I remember those days, although we punched our own programs on an IBM 029 cardpunch. Our data entry folks were befuddled by coding sheets, and you would have to take several shots at them punching a program. If you messed up a character while punching a card, you duped the card up to there and keyed the rest on a new card, discarding the old one.
You did learn to think out your program before coding this way. Especially since large programs could take hours to compile.
I have an LED digital alarm clock I bought in 1977 that still works, and even looks pretty much the same as then. I've used other clocks a total of maybe 1 year, scattered, but always come back to this one. Of course, that's tech that hasn't needed to change, as getting up for work is something that, unfortunately, is still necessary!
I'll admit up front that I haven't read through all the comments, and this has probably already been said, but I had to vent. Those of us who had read Starship Troopers were bitterly disappointed with the film version. I don't particularly care that this movie was perhaps intended to be satire - fans of the book expected the movie to do more than vaguely resemble Heinlein's story. Maybe they should have had a warning on the posters: "WARNING: this movie is only loosely based on the book. It will appear UTTERLY STUPID to fans of the original story. STAY AWAY if you're one of those fans". Whenever I talk about bad movie adaptions with friends, this movie is first in the discussion. It's as though they got someone to skim through the book, who described the general outlines to the screenwriters, who just did whatever they felt like with it. I still resent this treatment after this long.
Couldn't they have ruined another story for the sake of 'satire', instead of one of my favorite books growing up?
Okay, I'm done ranting, return to your discussion.
This reminds me of an old "Murphy Brown" episode, where the main characters were having a town hall meeting on 'sensitivity'. She referred to someone as the 'tall woman with glasses', and the woman retorted that she preferred 'vertically enhanced' and 'visually challenged'. Perhaps the folks who came up with this stuff prefer to be referred to as 'reality challenged'...
I don't believe that it is useful to try to categorize Katz's remarks as 'doom and gloom' or 'hope'; he is simply expressing his opinions and observations. The fact that so many readers respond angrily just means that his views hit close to home. His remarks about the media aren't JUST criticism, but a way of highlighting the evolution of the civic sphere in our time versus that of the more 'town-meeting' oriented time. I don't know many people who aren't dissatisfied with the media's handling of current political events; the growth of political discussion groups on the Net can be seen as an outgrowth of that dissatisfaction. It is with relief that I see so much discussion on the Net about the political climate. If more people continue to involve themselves in this way, the Net can truly become the new civic sphere, one in which the individual can once again feel involved and responsible.
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I remember those days, although we punched our own programs on an IBM 029 cardpunch. Our data entry folks were befuddled by coding sheets, and you would have to take several shots at them punching a program. If you messed up a character while punching a card, you duped the card up to there and keyed the rest on a new card, discarding the old one.
You did learn to think out your program before coding this way. Especially since large programs could take hours to compile.
Ahh, the good old days! :)
I have an LED digital alarm clock I bought in 1977 that still works, and even looks pretty much the same as then. I've used other clocks a total of maybe 1 year, scattered, but always come back to this one. Of course, that's tech that hasn't needed to change, as getting up for work is something that, unfortunately, is still necessary!
I'll admit up front that I haven't read through all the comments, and this has probably already been said, but I had to vent. Those of us who had read Starship Troopers were bitterly disappointed with the film version. I don't particularly care that this movie was perhaps intended to be satire - fans of the book expected the movie to do more than vaguely resemble Heinlein's story. Maybe they should have had a warning on the posters: "WARNING: this movie is only loosely based on the book. It will appear UTTERLY STUPID to fans of the original story. STAY AWAY if you're one of those fans". Whenever I talk about bad movie adaptions with friends, this movie is first in the discussion. It's as though they got someone to skim through the book, who described the general outlines to the screenwriters, who just did whatever they felt like with it. I still resent this treatment after this long.
Couldn't they have ruined another story for the sake of 'satire', instead of one of my favorite books growing up?
Okay, I'm done ranting, return to your discussion.
This reminds me of an old "Murphy Brown" episode, where the main characters were having a town hall meeting on 'sensitivity'. She referred to someone as the 'tall woman with glasses', and the woman retorted that she preferred 'vertically enhanced' and 'visually challenged'. Perhaps the folks who came up with this stuff prefer to be referred to as 'reality challenged'...
I don't believe that it is useful to try to categorize Katz's remarks as 'doom and gloom' or 'hope'; he is simply expressing his opinions and observations. The fact that so many readers respond angrily just means that his views hit close to home. His remarks about the media aren't JUST criticism, but a way of highlighting the evolution of the civic sphere in our time versus that of the more 'town-meeting' oriented time. I don't know many people who aren't dissatisfied with the media's handling of current political events; the growth of political discussion groups on the Net can be seen as an outgrowth of that dissatisfaction. It is with relief that I see so much discussion on the Net about the political climate. If more people continue to involve themselves in this way, the Net can truly become the new civic sphere, one in which the individual can once again feel involved and responsible.