Happy Birthday JohnBullard

Thanks Electron, BSR and Martin.

Hey Martin, the year you were BORN, I was building amplifiers with 6L6's and power supplies with 5U4's. For you young wippersnappers, those are vacumn tubes.

By the time you started kindergarden, I had progressed to solid state transitors, the Raytheon CK722, a general purpose PNP model. Had to mail order them, I think they were about 5 bucks each.

As a teenager with NO allowance, I had to deliver lots of newspapers and mow a lot of neighborhood yards to be able to afford the "modern" stuff.

Enough of the old times, forward with the new!
 
By the time you started kindergarden, I had progressed to solid state transitors, the Raytheon CK722, a general purpose PNP model

Hey John:

I think its pretty cool that you’re into HA and computer systems starting out like you did. I mean you had to learn everything on your own, usually from scratch.

I've taken computer classes with the Punch Cards used as input, not these "fancy" terminals kids have now (I'm almost 45). I've also spent almost a complete "day" multiple times, in a computer room trying to get programs to work because those punch cards were the only input and print out sheets the only output we had at that time.

Now "kids" today can sip a coke and access computer systems (or their own) from the comfort of their homes/dorms. At least we should make them turn down the heat and sit in uncomfortable chairs so they would have a feeling of the old days.

Hey, I also knew how to use a slide rule because calculators were too expensive at the time (and no Dan, it was a "slide rule" and not an abacus ;) ). I also had to go to a LIBRARY to do research on papers because we didn't have the convenience of the Internet, and used a DICTIONARY because we didn't have automatic spell checkers. I can remember when "Pong" came out and PacMan and Galaxian were the video games of choice (but you had to go to an ARCADE to play them). (Can you tell anywhere in this post that I have a son in High School?).

Anyways hope you had a great day and have many more to come! It's really good to have a member like you on this board!

BSR
 
Thanks BSR,

I also remember programming the old IBM 360's in RPG with punch cards, debugging was the pits, and took forever.

Sometimes I wished I had stayed in the "industry" instead of taking some other career paths. As fast as technology moves today, it can be difficult for us "outsiders " to catchup/keepup with things. I've been able through the years to maintain a "speaking" knowledge of the technology, but many (most) times lack the full understanding and skills needed for proper implementation.

I have Homeseer and the Ocelot. The Ocelot does what I need it to do, but I KNOW I'm way behind in implementing the capabilities of HS, especially when it comes to using scripts. I want to to utilize some of the WOW stuff with HS that you guys do.

That's why I'm so glad to see this wonderful forum, where I feel like I can learn more about HS, and other HA stuff. I love the HOW TO section. I WILL be posting questions for you guru's to help me with!

(The HS Forum is nice, but can be overwhelming for a newbie like me.)

Once again, thanks for the kind B'day regards and for letting me hang out here with you.
 
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