understand is that such a deep understanding is no longer always
necessary.

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Thread

So, what was your computer birthplace? "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-09 17:58 +0100
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2016-06-09 13:36 -0500
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? bert <bert.hutchings@btinternet.com> - 2016-06-09 12:02 -0700
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? mentificium@gmail.com - 2016-06-09 12:27 -0700
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Joe Makowiec <makowiec@invalid.invalid> - 2016-06-09 20:15 +0000
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? artie <artie.m@gNOSPAMmail.com> - 2016-06-09 14:53 -0700
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Mike Causer <m.r.causer@goglemail.com> - 2016-06-11 20:32 +0100
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Howard S Shubs <howard@shubs.net> - 2016-06-10 00:24 +0000
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-06-10 02:38 +0000
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-06-10 03:59 -0300
        Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-10 06:58 -0400
          Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-10 11:22 +0000
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-10 09:52 +0100
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-10 11:49 +0100
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-10 11:23 +0000
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-10 12:45 +0100
        Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-10 12:57 +0100
          Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-10 13:57 +0100
            Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-10 14:35 +0000
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-06-10 13:30 +0200
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2016-06-10 12:10 -0400
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Alfred Falk <falk@arc.ab.ca> - 2016-06-10 17:09 +0000
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Melzzzzz <mel@zzzzz.com> - 2016-06-10 19:25 +0200
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-06-10 22:28 -0400
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-11 10:48 +0000
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-11 13:01 -0700
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-06-11 17:39 -0400
        Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-13 14:25 -0700
          Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-13 17:47 -0400
            Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-06-13 18:37 -0400
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-11 13:12 -0700
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-06-11 18:07 -0400
        Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-13 14:36 -0700
          Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-13 18:28 -0700
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-06-11 15:48 -0700
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-11 22:45 +0100
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-11 13:15 -0700
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-11 14:22 -0700
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-11 22:17 +0000
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-11 15:48 -0700
        Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-12 09:18 +0000
          Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-06-12 07:01 -0400
            Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-12 11:09 +0000
              Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-06-12 07:24 -0400
                Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-12 12:37 +0100
                Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-12 11:46 +0000
                Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-12 11:44 +0000
                Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-06-12 15:55 +0100
                Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-12 15:15 +0000
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? mick <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2016-06-12 14:29 +0000
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-12 15:35 +0100
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2016-06-12 15:51 +0100
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Renaissance <unknown@unknown.invalid> - 2016-06-13 09:59 +0200
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Renaissance <unknown@unknown.invalid> - 2016-06-13 10:06 +0200
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Renaissance <unknown@unknown.invalid> - 2016-06-17 16:11 +0200
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> - 2016-06-13 17:27 -0500
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> - 2016-06-16 19:27 -0400
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-06-17 12:41 +0000
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> - 2016-06-17 16:55 -0400
    Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Stephen Wolstenholme <steve@easynn.com> - 2016-06-17 14:16 +0100
      Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-06-17 08:22 -0500
  Re: So, what was your computer birthplace? Jim Rymarczyk - 2016-06-17 08:35 -0500

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