Date: prev next · Thread: first prev next last
2015 Archives by date, by thread · List index


Hi :)
PDP11s look interesting!

A short article that claims the default OS was Multics;
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/PDP-11-Programmed-Data-Processor-11
but that many put Unix on it.  Wikipedia gives a great long list of OSes
that ran on or could run on PDP11s;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11#Operating_systems

As you can see in the url below Nuclear Power Plants are apparently still
using and plan to continue using PDP11's until 2050 !
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/19/nuke_plants_to_keep_pdp11_until_2050/

Regards from
Tom :)



On 22 July 2015 at 03:21, Tim---Kracked_P_P---webmaster <
webmaster@krackedpress.com> wrote:


My first real computer job was data entry typing punched cards for an IBM
system.

Then I started working at several colleges with those "ghastly" PDP/11
systems.  One was the core for a large computer center with large tape
units, and one was just a stand alone system with a drive platter and all
of those dump terminals.  That "stand alone" PDP/11 system is where I had
to write/code/etc. a full general ledger accounting system using COBOL.
Have you even tried to write a data entry system for an accounting system,
so people could not type in the wrong info/data - like Feb 29th for a
non-leap year or an account number that is not created, or other values
that are not within the proper any of the data ranges. That was 3 time the
coding size than all of the rest of the system, including the account
query/search system and report generating systems.

Yes, I remember those data cassette tape drive computers, before you could
afford a dual floppy IBM PC/AT/XT clone.  Then there were those 10 MEG hard
drives.

I saw the introduction of the PC based
Hard Drive
CD ROM drive, then burner

Real Graphics above 640 by 480

I saw the introduction of the Bulletin board system that was
interconnected so you had a primitive email address - mine was almost 80
characters long.

I saw the start of the WWW part of the Internet, which is what is now "THE
Internet", since most of the other parts [terminal based mostly] have
either "died" or been converted to use a browser.  Of course there are
still parts that run via the terminal which I still use from time to time -
mostly local to server communications.

The domain I use for this email address - I own -  was first created in
the early '90, when you only had 14.4 dialup for most areas of the US, and
has gone from one domain service to another, and my hosting service from
one to another, till I finally settled on the one[s] I have been using for
many years now.

Yes I have seen the wireless phone go from the "big brick" technology
through to the introduction of the smart phone technology.  I now use a LG
base model Android phone, since I do not need all of the wow-wee stuff.  I
do not need to use it for my every "computer" need, like some are touted.

I have bought 3 Android tablets over the years.  I still use 2 of them.
And no, I do not like the hype of not needing a larger system - laptop or
desktop - since a Android, IOSx, or MS OS claims it will do everything you
will need.  My desktop I am typing this from is an old 4 core running Linux
Mint 16 with 4 hard drives internal, 1 OS and 3 data drives - adding up to
6.25 TB - with 3 external 2 TB drives for backup.  I use to have 4 backup,
till an internal 2TB drive failed and I needed my spare to replace it.

I really wonder how you could get a tablet to have 6 TB of data storage.
I also like to see these tablets find printer drivers to run the USB or
network printing.  I have enough trouble tryng to find a working Linux
[.deb] printer driver for my newer printers, and I have not been able to
get any of my android tablets to access any of my colored printers - just a
"older" HP laser printer.  I now look for Linux drivers BEFORE I decide to
buy the printers.


I have gone from punched card data entry to web-based data entry screens.
I have gone from cassette tapes, through to floppies, internal/external
hard drives, USB flash drives and SD cards.
I have seen mainframe computers the size of a bedroom, down to a
refrigerator.
I have seen the IBM PC come out to the modern 4/6/8/16 core desktops.
I have use "portable" computers that were 30+ pounds down to the ultra
thing, ultra light multi-core tablets.

I have "retired" from the "computer field" - as they use to call it -
after 3 computer related degrees and many computer related jobs.
Then I had to get "permanently and 100% disabled" working as a substitute
teacher by a student who should have been locked up in a mental ward.



On 07/21/2015 07:15 AM, Gary Collins wrote:

            On 07/18/2015 09:25 PM, James E Lang wrote:

The big discussion of Linux over the past 24+ hours has me wondering:
What operating environment(s) do other members of this list use at home and
at work? What factors influence the choice?

 My first home computer was a BBC micro (anyone remember those?) That
was back in the days when programming had to be really tight, only had 32Kb
(yes, Kb) of RAM; long term storage was all external on cassette tapes,
eventually upgraded to floppy disk drive (and the disks really were
floppy). I've still got that computer and AFAIK it still works!
My next machine was Acorn Archimedes, followed by RISC PC. It's a great
shame that the marketing for those machines was so poor, leading to
collapse of the company. The ARM chips had a great architecture and
instruction set.
After that, I got my first laptop, a Sony Vaio running windows XP. When I
upgraded, which I was forced to do due to a machine failure, I got a laptop
running Windows 7 - which is still my current machine. A better Windows,
once I'd got used to it, but it had a real downer - couldn't get driver for
my flatbed scanner - Canon didn't produce one.
At work, in my first job I used a computer called a PDP 11 (ghastly
thing); can't remember what the OS was called.
In my second job I think we started off with some sort of mainframe, the
details of which are hazy now. Later we migrated to Sun Spark workstations.
In my last real job, used PCs running windows, I think it was XP at that
time.
Now in my office based voluntary work I use PCs with Windows 7. Did have
a play with Win 8 on a laptop, but hated it. It might be OK for tablets, I
don't know, but it was horrible to use with normal PC input devices.
I have thought about upgrading to Linux but have never got around to it.
This is mainly because of familiarity with certain software packages,
especially Photoshop. I know there is GIMP for Linux, but it's not a patch
- for one thing, it doesn't have the concept of adjustment layers; and that
means that all my working files, which tend to be saved as TIFF with layer
compression, can't be properly loaded and edited in GIMP.I also make use of
a video editor (not free but fairly inexpensive) which can edit MPEG2 files
without reencoding unchanged parts of the video, which makes it quite fast
and doesn't lose quality. Something like that probably does exist for Linux
but I haven't got around to looking, and familiarity is a big part of the
story.Another thing is the convenience of plug and play when it comes to
hardware - I don't think I've ever had to manually load a driver,
everything seems to work "out of the box" and that's a very good thing,
saves a lot of time and effort. I'm not sure what Linux is like in that
respect, as I've had no experience.
On my phone I have android and I tend to get on reasonably well with that.
I'm not sure what I will do if I ever need to change computer again.
/Gary





--
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems?
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/

All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be
deleted


-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted

Context


Privacy Policy | Impressum (Legal Info) | Copyright information: Unless otherwise specified, all text and images on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. This does not include the source code of LibreOffice, which is licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPLv2). "LibreOffice" and "The Document Foundation" are registered trademarks of their corresponding registered owners or are in actual use as trademarks in one or more countries. Their respective logos and icons are also subject to international copyright laws. Use thereof is explained in our trademark policy.