Outdated Computer Terms

[Prime73]

DRDOS is still around check this out: http://drdos.com/products/dr-dos/

[Excavatoree]

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).

A hollow voice says "PLUGH"

[dfmischler]

Naturally, "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike."

[C]

I have to give credit to Crowther and Woods

With the PDP-11 copy I had access to,
In addition to a great game,
the game initialization sequence was a great test tool.
It would shake the stuffing out of a RK05 disk drive.
The 19 in equipment rack that was not bolted down would even shake.
For a test of drive head alignment was a harder test to pass then the DEC diag.

C

[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".

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.

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

No... she was probably a few years older than me. However I did meet another spunky girl at RMIT who also happened to be named Cristina and we got married. We have been married for 33 years.

[westfw]

I almost ran off the road laughing when I drove by this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California
("Zork" was better.)
("Haunt" was ridiculous.)
Ah, PDP-10s...

[electrolux]

I've seen plenty of 'QWERTY keyboard'.

[Macbeth]

DRDOS is still around check this out: http://drdos.com/products/dr-dos/

Wow! My first DOS was DR-DOS as it was better and cheaper than MS-DOS at the time. "Doctor DOS" as I called it, though IIRC it was Digital Research.

But why pay for it nowadays, when you can get FreeDOS for...

[Sigmoid]

I remember DR-DOS was awesomely popular in Germany...

[TerraHertz]

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.

I like how the '6502 Applications' book is stored in with a big masonry drill.

Parts of my data book library, that I keep just in case 'the Internet' also becomes an obsolete term (shut down, destroyed, or whatever may happen):

[AlfBaz]

Parts of my data book library, that I keep just in case 'the Internet' also becomes an obsolete term (shut down, destroyed, or whatever may happen):

That is an awesome collection
I really wish I had bought more of them back in the day, or at least taken better care of the ones I have

[GK]

We literally filled a skip clearing shelves of this crap. Also remember those universal data books that were larger and twice as thick as a phone book, that used to cost a mint to buy new? Complete waste of space these days.

[SeanB]

Try finding the data on those obsolete devices online. Some are pretty hard to find, all you get is a basic sheet from dome data book that was scanned. You lose all the full characterisation of the device.

[Kjelt]

You can have the datasheets, but sometimes it is more important to have the actual parts    They become obsolete, good luck trying to find a replacement custom chip from the 70's, heck even the 80's nowadays.

[VK3DRB]

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.

Parts of my data book library, that I keep just in case 'the Internet' also becomes an obsolete term (shut down, destroyed, or whatever may happen):

No library was complete without the National Semiconductor Linear Databook. A wonderful book indeed.
Another great book, a classic - better than the Tolstoy's War and Peace - was the Towers International Transistor Selector Guide.
A special mention for the Intel 8031/51 databook.

[AlfBaz]

No library was complete without the National Semiconductor Linear Databook. A wonderful book indeed.

That has got to be the best electronics book I ever bought... an excellent collection of app notes.

Another great book, a classic - better than the Tolstoy's War and Peace - was the Towers International Transistor Selector Guide.

I have 2 versions and they came in handy a couple of months back when fixing a very old car radio as the only data I could find for the transistors in it were photos of them in peoples antique component collections

[SeanB]

I have old Motorola databooks, and these include the complete range of Germanium transistors they made. Even ones rated for 50A, just hate to think of how much they cost each when they were new.

[echen1024]

I only have 1 databoook, and that is a Linear 1990 databook.

[Fireball XL5]

Bernoulli drive

PL/I

[cybermaus]

That's strange? All my references were replaced by tiny computerized databanks.
And they seem to be getting smaller every year.

[uwezi]

Did I miss this one in the list:

    Fuzzy logic

[TerraHertz]

It's been mentioned, but here's a picture.

[Sigmoid]

Did I miss this one in the list:

    Fuzzy logic

Fuzzy logic isn't obsolete. It's a term specific to the field of AI, and may have lost some of its hype-value (along with AI itself for that matter), but if you're studying AI, you'll come across it sooner or later.
As a matter of fact, fuzzy logic was likely involved in a good number of controllers in stuff you use (car, washing machine, elevator, etc...) Some other controllers are based on neural networks. AI not dead. It just became mainstream.

[Zbig]

Kodak Photo CD

[Macbeth]

Not a CPU upgrade, I mean a CPU card. The Amiga ones usually had a CPU and RAM socket. The main CPU was soldered to the mobo. Well, except in big-box machines where the CPU was on a card, along with a separate FPU.

Yep. My last and most favourite machine was my old A1200 which I fitted a 3.5" HDD to by cramming it in the case and soldering a 2.5" to 3.5" connector together and tapping off the +12V and +5V for the molex from the internal 3.5" FDD. I also eventually got an "accelerator card", 68030 50MHz with fast ram, and a multisync monitor. That machine was a beast. I still miss it - No internet in those days. I had a SupraFAX 33.6 modem picking up all the latest from FidoNET as a FidoNET "point" and as for "RoxBox" and the international warez BBS scene...