On 11/30/2012 12:38 AM, Califbill wrote:
wrote in message news
On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:25:48 -0800, "Califbill"
wrote:
wrote in message ...
On Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:28:00 -0800, "Califbill"
wrote:
"iBoaterer" wrote in message
...
http://www.sfgate.com/business/tech/...orld-s-oldest-
digital-computers-52982.php
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Seems to be European centrist. Left out the early IBM's, the early
UNIVAC,
The early desktop Wang Computer.
There toward the end they have that little girl looking up at a
370/m155 and the picture before that has a 360/m20 and a string of
2401 tape drives but they are not credited as being IBM.
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We replaced a 360/m20 at Macy's Calif in about 1966. Was a no mag
file 360.
All card and paper tape. We replaced it with an NCR 315 with mag tapes.
Worked for NCR in those days. I could not believe that IBM could
supply a
360 without tapes. (for the youngsters, was not disk drives as you know
them.)
The Mod 20 was always a niche machine that was dropped into unit
record accounts with a software package that was intuitive for people
who were used to wiring 407 boards.
I never had a mod 20 account myself but I was in them occasionally.
Most were card only because that was what these people understood. If
they stepped up, we sold them a mod 30 or a 25.
Some went straight to a 3125 and VSE after years of hanging on to
cards.
As an aside, the real reason states get rid of punch card voting
machines is because it is hard finding a system with a card reader on
it. (not Bush v Gore)
IBM got out of the card reader business years ago
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I still have a couple cases of Tab Cards (only IBM called them some
other name). True on card readers. NCR had the best of them, 2000 card
a minute reader, and hardest to read was an almost blank card, as that
show any slippage. We marketed it, but was made by (senior moment) the
main maker of postage machines, NCR 380. Pitney-Bowes.
I remember boxes of cards in our house. Hell, I made forts with them. I
was a bit young, probably 6-8 when my mom ran the town school
"computer"... It was in two air conditioned classrooms and had the big
sorting machine with the with the cards running through.