In article ,
"JennyC" writes:
| "CWatters" wrote
|
| I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
| program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
| panel.
|
| I know someone who used to hard wire programs with soldering
| iron............

I know several, but am a bit young to have done that myself. I have
written a program using jack plugs (on an analogue computer).

I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
| In article .com, Des
| Higgins says...
| ahhhhhhhhh when computers were easy to use and were proper big things
| and made noises and had flashing lights.
|
| And carrying a backup disk to the fire safe made your arms ache!

Ah, you youngsters! Mountable disks are a recent development, and
traditional backups were on tape.

Yes, do you remember when Radio 4 had a programme on (I think) Saturday
afternoons which was only of interest to computer owners. It broadcast a
series of whizzes and beeps which could be taped by the listener and
understood by his/her computer.

Ah, Radio 4 isn't what it used to be ...

Mary

"Des Higgins" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 8, 6:28 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
| In article .com,
Des
| Higgins says...
| ahhhhhhhhh when computers were easy to use and were proper big
things
| and made noises and had flashing lights.
|
| And carrying a backup disk to the fire safe made your arms ache!

Ah, you youngsters! Mountable disks are a recent development, and
traditional backups were on tape.

Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who later
attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more interest
than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap tops
and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

Interesting. What's the market for them? And can you read and write
cuneiform?

| A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who later
| attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more interest
| than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap tops
| and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

I like that :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

Interesting. What's the market for them?

Museums (for education, handling boxes etc.), Roman to C15th re-enactors,
reconstructed period houses and anyone just curious. It's not a mass market
:-)

And can you read and write
cuneiform?

You don't need to, in Britain cursive script was always used.

| A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who
later
| attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more
interest
| than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap
tops
| and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

I like that :-)

So did we. So did the customer :-)

Mary

On Oct 9, 9:29 am, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,"JennyC" writes:

| "CWatters" wrote
|
| I never did get a Fortran prgram to run, but I did once enter a very brief
| program into a 16 bit GEC computer using the instruction keys on the front
| panel.
|
| I know someone who used to hard wire programs with soldering
| iron............

I know several, but am a bit young to have done that myself. I have
written a program using jack plugs (on an analogue computer).

I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)



this is from memory and is not accurate but have not written Fortran
since 1993:

IF(HELPFLAG.EQ.1) THEN
GOTO 10
ELSE
GOTO 11987
ENF IF
10 WRITE(5,10836) 'Help Nick'
10836 FORMAT('*')
11987 CONTINUE
STOP





Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Oct 9, 10:35 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

ups.com...



On Oct 8, 6:28 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
| In article .com,
Des
| Higgins says...
| ahhhhhhhhh when computers were easy to use and were proper big
things
| and made noises and had flashing lights.
|
| And carrying a backup disk to the fire safe made your arms ache!

Ah, you youngsters! Mountable disks are a recent development, and
traditional backups were on tape.

Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who later
attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more interest
than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap tops
and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

Mary
gasp :-)
do you have to keep them in the fridge on a hot day or keep them away
from mice?

In article . com,
Des Higgins writes:
|
| I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
| course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
| needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)
|
| this is from memory and is not accurate but have not written Fortran
| since 1993:
|
| IF(HELPFLAG.EQ.1) THEN
| GOTO 10
| ELSE
| GOTO 11987
| ENF IF
| 10 WRITE(5,10836) 'Help Nick'
| 10836 FORMAT('*')
| 11987 CONTINUE
| STOP

You do, indeed, need help :-) See http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Des Higgins" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 9, 10:35 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

ups.com...



On Oct 8, 6:28 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
| In article .com,
Des
| Higgins says...
| ahhhhhhhhh when computers were easy to use and were proper big
things
| and made noises and had flashing lights.
|
| And carrying a backup disk to the fire safe made your arms ache!

Ah, you youngsters! Mountable disks are a recent development, and
traditional backups were on tape.

Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who later
attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more
interest
than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap tops
and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

Mary
gasp :-)
do you have to keep them in the fridge on a hot day or keep them away
from mice?

??

The melting point of beeswax is c70C. Mice aren't interested, not that we
have any as far as I know. If we have they're finding nutrition somewhere
else.

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| The melting point of beeswax is c70C. Mice aren't interested, not that we
| have any as far as I know. If we have they're finding nutrition somewhere
| else.

Mice certainly do eat beeswax, but I don't know under what circumstances.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| The melting point of beeswax is c70C. Mice aren't interested, not that
we
| have any as far as I know. If we have they're finding nutrition
somewhere
| else.

Mice certainly do eat beeswax, but I don't know under what circumstances.

They will eat comb, either in or outside a hive. It's easy to bite and
usually contains somethiing nice - honey, pollen or larvae.

Great chunks of solid wax - from 1 to 60 lbs are not as easy :-)

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| Mice certainly do eat beeswax, but I don't know under what circumstances.
|
| They will eat comb, either in or outside a hive. It's easy to bite and
| usually contains somethiing nice - honey, pollen or larvae.
|
| Great chunks of solid wax - from 1 to 60 lbs are not as easy :-)

They eat beeswax candles.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 9/10/07 16:34, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| Mice certainly do eat beeswax, but I don't know under what circumstances.
|
| They will eat comb, either in or outside a hive. It's easy to bite and
| usually contains somethiing nice - honey, pollen or larvae.
|
| Great chunks of solid wax - from 1 to 60 lbs are not as easy :-)

They eat beeswax candles.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

You put mouse guards on bee hives to over-winter them - shame you can't do
it on vestries. ;-)

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On Oct 9, 12:01 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article . com,Des Higgins writes:

|
| I like the references to Fortran! I am currently revising a
| course to teach Fortran to (graduate) students. Anyone who
| needs help with that sort of thing is welcome to contact me :-)
|
| this is from memory and is not accurate but have not written Fortran
| since 1993:
|
| IF(HELPFLAG.EQ.1) THEN
| GOTO 10
| ELSE
| GOTO 11987
| ENF IF
| 10 WRITE(5,10836) 'Help Nick'
| 10836 FORMAT('*')
| 11987 CONTINUE
| STOP

You do, indeed, need help :-) Seehttp://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/courses/.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Were you appalled by the bad structure or the bad grammar? Both were
pretty dire. I struggled to remember the syntax. I used to write huge
wadges of the stuff (it looked nicer than above) but the last program
I wrote was in Python and that was 8 years ago.
These days I just sit at a PC looking perplexed.

Des

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| Mice certainly do eat beeswax, but I don't know under what
circumstances.
|
| They will eat comb, either in or outside a hive. It's easy to bite and
| usually contains somethiing nice - honey, pollen or larvae.
|
| Great chunks of solid wax - from 1 to 60 lbs are not as easy :-)

They eat beeswax candles.

Evidence?

Mary


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.