mjw357
Platinum Member
I hope for sanity's sake you didn't have to explain to one of them what a motorola plug was...
clerk: "Uh, we got a Motorola phone, we can hook you up with an unlimited call package..."
be carefull at ratshack!
- Thread starter Soundguy
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I hope for sanity's sake you didn't have to explain to one of them what a motorola plug was...
clerk: "Uh, we got a Motorola phone, we can hook you up with an unlimited call package..."
daugen
Epic Contributor
that's funny, if sadly true...
BNC connector? Uh, a black normally closed connector...not sure if we have one.
RCA connector? Sorry, we don't have records anymore.
Molex quad connector? Never heard of that one. Is that like an ATV part?
RJ11 connector? Uh, male or female, or unisex?
mini to submini adapter? sounds a little hinky but they are over there.
Betamax converter? Uh, is that like a transformer? AC or DC?
And lastly, would you like an extended warranty on that ream of paper?
OP
Soundguy
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wow.. card wallopers.
reminds me of an old poem.. 9 edge.. or soemthing to that effect
how about those manual bootstrap programs using toggle / dip switches.. to get the card wallopers on line?
anyone remeber wang MF's? I did a lil work on those...
reminds me of an old poem.. 9 edge.. or soemthing to that effect
how about those manual bootstrap programs using toggle / dip switches..
to get the card wallopers on line?anyone remeber wang MF's? I did a lil work on those...
The first mainframe I programmed was a UNIVAC. I have some of my programs in a box somewhere. The programs are on paper tape. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:
I need to find that box to find those tapes so I can show the college kids.
I am NOT REALLY THAT old. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Right?
Later,
Dan
OP
Soundguy
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yep.. i tried explaining it to the girl at the ounter.. it was useless though.. the clerk nor the manager.. ( if you added their ages.. the'd be yonger than me ) knew what a bnc was.. let alone a motorola type plug..
daugen
Epic Contributor
usually the store manager knows enough to be dangerous, and sometimes you get a retired guy who was a phone lineman or similar related field, maybe even an EE, looking for some p/t retirement pay.
So if there's an older guy in there, that's who I'd head to. But the young guys, it's not surprising, where would they get this knowledge? Vo-tech perhaps. Probably a computer hardware interest.
I had an older retired guy working in my store, let's call him Charlie, and he was marvelous. Utterly reliable. Had common sense. Could use a checkout system with sku's and having to do data entry.
SKU readers were just coming in when I sold the business. To a bonafide rocket scientist. Unfortunately knowing the finer points of enthalpy and spatial navigation didn't keep the guy in business.
but that's for another day.
So if there's an older guy in there, that's who I'd head to. But the young guys, it's not surprising, where would they get this knowledge? Vo-tech perhaps. Probably a computer hardware interest.
I had an older retired guy working in my store, let's call him Charlie, and he was marvelous. Utterly reliable. Had common sense. Could use a checkout system with sku's and having to do data entry.
SKU readers were just coming in when I sold the business. To a bonafide rocket scientist. Unfortunately knowing the finer points of enthalpy and spatial navigation didn't keep the guy in business.
but that's for another day.
Ken
Veteran Member
The first mainframe I programmed was a UNIVAC. I have some of my programs in a box somewhere. The programs are on paper tape. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:
I need to find that box to find those tapes so I can show the college kids.
I am NOT REALLY THAT old. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Right?
Later,
Dan
Dan worked hardware on Sigma 2 and Sigma 3 mainframe / The memory was 12 kb. and larger was 24 kb. each card the size of laptop of todays computer. And each card of memory was all of 1 and 1/2 bits.
The input was teletype and card punch for the paper tape reader. talk about chad hole problems have the punch mis-adjusted. The rotating disk was live reading and writing and as fast as todays normal computer. could bring up a substation display as fast as Dispatcher hit the button . Now have to wait for the computer to build the display then fill in the readings.
it was over 25 years old and no longer able to locate parts.
what a life.
ken
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Todays adventure at Radio Shack:
They told me over $21 out-the-door for the cordless phone battery I asked for. I said Whaaaa - that should be around $4. I walked.
Bought it for $3.16 on Ebay. This includes postage from Utah. It should arrive soon.
Just now I looked at RS online. What they quoted me was the one they sell In-Store. They offer different ones with better capacity online at $8~$9. What a deal.
They told me over $21 out-the-door for the cordless phone battery I asked for. I said Whaaaa - that should be around $4. I walked.
Bought it for $3.16 on Ebay. This includes postage from Utah. It should arrive soon.
Just now I looked at RS online. What they quoted me was the one they sell In-Store. They offer different ones with better capacity online at $8~$9. What a deal.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
wow.. card wallopers.
reminds me of an old poem.. 9 edge.. or soemthing to that effect
how about those manual bootstrap programs using toggle / dip switches..
anyone remeber wang MF's? I did a lil work on those...
I worked for an organization that still had a few Wangs in the Mid 80's but they were well on their way out the door.
Later,
Dan
dmccarty
Super Star Member
I visited the UNIVAC in its computer room one day. Just a big box with a bunch of flashing lights. :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing:
At the same time we had two Commodore PET 2001 micro computers. One had a chicklet keyboard, cassette tape for storage, B&W monitor which I think was 40 columns, and 4 KB of memory. Yep, 4096 bytes. The other system had a full keyboard and 16KB! WOO HOO! I had programs that would not run on the 4K system.
My cassette tapes with my programs are in the same box with the paper tapes. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I don't the cassette tape is usable anymore but I bet the paper tape likely would work. I found a PET 2001 on Ebay for a few hundred dollars. I seriously thought about buying it. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
Later,
Dan
EE_Bota
Veteran Member
I never had anything much to do with a mainframe, but I was a lowly user of a VAX system and a Wang.
I DO remember during one summer job where I made chicken feed (literally) all night, I came in one day and a fellow was smoking a pipe, and holding a piece of paper he was looking at and flipping toggle switches without looking at those, programming (if I remember correctly) a 1972 Motorola computer.
Our normal interface to that computer was a teletype machine with a tape reader. That computer was controlling all the augers, the weigh hopper, and the feed mixer and the turnheads, doing pretty much what we use PLC's for today. Made more than a million pounds of feed a night. That was a satisfying job...you knew you were needed else the feed would run out.
You never know how a job will be of value later in life. I work in automation, and I had to spec, commission, and then maintain the programming of a bulk supply system later in life, and what I learned making chicken feed really helped. I was still using a Motorola chip even then, since that was what was in the PLC-5's.
I DO remember during one summer job where I made chicken feed (literally) all night, I came in one day and a fellow was smoking a pipe, and holding a piece of paper he was looking at and flipping toggle switches without looking at those, programming (if I remember correctly) a 1972 Motorola computer.
Our normal interface to that computer was a teletype machine with a tape reader. That computer was controlling all the augers, the weigh hopper, and the feed mixer and the turnheads, doing pretty much what we use PLC's for today. Made more than a million pounds of feed a night. That was a satisfying job...you knew you were needed else the feed would run out.
You never know how a job will be of value later in life. I work in automation, and I had to spec, commission, and then maintain the programming of a bulk supply system later in life, and what I learned making chicken feed really helped. I was still using a Motorola chip even then, since that was what was in the PLC-5's.
