QUOTE(MamaMoose @ Jan 23 2007, 12:54 AM) [snapback]116752[/snapback]
My first computer at Westinghouse Atomic Power was an IBM 650. In 1955, the only memory we had was a 1000 word rotating magnetic drum.
You may have run across on the net the story of Mel, a
real programmer,
here and
here and
here, three of countless copies. Supposedly, it was posted to a usenet site in 1983. It's a terrific story.
The first link above is to a page that's easier to read than the second if free verse is bothersome (and maybe something is changed), with an explanation at the bottom allegedly by the original poster.
QUOTE
[1992 postscript --- the author writes: "The original submission to the net was not in free verse, nor any approximation to it --- it was straight prose style, in non-justified paragraphs. In bouncing around the net it apparently got modified into the `free verse' form now popular. In other words, it got hacked on the net. That seems appropriate, somehow."]
The third one has this at the bottom:
QUOTE
[Posted to USENET by its author, Ed Nather , on 1983-05-21]
I ran a search of "Ed Nather" and came up with a ton of hits.
This link is to an article on the
IBM 650.
QUOTE
The IBM 650, on the other hand was designed to be affordable and easy to use. And compared to what else
was available in the late 1950's, the IBM 650 was:
* cheap: It only cost a half a million dollars.
* small: It fit in a single room.
* user friendly: It was programmed in decimal rather than binary.
IBM sold nearly two thousand units of the IBM 650, and it was the first computer to make a significant profit for its manufacturer.
I remember reading years ago about IBM selling two models of the same mainframe, the first being upgradable to the power of the second model, at a cost of thousands of dollars.
It turned out that when the customer forked over the cash, a programmer would work on the computer for hours upgrading it. According to the story, though, all the programmer really did was throw a single switch that had crippled the thing, then waste hours of time.
Who knows if it's true, though I suspect it is. My first VCR was like that. The difference between two models was some dollar figure that I can't recall after 20 years. But the only real difference was one extra button on the otherwise identical remotes that would eject the tape.
