I first encountered computers when I was a physics major at Dartmouth College. My math prof was John Kemeny, then chairman of the Math Department, and later president of the college: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Kemeny
Kemeny wanted some of the physics majors to work with him on a computer language he was developing -- which turned out to be the original form of BASIC, also know as Dartmouth BASIC. We went to the computer building and did a few of the exercises, but the whole process of punch cards and print outs took took much time and patience. Besides, we had our slide rules, so why would we want to use computers? Kemeny and BASIC went on to success and fame, Dartmouth got some money from the copyright to BASIC for years, and I switched from Physics to International relations and eventually to law school, and that has made all the difference. <G> Dan Matyola http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 11:02 AM, Bruce Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > The first computer I ever used was at the Canadian National Exhibition > when I was about ten. I gave the lady fifty cents and after a minute I > was handed five punch cards with my fortune printed on them. I became > very suspicious of this almost immediately and I've never really > trusted computers since then. > > > On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 10:03 AM, John <[email protected]> wrote: >> Thinking back on it, I don't even know what the first computer I used was. >> >> We handed in our punch cards at the window & came back the next day to get a >> printout so we could see if the program had run. >> >> Besides that, the only thing I remember is the telephone bill came on an IBM >> punch card that had to be returned with payment, and those cards fit into >> the card punch machine so I could write rude messages to the phone company >> before sending them back. >> >> The first computer I ever owned was a 16Mhz Emerson PC-AT clone with a 40meg >> harddrive & 5-14" floppy drive DOS 3.3 and a modem. I don't remember now, >> but it may have even had a CGA display. >> >> >> On 2/13/2014 3:10 AM, J.C. O'Connell wrote: >>> >>> The first computer I ever used was a HP85, built in monitor, tape drive, >>> and BASIC. >>> I forget what these cost, but we used a quite a few of these as >>> instrument controllers >>> at work in both engineering and production. >>> >>> >>> On 2/13/2014 2:42 AM, John Coyle wrote: >>>> >>>> Very first computer I ever specified and bought for my employer was an >>>> HP86A, green screen, 2 * 5.25 >>>> floppies, plug-in 64k memory module, Epson M1500 printer and an HP >>>> plotter - bargain at $13,500! >>>> My *istD I bought for a heavily discounted $1900 direct from the >>>> importer. >>>> >>>> >>>> John Coyle >>>> Brisbane, Australia >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: PDML [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of CollinB >>>> Sent: Wednesday, 12 February 2014 10:47 PM >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> Subject: Re: When did equipment get so cheap? >>>> >>>>> Yeah, that's it. The same sort of thing happened with PC's. Remember >>>>> what the first XT's cost? >>>>> >>>>> Alan C >>>> >>>> When I was selling Apple ][ plus computers, people would spend $2500+ >>>> on the system to run a $200 >>>> VisiCalc program. >> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > > > -- > -bmw > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
