Down the pub - the thread about nothing and everything

[Grahamm]

When I was at school we had to have fun with logarithm tables and a slide rule...  :b

I learned logs and how to use a basic slide rule at school, that was before Sir Clive S invented the affordable calculator.

I still remember teachers saying that we had to learn to do calculations the long way because "You won't have a calculator with you all the time!"

My first computer was at work. COBOL on a ICL 3900 Mainframe

I learned Cobol on Portsmouth Poly's ICL 2960 mainframe which was notoriously unstable at times, to the extent that the computer room frequently had a blackboard outside with note saying "2960 down, back up as soon as possible".

Of course nobody ever printed out an alternative sign saying "2960 up, down as soon as possible..."  :lol