December 10, 2012

Computer Encounters of the First Kind, Part I

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

My High School had a computer lab and, naturally, I avoided it. At the time, I thought that computers were all about math. Having my Algebra II teacher as the computer science teacher didn’t help ease that perception. Even so, I was drawn to the lab.

Lots of my friends — whom I would refer to as my nerd friends these days — were deeply into computers. They spent every spare moment in the computer lab, which is how I was dragged in there from time to time.

The computer lab at my High School didn’t actually have a computer. The computer was in the school district office. No, the lab featured noisy teletype machines, terminals. Specifically, as best I can remember, they were the Model 33. Here’s a picture from Wikipedia:

Model 33 Teletype

I specifically remember the round keys. Typing on them was a bitch, which I just chalked up to the fact that I hated computers.

The gizmo on the left of the keyboard was a paper tape reader. Programs were stored on paper tape, which the teletype could punch for output or read for input. I took home some of the punched tape from the trash can because I was so fascinated by it.

I remember one of my friends trying to get me to play Star Trek on the computer. It was agonizing. Because there was no interactive screen, you had to remember things in your head. I lost interest in the game — and in the computer lab.

One interesting thing that came out the lab was when a friend of mine hacked into the school district mainframe. I don’t know how he did it, but apparently he enrolled a mythical student, who he called “Irving Julius” after the basketball player Julius Irving. I remember this whole episode every time I watch the film Wargames where Matthew Brodericks character changes his grades using the school computer.

Anyway, my friend grew panicked when the administration found out the bogus enrollee and started asking questions. I don’t know if they ever caught him.

So even though I touched a teletype, and attempted to play a Star Trek game in High School, I never really used the computers aside from taking home the paper tape. Things were different when I went to college, which is the subject of Wednesdays’ blog post.

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