Re: OT Bit Buckets (was RE: Mainframe and caps (was: A question about macro quote))

And more punch card trivia:
Made of stiff cardboard, the punch card represents information by the
presence or absence of holes in predefined positions on the card. In the
first generation of computing, from the 1920s into the 1950s, punch cards
were the primary medium for data storage and processing. They were an
important medium, particularly for data input, well into the 1970s, but are
now long obsolete outside of a few legacy systems and specialized
applications.

The IBM 80-column punching format, with rectangular, holes eventually won
out over the Univac 90-character format, which used 45 columns (2 characters
in each) of 12 round holes. IBM (Hollerith) punched cards are made of smooth
stock, .007 of an inch thick. There are about 143 cards to the inch
thickness; a group of such cards is called a deck. Punch cards were widely
known as just IBM cards.

and for you young' ins here who would like to see what we're talking about
can see a picture of a punched card at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_card>.

-----Original Message-----
From: Choate, Paul@DDS [mailtochoate@DDS.CA.GOV]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 12:27 PM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: OT Bit Buckets (was RE: Mainframe and caps (was: A question
about macro quote))


IBM stopped making them? I did discover that the rectangle from a Hollerith
card is a "chip" not a round "chad", but both are computer confetti. Chips
are otherwise known as keypunch droppings. Chad generally came from tractor
feeds, chips came from punch cards. They both wound up in chad or chip
drawers, not to be confused with write-only bit buckets.

Did you know the original Hollerith cards were sized to fit paper currency
boxes? "A punched card from the 1890 census ... measures 3.25 by 7.375
inches, the same size as the 1887 US paper currency because Hollerith used
Treasury Department containers as card boxes"

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history...tabulator.html

regards

Paul Choate
DDS Data Extraction
(916) 654-2160

-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Fehd,
Ronald J.
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:36 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Mainframe and caps (was: A question about macro quote)

> From: Choate, Paul

> Those were the days: all caps, eight letter variable and
> dataset names, dot-matrix printers humming in the background,
> green on black dumb terminals, profs email, gopher, archie
> and veronica, dual 5.25 floppy drives, three button mice,
> 9600 baud modems replete with phone cradle and red/green
> blinking lights dialing the local BBS, IRQ switches, donkey.bas...
>
> Where has it all gone?

of course, the question is/was:
did Hollerith cards (ever) have hanging chad?

http://www.maxmon.com/punch1.htm

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...-8&q=Hollerith
interesting
I didn't know Hollerith cards were invented that far back: 1880s

trivia question:
in what year did IBM shut down its punch card factory(s)?

Ron Fehd the macro maven CDC Atlanta GA USA

Schechter, Robert S wrote:
> And more punch card trivia:
> Made of stiff cardboard, the punch card represents information by the
> presence or absence of holes in predefined positions on the card. In
> the first generation of computing, from the 1920s into the 1950s,
> punch cards were the primary medium for data storage and processing.
> They were an important medium, particularly for data input, well into
> the 1970s, but are now long obsolete outside of a few legacy systems
> and specialized applications.
>

I recall reading some stories about punch card readers that would fail or
break down, but only after running cards of a certain color! (I think it was
green). Perhaps part of some urban myth. Let me blend two or more
myth/anecdotes and propose that it happened only on Thursdays when the green
cards arrived. The delivery man used back service elevator to leave and the
elevator motor ran with noisey voltage, causing the reader to crash when
programs on the first batch of new cards where being processed.

Then there is the paper tape punch....

--
Richard A. DeVenezia
http://www.devenezia.com/