Outdated Computer Terms

[Stonent]

A few well known lines from my old  config.dos and autoexec.bat from the old dos gaming times .

 Config.sys
device=C:\dos\himem.sys
Device=C:\dos\emm386.Exe Ram
buffers= 20

  Autoexec.Bat
set sound =C:sblaster 16
Set blaster = a220 I5 D1 H5 P330

I'm reasonably sure there was a T in the set blaster statement as well.

[Alana]

I think CD/DVD will not get outdated so soon. Its still preferable way to install new OS, at least for me.

[hiddensoul]

I think CD/DVD will not get outdated so soon. Its still preferable way to install new OS, at least for me.

Well it might by bluray data especially if M$ need more space for the bloatware OS release cycle 

But people will just call them discs even though CD is now going DVD is prime for software and in the future it will be BRay all optical media at least

[codeboy2k]

... don't ya miss when ....

... the Epson dot matrix printer paper got stuck and proceeded to punch a
rectangle through the paper, from left edge to right edge as the head tries
to print all your source code on the same line   

[moepower]

Mainframes. I think they are now called servers


Oldest computer I have:
Amstrad pcw 8256 from when I lived in UK in the late 80s. 4 MHz CPU and 256 k ram. Bloody good word processor for its time.

[hiddensoul]

Mainframes. I think they are now called servers

Not really a mian frame usually ran dumb terminals that were basically a keyboard and screen, all the lifting was done by the 'mainframe' the closest thing to this is a thinclient system as may be used in a supermarket were the cash registers are not full computers just a stripped down hardware interface to the central machine in the backroom or even head office in some cases

[TerraHertz]

RS232 breakout boxes, and patching the handshake lines to get some piece of gear to talk right.

ABEL and PALASM languages for defining PALs. Do PALs even exist anymore?

PEELs. I quite liked those.

XACT. What Xilinx originally called their CAD system for FPGAs. Which were called LCAs back then.

Hands up those who kept their entire library of printed data books. As opposed to throwing them all out and relying on the net, as many I knew seemed to do. Not a wise move IMO.

[Rory]

RS232 breakout boxes, and patching the handshake lines to get some piece of gear to talk right.

Hands up those who kept their entire library of printed data books. As opposed to throwing them all out and relying on the net, as many I knew seemed to do. Not a wise move IMO.

And on the same note, gender changers and null-modem cables... Has anybody mentioned Centronics parallel interface?

I have a set of the yellow/orange TI databooks, and the blue Nat Semi analog databooks. I also have a set of the IC-Master books. Still occasionally useful.

Remember the SK, NTE and ECG substitution guides? Still have 'em. Still use 'em occasionally since a lot of past repairs were done with these sloppy subsitutes. 

All that paper reminds me of when we looked up figures in compiled books of trig and log tables. Don't get people started with sliderules...

[peter.mitchell]

I think CD/DVD will not get outdated so soon. Its still preferable way to install new OS, at least for me.

Well it might by bluray data especially if M$ need more space for the bloatware OS release cycle 

But people will just call them discs even though CD is now going DVD is prime for software and in the future it will be BRay all optical media at least

Ehh, with the drive to go slimmer/thinner, the mechanicals of optical drives often make them too big. So manufacturers provide these for re-installing the OS; https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/677635/IMG_20131229_043246.jpg

I feel that the way removable optical media operates is archaic, the fact it has to maintain a certain optical quality is a pretty big flaw, combined with the need for somewhat precise mechanicals, it can lead to reliability issues.
Then there is the general useage strategy, where it is either read only or is "erasable", don't get me started on UDF and packet writing...

[SeanB]

Hands up those who kept their entire library of printed data books. As opposed to throwing them all out and relying on the net, as many I knew seemed to do. Not a wise move IMO.

You mean like these. Just unpacking them, but running out of bookshelf space. I have some that date back to the early 1970's, and they are not available online at all.

[justanothercanuck]

... don't ya miss when ....

... the Epson dot matrix printer paper got stuck and proceeded to punch a
rectangle through the paper, from left edge to right edge as the head tries
to print all your source code on the same line   

Still using a "high speed" dot matrix printer at work.  I get that occasionally when it doesn't realize there's a jam.



Sorry for the commercial, it was all I could find.

[westfw]

Heh.  I wrote some (mainframe-side) graphics drivers for an early printtronix printer, circa 1980.  I had no idea they were still in business.  "Line printer" is probably a term that isn't used very often any more, though I do expect that there are some really impressive "high speed printers" out there in places where the whole "many distributed lower speed printers" concept is less appropriate...

[justanothercanuck]

It is a pretty awesome printer, for what it does...  I queue up a ~100 page job, and it just sits there buzzing along with the occasional gap for a form feed.  A couple minutes later, I tear off the paper and walk away with a stack of paper.  I can't imagine them doing colour or graphics very well, if it all, but for plain-text done quick, they work great.

[SeanB]

I remember a few Epson (?) colour dot matrix printers, where they used a 4 colour CMYK ribbon with a lifter to get the right band into the printhead. Slower than watching paint dry for colour output, and not exactly stellar colour performance, you could at best use it for coloured text and simple line art in colour, photo resolution was a great hope, but only if you were willing to print a banded job and stick it together into a giant poster viewed from far, where  it would be almost viewable.

[Towger]

Is the slang name "LAMER" still in use? 

You were 'elite' (in fancy ASCII) when you were allowed access to the private areas on the local BBSes to where the warez and other dodgy files were.

[hiddensoul]

Hmmm line printers remind me of the *nix error "LP1 IS ON FIRE"

form wikipedia...
The "on fire" message probably originated in the late 1950s, when high speed computerized printing was still a somewhat experimental field. The first documented fire-starting printer was a Stromberg-Carlson 5000 xerographic printer, installed around 1959 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and modified with an extended fusing oven to achieve a print speed of one page per second. In the event of a printing stall, and occasionally during normal operation, the fusing oven would heat paper to combustion. This fire risk was aggravated by the fact that if the printer continued to operate, it would essentially stoke the oven with fresh paper at high speed

[VK3DRB]

How about the old IBM card punch and verifier machines.  I used them back in high school and in a summer course at the local state college between junior and senior years of H.S. when they were trying to teach me Cobol.  Boy, did I come to hate the term "syntax error".

My first programming course was in the 1970's and used marked sense cards. The school did not have a computer so the cards were sent to a local university. We would get the printouts back one week later.

So, effectively, my compile/run/debug cycle was 168 hours. This somewhat encouraged me to avoid syntax errors

I remember at RMIT in 1977, I would write a program in BASIC on IBM 80 column punch cards...

10 print
20 goto 10

The result was a massive amount of free blank fanfold paper - great for doing calculus on.
The bonus was you got to have a nice chat with the spunky Greek girl Cristina from the RMIT Computing Centre service desk.

The computer there was a Control Data Cyber 72. One massive machine for its day. Nothing worse when you got "syntax error" after submitted a deck of cards.

[C]

how about
ldos
turbodos

Diablo daisy wheel

and I have not seen

xyzzy

anywhere

C

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Just looked up the 'Minidictionary of Computing' Oxford 1986.
Which someone just put on my desk for no apparent reason.

No sign of the terms :

TCPIP
Internet
or even ARPANET
route, ing, er

but they did have:
protocol
network
latency

[Rerouter]

how about
ldos
turbodos

Diablo daisy wheel

and I have not seen

xyzzy


anywhere

C

The Hewlett Packard HP3458A 8½ digit multimeter recognizes XYZZY as a command via HP-IB and responds "I see no cave here."

[cybermaus]

How about the old IBM card punch and verifier machines.  I used them back in high school and in a summer course at the local state college between junior and senior years of H.S. when they were trying to teach me Cobol.  Boy, did I come to hate the term "syntax error".

My first programming course was in the 1970's and used marked sense cards. The school did not have a computer so the cards were sent to a local university. We would get the printouts back one week later.

So, effectively, my compile/run/debug cycle was 168 hours. This somewhat encouraged me to avoid syntax errors

I remember at RMIT in 1977, I would write a program in BASIC on IBM 80 column punch cards...

10 print
20 goto 10

The result was a massive amount of free blank fanfold paper - great for doing calculus on.
The bonus was you got to have a nice chat with the spunky Greek girl Cristina from the RMIT Computing Centre service desk.

The computer there was a Control Data Cyber 72. One massive machine for its day. Nothing worse when you got "syntax error" after submitted a deck of cards.

LOL. "nice chat".
But you are leaving out crucial information man. Did it land you a date or not?

[C]

The Hewlett Packard HP3458A 8½ digit multimeter recognizes XYZZY as a command via HP-IB and responds "I see no cave here."

The HP 9826 HPL computer and others also responds the same.

The hidden question is where was XYZZY first used?

C

[GeoffS]

I remember XYZZY as a 'cheat code' for early TRS-80 games.

[krish2487]

I remember XYZZY as a cheat code for road rash!

:-)

[dfmischler]

To the best of my knowledge, XYZZY was first used in the Crowther and Woods adventure game (usually installed as ADVENT on a DECsystem-10).