The man in charge of the National Parks has his friggin' hat on backwards!

[aderickson]

As a former USNPS Ranger (Glacier NP 1973) I find it offensive that he even had the hat on his head. That he had it backwards is insulting.

I still have my flat brimmed Stetson and display it proudly in my den.

Allan

[Alan Klein]

Whoever was taking the photograph didn't do their job.  This appears to be an ad campaign for kid rangers or whatever.  Whoever produced this, took the shot and released the photo should be fired. 

Reminds me of the Dukakis presidential campaign years ago.  The candidate was trying to impress people with his military prowess but came off looking like a wuss and incompetent with this stupid helmet on his head that made him look like Mickey Mouse.  He lost naturally.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/dukakis-and-the-tank-099119

[jeremyrh]

Whoever was taking the photograph didn't do their job.  This appears to be an ad campaign for kid rangers or whatever.  Whoever produced this, took the shot and released the photo should be fired. 

I'm pretty sure that it was actually Obama's fault. Haven't you learned ANYTHING?

[RSL]

FWIW, I was also programming Z80 processers in Assembler in 1981

Interesting. I started doing that in 1977. By 81 we were on to better processors. Why were you still doing Z80s?

[Alan Goldhammer]

FWIW, I was also programming Z80 processers in Assembler in 1981 and I helped to assemble my highschool's Mircobee kit computers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroBee) in the mid 80's, and helping to set up the Token Ring network in the computer room where the Microbees were.  That was '85 IIRC.

When I was a post-doc at Cornell (1975-78) we had a DEC PDP-11 'mini' computer that had to be booted up every morning with toggle switches and paper tape reader (remember those?).  IIRC we had both BASIC and FORTRAN compilers that also had to be individually read into the machine.  Any optimization had to be done through assembler and we usually had to get someone from the computer science department to come over and do that as most of us only could do high level programming and the computer was set up to data acquisition from some of the instruments that we used to do protein studies.  I can't remember how much memory it had but there is no question that my current Intel PC workstation is orders of magnitude more powerful, boots much faster and is easier to use than the old PDP.

It's always interesting to go back and look at all the companies around at that time that did not have the vision to innovate (CDC, Wang, DEC, Harris-Lanier, etc.) and are now just faint memories for those of us of a certain age and certainly totally unknown to most millennial CS degree holders. The same could be said of software companies that were powerhouses in the early days (Novell, WordPerfect, Lotus, etc.)

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Interesting. I started doing that in 1977. By 81 we were on to better processors. Why were you still doing Z80s?

Since we're bragging ...

Been there, done that, (still) got the books (the T-shirts didn't fit anymore). See attachment.
I couldn't find the earlier 8080/8086 books or else I would have added them as well.
The Intel 8080 could address a whopping 64 kilobytes of memory ...

Cheers,
Bart

[digitaldog]

I'm pretty sure that it was actually Obama's fault. Haven't you learned ANYTHING?

Wasn’t Obama the photographer and the stylist?

[Farmer]

Interesting. I started doing that in 1977. By 81 we were on to better processors. Why were you still doing Z80s?

Because at 11 years of age, I didn't have the financial capacity to buy my own computer hardware.  I had access to a System 80 (which was a locally sold Z80-based PC similar to a TRS-80).  It's still produced today, BTW (the Z80, plus some derivative chips).

My personal access/ownership of computers started there, went to a Dick Smith Wizard (which was a rebadged CreatiVision games console but you could get a BASIC cart for it), Atari 800, TI-994a, Apple IIe, Amiga 2000 (with an 80286 board as a secondary bus), upgraded Amiga 2000 (added a 68040 processor), upgraded the 80286 board to an 80386 board, added an Amiga 1200 which I networked to the A2000 with a parallel port network and it could also see the secondary bus 800386), then a Pentium I and then a slew of PCs on from there until now.

I taught myself various versions of BASIC, Assembler, and REXX - but I was never a coder as such, just little projects to get things done for myself.

[Farmer]

paper tape reader (remember those?).

I never used them, but saw them and knew of them.  A bit like the tape drives and old hard discs that I did use briefly doing some work experience (and then some actual work over the Christmas/summer holidays here when I was 15 nearly 16) for large building contractor who ran a VAX system and I was doing the role of a "computer operator" as it was.

I remember they had a guy who came in from time to time to consult who was called the $200/hour man.  In 1985, that was rather a lot of money.

[Farmer]

Been there, done that, (still) got the books (the T-shirts didn't fit anymore). See attachment.
I couldn't find the earlier 8080/8086 books or else I would have added them as well.

Wow, I had the Zaks book!  Cool that you still have those :-)

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Wow, I had the Zaks book!  Cool that you still have those :-)

Sweet memories ...

Did my first attempts at writing RSA cryptography routines on those, in Assembly of course.
Every clock-cycle counted, and memory was limited, so optimizations were crucial.

Cheers,
Bart

[RSL]

Because at 11 years of age, I didn't have the financial capacity to buy my own computer hardware.  I had access to a System 80 (which was a locally sold Z80-based PC similar to a TRS-80).  It's still produced today, BTW (the Z80, plus some derivative chips).

My personal access/ownership of computers started there, went to a Dick Smith Wizard (which was a rebadged CreatiVision games console but you could get a BASIC cart for it), Atari 800, TI-994a, Apple IIe, Amiga 2000 (with an 80286 board as a secondary bus), upgraded Amiga 2000 (added a 68040 processor), upgraded the 80286 board to an 80386 board, added an Amiga 1200 which I networked to the A2000 with a parallel port network and it could also see the secondary bus 800386), then a Pentium I and then a slew of PCs on from there until now.

I taught myself various versions of BASIC, Assembler, and REXX - but I was never a coder as such, just little projects to get things done for myself.

Sounds as if you and I have something in common, Phil. I got into computer science by chance too. When the IBM 360 first came out -- the first multi-tasking computer -- I was a Lt. Col at NORAD Hq. Ops Plans. We were working on a replacement for the original computer system in Cheyenne Mountain. I went to a course on the 360 at IBM, and during the course got exposed to PL/I, which was a mix between Fortran and COBOL. For some reason I really took to programming. The TRS-80 model I came out about the time I retired from the AF in 1977, and I was the second guy in Colorado Springs to own one.

Long story shorter: I started doing software development for a couple businesses in the local area. Got involved in writing a financial program for Colorado Tech, along with Dr. John Zingg, a retired AF officer who was a good friend, head of the computer science department, and the guy who'd started the computer science program at the Air Force Academy. I tumbled onto the C programming language and learned it. John talked me into doing a class in C, which was new for the school.

I've always loved teaching, but one of the things I discovered at the college was that when it comes to programming, you either have it or you don't. It's sort of like musical ability. It's something you're born with -- or not. There were a few young people in the school who were in computer science because they thought they could make big bucks in the field. But they simply didn't have the aptitude for it. Others flew high without really having to strain anything.

I started a little corporation and pretty soon had too much software development work to afford to go on teaching. I've always regretted that, but I had a ball breaking problems into smaller problems and the smaller problems into trivial problems and then building the software to put it all back together. At one point I also taught a course in C++ to Cirrus Logic's R&D branch in Colorado. I finally quit a couple years ago. Age has its problems. But I still love playing with it.

[RSL]

. . .paper tape reader (remember those?).

Not only do I remember those, Alan, I spent a couple years working with paper tape readers, paper tape punches, and keypunches at NORAD headquarters when I was developing stuff to get the Cheyenne Mountain computer system out of the dark ages of 100 baud teletype and into store and forward reporting through minicomputers at region blockhouses. I became a damn good keypunch operator, I'm proud to say. Anybody remember the 80 column punchcard?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

 

Or worse still, he might put the acoustic coupler on his ear. And then put the hat back on.

   

[degrub]

Not only do I remember those, Alan, I spent a couple years working with paper tape readers, paper tape punches, and keypunches at NORAD headquarters when I was developing stuff to get the Cheyenne Mountain computer system out of the dark ages of 100 baud teletype and into store and forward reporting through minicomputers at region blockhouses. I became a damn good keypunch operator, I'm proud to say. Anybody remember the 80 column punchcard?

LOL. i still have a couple boxes of cards in the "library". And a punched tape to make a "Snoopy" calendar for the year 1971. i say that assuming the silverfish haven't devoured them yet...

[Alan Goldhammer]

Not only do I remember those, Alan, I spent a couple years working with paper tape readers, paper tape punches, and keypunches at NORAD headquarters when I was developing stuff to get the Cheyenne Mountain computer system out of the dark ages of 100 baud teletype and into store and forward reporting through minicomputers at region blockhouses. I became a damn good keypunch operator, I'm proud to say. Anybody remember the 80 column punchcard?

LOL!!  I took computer programming in college (1968) and it was all mainframe and punchcards in those days.  They would run the CS student programs at the top of the hour so if you screwed up a card and got an error message, you corrected it and waited an hour for the next run.  It's amazing what we had to deal with in those days.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I tumbled onto the C programming language and learned it. John talked me into doing a class in C, which was new for the school.

I still have my copy of Kernigan and Ritchie which is quite valuable these days in terms of used book prices.  I got a copy of Borland Turbo C when it first came out and taught myself C programming.

I've always loved teaching, but one of the things I discovered at the college was that when it comes to programming, you either have it or you don't. It's sort of like musical ability. It's something you're born with -- or not. There were a few young people in the school who were in computer science because they thought they could make big bucks in the field. But they simply didn't have the aptitude for it. Others flew high without really having to strain anything.

Bill Gates proves this.

[degrub]

LOL!!  I took computer programming in college (1968) and it was all mainframe and punchcards in those days.  They would run the CS student programs at the top of the hour so if you screwed up a card and got an error message, you corrected it and waited an hour for the next run.  It's amazing what we had to deal with in those days.

a funny home made cigarette would get your re-run to the front of the JList with the right system operator in our school....

[Alan Goldhammer]

a funny home made cigarette would get your re-run to the front of the JList with the right system operator in our school....

I was at UC Santa Barbara as an undergrad and everyone had weed in those days.  Maybe some good brownies would have helped

[Alan Klein]

So it seems we all have a lot more in common then our political posts would indicate. Our computer pasts.  So my turn to brag a little.   After in left the USAF in 1967 installing and maintaining crypto machines that used bi-stable ferromagnetic cores for flip flops rather than silicon, I went to work for Univac installing maintaining and repair their Univac 494 system, including the magnetic tape drives, memory drums, modems transmissions and computer and memories.  The 494 was a competitor at the time to the computer Russ's mentioned: IBM 360.  While IBM was using bytes (32 bit words 4x8), Univac was using octal machines at the time, the 494 being 30 bit words (3x10).  Although I wasn't trained in programming I did understand how each instruction (ie shift left, replace, etc.) worked through it's dozens of timing operations.  You needed that for equipment maintenance.  I use to write programs though in machine language just to mess around.  Actually its depressing discussing these old machines. It shows how old we all are getting. 

Intersting story that links up in a way with Hillary's email server issue was when we installed a new 494 at CIA headquarters.  One of the core memories didn't pass the memory tests we were doing.  So we isntalled a replacement.  The CIA wouldn;t let us remove the memory though under procedures they had.  Even though we assured them and they knew that the memory was wiped clean from running a "wash" program, and the computer had never been turned over to them to put anything on it, their policy was to not allow the memory to leave their premises.  I believe they eventually destroyed the bad memory.  But I'm no positive about that.   Apparently that sense of security was not passed down to Secretaries of State, either Gen.Colin Powell (who should have known better as a military man) or Hillary Clinton.