The new style forum for CSBB. My apologies to Phil who maintains...us.

[Scott B]

lol- in 2010, I visited the Smithsonian in DC. I forget which museum it was, but they had an old IBM 705 tube run computer on display. I pointed it out to my wife and told her I used to program that machine. She said you mean one like that? and I said NO-THAT computer. Prudential donated the machine to the Smithsonian when they went to the big multiprograming 360's

Oh,, and I was working for IBM when the 360 was introduced

My father worked with IBM in DC some 40 yrs ago for a couple of years. They were there along with newspapers all over North America to develop a system for the papers. He was working for the Toronto Star at the time. I don't remember too much of exactly what he was doing, I was 16 at the time and more interested in other things such as the female persuasion ......

 

[RussC]

My first computer had the optional hard drive (the big 10K one) so no floppy disk swapping was needed. I sure miss those old days (NOT)

 

[Jackdaw]

OK.

When I joined the Computer Science program at Michigan tech in the fall of 1979, it was an exciting time. The University was replacing its older Univac 1100 with a new 1110/80 with (get this) SOLID STATE MEMORY! The old 1100 had IRON CORE memory.

The old machine and hardware was so massive that the building that housed it was actually designed around it. It was determined that the best and most cost effective way to get it out of the building was to crane it out through the roof. And it was down two floors.

The new MUs (memory units) were then wheeled in on hand trucks. Ah, progress.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I actually hate the old style bulletin boards where once you are 5 responses down you have to keep hitting the back button to get back to the beginning. This is much more user freindly and easier on the eyes. Thanks for all of the hard work put into building and maintaining this site, it is a treasure trove of knowledge.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

What's the song??? "Old Man River" ?

some times it feels like that yes

 

[Davidasailor26]

The old machine and hardware was so massive that the building that housed it was actually designed around it. It was determined that the best and most cost effective way to get it out of the building was to crane it out through the roof. And it was down two floors.

Whoever designed that must've switched jobs to design the locations of fuel and water tanks in boats.

 

[kimelmore]

Since I joined this site it's only gotten better and more user friendly. Thanks for all the hard work Phil.

 

[Liz]

I like this format SO much better! It's much more visually appealing, and I find it to be much more user friendly. The effort to view an entire thread was so annoying on the old site. I hated all the orphan replies with no immediate context, so you'd have to back your way through it all. And once a thread scrolled by, it felt like it was lost to oblivion. Sure, you could go through the archives. But it was a chore to go back in time to just glance through old threads. The new format provides more info about the participants (even if I have neglected to update my profile, I like seeing where people are from and getting a sense of their boats) and about the threads themselves. I am fascinated by the numbers of views that certain threads get. It's easy to glance at it all, see what's new or of interest. Much more efficient use of time. And I love being able to hover over the original post to see the text without having to click on it. So I'll say it again: Thank you, Phil!!!