of mouse balls and such

[JQ Johnson]

Once in a while one has to conclude that the computer really does pay
attention to who is using it.  I remember a job I had as a systems
programmer in the 1970s.  Our DEC-2060 would fairly frequently crash when
I was in the computer room (frequently enough to be remarked upon, but not
frequently enough to be quite statistically significant).  I finally
concluded that the problem was due to the bulky wool sweater that I liked
to wear; the theory I came up with was that static electricity was
affecting the core memory (we had an additional moby of memory -- a whole
2^20 36 bit words, or about 4MB in modern parlance -- sitting on a wooden
palette on the floor next to the main processor cabinet.  Back in those
days 4MB of memory took 80 cu. ft, and we didn't have spare space in the
cabinets for it).  Spring came, I stopped wearing the sweater, and the
unexplained hardware crashes stopped too.

Nostalgia for the last century:  That was a nice machine when it was
running.  1 MIPS.  8MB main memory.  600MB disk.  80 or so terminals.  We
provided modern computing access to the whole Stanford undergraduate
population (except for access to the library catalog; I think the plan to
digitize the card catalog was just getting started).

JQ Johnson                      Office: 115F Knight Library
Academic Education Coordinator  mailto:jqj at darkwing.uoregon.edu
1299 University of Oregon       phone: 1-541-346-1746; -3485 fax
Eugene, OR  97403-1299          http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/