What a Difference 50 Years Can Make!!

DaveinOlyWA · 11-27-2004, 11:15 AM

the caption says it all. you see that big "steering wheel" like apparatus... if Rand had been designing todays computers, that may have been what we would be using while playing NASCAR 2004!!

http://geocities.com/daveinolywa/images/co..._evolution.html

Wolfman · 11-27-2004, 11:26 AM

Could you imagine the look on his face if he were to see what computers actually have evolved into today? :mrgreen:

DaveinOlyWA · 11-27-2004, 12:40 PM

lol... imagine the look on his face when you plop a 250 GB harddrive in his hand...

he probably didnt know what gigabyte meant.

the last line of the caption is pretty funny too

richard schumacher · 11-27-2004, 01:10 PM

Sorry, it's cute but it's a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

Clues:
1. Grammatical error in the caption.
2. The teletype is a DECwriter model from about 1970.
3. FORTRAN was first proposed in 1954 and not released until 1956.

DaveinOlyWA · 11-27-2004, 03:18 PM

thanks for the info...

i have heard it from several people already today

daniel · 11-28-2004, 08:33 AM

Fooey! It would have been wonderful if it were for real.

In 1966, when I was in college, and computers were enormous and affordable only by institutions, a computer professor told us, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, that if you ordered two computers, one immediately, and another several months later, the second one would arrive sooner, and be cheaper and more powerful. Even then computer technology was progressing at a break-neck speed. Students were allowed to submit programs, in Fortran, on punch-cards, to be run at night on the mainframe, and a print-out could be picked up in the morning. I never succeeded in getting my program to compile. All I ever got were compiler errors.

By 1970, at another college, I got to play with a computer the size of a very large filing cabinet. It had 2K of memory (which was still, atavistically, called "core" memory, though I don't think they were using cores any more) and used a frustratingly-limited version of Basic, with a program length limit of either 100 or 200 lines, I forget which. I programmed it to play a brain-damaged version of blackjack, in which there were no suits and only 13 cards per deck.

Futurists always get it wrong. They never see the real breakthroughs. In the 50's they predicted intelligent household robots, but missed the mineaturization of electronics and computers. They predicted space travel to the planets and stars, but missed satellite communications. I guess that's why I liked the spoof at the start of this thread. It made my point so well.

DaveinOlyWA · 11-28-2004, 10:32 AM

i was TRYING to run Cobol when in school and after about 500 of those paper 80 column punch cards (about half were throwaway mistakes) i finally got it to print a list of 5 people and their class schedule... that was my term project for the eniire quarter... and it took the entire quarter!!

pjm877 · 11-28-2004, 11:22 AM

ah, I remember those day of ForTran and RPG in high school... get it running you bet we did... First try correct... you got an A... 2nd = B... lots of punch cards... I even got to the point of reading the holes not what was printed over them... those darn writers made error... and I as not going to loose a grade on that machine...

COBOL was fun... BASIC was self taught... now it is JAVA, Rexx, XML, C,C++ ,WebSphere, etc

boy we have come a long way in 10...20... 30 years...

GM Le Mans to Toyota Prius... a step in the right direction... back to the turkey...

Happy holidays to one and all.

daniel · 11-28-2004, 08:31 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pjm877\";p=\"53162)</div>

Quote:

... I even got to the point of reading the holes not what was printed over them... those darn writers made error...[/b]

Hey, you mean maybe the reason my program never ran was because the card puncher punched wrong??? Cool.

... except that, in my case, I bet it was me, trying to learn Fortran from a book as I wrote my program at the card-punch machine.

11-27-2004, 11:15 AM	#1
DaveinOlyWA Opps !! I Did it Again!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 9,661 My Car: 2006 Prius Package: #4 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	What a Difference 50 Years Can Make!! the caption says it all. you see that big "steering wheel" like apparatus... if Rand had been designing todays computers, that may have been what we would be using while playing NASCAR 2004!! http://geocities.com/daveinolywa/images/co..._evolution.html

11-27-2004, 11:26 AM	#2
Wolfman Moderator (on leave) Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Paradise, TX Posts: 1,205 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Re: What a Difference 50 Years Can Make!! Could you imagine the look on his face if he were to see what computers actually have evolved into today? :mrgreen:

11-28-2004, 08:33 AM	#6
daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Spokane, WA Posts: 9,147 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: #6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Fooey! It would have been wonderful if it were for real. In 1966, when I was in college, and computers were enormous and affordable only by institutions, a computer professor told us, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, that if you ordered two computers, one immediately, and another several months later, the second one would arrive sooner, and be cheaper and more powerful. Even then computer technology was progressing at a break-neck speed. Students were allowed to submit programs, in Fortran, on punch-cards, to be run at night on the mainframe, and a print-out could be picked up in the morning. I never succeeded in getting my program to compile. All I ever got were compiler errors. By 1970, at another college, I got to play with a computer the size of a very large filing cabinet. It had 2K of memory (which was still, atavistically, called "core" memory, though I don't think they were using cores any more) and used a frustratingly-limited version of Basic, with a program length limit of either 100 or 200 lines, I forget which. I programmed it to play a brain-damaged version of blackjack, in which there were no suits and only 13 cards per deck. Futurists always get it wrong. They never see the real breakthroughs. In the 50's they predicted intelligent household robots, but missed the mineaturization of electronics and computers. They predicted space travel to the planets and stars, but missed satellite communications. I guess that's why I liked the spoof at the start of this thread. It made my point so well. __________________ Daniel ---------------------- Primary car: Zap Xebra SD: 100% electric car. 1.9 cents per mile, using electrons generated from water power. (The Prius is my gas guzzler, used when I have to travel farther than 35 miles in a day.) "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." -- Emma Goldman "Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think long and hard before starting a war." -- Otto von Bismarck

11-28-2004, 11:22 AM	#8
pjm877 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: austin, tx Posts: 223 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: Pioneer #3 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Re: What a Difference 50 Years Can Make!! ah, I remember those day of ForTran and RPG in high school... get it running you bet we did... First try correct... you got an A... 2nd = B... lots of punch cards... I even got to the point of reading the holes not what was printed over them... those darn writers made error... and I as not going to loose a grade on that machine... COBOL was fun... BASIC was self taught... now it is JAVA, Rexx, XML, C,C++ ,WebSphere, etc boy we have come a long way in 10...20... 30 years... GM Le Mans to Toyota Prius... a step in the right direction... back to the turkey... Happy holidays to one and all. __________________ Perry (austin, tx..Just Drive it)

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11-27-2004, 12:40 PM	#3
DaveinOlyWA Opps !! I Did it Again!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 9,661 My Car: 2006 Prius Package: #4 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	lol... imagine the look on his face when you plop a 250 GB harddrive in his hand... he probably didnt know what gigabyte meant. the last line of the caption is pretty funny too

11-27-2004, 01:10 PM	#4
richard schumacher nacreous lacquer Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4,126 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: #6 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Sorry, it's cute but it's a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp Clues: 1. Grammatical error in the caption. 2. The teletype is a DECwriter model from about 1970. 3. FORTRAN was first proposed in 1954 and not released until 1956.

11-27-2004, 03:18 PM	#5
DaveinOlyWA Opps !! I Did it Again!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 9,661 My Car: 2006 Prius Package: #4 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	thanks for the info... i have heard it from several people already today

11-28-2004, 10:32 AM	#7
DaveinOlyWA Opps !! I Did it Again!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 9,661 My Car: 2006 Prius Package: #4 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	i was TRYING to run Cobol when in school and after about 500 of those paper 80 column punch cards (about half were throwaway mistakes) i finally got it to print a list of 5 people and their class schedule... that was my term project for the eniire quarter... and it took the entire quarter!!