[Buckeye]

Hey Ray, just saw your thread, Welcome !!

Nice interesting story on computers. Back in the 80's I was at Livermore Lab, we still used punch cards and mag tape reels back then. Even the big 7600's had all kinds of crazy stuff connected to them.

That was the Nuke days and just before SDI, they had started to convert the nuclear weapons & test divisons I worked over to CAD CAM, instead of on teh drawing boards that I used to work on.

I have moved to Military Applications at that time when MX Missile and just after the Neutron bombs. SDI brought a whole lot of other crazy devices to the table.

But yes even for Nuke research we still lhad punch cards and mag tape reels back then.

Love your photo collection of WWII Air Birds
I have a few interesting pic's from back then I need to scan.

[RayTheRat]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Hey Ray, just saw your thread, Welcome !!

Nice interesting story on computers. Back in the 80's I was at Livermore Lab, we still used punch cards and mag tape reels back then. Even the big 7600's had all kinds of crazy stuff connected to them.

That was the Nuke days and just before SDI, they had started to convert the nuclear weapons & test divisons I worked over to CAD CAM, instead of on teh drawing boards that I used to work on.

I have moved to Military Applications at that time when MX Missile and just after the Neutron bombs. SDI brought a whole lot of other crazy devices to the table.

But yes even for Nuke research we still lhad punch cards and mag tape reels back then.

Love your photo collection of WWII Air Birds
I have a few interesting pic's from back then I need to scan.

I worked on nukes when I was in the army (66-71) I was a fire control (radar/analog computer) tech on Nike-Hercules sites, but spent some time in the launching area
as we decommissioned one of the sites.

One of my recent projects has been to go back over all of my photos from that era and organize 'em with some commentary. Same thing with the photo albums my first wife and I had. If I don't do it, all this history will probably be pitched overboard or maybe kept but not understood.

The army days as well as my time in Europe and North Africa (I was wonna them Marrakech hippies for a while) are on my web server here:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/earlydaze/Welcome.html When I get the whole mess done, I'll burn DVDs for my sons and their wives and I'll even be nice and give a set to my ex-wife. What a nice guy I am, huh?

Ok. I gotta call Tyan about the mobo issues. I wonder how that's gonna go.

I should have an update on the Dreadnought later today.

Edit: I forgot to mention the punched card thing. I can't think of any other class of hardware that I hated more than 80-column cars. Instruments of the ol' Debbil hisself. That Livermore labs thing sounds like a kool place to work. My experience with weaponry ended when I left the army and I ended up in the private sector...I went back to college and got me some diplomas and stayed in the financial area of computing for most of my career.

Now I do what I love. Build hot rods (when I can...I got some serious heart trouble that keeps me from workin as hard as I used to,) hang out with racers (having media credentials as a photographer really helps me get into the middle of things at sports car races and on the salt flats) and play the blues. I'm livin a dream...although I've confirmed what I had suspected for quite a while. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. So I decided to give up sleeping...well, for the last week or so...and no, I don't use stimulants to keep me awake, I just keep on goin and goin...maybe when I get this Dreadnought going I can take a coupla daze off. (sure, sure.)