Something James can't do

[HRM Resident]

Is write Python code at all. Or use microcrontollers like an
Arduino Nano. This flashed 4 LEDs on an Arduino using Python and not
the customized C++ Arduino language:


#!/usr/bin/env python3
import pyfirmata
import time

LED_RED = 5
LED_YELLOW = 10
LED_GREEN = 7
LED_BLUE = 12

if __name__ == '__main__':
board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/cu.usbserial-141110')
print("Communication Successfully started")

try:
while True:
board.digital[LED_RED].write(1)
board.digital[LED_BLUE].write(0)
board.digital[LED_YELLOW].write(1)
board.digital[LED_GREEN].write(0)
time.sleep(1)
board.digital[LED_RED].write(0)
board.digital[LED_BLUE].write(1)
board.digital[LED_YELLOW].write(0)
board.digital[LED_GREEN].write(1)
time.sleep(1)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
print()
print('Ctrl-C detected.)')
print()
for pin in range(2, 13):
board.digital[pin].write(0)
print('End: Blink')

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

Back in the late 60s when I used assembly on a Linc-8
I might have been interested in doing things like that.
For example, I generated random normal numbers
and displayed their cumulative distribution on a
CRT as they were generated. A Normal distribution
rose "out of the sea" on the little 3 inch screen.
Silly, but fun and proved that probability math worked.

I also wrote binary to decimal and vice versa routines.
Computers were primitive back then. No Python,
no Fortran, only assembler.

I put it all together and ran several experiments on it
after running cables from our lab to it.

It was great fun.

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:


>
> Back in the late 60s when I used assembly on a Linc-8
> I might have been interested in doing things like that.
> For example, I generated random normal numbers
> and displayed their cumulative distribution on a
> CRT as they were generated. A Normal distribution
> rose "out of the sea" on the little 3 inch screen.
> Silly, but fun and proved that probability math worked.
>
> I also wrote binary to decimal and vice versa routines.
> Computers were primitive back then. No Python,
> no Fortran, only assembler.
>
> I put it all together and ran several experiments on it
> after running cables from our lab to it.
>
> It was great fun.

Most of us who did BLEEDING EDGE stuff like that are dead!
Seriously. Try to find many (any?) computer pioneers who used punched
paper cards, let alone assembly language or toggling in boot
loaders. Yet at the time we were the 'gurus.' I don't know what the
new stuff is these days. That Python and C++ stuff is 15-20 years old.
It's still being used a lot, but I don't know what a newly minted graduate in
IT would work on.

You and I hit computers at exctly the right time. A fringe
"novelty" for universities and large organizations to print off
cheques, etc. Never going to go anywhere . . . but WE knew better. It
was just a case of being in the right place at the right time,
and having the interest. The best part was innovation. My chemistry
education lead me to an old science where most of the work was using
methodology developed in the past. With IT, we were inventing as we
went. It allowed us to be creative and not be criticized for not using the
optimal algorithm on the Internet . . . because neither the algorithm
we needed nor the Internet existed.

I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago who did more or less what we
did. He reminded me of a trick . . . you remember drawing a diagonal line
on the edge of stacks of punched cards? Eventually we always dropped a
stack of 200-300 . . . and the line helped get them back in order.

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 11:01:12 UTC-4, HRM Resident wrote:
> James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> >
> > Back in the late 60s when I used assembly on a Linc-8
> > I might have been interested in doing things like that.
> > For example, I generated random normal numbers
> > and displayed their cumulative distribution on a
> > CRT as they were generated. A Normal distribution
> > rose "out of the sea" on the little 3 inch screen.
> > Silly, but fun and proved that probability math worked.
> >
> > I also wrote binary to decimal and vice versa routines.
> > Computers were primitive back then. No Python,
> > no Fortran, only assembler.
> >
> > I put it all together and ran several experiments on it
> > after running cables from our lab to it.
> >
> > It was great fun.
> Most of us who did BLEEDING EDGE stuff like that are dead!
> Seriously. Try to find many (any?) computer pioneers who used punched
> paper cards, let alone assembly language or toggling in boot
> loaders. Yet at the time we were the 'gurus.' I don't know what the
> new stuff is these days. That Python and C++ stuff is 15-20 years old.
> It's still being used a lot, but I don't know what a newly minted graduate in
> IT would work on.

Python is the darling language for AI because of the many ML
procedures callable from it. Imagine what Python 10.0 will
be able to do.

>
> You and I hit computers at exctly the right time. A fringe
> "novelty" for universities and large organizations to print off
> cheques, etc.

My Linc-8 was idle for over a year in a locked room until I
asked for a key to that room. The rest is history.

> Never going to go anywhere . . . but WE knew better. It

Not really. It was just a fun toy.

> was just a case of being in the right place at the right time,

Good luck indeed!

> and having the interest. The best part was innovation. My chemistry
> education lead me to an old science where most of the work was using
> methodology developed in the past. With IT, we were inventing as we
> went. It allowed us to be creative and not be criticized for not using the
> optimal algorithm on the Internet . . . because neither the algorithm
> we needed nor the Internet existed.

I wrote many statistical and curve fitting routines in Fortran, originally
for amusement and to avoid using calculators.

>
> I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago who did more or less what we
> did. He reminded me of a trick . . . you remember drawing a diagonal line
> on the edge of stacks of punched cards? Eventually we always dropped a
> stack of 200-300 . . . and the line helped get them back in order.
>
> --
> HRM Resident

Better was to make an X.

Wasn't there a keypunch that could sequentially
number the cards in columns 73-80? If there was
I never used it.

There were a few "editing" techniques that worked
on keypunches.

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:


>
> Better was to make an X.
>
> Wasn't there a keypunch that could sequentially
> number the cards in columns 73-80? If there was
> I never used it.
>
> There were a few "editing" techniques that worked
> on keypunches.

I never thought of the X . . . makes sense. I am pretty sure the
numeric numbering thing was there, and I also never remember using it.
I think I concluded if I dropped then deck, those numbers were not going
to help much.

I was lucky in that I started out with an ASR-33 teletype and then
somehow a primitive CRT terminal. I recall doing a little keypunch card
programming, but it was on the decline in the technical/science areas
where I worked. I felt sorry for those keypunch operators on the
corporate side of things. All day punching cards. We had one room with
8-10 keypunch machines and the supervisor sat up at the front at a desk
like a school teacher! I worked with some of those who punched cards
for a year or two and then moved on to something better. Keypunching
does permanent damage! They were sort of like inmates who had just
gotten out. Hard to describe!

Anyhow, it was fun. But maybe being a nurse would have been as
well. Or a taxi-driver.

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 12:24:29 UTC-4, HRM Resident wrote:
> James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> >
> > Better was to make an X.
> >
> > Wasn't there a keypunch that could sequentially
> > number the cards in columns 73-80? If there was
> > I never used it.
> >
> > There were a few "editing" techniques that worked
> > on keypunches.
> I never thought of the X . . . makes sense. I am pretty sure the
> numeric numbering thing was there, and I also never remember using it.
> I think I concluded if I dropped then deck, those numbers were not going
> to help much.

They could be put in correct order quickly using a sort merge method.

>
> I was lucky in that I started out with an ASR-33 teletype and then

Yep, the Linc-8 had an ASR-33 with paper tape punch/reader. My first
programs were on rolls of paper tape.

> somehow a primitive CRT terminal. I recall doing a little keypunch card
> programming, but it was on the decline in the technical/science areas
> where I worked. I felt sorry for those keypunch operators on the
> corporate side of things. All day punching cards. We had one room with
> 8-10 keypunch machines and the supervisor sat up at the front at a desk
> like a school teacher! I worked with some of those who punched cards
> for a year or two and then moved on to something better. Keypunching
> does permanent damage! They were sort of like inmates who had just
> gotten out. Hard to describe!

Keypunching was not a job for programmers; it was part of the
job of feeding your program to the computer.

>
> Anyhow, it was fun. But maybe being a nurse would have been as
> well. Or a taxi-driver.

No way!

>
> --
> HRM Resident

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:

>
> Keypunching was not a job for programmers; it was part of the
> job of feeding your program to the computer.
>

Once the program was mature, of course. They were data entry
clerks. However, there was a 2-3 month period between my access to a
teletype and a CRT, that the only input was via punched cards. That's
fun. You punch up 300-400 cards, stick them in the pigeon hole for the
operator(s) to shove them in the card reader in the "top secret" room.
Two-three hours later you got your printout from another pigeon hole.

ERROR! You mixed up a zero and an oh. Or put a comma where there
ought to be a period. Go re-punch the card(s), get them into the proper
spot in the deck, and put them back in your input pigeon hole.

Maybe the nursing or taxi driving career would have been better!
:-)

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 13:15:30 UTC-4, HRM Resident wrote:
> James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >
> > Keypunching was not a job for programmers; it was part of the
> > job of feeding your program to the computer.
> >
> Once the program was mature, of course. They were data entry
> clerks. However, there was a 2-3 month period between my access to a
> teletype and a CRT, that the only input was via punched cards. That's
> fun. You punch up 300-400 cards, stick them in the pigeon hole for the
> operator(s) to shove them in the card reader in the "top secret" room.
> Two-three hours later you got your printout from another pigeon hole.
>
> ERROR! You mixed up a zero and an oh. Or put a comma where there
> ought to be a period. Go re-punch the card(s), get them into the proper
> spot in the deck, and put them back in your input pigeon hole.

Nothing so bureaucratic where I worked. You could submit the job
or often do it yourself. Turnaround time could be a couple of hours
during the day which was why some of us began work in the
afternoon and worked late. It was about the only way to get
work done.

Then we got terminals and could submit a job from the
terminal; no more punch cards! Great progress and sped
up productivity greatly.

>
> Maybe the nursing or taxi driving career would have been better!
> :-)

Nope. No room for creativity.

>
> --
> HRM Resident

[Mike Spencer]

> Better was to make an X.

Um, 'scuse me, is that a joke? Wouldn't that mean that there would be
two cards in each so-marked deck with the same edge marking?

Yes, yes, I get that such marking is imprecise but however you may
account for some level of imprecision, the use of a symmetric marking
subverts the initial concept.


--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:

>
> Nope. No room for creativity.
>

I don't know about that. Looking at the local news and all the
trials for the past number of years involving taxi drivers and sexual
assault, rape, etc., it seems to me they are very creative.

As for nursing, do you remember reading those "Penthouse Forum"
articles about secretaries and nurses? There appeared to be a lot of
creativity there. :-) Maybe you went for the Hustler articles, but
they were a bit low-browed for me. :-)

--
HRM Resident

[HRM Resident]

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> writes:
>
> Um, 'scuse me, is that a joke? Wouldn't that mean that there would be
> two cards in each so-marked deck with the same edge marking?
>

Indeed it would, and probably that's why I never heard of it
before. The diagonal like was the only one I saw used. I didn't
think through the symmetry of an X . . .

Things like this might explain why some people never leave
academia. Too frightening to face the reality of actual work with
checks and balances. :-)

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

Oh, good catch Mike.

I never marked my decks so I replied without thinking.

[James Warren]

Wow! Looks like you win again. You're on a roll! :)

[James Warren]

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 14:30:13 UTC-4, HRM Resident wrote:
> Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> writes:
> >
> > Um, 'scuse me, is that a joke? Wouldn't that mean that there would be
> > two cards in each so-marked deck with the same edge marking?
> >
> Indeed it would, and probably that's why I never heard of it
> before. The diagonal like was the only one I saw used. I didn't
> think through the symmetry of an X . . .

Me neither. I never marked my decks. I liked to keep them in
pristine condition.

>
> Things like this might explain why some people never leave
> academia. Too frightening to face the reality of actual work with
> checks and balances. :-)

That or not liking the idea of prostitution. :)

>
> --
> HRM Resident

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:

>
> Oh, good catch Mike.
>
> I never marked my decks so I replied without thinking.

How'd you do it, then? Deal off the bottom? Deal seconds? Palm
cards? Good thing you didn't get caught. Serious gamblers will kill a cheater! :-)

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

Honest men don't mark their decks.

[HRM Resident]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:

>
> That or not liking the idea of prostitution. :)
>

Huh? If you left your stats job, the only other option was to be a
hooker? Or did you mean if you are not in university, you need to
use the services of a prostitute? How's that? I never went to a
real university, let alone work at one. I can honestly say my
experience with prostitution, either as one or as a client, is
zero.

Do you have things dripping and iching where they ought not
to be? :-)

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

On Monday, 28 November 2022 at 16:18:25 UTC-4, HRM Resident wrote:
> James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >
> > That or not liking the idea of prostitution. :)
> >
> Huh? If you left your stats job, the only other option was to be a
> hooker?

More or less, yeah.

> Or did you mean if you are not in university, you need to
> use the services of a prostitute?

Possibly a fair analogy. :)

> How's that? I never went to a
> real university, let alone work at one.

And it shows. :)

> I can honestly say my
> experience with prostitution, either as one or as a client, is
> zero.

Me too! :)

>
> Do you have things dripping and iching where they ought not
> to be? :-)

I'll look. :)

>
> --
> HRM Resident