When computer hard drives were furniture.

[bigwheelzip]

Jessie's thread about the "Old Office" made me look back and chuckle at the memory of "State of the Art" computer hardware we used 30 years ago, before the modern PC.
Starting and turning off a main frame computer to do CAD work required a half-hour with a checklist. The hard drives were the size of furniture and the discs needed to be stored in hatboxes.



Anybody else have major changes to the tools of their trade?

 

[cmort666]

Jessie's thread about the "Old Office" made me look back and chuckle at the memory of "State of the Art" computer hardware we used 30 years ago, before the modern PC.
Starting and turning off a main frame computer to do CAD work required a half-hour with a checklist. The hard drives were the size of furniture and the discs needed to be stored in hatboxes.



Anybody else have major changes to the tools of their trade?

I have a few of those in the back of my closet (the bare platters).

I literally can't remember the last time I used a 3 1/2" floppy disk, never mind a 5 1/2".

 

[bigwheelzip]

I have a few of those in the back of my closet (the bare platters).

I literally can't remember the last time I used a 3 1/2" floppy disk, never mind a 5 1/2".

Those floppy's weren't so bad. The main frames backed-up onto reel-to-reel tape, that was very annoying to use and store.

What do you use the platters for?

 

[Jimmyjones]

Those are/were the tools of my trade. Been in Hard Drives since the early 80's.
100% increase in capacity /year. Reduction in size and power requirements.

Now with solid state taking over the office/personal computer market we're doing the last channels. Revolving media will exist for a long time, but in specialized areas.

The company is shifting focus away from magnetics, moving toward solid state. So over all, corporate is doing well, at the expense of the existing technology.

We're funding our own demise, revenues are going to re-tool, there's no new development in my division and as soon as sale flatten or start to drop, we're gone.

Hopefully it'll last long enough for me to retire gracefully, been a good run.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Better that then all the people who studied and went into "computer programming" only to become obsolete at age 40 and replaced by "software engineers". I know a few, they work on contingent fees for niche applications that still find use for their skills. Anyone remember IBM AS400 or Silverlake? Ha Ha, they are all rendered for parts by now. My professors made us learn "PASCAL" the computer "language of the future". Never saw it before or since. Most companies are outsourcing their information technology just to make it all someone else's problem even if it costs more. My office said farewell to our computer people last October and there has been no looking back. Good luck!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

The first hard drive I ever saw was in an AF computer lab.
The OIC was very proud of it!
It was as large as a small Frig. Built by IBM, I think.
He only had one and it was very small by today's standards.
This place still two walls of spinning tape drives.

 

[Muss Muggins]

When I was in high school, I once dropped a program on the way to the computer lab. And by program, I mean a big box full of punch cards . . .

 

[Jimmyjones]

The first hard drive I ever saw was in an AF computer lab.
The OIC was very proud of it!
It was as large as a small Frig. Built by IBM, I think.
He only had one and it was very small by today's standards.
This place still two walls of spinning tape drives.

I referbed those wall locker IBM drives in the late 80's. There was an incredible installed base, Military, DMV, finance..... But no new production.
We kept thing going till they were able to migrate to more 'modern' platforms.

LOL, that turned into $0.15/lb for reclaimable metals.

 

[bigwheelzip]

When I was in high school, I once dropped a program on the way to the computer lab. And by program, I mean a big box full of punch cards . . .

LOL, I knew right away where you were going with that. I never walked so carefully as when carrying those danged cards.

 

[H Richard]

When I started in a Hospital business office there was a Burroughs electronic accounting machine that recorded charges on a ledger card with a magnetic strip and you could create statements (and an aged trial balance) with them. Took a couple days to close out a month end and generate statements. Had to be done on night shift as it was so noisy you couldn't work in the same room. Progressed to wired board data processing machines, which progressed to a variety of IBM card type machines over the next number of years, to huge mainframe processors and banks of hard drives, down to (when I retired) networked PC's with small mainframe processors for maintaining the AR's and personnel/Payroll. I have no idea what they are running now to operate a 325 bed hospital with all the complexities of Obamacare.

 

[LMWIS]

Toronto Police Traffic Services was housed in a repurposed 'data hotel' building.

Essentially a huge windowless building that could be air conditioned to house the huge data storage bank machines of the day. Companies could contract for data storage services, without having to have the floor space the units required.

Reductions in the space required for data storage equipment rendered the building obsolete before it was even completed. The building sat vacant for years because there wasn't any demand for large windowless buildings in high rent urban Toronto.

Made for an interesting work space.

 

[BaaBaa]

When I was in high school, I once dropped a program on the way to the computer lab. And by program, I mean a big box full of punch cards . . .

OTOH that is also know as a "floor sort" useful when you didn't want tocreate a random set of cards for some program for testing. ;-)

 

[kwselke]

I believe it was 1976 or 1977 when I wrote my first computer progarm and submitted it to the computer lab on state of the art media.

Those were the days!

 

[cmort666]

Those floppy's weren't so bad. The main frames backed-up onto reel-to-reel tape, that was very annoying to use and store.

What do you use the platters for?

Nothing.

I thought I might use them as hanging targets or something else. They're just sitting in the closet now.

 

[cmort666]

My professors made us learn "PASCAL" the computer "language of the future". Never saw it before or since.

Actually, PASCAL isn't a bad language for writing compiled PC apps. It's a lot easier to use, albeit less efficient than C or C++.

 

[cmort666]

I believe it was 1976 or 1977 when I wrote my first computer progarm and submitted it to the computer lab on state of the art media.

Those were the days!

I almost didn't graduate from college in '80 because of those.

We had no computer on campus other than an Altair PC that the "computer science" department had no idea what to do with.

Our actual computer was twenty five miles away at the University of Missouri Columbia. I had one more program to run to pass my COBOL class and the connection with Mizzou went down. A card reader with no computer on the other end doesn't do much. The professor tried to flunk me, but the ROTC department got involved and pressured him to let me run my job when the line was back up. I got it to run and passed the course.

I've still got a punch card that I got during ROTC Advanced Camp in-processing at Ft. Riley in '79. It's sitting in my Russian grammar book as a bookmark.

 

[shouldazagged]

<SIGH> I'm sitting here remembering my fascination with the analog fire direction computers on battleships. And UNIVAC.

I was middle-aged before I owned a rudimentary word processor.

My first hand-held electronic calculator was almost the size and weight of a brick. My first PC had a 386 processor, and I thought it was hot stuff.

I feel old. Which is fair enough--I am old. But still...

 

[arjay]

I remember learning basic(?)in high school and using rolls of yellow tape.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I went to a ag high shool.
In my shop- blacksmith phase, I made a chisel.

 

[cmort666]

My first hand-held electronic calculator was almost the size and weight of a brick. My first PC had a 386 processor, and I thought it was hot stuff.

My first PC was a Commodore VIC 20.

My first real PC was a Columbia 8088, the size of a Micro-Vax. It came with MS-DOS 1.25.