On Tuesday 26 December 2006 13:55, James Knott wrote: > > The oldest "computer" I worked on didn't even have a display. It was > a special purpose machine, made by Teleregister and installed at the > Toronto Stock Exchange in 1952. It used vacuum tubes, relays and a > memory drum. It was older than me!
Does a long distance telephone switch/router system qualify as a "computer"? If so, AT&T had some downright ancient stuff that stayed in service until the maintenance costs forced them to upgrade. Stuff that used perforated rectangular metal plates for programming. After working there a while, one could tell how well the system was performing by the background noise made by all those relays (and those damned plates getting shuffled in and out). Now all you hear is the air flowing through the vents. Take it from one who had to learn solid state electronics after graduating: I wouldn't trade those experiences, but I wouldn't go back, either. One final serious note: It is really discomforting to see all the "engineers" nowdays that haven't a clue as to how things work. Take any piece of modern technology say, the i-pod, for example. How many people outside of Apple's labs really understand it's internals? Forget for a moment that one does not need to know how a watch works to be able to read the time, just consider the question. <snip a long rant> </soapbox> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
