Original Kubuntu fan

[MoonRise]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

Now that was a little before me. Glad I never had to deal with punch cards.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

MoonRise: I actually still have a bunch of my 5.25. Don't know if they are still readable and what I would even read them on now.

Old floppies hang in there really well because of the size of the tracks. Most people report that their 5.25s are fine after 20 years and 8" ones are even better. As for reading them, just put a drive in a throwaway P1 or P2 which still support older the older hardware. With a network card you can work from your modern computer.

GreyGeek: The only problem was that not every town (local call) had a BBS system, and long distance calls were too expensive to use for BBSs. Then, it all died . . .

It did not die. It did drop drastically. Now, in 2010 we still have an active BBS scene. Most of it is telnet based so there is no problem with distance, but there are still a few dialup based boards. The Bandmaster BBS has two dialup lines although it has been a long time since both lines were used at once. Anyway, Fidonet is alive and there are people there who never left.

Dialup is actually a nice nuance on the modern privacy issues. Too bad copper is going out. With affordable long distance plans I know people who dial BBSs all over the place.

@dibl: Ya Morse is cool. I guess you know there are still people who use it - and at very high levels such as being able to recognize people by their style. Still, there is not a lot of reason to use it any more except for a few emergencies where it still can do what newer technologies can't. Regarding COBOL, well that is alive and going strong. Right now, in 2010, there are 1 to 2 million programmers still working in COBOL and writing millions of line of code every year. Sometimes I think that being "modern" is only about selective reality.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

Ok, young'ns....

I took "data processing" at the Barnes School of Business in the fall of 1959. It consisted of learning how to operate and program the bread board of the IBM 402 tabulator and the IBM 540 gang punch. Never could find a job doing that stuff because at 19 I looked like I was 14.

In grad school in 1968 while taking a Numerical Analysis course, we learned how to write Fortran IV code by punching it into paper tape using a KSR-133 10 cps keyboard, and then letting the local bank process the tape and return a green bar printout of the results, for a fee of course. Our entire physics department rented 1,500 bytes of core but I don't remember how much that memory cost per month. All the apps had to run within that space and code which took more than a few milliseconds of CPU time was stopped and dumped. We were given an entire semester to solve four math problems, beginning with the quadratic equation. some never got the first problem done because they could never type in it correctly and always got a green bar print out back with error listing of their code. Just typos. over and over and over. Very frustrating. ONE type and you ripped that tape off and started over. If you thought you typed everything in OK you rolled it up wrote your name on the leader, and put it in the delivery pouch.

When the department got a Singer Friden 132 electronic calculator the second semester the problem load went to four or five per week. The best time to get on the Friden was between 1 and 3 AM.

[galacticaboy]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

At least I think it was 6 1/2 inch floppy, it may have been a 5 im not sure I just remember going home telling my mom about "big floppies" I remember she called my teacher and wanted to know who was teaching me perverted things... lol

[GreyGeek]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

I remember my grandfather's telegraph key, but I only used it to practice Morse code with a buzzer.
...

When I was in grad school I took up Golf as a way to let off steam, until I got into a fixation about breaking 72. It reached a climax the morning I got 36 on the front nine, and then the pressure set in - I got 70 something on the back nine!

So, I changed hobbies and switched to amateur radio. Since I was taking electronics in grad school passing the FCC technical tests was no problem and I got to 10 wpm on Morse code rather quickly. I got a HeathKit DX-60 CW transmitter. Sixty watts of dah-di-dah. I built about everything HeathKit advertized, including a 25" Console Color TV. I built a paddle in stead of using a key so that I could send 25-30 wpm, which was about twice as fast as I could read and soon learned that if I sent CQs faster than I could receive those on the other end quickly left the conversation. I built a 15' cubical quad antenna out of #10 Copper wire and Bamboo poles and mounted it on a rotating shaft next to the window nearest to my transmitter. I could reach out the window and rotat the antenna to any direction. On 60 watts I was getting 5-9-9 signals out of Japan. Some said my signal was stronger than some 1,000 watt transmitters.

I decides to go QRP and built a 1 watt CW transmitter and began trying to get a "Worked-All-States" certificate, but graduated before I got too far into it. When I got to my first teaching job I never took up that hobby back up. Besides, it was just about the time that single side band was getting popular and folks were going for the 2 Meter band licenses which allowed voice without passing the technical tests or the morse code tests. Amateur radio just became long distance Citizen Band radio.

Now I have 5 watt FM walkie talkies that can reach out and touch someone 30 miles away. Or, I have the Internet for really LONG distance communication, including video.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

I've always been a ham wannabe. Right now all I do is run a local FM transmitter so the neighbourhood can hear my music and I don't have to run wires to the workshop, cottage, upstairs etc. However, the internet is indeed cool for communications. Not only that, but the concept of QRP is very applicable to computers too. I've found that I can get the whole OS, a packet driver, telnet, and some text tools on a 360K floppy. That means that I can work the world with an 8080 CPU, 640K (or less) RAM, and a single 5.25 inch floppy drive. That's reminiscent of a 1 watt QRP rig isn't it?

PS: For anybody interested in computers I strongly recommend the Wikipedia article on floppies. Actually, I've found Wikipedia to be a great place to learn about computers in general.

[MoonRise]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

Nice read there. Ahhh... Memories!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

....
That's reminiscent of a 1 watt QRP rig isn't it?

Sure is!


I've been looking at gnuradio, which is "software radio". If you get some USB RF hardware (USRP) connected to your USB port you can transmit and receive between 50MHz and 2.4GHz at powers up to 200mw. Connect that transmitter to a 15' cubical quad on you'd have QRP on steroids! Vendors have tx and rx devices from DC to 30MHz and other ranges. You can monitor satellite signals, etc. There are some neat videos showing examples of gnuradio on YouTube.

[kyonides]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

I remember when I used the large black or 750 KB and 1.4 MB floppies on a PC with a CGA monitor that was later replaced with a EGA one. I never got one of those old modems back them but I don't care since there was not a single service provider then... Even my dad thought we should disconnect the PC on special occasions like Christmas and New Year's day / eve because viruses could violently attack it... Remember there was no modem available...

[GreyGeek]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

Your dad is one cautious fellow!

[14tjoyce]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

I can do nothing but look at these posts in amazement lol. My first computer was a P1 with 3.5 floppy, no sound, no CD, and Windows 95. And I was the coolest kid around because I had an actual functional computer. And this was only 10 years ago lol. I've never used anything larger than a 3.5 floppy, the idea of storing data on tapes just seems unbelievable to me. I didn't even have a concept of Linux until about a year ago, when I read an article in Popular Science mentioning it, I decided to look into it, and have been hooked since. Berry Linux was actually my first distro and that what got me hooked on KDE right off lol.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

the idea of storing data on tapes just seems unbelievable to me.

Tape is very much current technology, just not for most home or hobby users. It is only in the last year or so that the big drives are becoming competitive for large data sets. I think that many of us make the mistake of thinking of computing as revolving around desktop and home use. From what I found when looking for a punched tape link for an earlier post, I can see that a computer professional looking for a real job might (although unlikely) still be required to deal with paper tape input. Industry has quite different requirements from desktoppers. The fact is that computer technology actually moves very slowly underneath the bling.

[MoonRise]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

the idea of storing data on tapes just seems unbelievable to me.

Tape is very much current technology, just not for most home or hobby users. It is only in the last year or so that the big drives are becoming competitive for large data sets. I think that many of us make the mistake of thinking of computing as revolving around desktop and home use. From what I found when looking for a punched tape link for an earlier post, I can see that a computer professional looking for a real job might (although unlikely) still be required to deal with paper tape input. Industry has quite different requirements from desktoppers. The fact is that computer technology actually moves very slowly underneath the bling.

Our backups still go on tape. Yes, tape hasn't died yet just home use.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

That tape hasn't died yet is an amazement to me. It is SO unreliable, especially those little cassette cartridges. I had a client who was cautious and made 4 backups on them. When her Windows failed and she had to install she tried all four and they all failed, even though all had passed reliability checks during the backup process. The problem with them, I believe, was that they started and stopped so fast that they often stretched the tape. Also, iron oxide buildup on the read/write heads was so bad that they had to be cleaned frequently.


BTW, the "personal" computer era began in the mid 1970's with the IMSI 8080's (the home computer the kid in WarGames used) and became viable commercially with Apple ][ and the TSR 80. That's only 35 years ago! At the rate digital electronics is progressing I suspect that within another 20-25 years these desktops, laptops, notebooks and netbooks will disappear. Even now most First World people have more transistors in their hardware than they have neurons in their brain. With the development of Silicon Dioxide memory switches only 10 nanometers wide and with only two leads, technology will shrink again by a factor of 2 or more, and run longer on lower power because those switches don't need power to maintain their state. Combine that with Lithium ion batteries combined with nanoCarbon, which increases their capacity by 10, and you have a combination that will produce "computers" that communicate verbally and with 3D optical devices in glasses, contacts or projections. They will be wearable, constantly monitor body functions and health, and be in constant communication with 4G+ cell towers and the rest of the internet.

If I live as long as my dad (93), personal computers will have been invented while I was in my 30
s, risen to prominence while I was in my 40's and 50's, and began to die out in my 60's. I am 69. I predict that personal computers, Windows and Linux will be extinct within 25 years as an economic force.

What will replace them will be a communication utility device, even possibly implanted at birth and powered by body heat, connected to a world wide communication facility controlled by governments. Because they are so small they will be implanted in the sinus cavity and have leads connected to the Eustachian tubes. You will hear voices in your head and when you speak a mic on it will detect what you say. It will be totally voice controlled from your perspective, as much as the government will allow. It will include a GPS. You will be tracked. etc ....

[MoonRise]

Re: Original Kubuntu fan

Thought long about that!? Sounds "alien" to me, but to some degree I believe you are correct. If any one here is a Star Trek fan, I've always thought the idea of BORG wasn't to far off our current course.