Guy, what kind of hobbies do you have?

[crfriend]

OK, sorry for that bad pun, but as is known my great passion is "elder" or "classic" computer gear, most of which bears little to no resemblence to things from the modern world. Case in point, a memory stack (core, of course) from a LINC-Eight first manufactured in 1965:

linc-8-mem-s.jpg

The LINC-Eight is a hybrid of the original LINC (Laboratory INstrumentation Computer) designed in 1961 and Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-8. This is a 12-bit machine, meaning that the ALU is twelve bits in width (unlike most modern PCs which are either 32 or, more recently, 64 bits wide) and represented the standard memory size for a base system.

Here we have the same amount of memory, but for the LINC-Eight's successsor machine, the PDP-12:

12-memory-s.jpg

One begins to see how packaging and miniaturisation have helped shrink the size of machines, and the delta between those two packages is only about five years in the 1960s. The same amount of mainstore now occupies less than a 100,000th of a square inch.

Why the imagery? I found some of my old photos this morning whilst looking for something else and figured I'd purloin some time on Sapphire's scanner whilst she was still in bed.

[crfriend]

One of the reasons I like old computers so much is that they look like what one would suspect computers would look like if one had an imagination and a bit of a steeping in the world of Sci-Fi. So,
this:

12-cons-s.jpg

should not come as a shocker. This is the secondary programmer's interface to said machine, the primary being a Teletype (TM) and a point-plotting CRT that is capable of displaying text.

Here's the machine in operation:

12-run-s.jpg

Sorry for the rotten colour-balance; all I had to work with at the time was low-grade industrial flourescent lighting.

Yes, switches and "blinkenlights"' you can't beat those.

[crfriend]

One thing the aspiring collector of old iron needs to take into account is how big some of the more interesting systems are, especially once one leaves the microcomputer realm. Some of these things are not small at all. Here's a shot from about 12 years ago (before I even seriously thought of "shoving both legs down one pipe, mind) showing what can be expected:

scale-s.jpg

Note that that's the CPU and a tape drive alone -- no disk storage is included; to get a workable amount of disk space, one would be looking at a substantial chunk of floor-space above and beyond the computing bits.

Having one of these:

sandra-s.jpg

helps a great deal. This particular vehicle and I went through a lot of happy times gathering and moving old hardware around. I recall with special fondness a trip to Iowa (half a continent away) to pick up a PDP-8/I and an Interdata Model 4; both fit in the back and the hatchback still closed.

By contrast, I now drive what amounts to a 2-seater because I have to put the driver's seat back so far -- no more hauling big gear!

[Since1982]

MY GOD, PANTS! I've never seen Carl in pants. Something new in my knowledge of Carl's existence.

[crfriend]

II've never seen Carl in pants

I grew up in the male straightjacket in the 1960s/70s era, hence it's not strange at all that I have worn trousers in the past, and will likely wear them in the future. I'm wearing trousers as I write this. It's the option for skirted looks that I believe to be important.

Something new in my knowledge of Carl's existence.

Trousers remain an option. I would have it no other way.

[Kirbstone]

That's a helluva lot of hardware, Carl. In the early '70's an extremely eminent scientist patient of mine (alas now deceased) took me to see the then satellite tracking stations on the South Downs in Hampshire.
Apart from a highly mobile vast geodesic signal collecting disc they had a neighbouring building stuffed with roomfulls of big stuff like in your picture, topped by seriously big reel-to-reel tape installations.
I expect all this data gathering power could nowadays be accommodated in a pocket I-pod!

[crfriend]

I expect all this data gathering power could nowadays be accommodated in a pocket I-pod!

Indeed it is likely surpassed by the computational and storage capabilities of an I-pod. However, that is not the point in my quest to preserve the "elder machines"; the thrust of my endeavour is to point up, in no uncertain terms, that computing existed before Bill Gates, before Microsoft, and before Apple. Yes, some of the articles of hardware are large, but that does not render them invalid!

The PDP-12, with the photographs above, is a lineal descendent of the original LINC that was designed in 1961 and was very likely the first "personal computer" inasmuch as it was intended to be operated by a single researcher in the furtherance of said researcher's experiments. It didn't require heaps of air-conditioning; it didn't need a cadre of on-site engineers; and it didn't need a staff or professional programmers -- these were machine that for the first time allowed scientists hands-on access to computers. And the design of the LINC's instruction-set was so perfectly suited to the need that the machines themselves soldiered on into the late 1990s because nothing else served the need as well as the original article! I'd say that an almost 40-year reign is no slouch!

The "beast" in my prior post represented the last gasp of DEC's pdp10 line which originated with the PDP-6 in 1963; DEC killed the -10 in 1983 much to the consternation of many folks -- and more than a few tears were shed over the decision -- and it's been, in this author's estimation, all downhill since.

Be careful in what you wish for. Whilst the afforementioned I-pod may well have several thousand times the processing power and memory of the device I was shown next to, the one I posed with was more than capable of answering the computational needs of more than 100 users at any given time. Try that with an I-pod.

There is a newer photograph of me with a DECsystem-1090 that my computer history group has in its collection -- and in that one I was wearing a skirt. However, since I was standing behind a couple of washing-machine-sized disk drives one cannot tell. All-up, in an operational setting, the system requires about 400 square feet of space and over 75 kilowatts of power. (The "win" of the I-pod should be apparent here on an electrical-draw per user basis. )

[Kirbstone]

Yes you're perfectly right, of course. I don't posess an I pod, nor will I for quite a while yet, if ever. My oldest and best rowing friend spent his entire professional life servicing and operating computers, working for years for Texas Instruments, part of that time in Riyad in Saudi Arabia.
He's a great communicator, and I've had more than an earful from him about how great the old hardware was.

[Jack Williams]

Post addendum to previous:

Goose egg on left, about 4-6 times hen egg volume. Great for making cakes, or another goose!
Duck egg in the middle. Cakes, omalettes OK. Fried, only so-so. Boiled, a bit rubbery.
Hen egg at right. How d'ya like 'em ?

Rs Egg sizes&samples.jpg

Lovely nice brown free range hen egg.

[Since1982]

I'm not young enough to use an I-Pod. My fingers and thumbs won't move that fast.

[Kirbstone]

Speaking of I-pods....This one might be more 'user-friendly' !.....Reminds me of our rowing eight.

I_POD.jpg

I have just been given details of an old Gaff-rigged Ketch that we're going to sail in on the Baltic in September to Shanty-Choir Festivals.
She's the Ryvar, http://www.ryvar.de, Site unfortunately all in German, but I attach two pics. Pretty boat, now.

Ryvar before conversion.jpg

Ryvar today.jpg

Tom K.

[Big and Bashful]

very nice looking boat, I bet that is a lot of fun!

[Jack Williams]

Wow, what a great idea, converting that lovely boat to sail!
And Carl, I love that great old computing gear. A bloke gave me a whole lot of big transformer laminations from old mainframes. He was recycling the copper out of them, but the only thing you can do with the lams is put them in more transformers. I used them for the big tube amps I was building just then. How's that! A computer to a valve amp!

[Jack Williams]

In fact, here is one of those 100watt RMS monoblocks.

[sapphire]

Hi Kirbstone,
Lovely henhouse and great carpentry work.

What breeds of chicken, duck and goose do you keep?

I've recently become interested in chickens and have large and bantam Araucana, Lavender Orpintons, Australorps and Easter Eggers. The Araucana lay blue shelled eggs, The Lavenders will probably lay blue shelled eggs because they hatched out of blue shelled eggs. The Easter Eggers also hatched from blue shelled eggs. I expect the Aussies will lay brown shelled eggs.

The cockerels are simply stunning. Among the bantams are a black breasted red (Fred), a blue breated red (Dashiell) and a red/black (Vernon). The large fowl Araucana (Alastair) is white with a few splashed of blue. All of the Araucan are rumpless and most are tufted.

The Lavender Orpingtons are a beautiful pale gray color that is stunning in contrast to their deep ink combs and wattles and dark gold eyes. The Aussies are black with green and purple iridescence. Godzilla, the large Easter Egger cockerel is a bird of many colors. His head and neck feathers are gray with yellow striping, His body is white with large patches of red. He has yellow feathers on his rump and has an iridescent black tail. His beard and muffs are gray.
Diana