Replacement file explorer/manager

On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
on 2/12/2014, Gene E. Bloch supposed :
On 2/12/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch has brought this to us :
On 2/06/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:

But it's much harder to keep track of your near infinitude of
files
:-)

BTW, I was an earlier adopter: 10 MB for $800. In retrospect, I'd
say I was stupid to do that :-)

IIRC my first HD was a 10mb "hard card". I'm ashamed to admit how
much I paid for it bg.

I have an old pc mag stashed somewhere that has an add for a
300bps modem for over $600. Hard to imagine that my phone today
has much more memory than most phone switches of 20 years ago.

Ed from E Texas

Your phone is a far better computer than the room-filling one I
started to program on a little while ago...

When is the last time you programmed the switch by "loading the
deck"? AS400 ring a bell? DSL 100 later on? Ah those were the days
....yeah right. DTMF, SF and test tones....

I have no idea what any of those things are (other than DTMF, which
relates to touch-tone dialing, not Fortran II), so I can't even guess
at an answer.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch was thinking very hard :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
on 2/12/2014, Gene E. Bloch supposed :
On 2/12/2014, Ed Propes posted:

Your phone is a far better computer than the room-filling one I
started to program on a little while ago...

When is the last time you programmed the switch by "loading the
deck"? AS400 ring a bell? DSL 100 later on? Ah those were the days
....yeah right. DTMF, SF and test tones....

I have no idea what any of those things are (other than DTMF, which
relates to touch-tone dialing, not Fortran II), so I can't even guess
at an answer.


SF - Signaling frequency, relates back to analog technology.
Test tones are just that. Tones sent between facilities to test
signal levels, again analog technology. Guess I haven't thought
about how long I've been out of the military and the
communications world of decades ago.

One of the first PCs I had was an NEC 8001A. I was visiting a
small communications site in Okinawa and was surprised to find
the phone switch was being run by an NEC 8001A. I wish I still
had that system. IIRC it had a 2 GHZ CPU, had 64K RAM and ran
C/PM. It had 2 dual sided floppies and I thought I had all the
computer I would ever need. Had an NEC dot matrix printer and
VGA color graphics.

Ed from E Texas

On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch was thinking very hard :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
on 2/12/2014, Gene E. Bloch supposed :
On 2/12/2014, Ed Propes posted:

Your phone is a far better computer than the room-filling one I
started to program on a little while ago...

When is the last time you programmed the switch by "loading the
deck"? AS400 ring a bell? DSL 100 later on? Ah those were the
days ....yeah right. DTMF, SF and test tones....

I have no idea what any of those things are (other than DTMF, which
relates to touch-tone dialing, not Fortran II), so I can't even
guess at an answer.


SF - Signaling frequency, relates back to analog technology. Test
tones are just that. Tones sent between facilities to test signal
levels, again analog technology. Guess I haven't thought about how
long I've been out of the military and the communications world of
decades ago.

One of the first PCs I had was an NEC 8001A. I was visiting a small
communications site in Okinawa and was surprised to find the phone
switch was being run by an NEC 8001A. I wish I still had that system.
IIRC it had a 2 GHZ CPU, had 64K RAM and ran C/PM. It had 2 dual
sided floppies and I thought I had all the computer I would ever
need. Had an NEC dot matrix printer and VGA color graphics.

Ed from E Texas

OK.

But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older computers,
not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM 7090...

For one thing, I don't use my smart phone to make or receive phone
calls :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:34:20 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:


But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older computers,
not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM 7090...


The 7090 was a very big, very fast (for its day) computer. Did you
work on one?

I never did, but I once saw a couple when I visited the American
Airlines Sabre Data Processing Center, back around 1968. Mostly I
worked on 1401s, a 7080, and 360s and 370s of a variety of sizes (20,
30, 40, 50, 67, 145, 155). Also a Univac II, very briefly, for only a
week or two. And an IBM System 23, but that wasn't a mainframe.

On 2/14/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:34:20 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:


But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older
computers, not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM
7090...


The 7090 was a very big, very fast (for its day) computer. Did you
work on one?

Yes. That's where I started my programming career. Fortran II and FAP.
We didn't own one, we rented time at $600/hour. Yikes!

Yeah, fast. The cycle time was 2 microseconds, IIRC. If not IIRC, then
only 1 musec. We didn't even express it in MHz :-)

I never did, but I once saw a couple when I visited the American
Airlines Sabre Data Processing Center, back around 1968. Mostly I
worked on 1401s, a 7080, and 360s and 370s of a variety of sizes (20,
30, 40, 50, 67, 145, 155). Also a Univac II, very briefly, for only a
week or two. And an IBM System 23, but that wasn't a mainframe.

One of my friends/coworkers worked on 1401s. Later the company acquired
a 360, but we also did contract work for others, so I got to work on a
variety of minicomputers and other systems.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch presented the following explanation :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch was thinking very hard :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:

I have no idea what any of those things are (other than DTMF,
which relates to touch-tone dialing, not Fortran II), so I can't
even guess at an answer.

SF - Signaling frequency, relates back to analog technology.
Test tones are just that. Tones sent between facilities to test
signal levels, again analog technology. Guess I haven't thought
about how long I've been out of the military and the communications
world of decades ago.

One of the first PCs I had was an NEC 8001A. I was visiting a small
communications site in Okinawa and was surprised to find the phone
switch was being run by an NEC 8001A. I wish I still had that
system. IIRC it had a 2 GHZ CPU, had 64K RAM and ran C/PM. It
had 2 dual sided floppies and I thought I had all the computer I
would ever need. Had an NEC dot matrix printer and VGA color
graphics.

Ed from E Texas

OK.

But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older
computers, not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM
7090...

For one thing, I don't use my smart phone to make or receive phone
calls :-)

I was wrong when I referred to the AS400. It dawned me the next
day that the AS400 was a computer. What I was actually thinking
of was an old military autovon phone switch. That's what I was
talking about when I asked about loading the deck. The autovon
switch I was thinking of was programmed by a stack of punch cards
or "the deck". That switch/computer was old enough it used the
old ferrite core memory. As far as my smart phone you're really
making me feel like an old timer because I still use mine for a
phone primarily g. I use if for other things you like a clock
or to get the weather, things like that.


Ed from Texas

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 04:23:17 -0600, Ed Propes
wrote:

Gene E. Bloch presented the following explanation :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch was thinking very hard :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:

I have no idea what any of those things are (other than DTMF,
which relates to touch-tone dialing, not Fortran II), so I can't
even guess at an answer.

SF - Signaling frequency, relates back to analog technology.
Test tones are just that. Tones sent between facilities to test
signal levels, again analog technology. Guess I haven't thought
about how long I've been out of the military and the communications
world of decades ago.

One of the first PCs I had was an NEC 8001A. I was visiting a small
communications site in Okinawa and was surprised to find the phone
switch was being run by an NEC 8001A. I wish I still had that
system. IIRC it had a 2 GHZ CPU, had 64K RAM and ran C/PM. It
had 2 dual sided floppies and I thought I had all the computer I
would ever need. Had an NEC dot matrix printer and VGA color
graphics.

Ed from E Texas

OK.

But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older
computers, not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM
7090...

For one thing, I don't use my smart phone to make or receive phone
calls :-)

I was wrong when I referred to the AS400. It dawned me the next
day that the AS400 was a computer.


Yes, a computer, but a mini-computer, not a mainframe like the 7090.

It happens that Ken Blake, MVP formulated :
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 04:23:17 -0600, Ed Propes
wrote:

Gene E. Bloch presented the following explanation :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:

OK.

But I thought I was comparing today's smart phones to older
computers, not to older telephones or switching centers. Think IBM
7090...

For one thing, I don't use my smart phone to make or receive phone
calls :-)

I was wrong when I referred to the AS400. It dawned me the next
day that the AS400 was a computer.

Yes, a computer, but a mini-computer, not a mainframe like the 7090.

I'll try to remember that (lol).

Ed from E Texas

On 2/15/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch presented the following explanation :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:
Gene E. Bloch was thinking very hard :
On 2/13/2014, Ed Propes posted:

....

For one thing, I don't use my smart phone to make or receive phone
calls :-)

I was wrong when I referred to the AS400. It dawned me the next day
that the AS400 was a computer. What I was actually thinking of was an
old military autovon phone switch. That's what I was talking about
when I asked about loading the deck. The autovon switch I was
thinking of was programmed by a stack of punch cards or "the deck".
That switch/computer was old enough it used the old ferrite core
memory. As far as my smart phone you're really making me feel like an
old timer because I still use mine for a phone primarily g. I use
if for other things you like a clock or to get the weather, things
like that.

Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.

The 7094's cycle time was half that of the 7090. We still didn't talk
MHz :-)

I'm sure that the ferrite core memory was a major cause of the lack of
speed.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:10:55 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:

Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.



Yep--both used cores for their memory. And so did the 7090's
predecessor, the 709, and its predecessor, the 704.


The 7094's cycle time was half that of the 7090.


Wow! I don't think I ever knew the difference was that great, but if I
did I had forgotten it.


We still didn't talk
MHz :-)

I'm sure that the ferrite core memory was a major cause of the lack of
speed.


Also the large size of everything. It takes a nanosecond for
electricity to travel about 11 inches, so anything big means the
electricity has to travel farther and it's therefore slower.

On 2/15/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.

Yep--both used cores for their memory. And so did the 7090's
predecessor, the 709, and its predecessor, the 704.

That's in no way a surprise, of course. There was back then a tendency
not to use technology before it was invented (or at least available).

Or, while I'm still in nit-picking mode: we certainly would not have
expected the 7090 to take a step backwards.

When I was working on the 90 & 94 boxes, core memory was finally
reaching the end of its technological life. To be honest, I don't
remember what kind of memory was in the new minicomputers that I worked
on then, but seeing that they were only the size of a normal
refrigerator, I'd guess semiconductors.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:07:35 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:

On 2/15/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.

Yep--both used cores for their memory. And so did the 7090's
predecessor, the 709, and its predecessor, the 704.

That's in no way a surprise, of course. There was back then a tendency
not to use technology before it was invented (or at least available).

Or, while I'm still in nit-picking mode: we certainly would not have
expected the 7090 to take a step backwards.

When I was working on the 90 & 94 boxes, core memory was finally
reaching the end of its technological life. To be honest, I don't
remember what kind of memory was in the new minicomputers that I worked
on then, but seeing that they were only the size of a normal
refrigerator, I'd guess semiconductors.



I never worked on a minicomputer. I started programming a 1401 in
1962, then moved to consulting work on a 7080 with occasional
assignments on things like the Univac II. Then I moved to, and stayed
on 360s and 370s.

If I remember correctly, what we had at my last installation before I
retired were two 4381s.

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 17:10:11 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:07:35 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:

On 2/15/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.

Yep--both used cores for their memory. And so did the 7090's
predecessor, the 709, and its predecessor, the 704.

That's in no way a surprise, of course. There was back then a tendency
not to use technology before it was invented (or at least available).

Or, while I'm still in nit-picking mode: we certainly would not have
expected the 7090 to take a step backwards.

When I was working on the 90 & 94 boxes, core memory was finally
reaching the end of its technological life. To be honest, I don't
remember what kind of memory was in the new minicomputers that I worked
on then, but seeing that they were only the size of a normal
refrigerator, I'd guess semiconductors.



I never worked on a minicomputer. I started programming a 1401 in
1962, then moved to consulting work, mostly on a 7080 with occasional
assignments on things like the Univac II. Then I moved to, and stayed
on, 360s and 370s.

If I remember correctly, what we had at my last installation before I
retired were two 4381s.


And speaking of ferrite cores, the phrase "core dump" still sticks in
my mind.

On 2/15/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 17:10:11 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:07:35 -0800, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:

On 2/15/2014, Ken Blake, MVP posted:
Well, you're verging on modernity :-)

The 7090, and IIRC its successor the 7094, used ferrite cores.
Yep--both used cores for their memory. And so did the 7090's
predecessor, the 709, and its predecessor, the 704.

That's in no way a surprise, of course. There was back then a
tendency not to use technology before it was invented (or at least
available).

Or, while I'm still in nit-picking mode: we certainly would not
have expected the 7090 to take a step backwards.

When I was working on the 90 & 94 boxes, core memory was finally
reaching the end of its technological life. To be honest, I don't
remember what kind of memory was in the new minicomputers that I
worked on then, but seeing that they were only the size of a
normal refrigerator, I'd guess semiconductors.



I never worked on a minicomputer. I started programming a 1401 in
1962, then moved to consulting work, mostly on a 7080 with
occasional assignments on things like the Univac II. Then I moved
to, and stayed on, 360s and 370s.

If I remember correctly, what we had at my last installation before
I retired were two 4381s.


And speaking of ferrite cores, the phrase "core dump" still sticks in
my mind.

:-)

Me too; I still use it...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)