Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 2012/02

From: Fred <vze2bsbs@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] IBM 1620
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:32:45 -0500

YUP!

In the 1970's I bought a BIG Friden mechanical calculator (the kind
with the movable carriage and second smaller keypad to the left of
the huge main one, and the little windows for the numbers to spin
by). It weighed a ton but I got it at a mail order surplus house for
$10 plus $5 shipping. It didn't work 100%, but I dug in and sort of
got it working. I was awed by the fact that this all mechanical
machine could multiply and divide. It was NOISY too! I eventually
stored it at work for a couple of decades. When it was time for me
to retire, I tried it one more time, but the motor had frozen and it
was, alas, silent. I think the same thing is going to happen to me.

But anyway, I DID get a Curta type II calculator on eBay that is in
perfect condition. I am awed by such purely mechanical things. I
remember in 1960 when I got my first clarinet I was awed by the
mechanism, and how it affected the different sounds the horn
made. It was love at first toot. I shall continue tooting
'till,alas, I can toot no more.

Fred

At 02:30 PM 2/2/2012, you wrote:
>Frieden calculators anyone?
>
>On Feb 2, 2012, at 10:56 AM, Oliver Seely wrote:
>
> >
> > Oh yeah? How about the vacuum tube ILLIAC I where I had to punch
> > programs on 9-track paper tape in one room and feed them through the
> > reader in another, with a tech standing at the other corner to catch
> > and wrap the program tape as it shot out of the reader. And how the
> > filament voltage was set at 70% of normal during the day but raised
> > to 100% after 5pm when a utility was run to locate all of the bad
> > tubes.
> >
> > You guys are kids! 8-)
> >
> > Oliver
> >
> >> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 08:23:05 -0500
> >> To: klarinet@-----.com
> >> From: gkidder@-----.org
> >> Subject: [kl] IBM 1620
> >>
> >> My goodness, yourself! That sure does take me back. I first
> >> started into
> >> computers at the old Biophysics Laboratory at Harvard Med. School
> >> as a
> >> young post-doc in (I think) 1963, and remember that beast well.
> >>
> >> For the benefit of those who missed this experience: To write a
> >> program,
> >> you first cut a bunch of key-punch cards, and loaded them into the
> >> card
> >> reader along with the first-pass compiler. This produced a stack of
> >> intermediate cards, which were loaded into the reader along with the
> >> second-stage compiler deck. Then, and only then, would it cough
> >> and say
> >> "mixed mode", a common error caused (simplified version) by using a
> >> variable name beginning with i, j, k, l, m, or n for a real (as
> >> opposed to
> >> an integer) number. Or vice-versa. The amount of hard language this
> >> produced had to be experienced!
> >>
> >> I don't remember using Leeson's material, but it's been a long time
> >> now. I
> >> never stopped using computers as aids to my work, but it sure got
> >> easier
> >> and cheaper.
> >>
> >> George
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> At 06:46 PM 2/1/2012, you wrote:
> >>> My goodness. How did you ever get hold of that
> >>> film? I was the producer and it was made for the
> >>> 25th anniversary of the introduction of FORTRAN
> >>> somewhere around 1980. If anything can be credited
> >>> for bringing about the beginning of the computer
> >>> revolution, it was FORTRAN. I don't know if
> >>> anyone uses it today, but it was a cash cow in the
> >>> 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, and without it, the
> >>> introduction of large scale computers (which led
> >>> Jobs to the personal computers) would have been
> >>> delayed enormously.
> >>>
> >>> Dan Leeson
> >>> email: dnleeson@-----.net
> >>> alternate email: leesondaniel899@-----.net
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Mark Charette [mailto:charette@-----.org]
> >>>
> >>> Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 1:23 PM
> >>> To: The Klarinet Mailing List
> >>> Subject: Re: [kl] Saying goodbye
> >>>
> >>> I never met Dan, yet I had read some of his early
> >>> work ...
> >>>
> >>> Basic programming concepts and the IBM 1620
> >>> computer
> >>>
> >>> and seen his movie
> >>>
> >>> http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/FORTR
> >>> AN/video/FORTRAN-1982.wmv
> >>>
> >>> way before I knew he was interested in clarinets.
> >>>
> >>> Software programming, movies, and the clarinet.
> >>>
> >>> What a guy!
> >>>
> >>> Mark C.
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Klarinet mailing list
> >>> Klarinet@-----.com
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> >>> to:
> >>> http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Klarinet mailing list
> >>> Klarinet@-----.com
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> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Klarinet@-----.com
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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