Wiki of obsolete skills

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Ya want a couple of obsolete skills? How about fluency in PAL-8, DIBOL and Bliss32?

 

[freebird5825]

Ya want a couple of obsolete skills? How about fluency in PAL-8, DIBOL and Bliss32?

um...what is PAL-8? i recognized the other two.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

PDP-8 Assembler language. Either entered in octal through front panel switches or if you were lucky, by paper tape.

PDP-8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[freebird5825]

PDP-8 Assembler language. Either entered in octal through front panel switches or if you were lucky, by paper tape.

PDP-8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

gulp - i do remember the PDP 8 and 11 systems. never had to do the switch thing though.

and darn it, i have seen paper tape fed systems. from a very safe distance...LOL

 

[W2R]

gulp - i do remember the PDP 8 and 11 systems. never had to do the switch thing though.

and darn it, i have seen paper tape fed systems. from a very safe distance...LOL

I remember doing the switch thing, and PAL-8. That PDP 11 took up an entire room in the lab. But that was waaaaaaay, way back when I was a sweet young thing, back when computers really looked like a computer should look, with all those lights and switches and stuff and all impressive (to sweet young things, anyway).

Keeping a safe distance from paper tape was probably smart. I remember carrying my punched tape around in my purse, and then trying to feed the mangled tape into those paper tape readers... but that was a couple of years after those jolly times with the PDP-11.

 

[bpp3]

i'll take FORTRAN

I wish that were an obsolete skill. Still shows up in the darndest places.

 

[freebird5825]

I wish that were an obsolete skill. Still shows up in the darndest places.

FORTRAN is like gum on the bottom of your shoe on a hot day. once you've had direct contact with it, try as you might it just won't come off. you can rub it off, you can use a butter knife to scrape away at it...but a little sticky residue is still there. LOL

 

[freebird5825]

I remember doing the switch thing, and PAL-8. That PDP 11 took up an entire room in the lab. But that was waaaaaaay, way back when I was a sweet young thing, back when computers really looked like a computer should look, with all those lights and switches and stuff and all impressive (to sweet young things, anyway).

Keeping a safe distance from paper tape was probably smart. I remember carrying my punched tape around in my purse, and then trying to feed the mangled tape into those paper tape readers... but that was a couple of years after those jolly times with the PDP-11.

and does anyone admit to being mesmerized by the spining of the 9 track magnetic tapes on the PDP-11's? being a space age baby, i yearned to be a technogeek from childhood. Mr. Spock was an idol. <me was a wierd kid>

remember all those movies where they had banks and banks of eccentrically spinning mag tapes? spin, pause, spin spin pause..it was hypnotic.

and when i got my first real job programming, i felt i had arrived. sad but true.

just kidding...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

In my day as a ~17 year old, I could thread and load one of those 9-track TS-11's (aka "the tape stretcher") in the wink of an eye...

Remember the red plastic write protect ring you could stick into the groove on the back to keep your tape from being accidentally overwritten?

 

[W2R]

In my day as a ~17 year old, I could thread and load one of those 9-track TS-11's (aka "the tape stretcher") in the wink of an eye...

Remember the red plastic write protect ring you could stick into the groove on the back to keep your tape from being accidentally overwritten?

Absolutely! I had forgotten the color, but I remember using them.

 

[freebird5825]

Absolutely! I had forgotten the color, but I remember using them.

OMG, the rings. we (the data reduction team) used to play Ring Toss while we waited...zzzzzzzz...for the data to be loaded. one of us would extend an index finger and be the target, while the rest of us tried to toss it onto their finger. or we would set up an empty waste basket and take turns with 5 rings and see who could get the most in.

ah the memories...

 

[Khan]

In my day as a ~17 year old, I could thread and load one of those 9-track TS-11's (aka "the tape stretcher") in the wink of an eye...

Remember the red plastic write protect ring you could stick into the groove on the back to keep your tape from being accidentally overwritten?

I recall them being yellow; but it's been years...

 

[freebird5825]

we had blue, yellow and red. made it interesting for "teams" for ring toss. our boss would wander in and just shake his head. and smile cuz we got the work done.

 

[nonrecourseloans]

Oh my - this one is more painful than the "A person born on this date in 1990 would be old enough to vote .... and would have never seen a video disc ... etc" Good laugh, thanks!