Measurements

[Bob Davis]

Qutie a few radio hams have teleprinters.

Please don't leave me in suspense.......why?
Bob

 

[Radiorails]

They like using them. Remember much of what has been used in mobile phones communications and some computer software has been in use by hams for well over fifty years. I had digital modes of communication in 1983.

 

[DavidGrain]

They like using them. Remember much of what has been used in mobile phones communications and some computer software has been in use by hams for well over fifty years. I had digital modes of communication in 1983.

Nowadays you use your computer to send emails. Many early desktop computers had the facility to send and receive telex messages through the teleprinter network.
The computer museum at Bletchley has moved along the road from Bletchley Park but the first time I went to Bletchley Park I did make the comment that you feel you age when you see in a museum machinery that you actually worked on. I saw teleprinters like I used to type on and there were mini computers where I had to explain what each cabinet did and why they had tape drives!

A company I worked at in the 1990s had a comp on the top of one of the cupboards in the accounts department, They used to employ an elderly lady to come in to calculate the stock sheets at stocktaking times. That company ran on Lotus 123 spreadsheets (remember them?) but it took me, a temp at the time, to come in and put it on a spread sheet.

 

[oldMohawk]

The company I worked for used Lotus 123 and I still use it for spreadsheets .... mind you I can remember using Visicalc when the size of hard drives were measured in Mb ...

 

[Morturn]

Lotus 123, thats a blast from the past. I cut my teeth on Lotus 123, it was a great tool

 

[Bob Davis]

This theme has brought back two memories, the first occurred in about 1964, the construction company I worked for had an early Xerox photocopier. This was regularly serviced and for about two weeks our regular service man was replaced by a different chap, so when our regular man returned and we of course jeered about holidays to be quickly shot down by a retort that as a senior Xerox employee, he had been to America to Xerox's home to look at the world of photocopying etc in the future. What had amazed him most of all was a telephone that sent facsimiles of letters etc to a similar phone hundreds,thousands even tens of thousands of miles away. An additional useful feature was that it could be used as a photo copier as well. Years later the fax was commonplace, but this lead to the second memory, our photocopier man was an early electronics buff, he had built his own radios and television and being friendly with the Burroughs rep, whose machines we used suggested that we became the first firm in Plymouth to computerise. The actual idea that the staff of twelve that ran accounts, wages etc could be reduced to probably two, but also all the bills of quantity could also be handled by one person, instead of the dozen QS, comp ops etc who currently did it. Came the day of the presentation, premises examination etc and these smart young Americans, came in looked at our prewar buildings which were near the sea and announced that the top floor which held the two luxurious main directors offices, the less affluent offices of the two sons of the main director who were also directors, the company secretary's office, the accounts office, my office (wages and personnel) and a store room. All as you might realise a considerable amount of building, should be stripped, the windows blocked off on the road side of the building, air conditioning installed and special doors fitted which also allowed only a minimal amount of personnel into the computer room. Having measured the length of the top floor and consulted his book of server pictures, he announced that there was just enough room to instal the servers and all the associated equipment and that for about £275K, we could become the first construction company in the South Western counties to fully computerise all our accountancy and estimating operations, rid yourself of at least 15 staff overall including QS's. He paused smiling, anticipating an order....our managing director was a very religious man, who eschewed drink, gambling and even courtship between staff members, he once sacked a foreman and telephone operator who he caught 'in flagrante' in a store room and never swore, went pale, silent and started to breathe heavily...there was silence he then turned on his heel and left. A very puzzled Burroughs man said "what have I done or said the remaining senior director said 'dared to suggest that you moved him out if his office, turned walked away and as he got to his office door looked back and said
'At 50K you might gave stood a chance walked in a closed his door. Two years later we went bust 1967......forward to 2017 and I received a letter to say that I was entitled to a pension of £36.45 a year before tax.
Bob