BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-04-19, 20:00:

Are there regular users here who hail from a different profession: like a medical officer, a non-technical engineer, a mechanic of sorts, athlete, cook, entrepreneur, social influencer, etc?

Yes. Computers are just a hobby 😀

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2024-04-21, 15:24:

But Now they have allot of Arcade consoles available for Cheap loaded with thousands of games so I see the Retro computer build
Community not being so popular in the future.

These seem like two different areas to me. There are so many games that can be played on a computer, but not on an arcade machine. If you like FPSes, strategy games, adventure games, simulators, etc., you'll need a computer to play them. There's more overlap between pcs and consoles, but still enough differences to keep computer gaming interesting imo.

darry wrote on 2024-04-20, 01:13:

On a more serious and on-topic note is anybody here experienced enough to have actually used punched cards in a professional context, whether while working in IT or otherwise ?

Not me as such but a UK truck hire / mechanics we did the IT for still used one right up till 2006. real nice old one that looked a bit like 1/2 hight grandfather clock with solid wood and analogue clock face.
It was sitting by the front door as it had finally broken and was being replaced.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-04-22, 00:12:

darry wrote on 2024-04-20, 01:13:

On a more serious and on-topic note is anybody here experienced enough to have actually used punched cards in a professional context, whether while working in IT or otherwise ?

Not me as such but a UK truck hire / mechanics we did the IT for still used one right up till 2006. real nice old one that looked a bit like 1/2 hight grandfather clock with solid wood and analogue clock face.
It was sitting by the front door as it had finally broken and was being replaced.

Yeah, punch clock time cards went on into the noughts until swipe card stuff or RFID got cheap.

I think you misunderestimated the question though, 80 column data / program punch cards, look, these things....

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 00:37:

chinny22 wrote on 2024-04-22, 00:12:

darry wrote on 2024-04-20, 01:13:

On a more serious and on-topic note is anybody here experienced enough to have actually used punched cards in a professional context, whether while working in IT or otherwise ?

Not me as such but a UK truck hire / mechanics we did the IT for still used one right up till 2006. real nice old one that looked a bit like 1/2 hight grandfather clock with solid wood and analogue clock face.
It was sitting by the front door as it had finally broken and was being replaced.

Yeah, punch clock time cards went on into the noughts until swipe card stuff or RFID got cheap.

I think you misunderestimated the question though, 80 column data / program punch cards, look, these things....

I think your right! actual punch cards I think were long dead by the time I got into the IT industry around 2002. Know of a few places that only got rid of their reel to reel computers in the mid 90's. In fact the factory I work at now still have number of the tapes in the safe as that section has been abandoned since 2015

Yeah, I was in an ex-Ferranti plant mid 90s and their stock and shipping computer was some dinosaur, had a 30MB HDD the size of a washing machine and backup was on the big reel to reel tapes. Needed it's own AC system in the machine room.

chinny22 wrote on 2024-04-22, 00:12:

darry wrote on 2024-04-20, 01:13:

On a more serious and on-topic note is anybody here experienced enough to have actually used punched cards in a professional context, whether while working in IT or otherwise ?

Not me as such but a UK truck hire / mechanics we did the IT for still used one right up till 2006. real nice old one that looked a bit like 1/2 hight grandfather clock with solid wood and analogue clock face.
It was sitting by the front door as it had finally broken and was being replaced.

I have a stack of IBM time clock punch cards in a box somewhere, I think I also have parts of the time clock machine used to punch them too.

I haven't seen that box in a number years soooo no idea which part of the storage shed its hiding in, likely a home to spiders and bugs by now.

TY for the punched card lore.

I will now let non career IT folks continue to out themselves as such.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 04:15:

Yeah, I was in an ex-Ferranti plant mid 90s and their stock and shipping computer was some dinosaur, had a 30MB HDD the size of a washing machine and backup was on the big reel to reel tapes. Needed it's own AC system in the machine room.

Was that the kind that looked like they used rusty dustbin lids for platters and required a forklift just to move it ?

darry wrote on 2024-04-22, 06:04:

TY for the punched card lore.

I will now let non career IT folks continue to out themselves as such.

If you are talking about data punch cards then no, im not old enough to have ever used them, I have seen them as the Uni I did my Comp Science degree at still had a ton of them in the IT storage room along with the machines that read them, that room was a lot of fun to go into. The place still ran Unix when I was there and a lot of the programming classes used that Unix system for programming lessons, even learnt what a fork bomb was and what it did to a Unix mainframe if unleashed.

Not sure what happened to that Unix mainframe when they upgraded the entire Uni over to Linux and more modern PCs, pretty sure it ran on some Dinosaur mainframe box.

Is EBCDIC still a thing? I remember messing around with that a few years ago when I was learning about text encodings. EditPadLite can read EBCDIC files.

My first job was somehow outside tech, I did use a computer but my focus was on advertising a product.
The product was kind of... kinky, to say the least. And yes, we DID use physical punching cards.

Errius wrote on 2024-04-22, 08:03:

Is EBCDIC still a thing? I remember messing around with that a few years ago when I was learning about text encodings. EditPadLite can read EBCDIC files.

Old tech almost never dies, it just gets more niche. While I have never encountered anything other than ASCII or UTF in my work, thankfully, but I'm sure it's still used somewhere.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-22, 07:10:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 04:15:

Yeah, I was in an ex-Ferranti plant mid 90s and their stock and shipping computer was some dinosaur, had a 30MB HDD the size of a washing machine and backup was on the big reel to reel tapes. Needed it's own AC system in the machine room.

Was that the kind that looked like they used rusty dustbin lids for platters and required a forklift just to move it ?

Due to there being exactly zero incidences of them saying "Hey Intern, how about you dismantle our business critical data store and/or take it for a joyride." I have no idea, but it looked big enough for either to be true.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-22, 07:14:

darry wrote on 2024-04-22, 06:04:

TY for the punched card lore.

I will now let non career IT folks continue to out themselves as such.

If you are talking about data punch cards then no, im not old enough to have ever used them, I have seen them as the Uni I did my Comp Science degree at still had a ton of them in the IT storage room along with the machines that read them, that room was a lot of fun to go into. The place still ran Unix when I was there and a lot of the programming classes used that Unix system for programming lessons, even learnt what a fork bomb was and what it did to a Unix mainframe if unleashed.

Not sure what happened to that Unix mainframe when they upgraded the entire Uni over to Linux and more modern PCs, pretty sure it ran on some Dinosaur mainframe box.

Kinda similar here, first semester of freshman year the place was heavily reliant on VAX mainframes running VMS, in the corner of one of the all terminal labs, mostly VT-52s and one VT-200 and one graphical, there was a card punch under a dustcover, reportedly maintained because one ancient chemistry prof could not get his head around direct entry. There was supposed to be a card reader elsewhere. Also there was an actual TTY, and a lineprinter. Over Christmas they retired the chem prof, the card punch and reader and the TTY and rearranged the lab to VT-52s round the edge and a pool of 2 or 3 year old 286 windows desktops in the middle. Then while I was there, the Vax faded more into a backend router/mailserver role, though there were still research groups relying on it heavily, and there were novell and unix systems serving clusters of 486 then P90 machines just before I left.

I'm a radiographer… for which you need a specific degree, for which I signed up after quitting computer engineering (partially because yes, don't turn your hobby into a job, mainly because too many maths which I totally suck at, partially because it was too early to see your ex daily)

Well, I'm also unofficially the first level tech support there 😀

darry wrote on 2024-04-20, 01:13:

used punched cards in a professional context, whether while working in IT or otherwise ?

First real job, where we had a Max ER-1500 time clock, yup probably a 90s design…

And playing with the definition of "card", our local swimming pool got these green sticks as a substitute for coins for hair dryers: https://www.romanoattrezzature.it/asciugacape … li-per-piscine/

Errius wrote on 2024-04-22, 08:03:

Is EBCDIC still a thing?

AS/400 is surely still a thing under false name? 😀
But the newest-designed product must be a circa 2016 adapter to use an InfoWindow II terminal on a modern PC!

I have zero tech/engineering training and my job isn't tech related. That said, I've been in to computers for most of my life and messing around with modern hardware just doesn't interest me too much. So, with a heaping scoop of nostalgia, I'm here as a hobbyist. These days, I'm actively working on my hardware troubleshooting/repair in a way I never bothered to in the 90's - learning how to solder, use a multimeter, etc. (When I was a kid, I had a big brother to makes things work for me - he actually did get a computer engineering degree, hah)

This site has been a great resource, and the people here have been very helpful! 😊

Ryccardo wrote on 2024-04-22, 19:43:

AS/400 is surely still a thing under false name? 😀

Where I currently work AS/400 was finally replaced 4 months ago. It wasn't actually AS/400 hardware but virtualised on a standard Intel server.
Not too sure of the details as it was looked after by the "AS/400" team, well 2 people one of which will retire soon.

American Literature major here! 😀 When I was a kid, my dream job was working in a small computer store. I did a very brief stint as a "customer advisor" in an electronics/home appliances store back in 2011 while in my late 20s, but that's about it. Probably unlike most people with an MA in literature, I love me some DIY, tinkering with electronics, soldering wires, etc. I'm also the guy my friends and family call when their PC stops working 😉

chinny22 wrote on 2024-04-23, 00:46:

Ryccardo wrote on 2024-04-22, 19:43:

AS/400 is surely still a thing under false name? 😀

Where I currently work AS/400 was finally replaced 4 months ago. It wasn't actually AS/400 hardware but virtualised on a standard Intel server.
Not too sure of the details as it was looked after by the "AS/400" team, well 2 people one of which will retire soon.

Ha, we still have multiple AS/400 systems at my workplace!