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Resurrect Your Old Code With a DIY Punch Card Reader
First time accepted submitter mchnz writes "Need to read in some old punch cards? Have a hankering to return to yesteryear? I've combined an Arduino, the CHDK enhanced firmware for Canon cameras, and the Python Image Library to build a reader for standard IBM 80 column punch cards. You can see it in action in "Punch Card Reader — The Movie" or read more about it." This is an inspiring, intimidating project.
I'm too lazy for all that lego building. If I needed to read punch cards I'd just find a scanner that would accept media that narrow and feed em through the ADF, feed that PDF into a script to pop apart the pages and then process the images.
Democrat delenda est
I was expecting something that mimicked the original way these cards were read. Anyone can take a photo of a punchcard :)
OK, this is really cool ... but how many people still have decks of punch cards?
The closest I've been to them is a box we had of them we used for notes.
Though, given the level of technology pack-rats we likely have on Slashdot, I expect several people to say they still have some cool program or another tied up neatly waiting for just such a thing. :-P
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Because, like anything, if you were there for it, you might have some nostalgia for it. It's something you did that most people can't even imagine having to do -- like programming in assembly, or walking to school (uphill, both ways).
I had a prof in university who used to wistfully tell me about toggling in the boot sequence with the buttons on the front of the machine. Hell, he once gave me the manual for the Winchester ST-506 hard-drive controller, and had me write the metal-up code to handle the HD -- about as bare metal as you can get as you shoved a byte into a register and wait for an interrupt to happen to respond to it. I still think that was kind of cool, but it's not something everybody wants to do. But, I gotta say, writing my own cat, ls, rm, mv etc in DOS going straight into the FAT filesystem, and knowing there wasn't a single line of code between me and the hardware I didn't write was fun and rewarding.
I bet most people using computers never had to deal with IRQ assignments for hardware to make them all work together. It was a pain in the ass, but we all fought through it.
And, finally, like so many of these technology projects "because I can" is sometimes all the reasoning you need. People do all sorts of stuff in their spare time, and one person's "shiny fun toy" is another person's "WTF would you do that for?".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I'm confused.
Why would you want to use fewer legos?
Everything is better with chainsaws.
When I hit that video the first time, the first couple of comments on that video aren't "cool!" "nice job!" or anything resembling constructive criticism. It's all "this is the wrong tech for the job" "seems like a hell of a lot of effort just to read what's already on the top of the card," etc.
Haters gonna hate, I guess. But what ever happened to just enjoying a hack for a hack's sake?
I think it's clever. Who cares how much time the guy spent, what technology he chose, as long as he enjoyed doing it.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
Compared to the real thing, this is a wee bit slow. But of course I threw out all my punch cards years ago. They warped so bad in about 12 months time that they would jam the reader.
Quick way to win friends, jam the reader with about 15 people behind you.
Now get off my lawn!
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"