[THIN] Re: OT: Microsoft Certified Architect Program

  • From: "Jim Kenzig http://ThinHelp.com" <jkenzig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 10:20:07 -0700 (PDT)

I was blowing up resistors  by plugging them into electrical outlets long 
before that! 
  (don't try this one at home) Heck I learned electronics on radios and TV's 
with Tubes in them. I remember the hum when I fired those babies up. I used to 
take those giant speakers out of the radios and hook them together and rock the 
house. (yeah I was a mobile Disk Jockey for abut 10 years also). I still have 
all the old records. 
   
  I started working on computers on Digital PDP11's. The drives in those things 
were wack.  If they went bad the springs and mechanisms would explode out every 
direction. I also was manager of a Radio Shack store when the first PC's came 
out. Model 1, 2, 3's, and Color Computer and finally the Tandy 1000 PC. Right 
in the thick of things...I could tell some stories. 
   
Jim

Nick Smith <> wrote:
        v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}        
        Pah!
   
  Just remembered that my first computer (As opposed to Mum?s) was one we built 
as a science project. Soldered the switches on, had little metal copper plates 
running as circuits, and small laboratory light-bulbs to give feedback to the 
user.
   
  The switches were binary ones and we had two rows of four I think.
   
  This enabled us to flick switches to 0 or 1 and then the logic of the 
circuits was such that the lights lit up to show the addition of the two rows.
   
  I presume we could only add to 30 altogether.
   
  So in terms of the Yorkshireman competition;
   
  No RAM
  No  External Storage
  No Machine code 
  No silicon whatsoever
  And a CPU (OK bundle of badly-wired switches) that was about 2 feet by 6 
inches.
   
  Beat tha?, you Southern p*nsies.
   
  Probably 78 or 79.
   
  Nick
   
   
   
   
      From: David Finch [mailto:david.finch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 23 June 2006 12:15
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: OT: Microsoft Certified Architect Program


   
  OK, with my pedantic hat on, the certification is only given ?Unlike other IT 
certifications, this credential was built and is granted by industry 
architects, as candidates must pass a rigorous review board with previously 
certified architects.?
   
  So how did the FIRST architect get certified? 
   
  J
   
  And to enter the ?Four Yorkshiremen? competition
   
  Lookshury!
   
  My first system was a Microbee (Australian) Z80 with 32K RAM and a cassette 
tape?.that was about 1983 I think?.It had BASIC, but I used it to teach myself 
Assembler programming
   
  The first system I actually worked on with a Hard Drive had a 5Meg Disk 
Platter that was nearly 2 foot across, and used tapes for long term storage. 
That was in about 1986.
   
  And my mum and dad used to dance on our graves and sing Hallelujah!
   
  But tell that to the kids of today and they won?t believe you
   

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