Best label removal hack EVER

[KCCam]

Floppy disks, I laugh at those. How about back when you had to know what switches to have up and which ones down to boot a Dec (Digital Equipment Company) PDP 11 computer?? and an 80 Mb disk platter was a big round thing with 8 or 10 read heads. Everything you wrote had to reside in 32K of address space or was it even less, it has been a long time since I thought about that.

Hahaha, OK, I got that beat. I used to work on "computerized" HVAC systems. The "computer" was the size of present-day server rack, and the hard drive was 1 MB. Yes you read that right. The platter was contained in a steel cannister, maybe about 10 gallons in size, and pressurized with Helium to prevent any influx of dust or other particles that could crash the heads.

 

[KCCam]

Hahaha, OK, I got that beat. I used to work on "computerized" HVAC systems. The "computer" was the size of present-day server rack, and the hard drive was 1 MB. Yes you read that right. The platter was contained in a steel cannister, maybe about 10 gallons in size, and pressurized with Helium to prevent any influx of dust or other particles that could crash the heads.

The memory wasn't even soldered to a circuit board, the pins were all individually wire-wrapped together. Not sure how many Bytes it would have been, but obviously much less than 1 MB.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

The first computer I bought cost $2300 I think (that included the printer), ran Windows 3.1 and had a 640 MB hard drive. Man, I thought I had something!

 

[KCCam]

The first computer I bought cost $2300 I think (that included the printer), ran Windows 3.1 and had a 640 MB hard drive. Man, I thought I had something!

Haha, I have you beat too. My first computer was a Radio Shack Model I. It had 4 kB (yes, you read that right), of RAM. And no disk drive. Programs were read from cassette tape (anyone remember what a cassette is?). It was incapable of displaying lower case text, unless you soldered a chip piggy-backed to another chip on the circuit board. Windows was not invented yet. Neither was DOS. Ahhhh, those were the days. I later upgraded to the 16 kB model with an 89 kB external 5 1/4" floppy disk drive. Ahhhhh, ... wait,... no, I don't miss those days!

My first IBM PC clone was 512 kB RAM, with a 30 MB hard drive. That was still before Windows, but after DOS.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Haha, I have you beat too. My first computer was a Radio Shack Model I. It had 4 kB (yes, you read that right), of RAM. And no disk drive. Programs were read from cassette tape (anyone remember what a cassette is?). It was incapable of displaying lower case text, unless you soldered a chip piggy-backed to another chip on the circuit board. Windows was not invented yet. Neither was DOS. Ahhhh, those were the days. I later upgraded to the 16 kB model with an 89 kB external 5 1/4" floppy disk drive. Ahhhhh, ... wait,... no, I don't miss those days!

My first IBM PC clone was 512 kB RAM, with a 30 MB hard drive. That was still before Windows, but after DOS.

Man, things have changed, haven't they?! Here I am on my phone with built in memory 100x bigger than my first computer, in a size smaller overall than that 5 1/4 inch floppy disk which held just 320 KB.

 

[KCCam]

Man, things have changed, haven't they?! Here I am on my phone with built in memory 100x bigger than my first computer, in a size smaller overall than that 5 1/4 inch floppy disk which held just 320 KB.

Well, you must be a spring chicken, because my phone has 32,000,000 times as much memory as my first computer. Beat THAT!

 

[KCCam]

Man, things have changed, haven't they?! Here I am on my phone with built in memory 100x bigger than my first computer, in a size smaller overall than that 5 1/4 inch floppy disk which held just 320 KB.

Sorry, I'm getting a little competitive there, or maybe nostalgic. Yes, things have sure changed. Can you imagine back then thinking you would actually be able to dictate to a computer, much less a phone, with almost 100% accuracy?

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

Sorry, I'm getting a little competitive there, or maybe nostalgic. Yes, things have sure changed. Can you imagine back then thinking you would actually be able to dictate to a computer, much less a phone, with almost 100% accuracy?

Or that your phone could take quality pictures that you could view instantly and send to friends in moments.

 

[Sage]

True 105 isn't hot. But put a thermometer in the sun and it will be a lot higher than 105 in the shade.

Sorry, got tied up with a project and never got a chance to try it.

 

[KCCam]

True 105 isn't hot. But put a thermometer in the sun and it will be a lot higher than 105 in the shade.

Sorry, got tied up with a project and never got a chance to try it.

Yes, very true. You wouldn’t get a sunburn sitting in your bathtub, but soaking up some rays is a different story!

 

[wpt-me]

Anybody remember doing programing in Basic on the PDP-11 ??

Bill

 

[KCCam]

Anybody remember doing programing in Basic on the PDP-11 ??

Bill

I remember programming in BASIC, but not on a PDP-11, it was on my TRS-80, Model I. I remember my first classes in programming were COBOL and FORTRAN, and I remember having to take punched cards to have them fed into the computer.

 

[wpt-me]

Cobol on a IBM 360 with punch cards !!

Bill

 

[cmason1957]

Anybody remember doing programing in Basic on the PDP-11 ??

Bill

No Basic, but C, assembly, Fortran, and Pascal.

 

[KCCam]

Are we getting a little off-topic? Haha, OK, one last memory. I used one of the first "portable" computers for programming HVAC systems in commercial buildings: the Compaq Portable. "Portable" meant 28 lbs, and it didn't have a battery. It listed for $3600, came standard with 128 kB RAM, and two 5 1/4" floppy drives. It's state-of-the-art graphics (CGA) were displayed on a 9" green monochrome CRT and it was powered by a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 CPU.

 

[Val-the-Brew-Gal]

True 105 isn't hot. But put a thermometer in the sun and it will be a lot higher than 105 in the shade.

Sorry, got tied up with a project and never got a chance to try it.

Yes, I would imagine that they are going to get extremely hot in the sun! We had 103° today and when I went to move the water outside (I was barefoot) I burnt the base of my toes on the decorative rocks in the flower bed. Not exactly my brightest move but it shows how hot things can get!

 

[sour_grapes]

And how many of you have seen an 8" floppy disk?

Yup, I can stilll put my hands on a few of those if you wish!

How about back when you had to know what switches to have up and which ones down to boot a Dec (Digital Equipment Company) PDP 11 computer??

I had the same experience with PDP-8's, but by the time I was on 11's, I only had to deal with more forgiving interfaces!

 

[Chuck E]

Anybody remember doing programing in Basic on the PDP-11 ?? Bill

Mostly Fortran, a little Assembler, and APT (a NC machine tool programing language).

 

[Chuck E]

Floppy disks, I laugh at those. How about back when you had to know what switches to have up and which ones down to boot a Dec (Digital Equipment Company) PDP 11 computer?? and an 80 Mb disk platter was a big round thing with 8 or 10 read heads. Everything you wrote had to reside in 32K of address space or was it even less, it has been a long time since I thought about that.

The hard disk drives were as big as clothes washing machines. Purple and orange switches... set them & enter, set them & enter, REPEAT...

 

[Mike Parisi]

Back to residual glue. A really cheap and easy way is to mix equal parts of vegetable oil and baking soda. Mix it into a paste and apply it to the glue. Wait for it to dry, then wash off the paste and the glue. Hardly have to do any scrubbing at all. For 2-3 bottles, 1 TBSP of oil and baking soda is usually enough.