I used an HP2000c in my first computer job. Then used an IBM 360/30 in my second job. (Same shop, but a different technical team. Big cultural shift.) I remember being on the night shift with a long list of jobs to run. The air conditioning went out and the temp started to rise. At one point, I shut everything down, took a 2 hour nap, fired the 360/30 back up and finished my list.
My first encounter with a computer was at the 1964 World's Fair. I believe it was the IBM Pavilion which offered teletypes where you could type your birthday and get a list of significant events in history. 1964 itself changed all our lives:
Technology 1964
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language is introduced.
IBM announces the System/360.
The world's first high speed rail network opens in Japan
First Ford Mustang is manufactured
Sony introduces the first VCR Home Video Recorder History of Video Recorders
The first driver less train runs on London Underground
China explodes its first Nuclear bomb
Ranger VII takes close-ups of the moon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UhA6dYhnds
Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
Computer Mouse USA by Douglas Engelbart
Bubble Wrap USA by Alfred Fielding & Marc A Chavannes
Frank Gribbin
Information Systems
Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Dunlop
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2014 4:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HP3000-L] IBM 360 - 50 Years Ago
Whoa...blast from the past...my first "IT" job was with IBM at Hursley Park, Hants, UK. There was a large room with multiple cabinets and a revolutionary 360/30, the pride and joy of the department. An additional
360/64 was added later ....wow, a whole 64k!. My job was to transfer print jobs from the mainframe to tape (on huge vacuum-powered autoload tape
drives) and then to write the print data out from the tapes to the "spooled" printers. Which printer the data was directed to depended on what paper was loaded. :) I remember that when the 360 "looped", the "Guru"
would stop by and one-shot the lights, write down the sequence and determine from them where the loop was occurring. Of course this was the time of punch cards with one line of code per card, and overnight processing. One comma out of place and the offending card was chucked, a new one prepared and the whole deck resubmitted to the operator for processing that night...and so on. While I was at IBM, I had the opportunity to work on a new and exciting development...they were going to try a brand new CRT display terminal at the Westminster Bank as a pilot to see if there was any future in it. I never actually got to work on it as they put me into college. What memories...:)
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