Computers and history

Computers are fun and interesting, they are also frustrating as everyone out there knows. In the case of computers a little knowledge is dangerous. Sort of like a person who is on a lot of meds. The doctor must be careful in prescribing a new one for fear of what it will do to the ones already prescribed.
That is how I see my computer system. I have just spent 30 minutes trying to get rid of the highlight as I type. I was highlighting yellow. I even tried to change the color to see if the highlighter was controlling it, nada. Now it is gone, and I do not know how I got rid of it. I also have the problem of underlines. I am typing long and somehow I hit the exact keys that are a shot cut to underline or strike thru and all of a sudden I cannot delete anything, just draw a line through it.

Above is the famous Eniac, the worlds first real computer. Your cell phone will do more, faster and more accurate than it could.

There are times I delete an entire document because I cannot ‘fix’ what I have messed up. If you follow my blog you know I have tried, done or been many things in my life. Not making me smarter than anyone, just more fickle. I have been blessed with an ability to fix things. Sometimes I fix things and don’t know how I done it. Anyway in one of my lives I was an Analog computer repairman, then a Digital Computer repairman, and finally an IBM Electronic Accounting Machines (EAM) repairman. Remember the IBM card?


This is a key punch machine this happens to be an 026 IBM. It creates the punched card. I repaired a ton of these.

(The IBM CArd. I have handled millions of these over the years. Did you ever get a Gov't ck, tax refund? Coulda been from a machine I have worked on. Or, me or one of my guys printed it.)

Since then I have been in and out of computers and electronics off and on all my life. Now I am saddled with the questions, how do they do all of this stuff? How do they create something the size of a pea, that will store a hundred books? I cannot imagine the number of commands it takes just to make the screen I am looking at as I type. How do they make and sell a watch for $3-5 that is as accurate as the $20,000 Rolex? How? How?

This is the Burroughs 205 (I think), the computer I worked on looked like this, but was called the "T-2B" (short for AN/FST-2B) Of course newer than the Eniac, but still could not compete with your cell phone, much less this PC I am typing on. The A/C unit was larger than the computer. It had to remain at 69 degrees, constant.

Then I try to say, I DON’T CARE!!!! JUST GET RID OF THE YELLOW HIGHLIGHT ON MY SCREEN, OR I MIGHT JUST SMASH IT. Hahahahahaha! Funny also I might be typing a long, look up and see nothing on the screen. I have accidentally hit the secret key, known only to Mr. Microsoft, that sends my entries to never, never land with some of Shirls, yours and mine.
I JUST HOPE THEY ARE ALL HAPPY TOGETHER OUT THERE IN MICRO SPACE!
Thanks for coming by the log. Nah, I ain’t mad, I am glad to be here. Life is good! I can make another entry.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
You might not know…..
The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.