# Programming in 1958



## Mumbodog (Oct 3, 2007)

Young Donald Knuth programming an IBM 650 in 1958

So thats were Geek glasses came from.










.


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## techkid (Sep 2, 2004)

Those were the days when computer geeks were kings...

I only missed out by about 30-40 years...


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

techkid said:


> Those were the days when computer geeks were kings...
> 
> I only missed out by about 30-40 years...


Well, I'm sure you could still dress like that, if you wanted. 

Peace...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

techkid said:


> Those were the days when computer geeks were kings...
> 
> I only missed out by about 30-40 years...


I do have to say, when I worked for IBM in the 60's people were in awe that I worked with computers.  Of course, a computer filled a very large room and had an enormous A/C unit right there keeping it cool!  It was also the days of 7megabyte disk packs and 64k of memory being impressive statistics!


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## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

I remember back in the late 60s early 70s, one of our contractors used paper tape to load the computer that controlled a missile and satellite radar detection system at the time. And the tech whom did the work could read the paper tape code visually (octal - as I remember) - quite impressive!

-- Tom


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I used paper tape in the early 70's, though ours was 8 bit ASCII. That was my primary I/O for a piece of avionics test equipment I was building. I punched out the whole program using an ASR-33, and I was VERY unpopular with the lab techs, because I put the development machine in the lab after I got tired of it clattering away at my desk!  I did have a high speed reader, so I could boot the software at a decent speed...


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## techkid (Sep 2, 2004)

I'm very impressed. Nowadays, it seems that any kid who can install Windows is entitled to call themselves a "genius".



tomdkat said:


> Well, I'm sure you could still dress like that, if you wanted.
> 
> Peace...


No, I don't think so...

I don't like long-sleeved shirts .


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Check out this page and the clips.
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html


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## new tech guy (Mar 27, 2006)

Very interesting, its hard to think that some of these people (some here) worked on these beasts, the first computer i laid hands on was an Apple IIe if memory serves me right (very young then) and the first pc in the house had windows 95 and a 28.6 dialup modem  . Ever since ive been learning computers by tearing them apart and messing around with various things. Converted a desktop to a home server, learned some networking, now im in school for it and i love doing it.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

When I worked for IBM, I actually took a service call on an IBM 704 tube computer, what a trip! I was actually able to get it running, just looked for the tubes that didn't have any filaments burning.


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## new tech guy (Mar 27, 2006)

Wow! That is old John! If you messed up a couple of tubes you think a rocket would have launched ?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I was told by the normal guy that had the account that it would run with some tubes dead. Apparently, there is some redundancy built-in to the design. I had no idea what I was doing there, I was a 360 guy, so I just went for the low hanging fruit.


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