Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[AJ Craft]

Thanks for starting this thread Graham. I agree with Lucy, it has been a
great read.

I did some searching and found this article, written in 1998 for the Hall's
30th anniversary, which talks about the Hall's 1970's "Friday Project",
connecting kids with computers. Unfortunately it doesn't name the type of
computer system we had back then, but it's a great read. Many of these
people went on to lead distinguished careers in scientific fields.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/magazine/fall_98/feature_lhs.html


AJ Craft
Technical Project Manager
Center for Technology Innovation
Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
510-643-1984
www.lawrencehallofscience.org

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 10:52 AM, Lucy Greco  wrote:

> hello"
>  this thread has been  fantastic to read i wish a grad student would take
> some time to write up the history of computing on  campus by
> interviewing  all of you  and more of the people that  made computing here
> at Berkeley. cheers to all of you that have been here to see us grow and
> become a community. keep sharing your memorys its otherwise a disk fail
> when we don't have access to the system your brains all is i love the way
> you all help us realize that it may be hard today but it would be nothing
> with out our past. lucy
>
> Lucia Greco
> Web Accessibility Evangelist
> IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
> University of California, Berkeley
> (510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
> Follow me on twitter @accessaces
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 8:03 PM, Aron Roberts 
> wrote:
>
>> Mike's reminiscences about the wonders of nascent cell phones and
>> wireless networks, and Al's about late '90s OCR, both recall this
>> Arthur C. Clarke quote:
>>
>> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
>>
>> (This and more:
>> http://www.clarkefoundation.org/sample-page/sir-arthurs-quotations/)
>>
>>
>> -
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Graham Patterson]

Looks like it may have been an HP 2000B

http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=411

The NOVA was succeeded by an HP. The 2000B had a list price somewhere
between $50,000 and $90,000 from the referenced site. That site is
Australian, so this may be AUS$ prices.

Those things ran magnetic core memory, up to a massive (!) 32K words.

Graham


On 1/21/16 11:32 AM, Graham Patterson wrote:
> We received this request via our web contact address, and realized that
> our records are incomplete (it is less than ten years after we opened),
> so if anyone has any recollections or information we would love to
> combine it.
> 
> There is some information in
> http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED166018.pdf (page 218) that cites an
> 8 terminal NOVA and later a NOVA 800. The DEC PDP 11/70 was a UCB
> service. This is a little earlier than the '75-77 time frame requested.
> 
> The numbers in this report are startling (to me).
> 
> 
> Ken Roland sent a message using the contact form at
> http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/contact-us.
> 
> "During 1975-1977 what was the main computing platform at the campus,
> namely the Lawrence Hall of Science? My first experience with computers
> was there, and I would just like to know what the mainfraime/mini
> computer I was using. Its' the last part of my "computer history" that
> is unclear. Thanks."
> 
> 
> Graham
> 


-- 
Graham Patterson, Systems Administrator
Rm 111, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley   510-643-1984
"...past the iguana, the tyrannosaurus, the mastodon, the mathematical
puzzles, and the meteorite..." - used to be the directions to my office.

 
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Graham Patterson]

The Wikipedia information is interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Hall_of_Science but we do not
have verification.

Graham


On 1/21/16 11:32 AM, Graham Patterson wrote:
> We received this request via our web contact address, and realized that
> our records are incomplete (it is less than ten years after we opened),
> so if anyone has any recollections or information we would love to
> combine it.
> 
> There is some information in
> http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED166018.pdf (page 218) that cites an
> 8 terminal NOVA and later a NOVA 800. The DEC PDP 11/70 was a UCB
> service. This is a little earlier than the '75-77 time frame requested.
> 
> The numbers in this report are startling (to me).
> 
> 
> Ken Roland sent a message using the contact form at
> http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/contact-us.
> 
> "During 1975-1977 what was the main computing platform at the campus,
> namely the Lawrence Hall of Science? My first experience with computers
> was there, and I would just like to know what the mainfraime/mini
> computer I was using. Its' the last part of my "computer history" that
> is unclear. Thanks."
> 
> 
> Graham
> 


-- 
Graham Patterson, Systems Administrator
Rm 111, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley   510-643-1984
"...past the iguana, the tyrannosaurus, the mastodon, the mathematical
puzzles, and the meteorite..." - used to be the directions to my office.

 
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Lucy Greco]

hello"
 this thread has been  fantastic to read i wish a grad student would take
some time to write up the history of computing on  campus by
interviewing  all of you  and more of the people that  made computing here
at Berkeley. cheers to all of you that have been here to see us grow and
become a community. keep sharing your memorys its otherwise a disk fail
when we don't have access to the system your brains all is i love the way
you all help us realize that it may be hard today but it would be nothing
with out our past. lucy

Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces


On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 8:03 PM, Aron Roberts 
wrote:

> Mike's reminiscences about the wonders of nascent cell phones and
> wireless networks, and Al's about late '90s OCR, both recall this
> Arthur C. Clarke quote:
>
> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
>
> (This and more:
> http://www.clarkefoundation.org/sample-page/sir-arthurs-quotations/)
>
>
> -
> The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
>
> To learn more about Micronet, including how to subscribe to or unsubscribe
> from its mailing list and how to find out about upcoming meetings, please
> visit the Micronet Web site:
>
> http://micronet.berkeley.edu
>
> Messages you send to this mailing list are public and world-viewable, and
> the list's archives can be browsed and searched on the Internet.  This
> means these messages can be viewed by (among others) your bosses,
> prospective employers, and people who have known you in the past.
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> ANNOUNCEMENTS: To send announcements to the Micronet list, please use the
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[gts]

Hi Jon,
Not quite. The main academic computer from 1967-1982 was the CDC 6400 (in
Campbell Hall basement until 1971 then in Evans Hall). From sometime
before 1962 the 7040/7090 Direct Couple system, or its predecessor, was
the main system (I learned to program on it, FORTRAN/MAP in 1962); it
departed about 1967. Then a small System 360 was brought in for
administrative computing.
I operated both mainframes in my senior year (1966-1967). The 7040/7090
Direct Couple system was a real computer (actually two computers)!
Flashing lights, input switches, and it took a half hour to start up:
long card deck to boot, then a tape, and setting switches and waiting for
the correct response in the lights, etc. On New Years at midnight we
could not restart it because the date processing had a bug. It even had a
remote card reader at the Computer Center Library in the
T-buildings.

http://www.cozx.com/~dpitts/ibm7090.html (for the picture)

http://gsmall.us/Computing/CDC6400.html
greg
At 06:32 PM 1/22/2016, Jon Johnsen wrote:
In 1967-69, the primary campus
computer was an IBM System 360, 7090/7094, I think in the basement of
Campbell.  I used an IBM 1620 in the basement of Birge, after
sneaking in to get access, to print punch card decks "created"
in one of the T buildings. 

Turn around times for the System 360 were many hours during the day, but
only an hour or less at 2 or 3 in the morning. So we would stay up most
of the night in order to get our simple programs running correctly,
running back and forth between the T buildings and the 7090. 
Or sneak into Birge and use the 1620 . . . 
Jon Johnsen 
Richmond, CA



 
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Kathleen VALERIO]

My sister worked in at the Lawrence Hall of science back in the day maybe
I'll ask her what she remembers - I know we were fascinated as kids that we
could make a picture out of letters and punctuation etc. Turns out my
brother saved something he made way back when in one of his treasure
boxes.  Yes it's amazing how far we've come - and how much we all take for
granted every day.

A thought I had earlier today as I said goodbye to yet another person being
laid off at Shared services - is this- the more we animate our systems -
the more I wish I could talk to a real person. Not for little things like
pulling cash from the bank - but for more complicated things like what the
ramifications are for choosing this benefit plan over the other. Reading
brochures are just not enough.


Yours truly,

Kathleen Valerio, CalPact Coordinator
*CSS Learning & Development*

1608 Fourth Street #309-23
Berkeley, CA 94710-7600

Ph 510 664-9737
kvale...@berkeley.edu
@KathleenValeri0

*UC Berkeley *** reimagines the world ***by challenging convention ***to
shape the future.*

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 12:35 PM, Graham Patterson 
wrote:

>
>
> The Wikipedia information is interesting
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Hall_of_Science but we do not
> have verification.
>
> Graham
>
>
> On 1/21/16 11:32 AM, Graham Patterson wrote:
> > We received this request via our web contact address, and realized that
> > our records are incomplete (it is less than ten years after we opened),
> > so if anyone has any recollections or information we would love to
> > combine it.
> >
> > There is some information in
> > http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED166018.pdf (page 218) that cites an
> > 8 terminal NOVA and later a NOVA 800. The DEC PDP 11/70 was a UCB
> > service. This is a little earlier than the '75-77 time frame requested.
> >
> > The numbers in this report are startling (to me).
> >
> >
> > Ken Roland sent a message using the contact form at
> > http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/contact-us.
> >
> > "During 1975-1977 what was the main computing platform at the campus,
> > namely the Lawrence Hall of Science? My first experience with computers
> > was there, and I would just like to know what the mainfraime/mini
> > computer I was using. Its' the last part of my "computer history" that
> > is unclear. Thanks."
> >
> >
> > Graham
> >
>
>
> --
> Graham Patterson, Systems Administrator
> Rm 111, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley   510-643-1984
> "...past the iguana, the tyrannosaurus, the mastodon, the mathematical
> puzzles, and the meteorite..." - used to be the directions to my office.
>
>
> -
> The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
>
> To learn more about Micronet, including how to subscribe to or unsubscribe
> from its mailing list and how to find out about upcoming meetings, please
> visit the Micronet Web site:
>
> http://micronet.berkeley.edu
>
> Messages you send to this mailing list are public and world-viewable, and
> the list's archives can be browsed and searched on the Internet.  This
> means these messages can be viewed by (among others) your bosses,
> prospective employers, and people who have known you in the past.
>
> ANNOUNCEMENTS: To send announcements to the Micronet list, please use the
> micronet-annou...@lists.berkeley.edu list.
>
 
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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Alex Warren]

Didn't those NOVAs have hamsters on wheels that make the gears grind to
get the punch cards out?

Alex Warren
CED IIT
University of California, Berkeley
485 Wurster Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510) 295-5714

-Original Message-
From: micronet-list-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu
[mailto:micronet-list-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Graham
Patterson
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 11:32 AM
To: micronet-list@lists.berkeley.edu
Subject: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any
information?

We received this request via our web contact address, and realized that
our records are incomplete (it is less than ten years after we opened), so
if anyone has any recollections or information we would love to combine
it.

There is some information in
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED166018.pdf (page 218) that cites an
8 terminal NOVA and later a NOVA 800. The DEC PDP 11/70 was a UCB service.
This is a little earlier than the '75-77 time frame requested.

The numbers in this report are startling (to me).


Ken Roland sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/contact-us.

"During 1975-1977 what was the main computing platform at the campus,
namely the Lawrence Hall of Science? My first experience with computers
was there, and I would just like to know what the mainfraime/mini computer
I was using. Its' the last part of my "computer history" that is unclear.
Thanks."


Graham
--
Graham Patterson, Systems Administrator
Rm 111, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley   510-643-1984
"...past the iguana, the tyrannosaurus, the mastodon, the mathematical
puzzles, and the meteorite..." - used to be the directions to my office.


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Re: [Micronet] For those who have been around a long time...any information?

[Aron Roberts]

Bruce wrote:
> When I came back in 81 to 83, the business school had its own DEC in the 
> basement of Barrows. It was a miracle - you could do your work from one of 
> those blue ascii terminals and get instant results.

Those blue terminals *might* have been ADM-3s or ADM-3As. An up-close
look at an ADM-3 keyboard (click, if needed, to view full-size image
in your browser):
http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/images/1/17/Lear_Siegler_ADM-3-6.jpg
(from article: 
http://terminals.classiccmp.org/wiki/index.php/Lear_Siegler_ADM-3)

And a close look at an ADM-3A screen (also click to view full-size):
https://adcurtin.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/2013-10-20-05-39-26.jpg
(from article: 
https://adcurtin.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/adm3a-ancient-dumb-terminal/)

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 3:29 PM, Bruce Lorenzen  wrote:
> In 1971 they had an IBM 360 in the basement of Evans.  The current lab on
> the south side was full of key punch machines, duplicators etc.  You'd turn
> in your card deck and come back 4 hours later to see if your program
> compiled - only to find out you left a period off some line of code.  Punch
> a replacement card and resubmit
>
> When I came back in 81 to 83, the business school had its own DEC in the
> basement of Barrows. It was a miracle - you could do your work from one of
> those blue ascii terminals and get instant results.  There were a few other
> stand-alone labs scattered around campus that you could go to to type in and
> print your papers.  If they were full, you used a typewriter.
>
> Bruce
>
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 11:32 AM, Graham Patterson 
> wrote:
>>
>> We received this request via our web contact address, and realized that
>> our records are incomplete (it is less than ten years after we opened),
>> so if anyone has any recollections or information we would love to
>> combine it.
>>
>> There is some information in
>> http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED166018.pdf (page 218) that cites an
>> 8 terminal NOVA and later a NOVA 800. The DEC PDP 11/70 was a UCB
>> service. This is a little earlier than the '75-77 time frame requested.
>>
>> The numbers in this report are startling (to me).
>>
>>
>> Ken Roland sent a message using the contact form at
>> http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/contact-us.
>>
>> "During 1975-1977 what was the main computing platform at the campus,
>> namely the Lawrence Hall of Science? My first experience with computers
>> was there, and I would just like to know what the mainfraime/mini
>> computer I was using. Its' the last part of my "computer history" that
>> is unclear. Thanks."
>>
>>
>> Graham
>> --
>> Graham Patterson, Systems Administrator
>> Rm 111, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley   510-643-1984
>> "...past the iguana, the tyrannosaurus, the mastodon, the mathematical
>> puzzles, and the meteorite..." - used to be the directions to my office.
>>
>>
>> -
>> The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
>>
>> To learn more about Micronet, including how to subscribe to or unsubscribe
>> from its mailing list and how to find out about upcoming meetings, please
>> visit the Micronet Web site:
>>
>> http://micronet.berkeley.edu
>>
>> Messages you send to this mailing list are public and world-viewable, and
>> the list's archives can be browsed and searched on the Internet.  This means
>> these messages can be viewed by (among others) your bosses, prospective
>> employers, and people who have known you in the past.
>>
>> ANNOUNCEMENTS: To send announcements to the Micronet list, please use the
>> micronet-annou...@lists.berkeley.edu list.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Lorenzen, RCDD
> Manager, Design & Project Management
> University of California, Berkeley
> 2484 Shattuck Ave.
> Berkeley, CA  94720-1640
>
> Office:  510.643.0883
> Mobile:  510.406.8476
>
> http://ist.berkeley.edu/telecom
>
>
>
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