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Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: BAC on October 05, 2008, 11:22:20 AM

Title: MB books
Post by: BAC on October 05, 2008, 11:22:20 AM
I was just looking on Amazon, and have to know.  Mr. Bane, did you write the IBM PC jr. User's Guide?
Title: Re: MB books
Post by: Michael Bane on October 05, 2008, 11:39:56 AM
I did indeed! Sure, it had a ridiculous chicklet keyboard, but I still think delivering programs on a "memory card" was tres smart. I wish I still had my Osborne "portable."

Michael B
Title: Re: MB books
Post by: DonWorsham on October 05, 2008, 11:59:48 AM
I wish I still had my Osborne "portable."



That sucker weighed a ton! Speaking of books...you know what I mean.
Title: Re: MB books
Post by: Big Frank on October 05, 2008, 08:51:04 PM
Punch cards. Wow, I remember those. They used them at my high school. They had all the classes we were assigned to for the semester on them and our names were encoded. I actually decoded the alphabet they used on it one day just for the heck of it. It was easy since it was only 3 rows on the top.
Title: Re: MB books
Post by: Pathfinder on October 05, 2008, 09:15:20 PM
My career started with 80-column punch cards, referred to as Hollerith cards.

One little point many people don't know is that those cards fit perfectly in shirt pocket, which provided you with a handy note pad, as well as flagging you instantly as a member of the all-powerful EDP or MIS crowd. Today that would make you a geek.

Well, hell, it meant something in the day!

 ;D
Title: Re: MB books
Post by: Big Frank on October 06, 2008, 01:39:59 AM
Some guy named Herman Hollerith invented the card and probably thought his name would go down in history... the Hollerith Card, but IBM took over and it became an IBM Card. I never heard it called anything but an IBM card before.

Frank