Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"
- Thread starter B-string
- Start date
- Status
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,165
- 256,849
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Pulling up from the depths of my early computing —
(it's not a frog in a tin can or an old shoe)
The fun quotient of Blackjack on a Digital PDP-8 (named Ananias) scaled up with what came to be known as hacking. To us it wasn't hacking and it would have never occurred to us we were doing anything remotely wrong. Examine the program top to bottom, front to back, inside to out, and figure out how it works. Then see what you can do ̶t̶o̶ with it.
Turns out teaching the program to cheat gets boring very quickly. So you begin to look deeper, and, mess around. It's what I did, anyway.
Light years later I'm writing a jump line routine in a proprietary language. Some call a "jump" a "see page". It's when you get to the end of a newspaper column where it says [Story] Continued on Page A3. Or something like that. The fun part is making a determination of what to do with the last word before the jump. There are all kinds of rules, and they vary by newspaper. Don't jump after a period is an example. We did this all by hand for each newspaper according to their style rules.
My friend, and later my boss, wrote the six critical lines of code. Don't mess with it, he advised me. Well of course I did, and the more I did the less I understood. Because tanj this cannot possibly work as written. It just can't. And there it is, running happily.
This bothered me.
Leave it alone, he'd say.
never did figure out those six lines of code. Never did.
I pay him a visit on my way through from two days training in myofascial release in Sedona. Also took MFR on my right knee on the way down to his place
He's got the mike ...
We're at dinner. He's got the mike.
You can quit thinking about that jump routine.
:: stare ::
(warily) why?
You will never understand it.
:: stare ::
(warily) why?
I wrote it and I don't understand it.
(it's not a frog in a tin can or an old shoe)
The fun quotient of Blackjack on a Digital PDP-8 (named Ananias) scaled up with what came to be known as hacking. To us it wasn't hacking and it would have never occurred to us we were doing anything remotely wrong. Examine the program top to bottom, front to back, inside to out, and figure out how it works. Then see what you can do ̶t̶o̶ with it.
Turns out teaching the program to cheat gets boring very quickly. So you begin to look deeper, and, mess around. It's what I did, anyway.
Light years later I'm writing a jump line routine in a proprietary language. Some call a "jump" a "see page". It's when you get to the end of a newspaper column where it says [Story] Continued on Page A3. Or something like that. The fun part is making a determination of what to do with the last word before the jump. There are all kinds of rules, and they vary by newspaper. Don't jump after a period is an example. We did this all by hand for each newspaper according to their style rules.
My friend, and later my boss, wrote the six critical lines of code. Don't mess with it, he advised me. Well of course I did, and the more I did the less I understood. Because tanj this cannot possibly work as written. It just can't. And there it is, running happily.
This bothered me.
Leave it alone, he'd say.
never did figure out those six lines of code. Never did.
I pay him a visit on my way through from two days training in myofascial release in Sedona. Also took MFR on my right knee on the way down to his place
He's got the mike ...
We're at dinner. He's got the mike.
You can quit thinking about that jump routine.
:: stare ::
(warily) why?
You will never understand it.
:: stare ::
(warily) why?
I wrote it and I don't understand it.
Last edited:
I won’t belabor the computers I worked with, but my so-called “handle” is a big clue to one of the stranger ones I wrote code for.
Anyone care to guess without consulting a search engine?
Anyone care to guess without consulting a search engine?
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,165
- 256,849
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
How much do you want to cash in. Unfortunately, there aren’t any vowels in the name that register.
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,165
- 256,849
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Not sure if Wille Wonka bars are accepted in exchange for a vowel.
D
Then there’s the maxim, “If I can’t fix it, I can fix it so nobody else can”. It apploes to many things in life.
I was never elevated to the status of coder/programmer. I like being an end user support. Always have. Goes with my nature of being a natural performer. Coding is using a global hammer to manage change on an entire organization. I'm the low guy that goes around and replaces broken mice and keyboards. And I get paid for it!
Sometimes there are advantages to being "low man on the totem".
12BitSlab refers to memory in an NCR 315 system. The 315 did not use an 8-bit byte. Rather, memory was laid out in 12-bit slabs because it was an efficient use of memory. In 1 slab, one could store 2 6-bit alpha characters or 3 4-bit digits. When the 315 was introduced, memory was the most expensive part of a system. The company I worked for back then had 2 full-size 315s. Each had 10K slabs. They were setup such that the memory from 1 system could be bank switched to the other system resulting in a single 20K system. This was done for running big sort jobs.
The 315 did not have disk drives as they weren’t invented yet. But, they did have random access storage called CRAM. Card Random Access Memory. The cards were larger than typical punch cards and were magnetically coated. The cards were used in decks of 256 cards numbered 0-255. A series of holes in each card allowed a card to be dropped into a read/write device after which it was returned to the back of the deck.
Later, the company purchased NCR Century mainframes which were 16-bit systems using an 8-bit byte. No software was written for these systems as they ran software that emulated the 315 systems. Dick drives were used to emulate the CRAM decks.
Still later, the company bought an NCR diadic (dual processor) Criterion mainframe that was a 32-bit system that sported virtual memory. It had a whopping 4MB of memory. It was by all accounts a very modern machine for the times. Some software was written for this system using VRX-COBOL, Total database, and TranPro as a TP Monitor. However, mostly this system ran software that emulated the NCR Century system which in turn ran an emulator that executed 315 software. Yes, we used a modern mainframe to run multiple layers of emulation so we could run 12-bit software that didn’t know about disk drives or other modern advances.
It was NOT my decision to do that.
Eventually, we converted everything to AS/400 using RPG-III and DB2/400.
Writing code for the 315 was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. There were no high level languages for it. The only thing it had was it’s native assembler - NEAT.
As Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story!”
The 315 did not have disk drives as they weren’t invented yet. But, they did have random access storage called CRAM. Card Random Access Memory. The cards were larger than typical punch cards and were magnetically coated. The cards were used in decks of 256 cards numbered 0-255. A series of holes in each card allowed a card to be dropped into a read/write device after which it was returned to the back of the deck.
Later, the company purchased NCR Century mainframes which were 16-bit systems using an 8-bit byte. No software was written for these systems as they ran software that emulated the 315 systems. Dick drives were used to emulate the CRAM decks.
Still later, the company bought an NCR diadic (dual processor) Criterion mainframe that was a 32-bit system that sported virtual memory. It had a whopping 4MB of memory. It was by all accounts a very modern machine for the times. Some software was written for this system using VRX-COBOL, Total database, and TranPro as a TP Monitor. However, mostly this system ran software that emulated the NCR Century system which in turn ran an emulator that executed 315 software. Yes, we used a modern mainframe to run multiple layers of emulation so we could run 12-bit software that didn’t know about disk drives or other modern advances.
It was NOT my decision to do that.
Eventually, we converted everything to AS/400 using RPG-III and DB2/400.
Writing code for the 315 was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. There were no high level languages for it. The only thing it had was it’s native assembler - NEAT.
As Paul Harvey would say, “Now you know the rest of the story!”
D
Two for Tuesday...on Monday. Feeling funky instead of grumpy today.
Phil Collins Big Band with Doug Richeson on bass, followed by Candy Dulfer with Manuel Hugas on bass.
Phil Collins Big Band with Doug Richeson on bass, followed by Candy Dulfer with Manuel Hugas on bass.
In college I subbed in a couple bigger bands, and this was a mainstay back then. I can remember a time when there were large stages, many players, and bands actually got paid a decent wage! I've always been a Phil Collins fan, sorry he's had so much back trouble lately. Last pictures I saw of him sadly he looked like an old man. Sad, he was so vibrant when he was young.
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,165
- 256,849
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Pretty much how pyramid structures stay in place. The few at the top need everyone else there to support 'em
^ our friend, Time*
* take as directed. Side effects will occur. If in doubt, use your homing transmitter. You did remember to bring a universal charger, yes?
Hint: he is an old man, relatively speaking.
When I first met Phil (Fall of 1973) he still had hair!
Phil Collins is coming up to 70. His back and nerves are about 92.
It's a drummist thing.
Things people do when they’re drunk. Just not this well.
- Status
