I finished up work by 4 PM today. So I moved from the office. Which would be that old wooden chair with the red cushion to my comfy chair in the library. And that’s about the highlight of my day. When you are 78 going on dead, you don’t need but so much excitement.
Realized that I am coming up on 60 years of computer hacking. My brain lacks the plasticity to do most of the new stuff. But, there are plenty enough old-style problems that need solutions. And, for that I am grateful.
My first computer was the Bendix G-15. It was small and had about 450 vacuum tubes.
This one is fancier than ours. We only had one tape drive. But, we had a plotter.
When Fluffy, that was the computer’s name, started acting “strange” we would open it up and look for a burned-out “bulb”. Or loose pack.
This was when “real” computers took up entire floors of buildings. The G-15 was tiny. And could exist in a regular room. However, if it was really hot, we would open Fluffy up and run a fan, or even a fan over dry ice to keep it cool. Because real rooms were not air-conditioned in those days.