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    • JimBlue wrote:

      Well, my widows 10 computer updatd o improve my computing experiene by lchanging firefox to use a different search engine, and blocked the insall of any software... argh.

      Typing this on a tablet.
      i feel your pain...i just got a new phone and have gone from a physical keyboard to a touchscreen. wrote my first text on it this morning -- soooo many typos!
      2,000 miler
    • rafe wrote:

      Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Before Hewlett Packard there were Nixi tube calculators - some weigh 30 pounds

      [IMG:http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2MlgxNjAw/z/YegAAOSwrmdTrY3l/$_35.JPG]
      We had one of these bolted to a table in the Engineering library when I was a student working on my BSEE. Anyone remember Wang?
      Vera Wang?
      I am human and I need to be loved - just like everybody else does
    • I was once the "IT guy" (before they were called that) in an office of 30+ people. We had a Wang mini computer with 3 large units containing stacked platters (5?) of discs which gave us something on the order of 200Mb of data.
      The computer and drives were in their own secure room with two large air conditioning units that ensured a constant temperature and humidity.
      I had 6 weeks of training to do the job.
      Resident Australian, proving being a grumpy old man is not just an American trait.
    • Ah, I hated Vista wehen it came out, but at least this computer is working !

      The first computer I helped maintain was a DEC VAX 11/730. It had vacuum tube terminals. And a 132 column green bar printer.

      No way to save homework to outside the computer, except print it out.

      We could tell when the community college transfers had started their Fall classes with us at the university. They kept trying to put their 5.25 inch floppies in the cooling vents for the VT102 terminals.

      We had signs up...

      They had been using Apple ][+s at the community college. The Alt and Ctrl keys were in opposite locations on the keyboards. So if you were used to typing ctrl-s to save on an Apple, the VT102s alt-s sent an 'exit without saving' command to the ED*IT editor on the VAX. The screams of agony as long program listings were tossed away..
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.
    • Vacuum tube terminals didn't disappear until just a few years ago. I was using a 132-column "dumb terminal" as late as 2000 or so, attached to a DEC minicomputer. After that, for several years, we used our PCs in "terminal emulator mode" instead, but the PCs still had vacuum tube (CRT) monitors.

      Matter of fact I was at a high end print shop this morning where most of the cubicles still had high-end CRT monitors. Folks in the graphics biz were very wary of switching to LCDs due to color gamut and viewing-angle issues.
    • rafe wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      rafe wrote:

      Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Before Hewlett Packard there were Nixi tube calculators - some weigh 30 pounds

      [IMG:http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2MlgxNjAw/z/YegAAOSwrmdTrY3l/$_35.JPG]
      We had one of these bolted to a table in the Engineering library when I was a student working on my BSEE. Anyone remember Wang?
      Vera Wang?
      Wang Labs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories
      Wang Chung
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123
    • odd man out wrote:

      ah yes I fondly recall using my Wang.

      But for historic calculators, you can't beat the two I still have in my office. Can't say I'm very proficient at using them any more.




      I still have the slide rule that my father used back as a student in Vienna in the 1930s, and then well into the 1960s as a mechanical engineer here in the USA. At one point the glass/metal slide broke. He was able to contact the manufacturer, decades later, and obtained a perfect replacement. One of my proudest "heirloom" objects.
    • My slide rule is also my dad's from grad school in the 50s. But for old school, nothing beats the pencil and paper method. Eight years ago we hosted a high school exchange student from central Asia - a country where students are drilled on doing math by hand. I was helping her with her AP chem homework and was amazed at how quickly she could do all of her calculations by hand, including taking logarithms. I still don't know how she did that. But it seem appropriate as the algorithm for doing calculations was formalized by central Asian mathmeticians and the world "algorithm" comes from "Kwarezm" - the oasis south of the Aral sea (or what's left of it).
    • odd man out wrote:

      My slide rule is also my dad's from grad school in the 50s. But for old school, nothing beats the pencil and paper method. Eight years ago we hosted a high school exchange student from central Asia - a country where students are drilled on doing math by hand. I was helping her with her AP chem homework and was amazed at how quickly she could do all of her calculations by hand, including taking logarithms. I still don't know how she did that. But it seem appropriate as the algorithm for doing calculations was formalized by central Asian mathmeticians and the world "algorithm" comes from "Kwarezm" - the oasis south of the Aral sea (or what's left of it).
      In Outliers Malcolm Galdwel credits having to maximize rice production on small plots of land, amongst other things.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • Rasty wrote:

      rafe wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      rafe wrote:

      Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Before Hewlett Packard there were Nixi tube calculators - some weigh 30 pounds

      [IMG:http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2MlgxNjAw/z/YegAAOSwrmdTrY3l/$_35.JPG]
      We had one of these bolted to a table in the Engineering library when I was a student working on my BSEE. Anyone remember Wang?
      Vera Wang?
      Wang Labs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories
      Wang Chung
      That reminds me of one of those newspaper sports headings where the writer didn't read what he wrote....Heading..."A-Rod goes deep, Wang injured".
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • Since we're on the subject of math, the word "algebra" is derived from Arabic, and the Moors were first to add the notion of zero to number systems. Alright, that was 500 years ago, more or less, but still. At that point in history they were way ahead of the dumb Europeans who were still stuck in the dark ages.
    • my first calculator. 4 function. bought it on sale for $120 sometime in 1972-73 (how much is that in today's dollars?). i remember our college accounting instructor saying before tests "those that have calculators put them away cuz it wouldn't be fair to the students who can't afford to buy one." now they are a free app on phones, and if ya gotta buy one you can get a 4 function for a couple bucks. get off my lawn.
      [IMG:http://www.vintagecalculators.com/assets/images/TI25002_1.JPG]
      2,000 miler
    • rafe wrote:

      Since we're on the subject of math, the word "algebra" is derived from Arabic, and the Moors were first to add the notion of zero to number systems. Alright, that was 500 years ago, more or less, but still. At that point in history they were way ahead of the dumb Europeans who were still stuck in the dark ages.
      The Moors were instrumental in communicating the concept of zero to Europe (via the Italian Mathematician Fibonacci of Pisa whose father worked with Moorish merchants in North Africa), but didn't invent it. As Muslims, the Moors had access to Islamic academic writings, including Al-Khwarizmi whose text from 825 explained how to use zero and the numbering system of India to do what we now call arithmetic. Although the digits came from India, and Al-Khwarizmi was Persian (from Khwarezm - modern day Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan), he wrote in Arabic (the intellectual language of the Islamic golden age), so we still call our number "Arabic" numbers.
    • The best calculator I ever had was the HP scientific calculator I had in grad school. The best thing about it was it used Reverse Polish Notation. That way if anyone ever wanted to borrow my calculator I could say "sure, but you won't be able to figure out how to use it". I'm so glad my smart phone calculator app has an RPN mode.
    • odd man out wrote:

      The best calculator I ever had was the HP scientific calculator I had in grad school. The best thing about it was it used Reverse Polish Notation. That way if anyone ever wanted to borrow my calculator I could say "sure, but you won't be able to figure out how to use it". I'm so glad my smart phone calculator app has an RPN mode.
      You either loved or hated RPN. I didn't exactly love it but learned to live with it. I still have a couple of HP calculators (HP-11C and HP-16C) but haven't used either one in ages.
    • max.patch wrote:

      my first calculator. 4 function. bought it on sale for $120 sometime in 1972-73 (how much is that in today's dollars?). i remember our college accounting instructor saying before tests "those that have calculators put them away cuz it wouldn't be fair to the students who can't afford to buy one." now they are a free app on phones, and if ya gotta buy one you can get a 4 function for a couple bucks. get off my lawn.
      [IMG:http://www.vintagecalculators.com/assets/images/TI25002_1.JPG]
      I had a TI calculator with similar functionality. I unscrewed it, found some extra membrane switches inside, and drilled some holes. That let me use the missing memory keys.
      I am human and I need to be loved - just like everybody else does
    • At 56 YO, I'm right at the transition from slide rulers to calculators. My sisters who are 3 and 4 years older than me use slide rulers in HS chemistry and physics, but by the time I got there, pocket calculators were common enough that slide rulers were not taught anymore. I recall having a deluxe TI calculator that had a square root button, but it took about 5 seconds to do the calculation.
    • I used a slide rule in high school. One of my shipmates aboard Navy destroyer had a slide rule. About 5 years later I was usng a cheap red 8-section display calculator. Then I bought a TI-53, card programmable calculator. Cost me $500.00. A year later it was gone, and the replacement cost half that and could twice as much.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.
    • My first job was with Texas Instruments (TI). I still have what we called a "hexulator" that would convert numbers from base 10 to 16 (hexadecimal). Probably did binary and maybe base 8 too. I need to dig it out and show it to my son's. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • I can add, subtract, multiply, and do fractions/proportions. :D

      Seriously, you'd be surprised how much math is involved in weaving and knitting.

      When I became a nurse, we had to calculate drip rates and medication dosages. Technology has made that skill obsolete. Now we have IV pumps with pre-loaded medication programs. For instance, if I hang an antibiotic, I type the name of the med then the rate, volume, etc. automatically comes up and I only have to push the start button.

      Granted, this technology helps to prevent errors but are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      Lost in the right direction.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      I can add, subtract, multiply, and do fractions/proportions. :D

      Seriously, you'd be surprised how much math is involved in weaving and knitting.

      When I became a nurse, we had to calculate drip rates and medication dosages. Technology has made that skill obsolete. Now we have IV pumps with pre-loaded medication programs. For instance, if I hang an antibiotic, I type the name of the med then the rate, volume, etc. automatically comes up and I only have to push the start button.

      Granted, this technology helps to prevent errors but are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      I worked on user-interface software for one of those IV pumps a few years ago at an outfit called Harvard Apparatus. Very similar tech is going into wearable insulin pumps as well. Big business with so many obese Americans.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      ............................are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      I believe we are. Originally the technology was supposed to make us more efficient and productive but it may be having the opposite affect.
      The latest thing I've noticed is stores where the person behind the cash register doesn't have to handle the coin part of your change. The coins automatically come down a slide on the machine and the cashier only handles the bills. My guess is that is because a lot of people can't figure out what change (coins) to give you even if the register tells them the amount.
    • TrafficJam wrote:

      I can add, subtract, multiply, and do fractions/proportions. :D

      Seriously, you'd be surprised how much math is involved in weaving and knitting.

      When I became a nurse, we had to calculate drip rates and medication dosages. Technology has made that skill obsolete. Now we have IV pumps with pre-loaded medication programs. For instance, if I hang an antibiotic, I type the name of the med then the rate, volume, etc. automatically comes up and I only have to push the start button.

      Granted, this technology helps to prevent errors but are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      Unfortunately, yes many are becoming dumbed down.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • JimBlue wrote:

      I have an abacus and a K&E slide rule.

      There are evidently different abacusi. Mine has 3 beads, a wood bar, and 5 beads. I noticed odd man out has one with 1 bead above the bar abacus.
      Yes. Mine is a Japanese style. I bought it in 1971 when I was living in Japan. At that time, all of the store cashiers had cash registers that would be used to add up your purchase, print receipts, etc., but after doing all that, the cashiers would double check with an abacus (I guess they didn't trust the machines). Calculating with an abacus (if you are proficient ) is MUCH faster than with a calculator. But in this country, I one asked for a third of a lb of lunch meat at the deli counter. After failing twice I realized the employee had no clue what the decimal equivalent of one third was. Ug.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by odd man out ().

    • odd man out wrote:

      JimBlue wrote:

      I have an abacus and a K&E slide rule.

      There are evidently different abacusi. Mine has 3 beads, a wood bar, and 5 beads. I noticed odd man out has one with 1 bead above the bar abacus.
      yes. Mine is a Japanese style. I bought it in 1971 we I was living in Japan. At that time, all of the store cashiers had cash registers that would add up you purchase, print receipts, etc., but after doing all that, they would double check with an abacus. Calculating with an abacus (if you are proficient ) is much faster than with a calculator. But in this country, I one asked for a third of a lb of lunch meat at the deli counter. After failing twice I realized the employee had no clue what the decimal equivalent of one third wa. Ug.
      I've seen that myself. Kinda sad and kinda amazing. C'mon people.
    • LIhikers wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      ............................are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      I believe we are. Originally the technology was supposed to make us more efficient and productive but it may be having the opposite affect.The latest thing I've noticed is stores where the person behind the cash register doesn't have to handle the coin part of your change. The coins automatically come down a slide on the machine and the cashier only handles the bills. My guess is that is because a lot of people can't figure out what change (coins) to give you even if the register tells them the amount.
      Not really new. I've seen those types of cash registers at large supermarkets and multiplex movie theaters before 1970.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.
    • LIhikers wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      ............................are we becoming dumbed down from technology?
      I believe we are. Originally the technology was supposed to make us more efficient and productive but it may be having the opposite affect.The latest thing I've noticed is stores where the person behind the cash register doesn't have to handle the coin part of your change. The coins automatically come down a slide on the machine and the cashier only handles the bills. My guess is that is because a lot of people can't figure out what change (coins) to give you even if the register tells them the amount.
      McDonalds here in Gadsden is having trouble finding people that can take an order and make change, but then, why bother if you can get a free ride on Uncle Sam's band wagon.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.