Great, now you guys got me getting all Old Timey.

When I was in high school I couldn't get into the Super Smart Kids class 
because my math grades were horrible, but I had a lot of friends in that 
class. And they had access to the BIG computer. Which was some kind of VAX 
system. And they let me use their accounts. Which was fun but I wanted my 
own account, because I wanted to change the prompt into a crocodile.

I went to the school principal and said "Hey I know I'm not in that class, 
but I am very interested in computers and would like VAX access. Here are 
some people who will vouch for me" (which included some friends and the 
main sysadmin).

The principle said no VAX access, but I could have an account on the PDP.

I don't think it was a PDP11. I think it was a PDP4. I didn't really know 
how to do anything with it - all I got was a username and password. You 
could not change your prompt to a crocodile!

The next year of school we actually had "Computer" classes. We all got PDP 
accounts (and they were kind of surprised I already had one) and... taught 
BASIC. I already knew BASIC. Eventually the teacher got mad at me 
correcting his "code" (which he had on a chalkboard) and told me to just 
show up for the tests.

Before that, though, I tried to show the other kids in my class how they 
can copy files between accounts. You know, so one person could do the 
homework and everyone else could copy it. This was before anyone really 
had computetrs unless you were a nerd (I was). So they culd not figure 
it out.

I went back to using my friends' accounts on the VAX system. Least I knew 
how to get that one to talk C.


On Mon, 25 Nov 2013, Rick Engebretson wrote:

> Very interesting, Mike.
>
> The only thing I did with the PDP11 was get it to read the paper tape output 
> from the scintillation counter, then do a curve fitting program that was 
> previously all done by hand on a calculator. So I sort of knew computers and 
> got a job in the NMR lab when they were doing FastFourierTransforms, and 
> hoping to invent some imaging.
>
> But I had gotten physically strong lugging around heavy research journals at 
> the various libraries around campus. So it was only natural that I move to 
> the country and lug firewood instead when I burned out.
>
> You are right, some few sucked the money out of computing. But I forget who 
> they are, now that Arduino programs over Linux.
>
> Mike Miller wrote:
>> I was using the PDP-11 at WPI in 1976, but that was a very challenging
>> system compared to what came a few years later. There were no monitors,
>> just teletypes. It was very painful to write program on that thing!
>> 
>> As a scientist, I see no substitute for Linux. OS X just isn't going to
>> cut it for me, but on a laptop computer or desktop machine, maybe OS X
>> has potential. I'm not going to find out because Linux is working for me
>> everywhere. I do keep one Windows box for the odd program that won't run
>> on Linux.
>> 
>> The Free Software model seems also to be working great in the sciences
>> and I think it is performing very well for operating systems, too. The
>> big problem with it is that programmers have to make a living somehow,
>> but writing a great program with no bugs that just works with minimal
>> documentation doesn't seem to pay back much if it can't be sold, not
>> even if 100 million people are using it. Fame is nice, but it won't put
>> your kids through college, buy you a house or pay for dinner.
>> 
>> That said, Linux is a great OS for programmers and for programming
>> cooperatively in groups to produce some really nice software. It is
>> wonderful for spare-time contributors, or people who just want to make
>> something better for their own use. I have been amazed and very
>> impressed by what I have been able to get for free. That massive
>> free-software code base creates opportunities for developers -- they
>> don't have to start from nothing because a lot of what they want is
>> freely available to them, at least if they are willing to stick with GPL.
>> 
>> What will the future bring? It seems like nearly everyone believes that
>> the next phase will be about smaller devices and ubiquitous computing,
>> and that is where most development is occuring today -- tablets, smart
>> phones, wireless (WiFi, G4, etc) connectivity. The big corporations
>> behind all of this want a lot of interaction with "the cloud," which
>> means that they will be storing a *lot* of information about you -- your
>> physical location, identities of your contacts, what you like, which web
>> pages you go to, where you eat dinner, etc. Google is even collecting
>> your DNA (23andMe), if you'll let them! I would like for people to use
>> their own Linux server as their personal "cloud", allowing for backup
>> and other kinds of information transfer while limiting sharing of info
>> with corporations. I guess the corporations don't want that because
>> they've done away with the old kind of "syncing" with the home computer.
>> 
>> The NSA revelations should help Linux.
>> 
>> Mike
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, 25 Nov 2013, Rick Engebretson wrote:
>> 
>>> 1980 was a scary time. Nobody knew how to get our economy going. We
>>> had some (Altair) microcomputer stuff in Otto Schmitt's lab, but I
>>> never got access because the VietNam vets hogged it. My chem lab had a
>>> PDP11, pre-Unix, hooked to a teletype, and computer automation was a
>>> big push. I don't think I was important starting the internet, but I
>>> never knew anybody else pushing it earlier, and I still don't believe
>>> it. I believe it was like crowd-funding, everybody just pushed their
>>> weight and we all made something move.
>>> 
>>> So here we are again, a country in debt, uncertain future. And now
>>> everything runs on computers. Iran is still in the news. The
>>> environment, too.
>>> 
>>> And now we have a truly amazing open source Linux, on all kinds of
>>> hardware. I sincerely believe we will need better computer skills if
>>> we hope to compete. Cars, power plants, factories, all industries will
>>> need computer (Linux) skills.
>>> 
>>> TCLUG should be where leaders grow.
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