I do remember IBM punch cards very well - I wish I could get my hands on some! They made great pin wheels and note pads. I've been in Information Technology now for over 30 years, working on everything from punch cards to - now - the internet - astounding progess in such a short period of time. I also had pleasure of assisting a railroad through technology changes while I worked for IBM in Philadelphia in the early 90's, when Conrail was the primary client I worked with. I was part of a team that helped open their Customer Service Center near the Pittsburgh airport, as well as getting them to buy in on the idea of putting the Automatic Equipment Identifier tags you now see on every freight car in the country. It was a fun job! On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Ralph McClive <rmcclive_@_twcny.rr.com> wrote: > > Re:(erielack) punch cards >> >> i still have a stack of unused IBM punch cards about 3 inches thick in a >> desk drawer - started in a bank in buffalo in 1959 - one of our customers >> was C&O rr which had paychecks that were punched cards- they were a trip, >> weekly we looked for a guys check that went to a greasy spoon to cash his >> check, bacon grease and egg all over it - needless to say that check >> wouldn't go thru any of our machines, anyone remember the cummins card >> conditioner?? - last time i used punched cards was in 1981, did an >> application in north carolina where decks of ibm cards were made up to used >> to test old, obsolute missle systems that went into remanufacture for a >> middle east country - i still have the forearms developed from those 5200 >> blocks of the cards - straight computers from 1982 till i retired in 2002 - >> ralph in syracuse >> > > > > > ---- >> >> >> From Archives_@_Railfan.net >> Message-ID: <928480.85146.qm_@_web33805.mail.mud.yahoo.com> >> In-Reply-To: <id.03102008220152.00000_@_FPE> >> Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 19:31:41 -0700 (PDT) >> From: "Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin_@_yahoo.com> >> Subject: Re:(erielack) punch cards >> >> - --- On Fri, 10/3/08, Janet & Randy Brown <jananran_@_mymailstation.com> >> wrote: >> > I wonder if a spare bedroom would hold a card punch and a >> > reader and a sorter - not to mention the noise and the >> > stress on the framework of the house. These things were >> > MACHINES! >> >> When I started college in June 1969, the school actually OWNED an IBM 1620 >> computer, which had its own card reader and punch. It was about the size of >> an office desk. It also had several off-line card punches, a card SORTER, >> and a machine that read cards and PRINTED their contents. The room was half >> the size of a regular classroom, and it was full. Over in the corner was a >> programmable electronic calculator from Wang Labs. It had one part on the >> table and another (bigger) underneath. Together, it weighed about 40 >> pounds. Most of the machines were noisy, either in themselves or because of >> their cooling fans. >> >> > Not only did the cards carry the data (as we learned to >> > call "information") but they held the programs as >> > well. Oh, boy! The excitement and vocabulary lesson when >> > someone carrying a stack of program cards dropped them! >> >> 5200 pick-up, as we called it. The sorter helped, if you could figure out >> which columns you wanted sorted and in what order - assuming you'd bothered >> to number the cards as the instructor had warned. >> >> > And, remember -- not all nor everywhere was punch cards. >> >> Yes, there was paper tape, magnetic tape, and something called magnetic >> core storage. The 1620 had something like 10K! >> >> > Many of us spent untold hours shortening #2 Eberhards >> > transcribing deathless "data" onto sheets which >> > were . . . not faxed, but sent by company (Army, in my case) >> > mail to someplace else, where someone else did something >> > else with them (probably putting them on punchcard) while we >> > went back out and did another yard check. >> >> At work, we switched from IBM computers to Control Data, which used a >> different coding scheme for special characters. EVERY program had to go >> through a conversion program, so suddenly we had more than double the cards >> we had before: the IBM deck to use until the hardware was changed and the >> CDC deck to use afterward. If the data got updated, or new info was >> received, we had to change BOTH... >> >> > The good ol' days . . . >> >> NOT! >> >> Gary R. Kazin >> DL&W Milepost R35.7 >> Rockaway, New Jersey >> >> >> >> >> The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List >> http://EL-List.railfan.net/ <http://el-list.railfan.net/> >> To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html<http://lists.railfan.net/erielackunsub.html> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> End of EL Mail List Digest V3 #2887 >> *********************************** >> > > > RRRRRRR > RR RR > RR RR > RRRRRRRR > RR RR > RR RR Ralph McClive > RR RR rmcclive_@_twcny.rr.com > > The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List > http://EL-List.railfan.net/ <http://el-list.railfan.net/> > To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html<http://lists.railfan.net/erielackunsub.html> > The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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