Comments on: Technology Over the Years http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/ Nicom IT Solutions Inc. is a full service IT professional services firm providing Software Development, IT Consulting, E-commerce Solutions, Technical Support, and Web design & Development in addition to staffing services. Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:16:59 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: George http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2499 George Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:35:51 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2499 Your info brought to light some others back to mind for me that were developed & produced for the PC beginnings - to name a few - Super Calc, WordStar, Lotus 123 (B4 IBM Screwed it up) & a program named HAL ( developed by a fellow in his garage ) that generated the code for Lotus 123 for the non mathematician, and so many more that have been the background of today's IT Programming. One can go back to the introduction of the first Electronic Calculators (adding machines) like the Olivetti, Burroughs, Texas Instruments that went on & on when say multiplying - and the period where you didn't trust the results so you still did it all by hand addition to check it. The old manual hand cranked was retired from the office assets to become a thing of the past. George (via email) Your info brought to light some others back to mind for me that were developed & produced for the PC beginnings – to name a few – Super Calc, WordStar, Lotus 123 (B4 IBM Screwed it up) & a program named HAL ( developed by a fellow in his garage ) that generated the code for Lotus 123 for the non mathematician, and so many more that have been the background of today’s IT Programming.

One can go back to the introduction of the first Electronic Calculators (adding machines) like the Olivetti, Burroughs, Texas Instruments that went on & on when say multiplying – and the period where you didn’t trust the results so you still did it all by hand addition to check it. The old manual hand cranked was retired from the office assets to become a thing of the past.

George
(via email)

]]> By: Greg http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2494 Greg Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:24:33 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2494 Hi Pat, Saw your article in the Herald - great story. Greg (via email) Hi Pat,

Saw your article in the Herald – great story.

Greg
(via email)

]]> By: Pat d'Entremont http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2491 Pat d'Entremont Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:35:54 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2491 Hi Dave Thanks for your comments. I see that CompuServe, now owned by AOL, still sells dial-up service for $17.95 per month. Pat Hi Dave

Thanks for your comments. I see that CompuServe, now owned by AOL, still sells dial-up service for $17.95 per month.

Pat

]]> By: Dave http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2490 Dave Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:33:25 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2490 Hi Pat, Read your article this morning with a smile on my face. I think you and I started at the same time so it was all relevant. So many “young” programmers today are amazed when they learn that yes, I can work with mainframes – and still do. I especially liked the part about the internet. My wife still teases me today about declaring that this whole internet thing was doomed to fail. At the time, I was a heavy CompuServe user, and the concept of having all this unorganized information scattered all over the place felt totally useless. Who knew that the solution of organizing that information was the next big thing! Have a great holiday, DaveH (via email) Hi Pat,

Read your article this morning with a smile on my face. I think you and I started at the same time so it was all relevant. So many “young” programmers today are amazed when they learn that yes, I can work with mainframes – and still do. I especially liked the part about the internet. My wife still teases me today about declaring that this whole internet thing was doomed to fail. At the time, I was a heavy CompuServe user, and the concept of having all this unorganized information scattered all over the place felt totally useless. Who knew that the solution of organizing that information was the next big thing!

Have a great holiday,
DaveH
(via email)

]]> By: Pat d'Entremont http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2487 Pat d'Entremont Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:23:49 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2487 That's right, and you could use the last 8 columns on the cards for sequence numbers if you wanted, then if you dropped them you could pass them through a sorter. But of course, no one bothered doing that. That’s right, and you could use the last 8 columns on the cards for sequence numbers if you wanted, then if you dropped them you could pass them through a sorter. But of course, no one bothered doing that.

]]> By: S http://blog.nicomit.com/index.php/2009/12/technology-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-2486 S Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:20:09 +0000 http://blog.nicomit.com/?p=471#comment-2486 Hi Pat I definitely remember the days of school encoding on column cards at UCCB. Fortran, Pascal, Cobol, original dBase, etc. and building my first computer with the 9.5 drive, then thinking how exciting to go to a 5 inch hard drive build. Getting jostled ;at the university console for processing so your own program cards would fall so your class mates would get their results in first, as you put your cards in order once again. Lesson learned there was; elastics (string) are always good to keep them (cards) together, till you were at the console to put the cards through. Smiles and Cheers! S (via email) Hi Pat

I definitely remember the days of school encoding on column cards at UCCB. Fortran, Pascal, Cobol, original dBase, etc. and building my first computer with the 9.5 drive, then thinking how exciting to go to a 5 inch hard drive build. Getting jostled ;at the university console for processing so your own program cards would fall so your class mates would get their results in first, as you put your cards in order once again. Lesson learned there was; elastics (string) are always good to keep them (cards) together, till you were at the console to put the cards through.

Smiles and Cheers!

S
(via email)

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