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2008-12-25 
Good morning
Posted by Fred 2008-12-25 00:07|| || Front Page|| [11139 views ]  Top

#1 Merry Christmas Fred, and all the other principals and galley slaves and devotees and lurkers of Rantburg. An oasis of quirky insight and understanding in a world of clueless A+ students .....
Posted by Verlaine 2008-12-25 00:35||   2008-12-25 00:35|| Front Page Top

#2 Merry Christmas to Fred & Gloria, all the Mods, all the RBers (passed and present), and your loved ones and friends. Good will to men of good will, to the rest, you're on your own.
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2008-12-25 00:41||   2008-12-25 00:41|| Front Page Top

#3 Merry Christmas to all, here and anywhere!
Posted by anonymous5089 2008-12-25 01:32||   2008-12-25 01:32|| Front Page Top

#4 "People can't concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December."
~ Ogden Nash

Merry Christmas to all who make Rantburg one of the most edutaining sites on the internet.
Posted by ryuge 2008-12-25 01:33||   2008-12-25 01:33|| Front Page Top

#5 
Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-25 02:41||   2008-12-25 02:41|| Front Page Top

#6 That would be Dr. Steve standing in the back row there, making sure we all enter our links properly. Or else!
Posted by Seafarious 2008-12-25 02:42||   2008-12-25 02:42|| Front Page Top

#7 
Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-25 02:59||   2008-12-25 02:59|| Front Page Top

#8 
Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-25 03:01||   2008-12-25 03:01|| Front Page Top

#9 Could this be some of the Rantburg Mods looking over Fred's new hardware?


Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-25 03:15||   2008-12-25 03:15|| Front Page Top

#10 Uh where's the monitor?
Posted by Grolush Darling of the Hatfields3195 2008-12-25 03:21||   2008-12-25 03:21|| Front Page Top

#11 The Monitor is presently at Newport News, Virginia, with slight water damage:

Posted by Seafarious 2008-12-25 03:36||   2008-12-25 03:36|| Front Page Top

#12 Kim Novak is alive and well and still living in Oregon.

Merry Christmas Kim

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-12-25 03:41||   2008-12-25 03:41|| Front Page Top

#13 The room in the D-S & T-P doesn't look too different from the one where I started my business life sitting in a room full of these:

"

Nostalgia is that now I mostly remember the good times and wish you an equally Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Apologies to Mods if I did the image incorrectly.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-12-25 05:21||   2008-12-25 05:21|| Front Page Top

#14 At least it wasn't a long url.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-12-25 05:22||   2008-12-25 05:22|| Front Page Top

#15 Fixed it for you, NS. Merry Christmas!
Posted by lotp 2008-12-25 07:09||   2008-12-25 07:09|| Front Page Top

#16 Thank you, lotp and a Merry Christmas to you also.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-12-25 08:18||   2008-12-25 08:18|| Front Page Top

#17 That would be Dr. Steve standing in the back row there, making sure we all enter our links properly. Or else!

That would be Seafarious in the second row, fourth back, with the roller blades on her feet ...

Merry Christmas, Sea!
Posted by Steve White 2008-12-25 09:32||   2008-12-25 09:32|| Front Page Top

#18 #11 Seafarious wins the thread! :-D

Merry Christmas to all.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut  2008-12-25 10:53|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]  2008-12-25 10:53|| Front Page Top

#19 All joking aside, some of the earliest equipment I worked on was much like those shown here. I cut my computer teeth on punch cards, sorters, and "programmable" printing devices. Someone once told me I had a job for life, because I knew how to use and "program" a card punch machine. I'm still here, and the only keypunch machines anywhere are in museums.
Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot  2008-12-25 10:54|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2008-12-25 10:54|| Front Page Top

#20 I liked to leave a loop on the card punch programming card so the next user got a surprise...

Hey it left an open machine nobody wanted to use...

Merry Christmas All!
Posted by 3dc 2008-12-25 11:36||   2008-12-25 11:36|| Front Page Top

#21 Heh. I like #5 GBUSMC's pic. That big double steering wheel thingy must be either the mouse or the Grand Theft Auto interface...

Merry Christmas to all, particularly those serving in dark places far from home and loved ones.
Posted by PBMcL 2008-12-25 12:32||   2008-12-25 12:32|| Front Page Top

#22 I like #5 too but according to snopes its a photoshopped pic from a FARK.com photoshop competition (back when they were funny).

Punched cards were fun - especially if you were too lazy to enter in a sequence number in column 72-80 and dropped the deck. I still remember walking around with boxes of punched cards - it was the source code for the Disk Operating System for the Interdata 70 minicomputer. Also carried around a smaller deck which contains the punched card binaries for the OS - we used to boot from the card reader!

Merry Christmas to all - and yes especially to those who are in dark and dangerous places protecting us from those who would cause us harm.
Posted by CrazyFool 2008-12-25 13:17||   2008-12-25 13:17|| Front Page Top

#23 All you dadgummed, young whippersnappers go ahead and laugh at these old pictures of old computers. But I remember working on computers that looked a lot like these pictures. What? Does that make me old?
Posted by Abu Uluque 2008-12-25 14:09||   2008-12-25 14:09|| Front Page Top

#24 Abu, if you want to feel really old, visit the Smithsonian, where they have some of the computers I worked on (and thought were really modern!). Seeing an advanced computer in a museum humbles you.
Posted by Rambler in Virgina 2008-12-25 15:55||   2008-12-25 15:55|| Front Page Top

#25 I went through High School and half of College with a Slide Rule. Weenies!!
Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues  2008-12-25 17:39||   2008-12-25 17:39|| Front Page Top

#26 Merry Christmas to all!

I learned on a 029 Keypunch (yippee - parenthesis and "plus" signs) and 059 Verifier. Did both 128 and 80-column. You could get someone fired if you 're-shuffled' their 'deck' (unless they never found out who did it - heh).
Posted by Mullah Richard 2008-12-25 18:49||   2008-12-25 18:49|| Front Page Top

#27 And of course the best punched cards were the ones without typing along the top. And don't forget 'coding forms'....

Lets start a 'keypunch chad' thread while we're at it :)
Posted by CrazyFool 2008-12-25 19:00||   2008-12-25 19:00|| Front Page Top

#28 #5 is actually the Manuevering room setup of most US nuclear subs. I sat at the middle panel for a goodly portion of my younger days pushing subs through the water. I missed a a few Xmas's at sea, so a Merry Christmas to all, safe at home with their family and to all who still patrol the deep dark waters, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen!
Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839">AlmostAnonymous5839  2008-12-25 19:14||   2008-12-25 19:14|| Front Page Top

#29 Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Fred & the Mods, thank you all for all you do.
Posted by Mike 2008-12-25 20:33||   2008-12-25 20:33|| Front Page Top

#30 CrazyFool: I didn't use sequence numbers; I penned a big X across the top of the deck. I restored a dropped deck or two using that visual reference.
Posted by James">James  2008-12-25 21:24|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]">[http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]  2008-12-25 21:24|| Front Page Top

#31 Holy Hollerith Cards, Batman! Brings back memories, and nightmares, too. LOL!
Posted by Alaska Paul 2008-12-25 21:40||   2008-12-25 21:40|| Front Page Top

#32 Ah yes - the days of wired boards and external sorts.

James - I used a 'V' on the tops of my decks. Better than an 'X' 'cause there is only one correct way to restack it.

Merry Christmas all -
Posted by GORT 2008-12-25 22:07||   2008-12-25 22:07|| Front Page Top

#33 Ah yes - the days of wired boards and external sorts.

James - I used a 'V' on the tops of my decks. Better than an 'X' 'cause there is only one correct way to restack it.

Merry Christmas all -
Posted by GORT 2008-12-25 22:09||   2008-12-25 22:09|| Front Page Top

23:39 Frank G
23:33 Skidmark
23:04 Jaique Johnson2117
22:52 Pappy
22:51 Jolutch Mussolini7800
22:34 Sgt. Mom
22:30 Barbara Skolaut
22:24 crosspatch
22:10 ptah
22:09 GORT
22:07 GORT
21:41 Alaska Paul
21:40 Alaska Paul
21:37 Alaska Paul
21:24 James
20:40 lotp
20:33 Mike
20:11 DarthVader
19:59 djh_usmc
19:44 tipover
19:42 tipover
19:37 tipover
19:35 Bright Pebbles
19:34 Bulldog









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