You Know You Are Old When

[stompybritches]

You know you're old when you go thru a stack of letters and long for the days when communication was handwritten-with feeling and care. I can barely write cursive anymore from all the fiddly tippy tappy krrrap.

 

[MossRoad]

You know you're old when you go thru a stack of letters and long for the days when communication was handwritten-with feeling and care. I can barely write cursive anymore from all the fiddly tippy tappy krrrap.

My wife and I saved all the letters we wrote to each other while she was away at college. We go back and read them every 10 years or so..... that's some pretty sappy stuff right there.

 

[stompybritches]

My wife and I saved all the letters we wrote to each other while she was away at college. We go back and read them every 10 years or so..... that's some pretty sappy stuff right there.

I wouldn't say 'sappy', that's a darn good friendship and marriage. You're a lucky man!

 

[MossRoad]

I wouldn't say 'sappy', that's a darn good friendship and marriage. You're a lucky man!

Yeah I am!

But I was referring to what's IN the letters, not the fact that we saved them.

 

[Ken]

I recall pizza box sized circuit boards on some Honeywell computers we had. I think they bought the line form GE and then sold it to Bull. Back then there were raised floor computer rooms with CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units cooling the underfloor. The computers would draw the air up from the cooled raised floor to cool themselves.

The computer room's raised floor temperature was 58 degrees at floor level and top of the computer cabinet was 60 inches and the lady workers complained about the coldness of room temp. If the temp rises the error code increases so. Taking the temperature off the wall and turning the adjusting knob. up allowed the room to stay at 58 degrees.
Do what you had to do to keep the error count down.
Does any one need a Model 14 or a Model 15 teletype? (Ha spelling check) also wonders what it is.
Had a phone connected, remote reading gas line pressure, and the Dispatcher would dial the phone and the ringer voltage set the 78 record player into the plate at O to 1000 cycle tones then use a tuning fork to match the tone to get the reading of pressure.
If needing to get a line repaired by the Telephone system We had a RED Book call # which when called someone would expedite the repair Sometimes a call back from the Phone Co all they could hear was a constant tone. then to be told good it is working.
Simpson volt meter and analog scope were the only available tools.
The accumulator was 72 Ohm coax rolled tightly into a container and sealed to keep constant temp. could see the digits increasing and visually read the pressure reading . Every 30 seconds the Computer would call for reading
reply starting bit , then the unit number , then 4 digit pressure bits . end bit. we were uptown in knowledge for this .
ken

 

[Oaktree]

I have a Wang calculator from 1968 (9 possibly). It's in two parts and nixie tube display.

300 series perhaps? I worked on those, there was a box with all the electronics in it you could stash under your desk and a keyboard/display that connected to it with a thick multi-conductor cable.
They later built a smaller, self-contained model. The display driver card was a separate module that plugged into the motherboard. The pin with the 250V for the nixies was right on the end. Learned to put a piece of tape over that pin when working on it, if you didn't guaranteed you'd zap yourself at least once.

Always a curve to keep the ones that think they know everything off their game...

Rule 33?

Ain't that the truth. Worked on some pretty sophisticated stuff back in the day, but nowadays I find touchscreen OS's (tablets/smartphones) very non-intuitive and clumsy to operate. Given enough time I could probably figure it out, but don't really have the need or desire to. You never think you'll be the guy with the modern day equivalent of their VCR flashing 12:00, but it happens to the best of us.

Somewhere I saw a list of Gibbs' rules, don't remember any of them offhand. NCIS kind of jumped the shark for me several seasons ago, even before Mark Harmon left. I don't think there are any remaining members of the original cast, McGee's close, but wasn't there at the beginning.

 

[ultrarunner]

It's been several years since the TV was on...

The never ending COVID coverage with the daily press meetings from the governor all the way down to the city emergency services took a toll...

 

[FPGT72]

Yeah I am!

But I was referring to what's IN the letters, not the fact that we saved them.

That is young love. We have all been there. One of the greatest things of growing old together.

 

[goeduck]

If you were alive when building bomb shelters was all the rage.

 

[MossRoad]

If you were alive when building bomb shelters was all the rage.

My dad built one in his house in the late 50's. Reinforced concrete walls and ceiling with counter-weighted trap door. Pipes to manual well and outside air with filters that supposedly captured radioactive particles.

All I know is that if you went down in that thing during a tornado and closed that big trap door, you heard NOTHING! Complete silence.

Fortunately, he had his fossil collection and WWII memorabilia down there, so he would keep us entertained until the weather passed.