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OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?
otieatkins:
I'm from the beautiful little town of Belgrade, Maine USA. I used to be a COBOL programmer!! I worked for the US Treasury, worked for a company that went around the US writing and installing Registry of Deeds systems, worked for a couple of banks (boring!!!), worked for WANG Labs in the manufacturing systems group and many more. I've had a wonderful career but retired about 2 years ago. I found that getting older limited my learning capacity and I just couldn't get a handle on the new programming. I love this newsletter, but, to be perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea about a lot of the stuff you kids talk about! So remember, when you write about new stuff, use the "old lady" factor so I don't feel so dumb!! All you kids keep up the great work you're doing - you are our future!!
AussieRodney:
COBOL. Yeah! And Pascal, Fortran, Snobol, punched cards & 11x15 inch fanfold paper! I now have more processing power in my laptop then the entire Computer Centre had back then. And my file server has more grunt than what they took to the moon.
BTW, if you had shown Neil Armstrong a digital watch back then, he wouldn't have known what it was or how it worked.
otieatkins:
Oh AussieRodney, do you ever bring back memories.... The computer used to take up an entire wall of a very good sized room. And the cards - I couldn't tell you how many times I dropped a deck and it took me hours to get it back together again! And never mind the card jams!! Then eventually we made the big move to disks. They were the size of a big tire and must have weighed about 40 pounds. Is was a wonderful adventure back then. So exciting - these "computer things". And to say you worked with them gave you instant Geek status! I could write anything in cobol - today I can't write a working SQL statement - especially if it has sub instructions. Do I miss it? Hell yea!! Would I ever go back? Can't. Just don't have the illogical thinking of today's computer languages. Cobol was cut and dried, it either worked or it didn't.
satishchandra:
well i am a professional surgeon from india was bitten by sw bug long back
but i have done hardware assembly
and i am a spine surgeon to be precise like the tech part of everything
i enjoy this forum as a idea generation site
Darwin:
Welcome Pschmidt, sandyjames , AlSweigart, otieatkins, and satishchandra!
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