Who still posts on a desktop computer?

I post from a desktop at work. I have a desktop, a laptop and an I-pad I can post from at home. I've never used my phone to post on here, but use it for Facebook and Twitter.
 
Still using the main frame. It's a beatch posting with punchcards.
File Used_Punchcard.jpg
 
Well Sarah has bumped this baby almost a full two years; I missed this the first or second time around.

In my mind, I'm somewhat of an old-timer, just turned 67. For this website I'm 100 % desktop. I've used the phone app a few times but not recently.

I do Twitter on my phone. ?
 
Still using the main frame. It's a beatch posting with punchcards.
View attachment 28218
Great stuff. I took a basic FORTRAN programming course at OSU in 1977. We had to create a file on a weird terminal, type the commands with correct syntax, and a lab assistant would run the file and generate the punch cards. Then we gave the batch to another assistant to fun and find out whether we did it correctly. Total pain. I wanted to use the cool tape disks that kept jerking back and forth, like in all of the computers you saw in 1960 sci-fi shows.

Hard to believe, but in 1986 at the Postal Service training room, we were still manually punching cards each time an employee created a training course, and then mailing the batch each month to HQ. Later that year we started sending them via a dial-up connection using an Apple IIE

I'm with coldshoulder, pretty much do all my posting on here from a workstation in order to sound somewhat coherent. Once in a while I'll post something short from my phone, but it still takes forever because of my thumb's bad aim.
 
I used to feel the same way regarding my work laptop. Then once my manager, who happened to be the owner's son, was able to purchase a new IBM ThinkPad and passed his old laptop down to me. I spent an entire weekend getting the porn off of it. He had subscriptions to dozens of adult site out there After that, I used the laptop for whatever I wanted.
did the keys stick?
 
I use my desktop as well as my phone.

If I'm on the desktop, I can listen to podcasts or radio as I post.

If I'm watching Leave It To Beaver or Hazel, or am at a local beer joint, I'll use the phone.
 
Great stuff. I took a basic FORTRAN programming course at OSU in 1977. We had to create a file on a weird terminal, type the commands with correct syntax, and a lab assistant would run the file and generate the punch cards. Then we gave the batch to another assistant to fun and find out whether we did it correctly. Total pain. I wanted to use the cool tape disks that kept jerking back and forth, like in all of the computers you saw in 1960 sci-fi shows.

Hard to believe, but in 1986 at the Postal Service training room, we were still manually punching cards each time an employee created a training course, and then mailing the batch each month to HQ. Later that year we started sending them via a dial-up connection using an Apple IIE

I'm with coldshoulder, pretty much do all my posting on here from a workstation in order to sound somewhat coherent. Once in a while I'll post something short from my phone, but it still takes forever because of my thumb's bad aim.

Child, I used paper TAPE. Big ol roll holding a program fed into an HP ferrite core memory computer on a spindle. Make a single mistake on that MFer and you were starting over or being creative with the GOTO statements to jump over the bad code. Programmed in ASCII and various assemblies, PLs, fortrans, C's, Pascal's, Lisps, and various waves of development fads: top-down, bottom-up, OOD. Was even on the pre-release for Microsoft NT SDK. Wooooo, that was a long time ago.
 
Last edited:
Child, I used paper TAPE. Big ol roll holding a program fed into an HP ferrite core memory computer on a spindle. Make a single mistake on that MFer and you were starting over or being creative with the GOTO statements to jump over the bad code. Programmed in ASCII and various assemblies, PLs, fortrans, C's, Pascal's, Lisps, and various waves of development fads: top-down, bottom-up, OOD. Was even on the pre-release for Microsoft NT SDK. Wooooo, that was a long time ago.

Shoot, I'd believe it if you told me you worked on the Cray X-1. Don't get called a whippersnapper much these days. Savoring the moment, lol.

Sounds very cool, though. Was this 1970's?

That reminds me, in 1961 my mother was a keypunch operator at our Air Force Base in the supply buildin. I remember going there once in a while, she'd let me put the punched cards on this cool belt transport that ran through holes in the wall to each department in the building. My father said the cards were fed into an IBM RAMEC, which he said reminded him of several jukeboxes.
 
Shoot, I'd believe it if you told me you worked on the Cray X-1. Don't get called a whippersnapper much these days. Savoring the moment, lol.

Sounds very cool, though. Was this 1970's?

That reminds me, in 1961 my mother was a keypunch operator at our Air Force Base in the supply buildin. I remember going there once in a while, she'd let me put the punched cards on this cool belt transport that ran through holes in the wall to each department in the building. My father said the cards were fed into an IBM RAMEC, which he said reminded him of several jukeboxes.
I remember the Christmas wreaths made of punchcards folded to a point
 
I have 2 desktops at home I post on. I check my phone for updates, but I need all ten phalanges and a good qwerty keyboard to get my thoughts out there with style and elan.
I have a hard time typing with ten thumbs. They can't make a keyboard big enough to suit me.:mad:
 
Shoot, I'd believe it if you told me you worked on the Cray X-1. Don't get called a whippersnapper much these days. Savoring the moment, lol.

Sounds very cool, though. Was this 1970's?

That reminds me, in 1961 my mother was a keypunch operator at our Air Force Base in the supply buildin. I remember going there once in a while, she'd let me put the punched cards on this cool belt transport that ran through holes in the wall to each department in the building. My father said the cards were fed into an IBM RAMEC, which he said reminded him of several jukeboxes.

Would have liked to see that. Somewhere there has to be a good computing museum. NSA has one I believe.

70-90s for me. Probably the most transitional era in computing. Fun to be part of.

No joking, I did work on a Cray. It was an MP though, with a VAX gate-way..
 
I have a hard time typing with ten thumbs. They can't make a keyboard big enough to suit me.:mad:

I hear ya. I had a co-worker with hands and fingers so big, he couldn't hit a key on his sorting machine keyboard without hitting one or two other keys. He ended up using the eraser end of a pencil to use the keypad. I probably should carry one with me just for texting. :)
 
I use a desktop do not own a laptop and yes my cell phone still flips. Was told this might be my last flipper when I got this one. Still makes and takes calls just like a phone should.
 
Just missed that era.
I know a few that dabble with old mother boards (or raspberry pi's) to see what they can do . I've not heard anyone get romantic about keypunch but all have occasional nightmares of carrying a large rack of cards and tripping. Count your lucky stars for having missed that era. While True, Do.
 
Last edited:
Top