re: JFK killed 60 years ago today...

quote:

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computer techs in 1963

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I graduated in 1960 - there were no 'computer' related courses that I knew of wrt engineering.

In fact, one of my senior year classes announced that LSU had acquired a new 'digital computer' (don't really know how long they had had it, but this was my first intro to 'digital' computing.) All my life my slide rule had been my only 'math aid'.

We went after hours to have someone tell us about the wonders of this new 'digital computer' = and I was sorely UNIMPRESSED.

partly because of my complete ignorance of the topic - but also because of how the presenter introduced the thing.

He said - "with this computer, you can "add one millionth to one million."

I guess he was trying to impress us slide rule barbarians with our 3-digit accuracy. BUT he completely failed to impress on me why anyone would want to come up with an 'accurate' answer of 1,000,000.0000001 . Of course we were all involved with practical engineering and not the requirements of financial institutions, etc.

IF he had highlighted the LOGIC power provided for structuring a series of computations or the way it could generate graphic outputs, I would have been way more impressed.

Instead he left me thinking it was just a big fast calculator.

Had to wait until I graduated and went to California to work for the old Convair Aircraft corp to find out about how useful they could be - and even then I started out with ANALOG computers, not the digital supergiants. Lots of headaches for me in making that leap.