RE: OT -- suggestions to ensure nerdiness in potential IT

Boy you hit a sour note just then. I worked in a small eastern Conn town for a tv repair shop years ago. Xerox approached the boss and talked him into becomming the "repair rep" for the area. He has offered stock for pennies. I continued to work on the tvs with the thick screens (fishbowls) Weighed a ton. I would have retired years ago if I only jumped on the band wagon when I was young and foolish. Now I'm just foolish.

I got my start with AT&T Long Lines. I used to wire the telegraph cross connections in the Hartford, Conn office. +130 volts and - 130 volts. Fun stuff. From there I progressed to the telephone private line board, interstate test board, and finally radio transmittion department. When the world of electronic switching started was the beginning of computers for me. I was part of the crew that maintained the 4A electromechanical switching machine. And yes we also used PDP 11 machines to record the automatic billing for your toll calls. We had to trouble shoot failures of the centeral computer down to the failing pack or connection and then replace the failed part. 1 K of RAM was about 16x16 inches 4 in thick. doughnut memory that you could change the polarity by the current through the wires. Machine language and a variety of assembly was the language of the day. I was introduced to Oracle when I moved to GA 12 years ago to do analysis work the the National cable protection program. the rest is history, subject matter expert, supervisor, sys admin, dba, traveling man. retired but still working.

ROR mª¿ªm

>>> kevin_at_dulcian.com 08/02/01 03:55PM >>>
yeah, that guy is probably kicking himsef. but probably not as bad as the boneheads a Xerox!
KK

No offense if someone on this list currently works for, has worked for or knows someone that works or worked for Xerox, you're not boneheads:)

-----Original Message-----
Michael (TEM)
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 3:10 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

I sure hope somebody is capturing this thread! This is a history of computing as seen by the people in the trenches!

Now...

> 3) What company made the first "Portable" (luggable) computers?
It was either Kaypro or Osborne. The Ozzy had a little tiny 40-column screen and dual 5.25" floppies. The Kaypro had an 80-column screen and dual floppies.

If I remember correctly, Microsoft bought QDOS from Seattle Computer Works for around $50k so they could have an O/S for IBM's first PC. I cannot remember the name of the guy who owned CP/M, but they would not sign IBM's non-disclosure agreement, and sent IBM to Gates. MS had nothing to lose so they signed and the rest is history.

---
===========================================================================
Michael P. Vergara              | Don't worry about the world ending today;
Oracle DBA                      | it's already tomorrow in Australia.
Guidant Corporation             |                          - Charles Schulz


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 10:41 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L





> The cartridge that came with the 2600 was COMBAT.  It had a tank game

> and a biplane game.  If they added another cartridge, it must have been

> in the later years.  And the whole package cost $150


Now I remember...



> 1) Who started Atari, what else did he start?

> 2) What Graphical computer preceeded the Mac?


Lisa, thats easy.  I remember seeing a demo of it.  I was totally amazed.
Everyone was drooling over it.  It was big and expensive, and then the Mac
came out and they were selling like crazy.  Everyone had one except for me.




> CP/M Control Program for Microcomputers - It was the first big OS.

> 2.5 What was the first Big Time Word processor that eventually lost out

> to Word?


WordPerfect.  Not sure they lost out.  I believe it was a mix of they didnt
push there Windows version like MS, and then of course, the MS marketing
machine.  They were another company that had 90%+ of the market and thought
they were the king, untoucable and arrogant then along came MS with Word.
Its been the same story over and over with every company that has gone up
against MS.  And Palm/Handspring is next...



> 3) What company made the first "Portable" (luggable) computers?


Oh I cant think of the name.  But the metal case was sort of a greyish blue,
and it had a "lid" which was the keyboard.  And it had a little monochrome
monitor, and I believe it was 5 1/4 floppy drive.



> The first MAC (128K, 400K floppy) had no handle, I had one(still have

> it)

> 4) What was "Special" about the inside of the Mac case?


It has the signatures of all the creators.



> 5) Who wrote QDOS?

>

> sigh, I agree, the good ol' daze....







>>> ThaterW_at_telergy.net 08/02/01 06:57AM >>>

On Thu, 2 Aug 2001,Boivin, Patrice J scribbled on the wall in glitter
crayon:

->Was CP/M the OS that Bill Gates bought just before making his big
deal with
->IBM?  Can't remember.
->
->Regards,
->Patrice Boivin
->Systems Analyst (Oracle Certified DBA)
->
->      -----Original Message-----
->      CP/M [or is it CPM i've seen it written both ways.]
->
->
AFAIK, no.  it was an OS from a small local company called QDOS [Quick
and
Dirty Operating System] if i'm not suffering from too much bit rot.

CP/M was the other OS in contention.

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