[TriLUG] Old Guy Stories

[jbrigman at nc.rr.com]

I can't top the old guy stories, but I can provide the dot at the end 
of the sentence:

The "ADDS 4" terminals replaced/supplemented the card readers at NCSU, 
sometime in the late 80's. Through a crook of fate, I had to take the 
last semester of the last IBM 360 assembly language class at NCSU. That 
was in 1990, the year Paul mentions. The ADDS terminals in the bottom 
of Daniels were the common access mode at the time, (I think the 
Rainbows arrived in 1991?) and there were still long lines, even on 
Friday night, to get to the terminals. The two remaining cardpunch 
terminals/readers were always empty. So I bummed a box of cards from a 
roommate and used the keypunch terminals. I never had to wait in line 
for a terminal, and the assembly language programs we wrote were small 
enough that using cards was no big deal.

The following semester, I felt the irony of happening by just as those 
keypunch terminals were being wheeled out of Daniels by the physical 
plant, displaced by the impending renovations. It was one of those rare 
and bittersweet moments when one got to witness the actual turning of 
the technology. 

By that time, I was screaming along on a C-64/80 Column Card and using 
the dial-in modems. Working at home, HiU (Homework in Underwear) mode 
became de rigeur. Nary a moment of nostalgia for the old days.

JKB


----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Jones <pjones at metalab.unc.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 8, 2007 4:11 pm
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] visiting Red Hat HQ
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list <trilug at trilug.org>

> we're playing the old guy game now. .......
> i came to unc in 1977 the 360/75 was still there. so was tucc. 
> until 1990. 
...
> http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/holdings/campus/tucc.html