Warning – probable bad language ahead!
This website is a replacement for my old computer consultancy website. As they say in the movies, “I’m getting too old for this shit!”
I first met a computer in university. It was an ICL 4/50 computer, it looked like a row of “tallboys” (wardrobes), took up the space of a 40′ shipping container, and was programmed using information (programs and data) on punched cards. We submitted our jobs by placing our bundles of punched cards in a tray on the data centre desk, and a couple of hours later, the job would be returned, wrapped in lineprinter paper.
Of then this would consist of “Job failed, syntax error on line xx” or similar. Retype the card, place it in the deck, and resubmit…
It was fun! It was called the cafeteria service for a reason! I think that the 4/50 also supported up to four (4!) interactive users on “Teletype” machines. These were a keyboard with a roll of paper where what we typed and what the computer responded showed.
A few years after that, the BBC introduced the BBC Micro, along with a series of late night programming programmes, that taught coding. In just a few years things had progressed so that you could buy a “Beeb”for just £400. It had a real keyboard, plugged into your TV to display text and graphics, and allowed you to save programs to a music cassette tape to be loaded again later. You could even “download” programs from the TV by using a microphone to your cassette recorder.
You lot have been spoiled.
Nowadays, software (and many other things in modern life) are getting worse.
So, this website is going to be the rants of a Grumpy Old Bastard!
You just can’t wait, can you?