Althouse: "It's really nice having a computer to help."

December 15, 2012

"It's really nice having a computer to help."

29 comments:

rhhardin said...: It will never replace the 7090.; 12/15/12, 8:39 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: You just stick it in.

Get it in.

Experience transcendence at your whim, master.; 12/15/12, 8:42 PM
Icepick said...: You just stick it in.

Get it in.

Experience transcendence at your whim, master.

That's what she said.; 12/15/12, 8:46 PM
Wince said...: From the IBM Archives:

Weighing approximately 50 pounds and sized slightly larger than an IBM typewriter, the 5100 Portable Computer was announced by the company's General Systems Division (GSD) in September 1975. The Portable Computer was intended to put computer capabilities at the fingertips of engineers, analysts, statisticians and other problem-solvers. Available in 12 models providing 16K, 32K, 48K or 64K positions of main storage, the 5100 sold for between $8,975 and $19,975. The 5100 was available with either APL or BASIC — or both — programming languages.

If the size and weight of the 5100 seems huge by today's standards, then the Portable Computer was very slender compared to a late-1960's IBM computer with the equivalent capability. Such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton.

IBM offered three Problem-Solver Libraries, contained in magnetic tape cartridges (shown above), with the IBM 5100 to provide more than 100 interactive routines applicable to mathematical problems, statistical techniques and financial analyses. The cartridge had a 204,000-character capacity on 300 feet of 1/4-inch tape.
The 5100 Portable Computer was withdrawn from marketing in March 1982.; 12/15/12, 8:49 PM
Paul said...: Ann,

Out of college the first job I had was programming the IBM 5110/5120 computers!

Wow does that bring back memories.

And in college the 400 level 'PC' class was with the 8080 pc. We saved our files by track and sector. The 'file names' were written down on a piece of paper!; 12/15/12, 9:00 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Picturing my dog I thought:

There it is.

Nose.

Eye.

Ear.

Side view.

Portrait near if you wish to extrapolate like decent folks encourage and do.; 12/15/12, 9:07 PM
Leon said...: now every teenager with a smart phone has exponentially more computing power and potential. they're not getting a thing done.; 12/15/12, 9:15 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: More, comedy, per one D. Burge or so I heard, is the idea of laughing at Ted Kennedy joking repeatedly about M.J.

Kopechne.

Teddy like laughable death ha ha.

Little motherfuckers didn't make Ted Kennedy's life easy though i.e. Fox News.

The most powerful amongst the right are impotent non-instapundits and therefore confused.

But one man, Mr. Jeff Fucking Goddamed Goldstein, has for over a decade defined the battle and set the terms.

We, as in I, and him, just need the funding.; 12/15/12, 9:19 PM
edutcher said...: 70s.

Oy!

And The Blonde would still argue with the post title.; 12/15/12, 9:21 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Love the smoked glasses that the paper mill guy is wearing. Smooth.; 12/15/12, 9:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: rh has a computer printout from before I was born.

I'm thoroughly entertained now.; 12/15/12, 9:29 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: A True Treasure unique American via the international influences; 12/15/12, 9:42 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Who respects, or other, when I arise her as a topic to be considered, hopefully with humanity involved and not politics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jo_Kopechne

Lefties, as you are for the most part persons more adept at technology than I, could you please, as Teddy would have laughed about, documented, use Mary Jo Kopechne's photo (avatar as you like) in homage to Teddy's Kennedyesque humor?

I say that not to capitolize or use spelling properly, but to bring attention to the care Kennedy's have, have had, and will have.; 12/15/12, 10:12 PM
The Godfather said...: Boy, this brings back memories!

In 1974-75 I was representing the DC residential landlord community in dealing with the then-new rent control law. One issue was that the statute said that a landlord could get a rent increase if he wasn't making a "reasonable return on investment", but it didn't say what rate of return was reasonable, or how it was to be calculated. So the judge ordered the administrative agency to conduct hearings on that issue.

Somebody told me to use a particular guy as an expert witness on this. He was a real estate appraiser who had a portable computer to calculate the overall return on investment in any income-producing real estate, taking account of cash flow, depreciation, and capital appreciation.

The computer was, I think, a custom job, probably created just before the IBM in your video. It was about the same size, but more specialized -- it couldn't tell you anything about cattle feed.

It confused and intimidated the agency personnel who couldn't understand what it was doing, and certainly didn't want to have to buy one to run their rent control program. So they adopted a simple, workable approach to deciding what's a reasonable return, that anybody could use with a paper and pencil (or a pocket calculator if you didn't go to school in the days when they actually made you do arithmetic).

So the portable computer served its purpose.; 12/15/12, 10:14 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: It'll never catch on.; 12/15/12, 10:15 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Cell phone:brick phone::laptop:50 lb portable computer; 12/15/12, 10:37 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The women are glued to the TV because the men are glued to the computer browsing porn?

Althouse pushes back!; 12/15/12, 11:29 PM
Palladian said...: You know, it is really nice having a computer to help.; 12/15/12, 11:31 PM
madAsHell said...: Some of the tasks they mentioned would soon be relegated to small calculators. You can still purchase the HP-12 and HP-15 that I acquired in 1985.

There is a Canadian network that is re-broadcasting 1960's action-adventure programs. We enjoyed watching "Batman".....BIFF....POW...ZONK. Next up, was a broadcast of an old "Lost is Space" episode. My adult age daughter completely lost it when the computer spit out a punch card that solved all the problems.....although the rest of the story was pretty cheesy as well.

I tried to explain to her that computers were smarter back then!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I still have an old VHS of "Lust in Space" starring JoMann Lovehard; 12/15/12, 11:48 PM
Palladian said...: rh has a computer printout from before I was born.

The mysteries and wonders of rhhardin are manifold and inscrutable.

His picture of the printout brings back fond memories for me; when I was a child, my uncle brought me boxes of that kind of paper (printer sprocket holes, bars of alternating green and white) to draw on.; 12/16/12, 12:25 AM
Palladian said...: I used to draw on old punchcards as well.; 12/16/12, 12:26 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: What should I draw next?
A submarine
What should I draw next?
A man with a crew cut
What should I draw next?
Same man not a side profile
What should I draw next?
A floating house
What should I draw next?
A town in the clouds
What should I draw next?
A windmill
What should I draw next?
Two dogs fighting
What should I draw next?
A tree
What should I draw next?
A shark having a baby
What should I draw next?
A hypnosis spinning dial design
What should I draw next?
Another hypnosis spinning dial design.
What should I draw next?
Another hypnosis spinning dial design.
What should I draw next?
Another hypnosis spinning dial design.
What should I draw next?
Another hypnosis spinning dial design.
What should I draw next?
Another hypnosis spinning dial design.; 12/16/12, 2:09 AM
rhhardin said...: Hypnotic

That's the time machine inventor's mistake; 12/16/12, 4:40 AM
gadfly said...: I don't know how many 5100's sold but they disappeared from the market by 1982, just after the IBM PC hit the market.

Little known fact - the project code name used by IBM when attempting to become a player in the wildcat days of the personal computer was "Acorn." Big bucks IBM almost bought out Nolan "Chucky Cheese" Bushnell to acquire his Atari 8-bit machines.

For the life of me, I cannot imagine pinstripe IBM associated with PacMan.; 12/16/12, 5:19 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: We got an IBM PC in 1984. I have it in my garage now. Its keyboard is much nicer than any keyboard currently sold. I should buy an adapter and use it.; 12/16/12, 7:40 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: People don't have interesting voices anymore.; 12/16/12, 7:43 AM
sabeth.chu said...: looks very retro and sort of ugly.

but this here tablet makes capital letters a sort of extra effort, and you cannot really have a cup of coffee while using the thing. things were more comfortable then, apparently.

its wonderful though how these people look like people, even in a commercial. wearing clothes too. refreshing.

i always thought hp made the first personal computers.; 12/16/12, 8:01 AM
DavidD said...: Too bad it didn't come with a separate monitor that could sit on top. They might've had something then.; 12/16/12, 8:06 AM
Phil 314 said...: There's something ironic about the above bemoaning comments created on a ....

(Technology just isn't what it used to be); 12/16/12, 9:04 AM