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On 06/01/13 08:58, George Parker wrote: > Hey Bad Apple, don't you go calling me a guru, I'm a hardware man. The > IFF computer's operating system was an input from a bank of toggle > switches and output to 4 decatron tubes. And we never thought of it > as a computer. Having cogitated over the years I now class a lot of > the hardware I worked on as computers, it's just that the programming > was hard wired. Stuff like radar signal processors. Or your washing > machine at home. You had to understand the programme to fix it. (Pre > board swapping days.) > > I moved into electronic test in 1970 and began to come across general > purpose computers (which is what we mostly talk about here) in > automatic test equipment (ATE). The first one I saw was a reel to > reel tape driven IBM something or other that controlled a rack of > equipment doing tests on PCBs. But most testing had a homo sapien > doing the computing. Later I used PDP8, PDP11 (were'nt 8" disks > quaint) but not to programme, I left that to others. I did a course > in 1980 at Merton Tech on programming, assembly language on a Motorola > 6800 I think, punched tape as storage (those little holes were a devil > to prick out). Had a ZX81 and Spectrum then an Amstrad 1680. I > remember even then running DRDOS to get away from microsoft. > > I even worked for a couple of years 1988/89 maintaining PC's in small > businesses around the South West, where you do a bit of hardware, a > bit of software, but I've never really been a programmer. Mostly > 286's, and 386's were cutting edge. Windows 2, not a chance. I did > end up as a manager in IS but we all have our dirty little secrets. > > As my Navy friends would say, 'Swing the lamp'. > > George > George, I think you're fully qualified as a guru, stop being modest :] Cheers -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq