[Tfug] [Bulk] Re: Fwd: Re: [Bulk] Re: Thumb drive sizes vere6u7u

[Bexley Hall]

On 12/5/2012 11:10 AM, Bender wrote:
> DECwriters - what year was that?

70's.

Started with an ASR-33 <http://www.bytecollector.com/asr_33.htm>
[I actually still have one of these hiding in the garage] and a
Bell 110/103 modem (110-300 bits per second!).  First with acoustical
coupler <http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/couplers.html>
but, eventually, a "real" Bell "DataPhone" (no need to physically move
the handset into the coupler!)

Then, I *graduated* to punched cards!  :-/  (paper tape is an
abysmal storage and retrieval medium!!)

DECwriters were a *huge* step up -- since they implied online storage
(instead of bundling up your card deck or reels of tape and heading
off for home).

And a glass tty was absolute nirvana!  "Wow, I can move around
the screen!" (kinda hard to do that with a paper output medium!)

By then, adding *color* was something you *expected* (amazing how
quickly you go from being awed and grateful for advances into
"nonplussed" and impatient  :> )

Mutli-GHz cores, multi-TB drives... <yawn>

--don