My first (and only real job) with computers was being put in charge of the room that contained the mainframe at Sonoma State University in northern California. It was in 1975 and yes, it's hard to believe. Of course, I was such a "master" of the beast that I was permitted to type one thing and one thing only into the terminal. I still remember, it was "1rd." Without the "period." Prompted by the three "dings" from an invisible sound source.
Which meant "ready to receive a print job" from Cal State U at Northridge. Wowsa, that large impact printer went like lightning, even inside it's box it was really loud.
People who had jobs for the beast brought in their HDD's--which were multiple stacked disks inside what looked very much like the "cake protectors" found in diners of the era. They'd put in the "cake protector," then remove its shell, leaving the disks in a drive.
I learned about the vacuum column that made it possible for the two the tape reels to spin in opposite directions. I thought that was very cool. Who knew?
My other part time job for that semester (I was taking 16 credits, ouch) was driving the town's only taxi for the graveyard shift. The mainframe job was easy, the taxi was mostly a pain. Ah, memories.
Nineteen years later I received my first PC. Fast schedule, or what?
