Re: CHAT: INTERSYSTEMAL CONLANG

On 30 June, Jeff Jones wrote:

> you young whippersnappers have it too easy. when i started in computers,
> they didn't even have lower case, everything was upper case. we even had
to
> learn how to change the ribbon in the keypunch machine after walking 40
> miles in the snow to school ....

    FWIW, I actually  _did_  trudge through the snow (although, thankfully,
not 40 miles --- still, the snow could reach hip-high at times) in order to
reach the two keypunch machines used by the entire university!
Reaching there was one thing; getting to use one was something else! :-P
    And as for changing typewriter ribbons, I've smudged enough pages due
to the ink on my hands from changing the ribbons, thank you! But what the
young whippersnappers of today don't know is the pleasure (  ;-)  ) of
correcting mistakes and typos! Intoxicating whiteout fluid that got spread
to the good stuff as well as the mistakes, chalked paper tabs to try and put
over the mistake after you backspaced and the retype was never the same
darkness as the original --- and I never could get the machine to go back
_exactly_ so as to cover the lettter perfectly! After putting the machine
into "neutral gear" and playing with the paper trying to get a
perfect postioning, I nearly always ended up ripping out the page
and retyping the whole thing all over again!
    No siree! Here's one "old-timer" who doesn't miss it!
Not the keypunch and not the typewriter!

    Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.