Thursday, December 12, 2024

1971 RCA Spectra computer

 


9 comments:

  1. I can remember sitting in a classroom around 1982 or so at Humboldt State U taking a coding class and wondering what manner of fresh hell had I discovered. I only wanted to learn Word Perfect to write my papers as I so disliked paying someone to type them for me. I never would have guessed a computer would accompany me for the rest of my life. Legio XIX

    ReplyDelete
  2. my class in 1972 involved fortran and punch cards. i never was able to get a program to run. to hell with pre- engineer major, i transferred out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember. One TINY formatting error and the goddam thing wouldn't compile.

      Delete
  3. I also was in a university using an IBM360 with Hollerith cards and FORTRAN. The fun thing was, computers were so new that if you did something with them for another class (in music theory, writing a score...in physics, analyzing Millikan oil drop experiment data) it automatically got you an A. When I ran for student senate, I used the school's main computer to print out campaign signs. I won.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here. I wrote my engineering lab reports by creating unformatted text files and printing them out on fanfold printer paper.

      I told my classmates I had written a Fortran program to write lab reports for me.

      Delete
  4. Betcha that great Anderson production UFO had a few of these as props:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PoXfZdYVU

    ReplyDelete
  5. I remember sitting in front of the blinking lights at 1 AM while the system ran diagnostics. It was ALWAYS Christmas or New Years. There was a malicious ghost in some of those machines.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Where does the sim chip go?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Back in 1975, I learned how to read and program with punch cards on a top of the line four byte computer. This was back when government checks were printed on punch cards. Many an aspiring criminal got busted for altering checks. Typed amount didn’t match punched amount.

    ReplyDelete