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susandennisBack to some random things that didn't fit in or I forgot...
When I left IBM Charlotte, I had all that personal computer stuff that I had done with home computing and some business stuff but mainly personal on the mainframe computer. One of my geek friends told me I should dump it to tape and take the tape with me. Ho! A new techy thing to figure out. And, figure it out I did. I managed to copy all my Hello World programs and a bunch of other totally useless and worthless stuff onto computer tape. Then I scheduled something called a tape check out. I had no fucking idea what I was doing. But at the end of the check out process the screen told me to go to the admin window of the computer room to pick up my tape anytime from noon-2. So I showed up expecting to pick up a cassette sized tape or maybe even a tape recorder sized (like 5" big) tape.
The guy at the window had me sign a paper (probably giving up my first born - ha joke's on them - I didn't read it) and then brought my tape to the window. It was huge. Hilariously huge. Like this one.
I took it from the computer room guy like it was exactly what I expected, and took it home. I suspect that even back then I broke a million IBM rules but today I'd probably be arrested if I tried the same thing. When I got to New York, I had the computer room guys load it up to my account but I never looked at the stuff again. So wild to think about it now.
__________________________
Chemical Bank in New York City had a big ad in the New York Times one day advertising that you could do your banking at home if you had a computer and a modem. This was revolutionary! ATMs weren't even everywhere yet. You did your banking by walking into the bank and talking to a teller. The space aged banks had drive thru's but most did not. And here they were saying you could have your computer call their computer and get all the info about your account any time you wanted like even Sunday afternoon or 3 am Thursday?????
How fast did I sign up? I broke speed records. It was very rudimentary but it worked and it was great. And it was still the 80's. Wow. I kept that account when I moved to Minnesota and even then I moved from there.
___________________________
I had been carrying on a rather (for me) long term relationship with this guy (the Jewish guy who created the New England Fall trip) and it was getting not good. I enjoyed him mostly but he was married - separated but married and that always felt icky. And he started becoming more and more possessive as I started becoming more and more You Don't Own Me. I kept trying to break it off and he kept refusing to cooperate. At the time I kept paper journals. And while I was out of town one time, he found and read them all and was really pissed about how I wrote about him. And proceeded to lay into me about it.
He failed, entirely, to grasp the import of how he obtained the information. He was too busy acting on it. Yeah. The End. But, how?
This was, in truth, a major bullet point in my making the decision to move to Minnesota. I knew he wasn't leaving Connecticut (and he's still there). And, he's also the reason behind my Live Journal being mostly public. If you don't try to hide stuff, you won't be disappointed/devastated when it's unhidden and revealed. That's my philosophy anyway.
To Be Continued
When I left IBM Charlotte, I had all that personal computer stuff that I had done with home computing and some business stuff but mainly personal on the mainframe computer. One of my geek friends told me I should dump it to tape and take the tape with me. Ho! A new techy thing to figure out. And, figure it out I did. I managed to copy all my Hello World programs and a bunch of other totally useless and worthless stuff onto computer tape. Then I scheduled something called a tape check out. I had no fucking idea what I was doing. But at the end of the check out process the screen told me to go to the admin window of the computer room to pick up my tape anytime from noon-2. So I showed up expecting to pick up a cassette sized tape or maybe even a tape recorder sized (like 5" big) tape.
The guy at the window had me sign a paper (probably giving up my first born - ha joke's on them - I didn't read it) and then brought my tape to the window. It was huge. Hilariously huge. Like this one.
I took it from the computer room guy like it was exactly what I expected, and took it home. I suspect that even back then I broke a million IBM rules but today I'd probably be arrested if I tried the same thing. When I got to New York, I had the computer room guys load it up to my account but I never looked at the stuff again. So wild to think about it now.
__________________________
Chemical Bank in New York City had a big ad in the New York Times one day advertising that you could do your banking at home if you had a computer and a modem. This was revolutionary! ATMs weren't even everywhere yet. You did your banking by walking into the bank and talking to a teller. The space aged banks had drive thru's but most did not. And here they were saying you could have your computer call their computer and get all the info about your account any time you wanted like even Sunday afternoon or 3 am Thursday?????
How fast did I sign up? I broke speed records. It was very rudimentary but it worked and it was great. And it was still the 80's. Wow. I kept that account when I moved to Minnesota and even then I moved from there.
___________________________
I had been carrying on a rather (for me) long term relationship with this guy (the Jewish guy who created the New England Fall trip) and it was getting not good. I enjoyed him mostly but he was married - separated but married and that always felt icky. And he started becoming more and more possessive as I started becoming more and more You Don't Own Me. I kept trying to break it off and he kept refusing to cooperate. At the time I kept paper journals. And while I was out of town one time, he found and read them all and was really pissed about how I wrote about him. And proceeded to lay into me about it.
He failed, entirely, to grasp the import of how he obtained the information. He was too busy acting on it. Yeah. The End. But, how?
This was, in truth, a major bullet point in my making the decision to move to Minnesota. I knew he wasn't leaving Connecticut (and he's still there). And, he's also the reason behind my Live Journal being mostly public. If you don't try to hide stuff, you won't be disappointed/devastated when it's unhidden and revealed. That's my philosophy anyway.
To Be Continued
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 10:29 pm (UTC)I still write paper diaries though, and since I'm gonna die some day I kind of hold back on those a little, and since my LJ is public I definitely hold back.
But I love that you're so open!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-16 11:40 pm (UTC)And, thanks.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-18 12:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-05-21 05:23 am (UTC)Off you pop!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-27 04:04 pm (UTC)