RE: [chat] MTA wars

["Jon Biddell" <jon@xxxxxxxxx>]

-=> Umm, I did have notes on a TPG 16/64 that you booted 
-=> various ways (different addresses) depending on what you 
-=> were doing (normal day, end of day, end of month, backup, 
-=> etc). It mightily annoyed the office girls that I could be 
-=> given 8 hex numbers (2 x 4) and know which ways to set the 
-=> switches, whereas they had to be given 1up, 2 down, 2up, etc.
-=> 
-=> Then of course there were the PDP 11's and their 
-=> variations. so much fun having to hand compile and load an 
-=> assembler program in my first computer lab. Pox on you of 
-=> course, because I've just jumped up to see when the PDP 11 
-=> handbook is. (yes I still have it) and of course, it isn't 
-=> there atm. Now it will bug me until I relocate it. {:-).

Ah, fondly I remember the PDP11, and my first IT job in....errrr.....
1975, as a Junior Operator... First thing they taught you was how to
mentally convert between dec/octal/hex/binary... Then how to
hand-assemble to bootstrap routines and toggle them in.....

Of course, there was the obligatory "Star Trek" game, played on the DEC
LA36 printing terminal (printer with a keyboard, really), which was my
introduction to a "real" programming language... BASIC...

Migrated from there to Cobol and (thank $DEITY), SQL....:-)

Officially now feeling *very* old.....:-)

Jon