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1st touch on a Computer

mikejee said:
Janice
I went on a course in about 1974 which was supposed to teach me the basics of Algol 68 (I still had the manual up to a few years ago. The instructions had to be punched onto cards and then sent off to the computer centre. Also used a machine that produced all its data electronically , and this had to be sent off to Manchester for analysis (I think the machine there was called Atlas), as the computer at Leeds could not handle anything so complex
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When I first taught, the computer science pupils had to type programme codes on punched paper and then send these to the council house to be run - schools could not afford computers (neither money nor space). Then wait for them to come back - correct any errors and send them back for re-running. You can imagine how long it took!
 
The first computer I ever touched had a keyboard as have all those I've touched since. I'm only a two finger typist but can type quite fast.
However, if I was asked to sketch a keyboard, the only keys I could reliably show on the sketch are the 'qwerty' keys. I seem to instinctively know where all the keys are but can't draw a sketch showing where they are!

I've just typed this out 'one fingered' on my iPad using the predictive text ... :)
 
It's a long time since I tried Voice Recognition and, although it took time to set up, it did show some promise then. I know things have improved since - if nothing else, people get it to work out of the box - but it seems to be as accurate as it was. OCR is usually pretty good and I have used it a lot. It does need it's own text size roughly adhered to and never gets 100%. Such software is usually built for English language/character set so I can see how things wouldn't go so well in Greek, Cyrillic and, especially, Arabic and Chinese/Japanese although, I'd suppose there's different software for east Asia. I once scanned a whole book on Aabbyy (https://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600321.txt) as well as a couple of decades worth of a local community newspaper (https://cdn.staffordshire.gov.uk/birmingham/files/87/65/312.pdf)
As to operating systems, most people only think of such things in terms of desktop computers or the iPad and think Linux is something trivial but a few years ago it took over everything else. Servers seem to use that or plain Unix rather than Windows and one version is taking over on everything less than a desktop (Android).
I didn't learn programming until the 80s and that was COBOL - Data General's version. I still have the manuals for the last version of that and my old Unix set (both CD versions) around somewhere.
 
I really didn't think I should take this bait - COBOL (Common Business-Orented Language - but I did! Does anyone still use it? Yes, banks, financial institutions, government and (amazingly) traffic lights! That last one really does shock me. This is where the maxim "if it ain't broke don't fix it" really comes into play. It's reliable and the cost of re-writing millions of lines of code in Java or C# is enormous. Rather like the Civil Service still using antiquated versions of Windows and Internet Explorer, it's all about money! I'm not going to say any more because this is a Birmingham history forum not a techie computer one, except that WAM made me do it! :)

Maurice
 
For what it's worth, my career in COBOL was spent on the accounting/stock control section of S Rose & Co, (then in the old Typhoo building). The magazine scans mentioned in the post were of the (Balsall) Heathan which ran from 1973 to 2015. We now have (digital at least) copies of all of them. The book scanned on Gutenberg actually credits me with the job although I didn't do it for them - although they also credit me for every book they have by that writer.
 
sospiri said:
I'm not going to say any more because this is a Birmingham history forum not a techie computer one, except that WAM made me do it! :)

Maurice
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Like most forums the BHF has a 'Computer Help' section and we all have to use our computers to see and respond to the forum so we are likely to sometimes post about computers. The Windows 10 thread gives a good account of ordinary oldish forum folk coping with the upgrade to Windows 10 and we all seem to have got there in the end .... I think some of us might secretly like Win 10 ... :D
 
Phil,

Anyone buying a computer for the first time in the last year or so will have never known anything else and an XP/Win 7 style screen probably looks very strange and antiquated to them, especially if they had had an iPad or some similar device. As an oldtimer (and a fairly deaf one at that), my mobile lies uncharged, and Win 7 (64 bit version) does everything I need from a computer. Our village is situated in a valley between mountains and the mobile signal is very often non-existent, and I only use the landline phone if I have to answer it! I'm slowly becoming a Luddite! :)

WAM,

I did dabble with COBOL in the 1980s on a PC, used Fortran for a couple of years at Marconi before translating the program (a pcb router) to C, used Pascal on a VAX780 at the same company, and in the late 1980s even used that ghastly transaction processing system to run C before switching to Unix.

Maurice
 
Maurice , I too preferred my Windows 7 but unfortunately when you change your PC it comes with the latest/current operating system IE Windows 10, so there is little you can do about it. I also like Internet Explorer (11) as my browser, have heard/read that also may be going in near future ! Eric
 
Eric,

Yes, that is a problem if you're buying straight off the shelf as you have to take what is on offer. Until about 7 or 8 years ago I always used to build my own. In the UK that was no problem as there are plenty of good component shops. When I moved to Crete I had a Greek Canadian friend who owned a component & repair shop about half an hour's drive away. So if I happened to buy a faulty motherboard - it does occasionally happen - I knew that I could always get it exchanged on the spot. When my friend returned to Canada, and with a limited range of new computers here, I decided to have them built to my spec without an operating system by a firm between Bradford & Leeds and to be delivered to a UK address. They would then be brought back free of charge by a friend here who regularly travels overland to the UK. All I had to do then was to install my existing copy of Windows, transfer data from my old machine and away I went.

I have a spare motherboard for this machine, still in its packaging, and the only thing I might do is upgrade the CPU at some point - the board will happily take a much faster processor. So, fingers crossed, I don't envisage any problems that I can't fix over the next 3 or 4 years. I've been using Firefox for quite a few years and have also tried & been quite happy with Opera and Vivaldi. After that, who knows!

Maurice
 
Maurice, unfortunately I don't have the 'knowhow' to build my own PC so have to buy off the shelf so to speak, but I have had Windows 10 since it started and have slowly sussed it out and its not so bad as I first thought. Still have my PC with Windows 7 so can always change back but prefer my newer PC which is superior in every way. Eric
 
ive got windows 10 on my new lappy but have still got windows 7 on my desk top upstairs..i use both for the same basic functions..windows 10 is really wasted on me to be honest as i dont have to time to suss out it out :D

lyn
 
My first touch was in 2000 with Millenium Edition, there was a lot of computer to find room for in the study, everything housed separately. I stayed with it until 4 or maybe 5 years ago. Now my trusty little red Laptop and Windows 7 are still going well.

Somewhere on this Forum are, or maybe were, photo's of members computers and the rooms they sat in. I guess the hackers got rid of them though. Mine also showed my naughty block of Cadbury's sitting waiting to be eaten!!
 
Since my early days of computing I've accumulated a large drawer full of old cables. There are Lpt1 printer cables, midi cables for keyboards, cables for converting VHS tapes to computer files, at least three routers, and many other random cables.

What a waste, I suppose I should visit the dump. I think computing these days is tidier, my printer only has a mains cable, and I now only seem to touch usb cables for external back up drives and chargers. All my photos mostly move around using wifi and clouds.
 
Di #104 Attached is my set up, used to be in a spare bedroom but moved into the living room, more cosy. I treated myself to a mahogany desk purposely made for computers. I have an Acer Predator Desk top (with Windows 10) an Epson XP-432 printer a 24" Samsung monitor and a Logitech speaker system and am completely content with the system. the PC set up the way I want it and everything working OK (touch wood)My PC set up.JPG Eric
 
It's difficult to find any specifications for these early computers, but one fact emerged that J. Lyons investment in the Leo computers resulted in payroll calculations being done 31,900% faster than clerks with adding machines. But it didn't result in any staff redundancies - just some huge debts! Of course, we spend considerable time reading emails - I wonder what percentage of them we delete? - and the Post Office loses out on all the invoices and Christmas cards that we no longer send! :)

Maurice
 
cookie273uk said:
Di #104 Attached is my set up, used to be in a spare bedroom but moved into the living room, more cosy. I treated myself to a mahogany desk purposely made for computers. I have an Acer Predator Desk top (with Windows 10) an Epson XP-432 printer a 24" Samsung monitor and a Logitech speaker system and am completely content with the system. the PC set up the way I want it and everything working OK (touch wood)View attachment 110483 Eric
Click to expand...

well thats you sorted eric...i love the mahogany desk..very nice:)

lyn
 
cookie273uk said:
Di #104 Attached is my set up, used to be in a spare bedroom but moved into the living room, more cosy. I treated myself to a mahogany desk purposely made for computers. I have an Acer Predator Desk top (with Windows 10) an Epson XP-432 printer a 24" Samsung monitor and a Logitech speaker system and am completely content with the system. the PC set up the way I want it and everything working OK (touch wood)View attachment 110483 Eric
Click to expand...
Very classy and neat setup there Eric, and with that mahogany desk looks good in your living room. I compute in my living room and have a desktop box behind a sofa, it's screen is on a plant pot table and a wireless keyboard and mouse. My laptop is usually on my lap, a printer is halfway along the room and my iPad is anywhere.

I just had a another look at post#1 which shows the actual computer I first touched and notice there is a program on screen written in good old Basic ... :)
 
Hi oldmow hawk
thanks for your pictures of the old comies we have a large selection of the old comps
we also have an oriniginal Apple firstwhich looks like n old lamp
we do collect the old values so if i was you hang on to them,, Astonian,,,,
 
Look at this big boy - who’d have believed everything that this computer was capable of would fit into your pocket 40 years later.

I remember working alongside a programmer in late 1979/80 to develop a CAD (computer aided design) training programme. He said to me, just you see, in time everyone will be able to send messages to each other in the bat of an eyelid. Well I instantly poo pooed the idea - how wrong could I have been.

Another missed opportunity: my dad told me “get a career computers, that’s the future”. My response “No way” How wrong could I have been - yet again !

Viv.
7DFDB266-9A51-46A3-9DFF-7A7333313BA3.jpeg
 
It was all so simple with the first computers I touched ... :)

Today I decided to change the email associated with with my Apple ID. It seems simple but with verification codes going backwards and forwards it took half an hour. My iPad accepted the change but my iPhone is fighting the change.
It knows about the email change, it has the new email in the displayed list, but when it asks for a log-in password it still displays the old email and I can't enter the new one, so it informs me that my Apple ID is incorrect.

It accepts the pin number and I can use it but eventually it will want the password. Looks like a hard reset is required.

I've had it a few years and it won't update higher than iOS 9 so I suppose Apple want me to buy a new one.
 
Apple security is very Secure !!
To get my iPhone back in action I had to change back to the old email associated with my Apple ID. Then had to log in on my iPhone, sign out of iCloud with verification codes popping up, warnings from Gmail about unusual activity etc, and then switch off 'Find My iPhone' etc.

Then I changed my Apple ID back to the new email with more verification codes popping up and Gmail warnings.
I then needed to sign in to my iPhone with my new ID, wait while Apple verified, then re-enter Pin numbers and switch on 'Find My iPhone'.

One other bit of info Apple gave me was that my first touch on an iPad was 23 Oct 2013 ...
 
The Windows 11 Photos app found 10,570 photos in my laptop, and looking through them I came across a photo of a computer I had in the year 2000. It was in a bedroom because my wife would not have it in the living room. The 3 fans in it made too much noise. It was running Windows 98 and I connected to the internet with a modem plugged into a telephone socket in the bedroom .... :grinning:
DCP00577.JPG
 
oldMohawk said:
I notice the first home computer I had was launched 40 years ago in 1981.
www.howtogeek.com

The First PC to Sell Millions: Commodore VIC-20 Turns 40

Revisit the 5-kilobyte glory of William Shatner's "Wonder Computer of the 1980s."
www.howtogeek.com www.howtogeek.com
I bought one from Boots the Chemist and I still have it ... in the loft! I started programming it on the evening of the day I bought it and was still on it when dawn broke next day!!
:)
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i was the same om i spent many of all nighters on the 64 and lost all the hard work when the 50p ran out in the meter:sob:
 
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