We used the slide rule in grammar school from Year 7 up to about Year 9 when calculators became more affordable. I finished school after 12 and a half years in 1984.
When we were 16 we were allowed to leave school premises during breaks which immediately increased the turnover of the nearest pub. The school day seemed so much more bearable once you had a pint (or more correctly 0.4L).
I got lucky with the opposite experience. I found calc and stat to be extremely helpful without having to go the extremes of being an actuary.
When you work in a big company, reaching the age of ~45 means you have a target on your back....and then you become an entrepreneur.
Another oldie then. I got my first calculator in my last year of school before university. Before that it was all sliderule. Still have the last one I purchased to use for my A levels....
Nobody gave me the memo. I was born and groomed to work.
Funny when I was younger the older guys got all the respect. Younger people were considered green. Bad timing on my parent's part. They groomed me to live in a world that didn't exist after 1970.
If I could do it all over again knowing what I know now, I would play the bastards like a fiddle.
Me too. As well as being enlightened to new ideas and subjects that I could follow and learn from. And all the way through my working life.
I worry for the future. Now, kids and companies, all they seem to believe is that you go through education and finish with university and that's it, job done. We take on university graduates at work that have learnt far less than I studied and learnt at college whilst working through an apprenticeship.
We're no more intelligent or stupid than when the Pyramids or Stonehenge were built, is it just the system now?
What do you mean by correctly?
Was it a UK pint? If it was a UK pint, you were sold a pup, or maybe your maths ain't up to scratch.
Pint, do you mean beer? Beer is sold in the UK by third, half, two-thirds of a pint and multiples of half a pint.
When in Rome 😆
I started studying the gee-gees when I was 15, never wrote anything down. At 18 I started placing bets in the 'bookies'. In those days it was still pounds,shillings and pence. There were no calculators and all odds were worked out in my head. I was actually offered a job as a bookies clerk. A place bet paid out @ 4 to 1, so to be a bookies clerk you had to be very fast and accurate. One day it was Brighton races and I placed a 4 horse accumulator and my nap was a horse called Eight Draws (If you got eight draws on the 'football pools' you would as likely win £1 million) I would have loved to go to the local track as I was working about a 20 minute walk away. I placed the bet in my lunch hour and it was Sod's Law that my memory bank of racing facts screwed up and I mistook an Epson specialist for a Brighton specialist and my pick for the second race I changed for a horse called Solennis. My original pick for the second race came in as did the others. there were 3 x 10/1 and my nap came in @ 100/8, 10 shillings each way
won me £6,5 shillings which was a weeks gross wages. The 10 shillings each way accumulator would have won me £13,661. I could have bought a reasonable house for my parents around £4-5K, invested £5K which would have left me over £3,500 + more than enough in those days to go travelling around the world at 18 years of age - so it goes.
What comprehension test was that then Bill? Grammar schools and pubs, na, more of a maths test. Or did you miss the veiled nationalistic dig at our beer measures, and culture?
Bill, do you drink beer, or have you ever drunk beer in a British pub? If so what measures does it come in?
Clue, it ain't measured in litres....
FYI, 1 pint roughly equals 0.57 litres. NOT 0.4.
Capiche?
PS,
Poor old Charles having to wait until 1980(?) for a calculator, 14th birthday present was a Sinclair Scientific for lucky me in 1974🙄
Bill, do you drink beer, or have you ever drunk beer in a British pub? If so what measures does it come in?
Clue, it ain't measured in litres....
FYI, 1 pint roughly equals 0.57 litres. NOT 0.4.
Capiche?
PS,
Poor old Charles having to wait until 1980(?) for a calculator, 14th birthday present was a Sinclair Scientific for lucky me in 1974🙄
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Still got my slide rule... Using slide rules and log tables taught you to estimate. I see a lot of folk only brought up on calculators come out with answers an order of magnitude or more out...
My first job used a mechanical calculator! Then I also bought a Sinclair Scientific.. Then an HP25 (still got that too), Reverse polish notation was great! My current calculator, a Casio fx-570 programmer's & scientific calculator with hex capabilities, was bought in the 80s. It's now on it's second battery! Tremendously good low power design.
My first job used a mechanical calculator! Then I also bought a Sinclair Scientific.. Then an HP25 (still got that too), Reverse polish notation was great! My current calculator, a Casio fx-570 programmer's & scientific calculator with hex capabilities, was bought in the 80s. It's now on it's second battery! Tremendously good low power design.
Never did learn a slide-rule, my current calculator, a TI-34, I got in about 1984...Prior to 1984 I drooled over the HP-15C on display, behind a glass countertop...they were so *******' expensive back then.
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Oh the HP-15C... Still have it, still use it and the batteries last forever! I have real issues having to use a non-RPN calculator, it is such a natural way of working.
Absolutely
When I was a very early teen.
TV shows were still on the antenna and only the richer kids had VCR or tape
player movies ( Beta/VHS)
So shows were limited, reception was poor and nobody
watched movies.
TV was of little interest or less interest.
When the streets were dug up and first cable lines
came in. We got cable soon as it was available.
Crystal clear many many stations.
I'll admit being glued to the thing.
MTV and movie stations.
Pushing rock star dreams, celebrity lifestyles.
More sexuality and rebellious attitude.
Fascinating stuff as a kid. Basically negative conditioning.
All the White kids wanted to be rock stars not go to school.
All black kids wanted to be rappers and gangsters.
Not unrealistic theory at all, I went to a large high school.
And by senor year attitudes changed.
Kids were " spitting" raps and forming gangs
and using new unknown slang. All the bullcrap
the TV/ Movies lifestyles and big quick money and sex.
That appealed to youngsters all being forced on you in the
home. Crystal clear, and 24/7 broadcast.
California Kid I was. Cousins in Nebraska.
Slower, Polite , Religious no gangs and slang
and rebellious attitude. Sunday church, grow corn
and football.
Late teens 3 years later. Cable came to Nebraska.
My Cousins told me. Everyone is rapping. Dudes
starting gangs, selling drugs. Talking with silly slang
fake accents. Cutting school. Wearing " colors"
He was smart and called it. He said all these annoying
posers at school trying to emulate all the bullcrap
from the cable shows. He hated it and even though
a young teen. Liked the traditional old ways.
And disliked all the new " programs" people want.
Funny they call them " Programs" not "shows" anymore
When you tell a kid " Dont do that"
What does a kid do. Do exactly the opposite.
Funny the PMRC insisted on putting " warning"
labels on music and movies and games.
Not for teens adults only. All it did is make kids
want to buy the junk even more. While they pretend
its for " your Childs safety"
Just like big Tobacco funding public service announcements.
Dont smoke, Dont smoke kids. Makes every kid wanna smoke
even more. Teen psychology 101
All the cool tough guys smoke Marlboro. All the rich pimp rapper
gangsters smoke Newports. Go to social event.
Guess what brands they all choose according to media
conditioning.
Yes IQ level dropped with Cable. I was there, and we all seen
it happen. And very quickly within 2 or 3 years.
Will it get worse? OH yeah the " TV" is right in your hands now.
And when " masking" kids in grade school. And the same cable
Brainwash is right in their hands. 10 years from now.
Bunch of Nancy HOA crybaby tattle tale back stabbers.
Or brain washed dropout gangster pimps going be rich with a youtube channel
playing video games.
That is the new nonsense.
When I was a very early teen.
TV shows were still on the antenna and only the richer kids had VCR or tape
player movies ( Beta/VHS)
So shows were limited, reception was poor and nobody
watched movies.
TV was of little interest or less interest.
When the streets were dug up and first cable lines
came in. We got cable soon as it was available.
Crystal clear many many stations.
I'll admit being glued to the thing.
MTV and movie stations.
Pushing rock star dreams, celebrity lifestyles.
More sexuality and rebellious attitude.
Fascinating stuff as a kid. Basically negative conditioning.
All the White kids wanted to be rock stars not go to school.
All black kids wanted to be rappers and gangsters.
Not unrealistic theory at all, I went to a large high school.
And by senor year attitudes changed.
Kids were " spitting" raps and forming gangs
and using new unknown slang. All the bullcrap
the TV/ Movies lifestyles and big quick money and sex.
That appealed to youngsters all being forced on you in the
home. Crystal clear, and 24/7 broadcast.
California Kid I was. Cousins in Nebraska.
Slower, Polite , Religious no gangs and slang
and rebellious attitude. Sunday church, grow corn
and football.
Late teens 3 years later. Cable came to Nebraska.
My Cousins told me. Everyone is rapping. Dudes
starting gangs, selling drugs. Talking with silly slang
fake accents. Cutting school. Wearing " colors"
He was smart and called it. He said all these annoying
posers at school trying to emulate all the bullcrap
from the cable shows. He hated it and even though
a young teen. Liked the traditional old ways.
And disliked all the new " programs" people want.
Funny they call them " Programs" not "shows" anymore
When you tell a kid " Dont do that"
What does a kid do. Do exactly the opposite.
Funny the PMRC insisted on putting " warning"
labels on music and movies and games.
Not for teens adults only. All it did is make kids
want to buy the junk even more. While they pretend
its for " your Childs safety"
Just like big Tobacco funding public service announcements.
Dont smoke, Dont smoke kids. Makes every kid wanna smoke
even more. Teen psychology 101
All the cool tough guys smoke Marlboro. All the rich pimp rapper
gangsters smoke Newports. Go to social event.
Guess what brands they all choose according to media
conditioning.
Yes IQ level dropped with Cable. I was there, and we all seen
it happen. And very quickly within 2 or 3 years.
Will it get worse? OH yeah the " TV" is right in your hands now.
And when " masking" kids in grade school. And the same cable
Brainwash is right in their hands. 10 years from now.
Bunch of Nancy HOA crybaby tattle tale back stabbers.
Or brain washed dropout gangster pimps going be rich with a youtube channel
playing video games.
That is the new nonsense.
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One of the biggest fads is pc processors.
I run an intel 12100 (£100) as it does what I need.
I watch youtube a lot, write pc programs and do PCB CAD work.
If I was sitting around waiting for it to finish then maybe it would be too slow but its not.
I dont even use a graphics card, just the integrated GPU.
I run an intel 12100 (£100) as it does what I need.
I watch youtube a lot, write pc programs and do PCB CAD work.
If I was sitting around waiting for it to finish then maybe it would be too slow but its not.
I dont even use a graphics card, just the integrated GPU.
Yeah , never needed graphics card or separate processor.
Wasn't a gamer though.
The audio card was the thing for audio
and low latency.
Full duplex for in and out.
Seemed like buss speed was more a issue
in old windows 98 / XP days.
And for software you needed memory.
And only so many slots.
To max out memory with limited slots.
Memory was expensive back in the day
Wasn't a gamer though.
The audio card was the thing for audio
and low latency.
Full duplex for in and out.
Seemed like buss speed was more a issue
in old windows 98 / XP days.
And for software you needed memory.
And only so many slots.
To max out memory with limited slots.
Memory was expensive back in the day
I remember a whole load of kids, me included used to go round to the one house that had a TV to watch Quatermass. In the 60s' Top Of The Pops was a must watch, that way you got see all the latest music - imagine watching the Beatles/Stones/Everly Bros/Little Richard etc. etc all on one programme, our parents and their generation were amazed at how important this programme and music was to our generation. Totally impossible for later generations to understand how grey life was in the post war world when suddenly there was colour and freedom to wear what you want and especially to be liberated from the short back and sides haircuts, that was the positive side of TV. I remember meeting two American students who were visiting friends at Sussex Uni and having just watched Easy Rider said "it isn't really like that outside the big cities in America is it? - " you better believe it".
The negative side was the programming/brainwashing exactly as you mentioned. Don't ride a bike to work - get a moped: don't use a moped - get a car - you must have this - you must have that - buy on credit - don't rent - buy a house - on a mortgage - become a debt slave - GOT YOU FOR LIFE. Saw this clearly by the mid 60s' by the mid 70s' it was part of the DNA. George Orwell was right on the money - 1984 came and went and the dummies never even noticed. Neal Young - look at mother nature on the run in the 1970s. The next pandemic virus might mean a total reset, maybe. In 1979 Linton Kwesi Johnson wrote a brilliant song on his LP Forces Of Victory - The Reality Song - check it out.
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