technology revisited-  my first brush with a computer.
    my first year at ati was an introduction to the computers of that age. that age was was the year of 1975 , and the computers were massive at that time. we were taught basic and fortran programming to allow us to do time saving tasks involving complex mathematics. apple also had a computer we used at that time, and i believe windows was in its infancy. in fact they still used card readers to perform simple sorting and math computations involving massive computers occupying a large room at the college of wooster that were equipped with huge magnetic disks, and reel to reel tapes as storage devices to increase the computers speed and capabilities. we were able to time share on telephone modem we actually that we had to cradle a handset of an old dial telephone into and you could hear the digital signals beep as you made a connection. there was maybe 40 desks with input terminals and each terminal was linked to a printer.
   we were supposed to perform a variety of tasks and it was up to us to schedule lab time when it was convenient. it all interfered with my partying, so the time i would pick for lab was times i knew no one else would take. i was by my self and i did have an instructor who was helpful but was busy as i inputted a feed analysis program . several attempts at trying to program the computer yielded the same results . a simple try help was all the computer would tell me. since the instructor was busy i decided to type in help and hit the return key.
     the printer come alive and 10 huge sheets of useless information began pouring out the computer as it emptied its bowels into trash basket as the paper was overflowing the desk . a quick look at the wording on the sheet reprimanded me for my free thinking ways as it called me an idiot , an asshole and a bunch of other a-words before going on to b . at which time i figured this may be a long drawn out answer. and  now i am at close to 20 huge sheets of nothingness being thrust upon me. i was thinking how do i shut this off , where is the instructor, and then it dawned on me to break the phone connection and it stopped.
    it was explained to me that an over zealous grad student had programmed the computer to respond to the word help being typed in. i felt violated mentally and was always wary of asking for help after that experience.
     well it was about then we had radio telephones available in vehicles . can remember sitting in a oilfield truck calling a friend in  the middle of winter. telling him i was in the middle of a nudist camp. the telephone was crude but i am sure a forerunner of today's cell phone. and oh yes the most interesting thing i found in a nudist camp were his and her johns. i was relieved at the thought that when you are at your most vulnerable a sense of decency still exists to make us worthy humans. some things i guess cant be shared , and sometimes a little tidying beside the rattle of leaves is required to make oneself presentable. i digress. my next computer was a windows 95 i bought off someone in paper as a used item. it was functional and at that time aol, almost on line, was just starting up. so began the dial up age which i will go into more tomorrow.