Your first time...
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- AndyRoss0
This first time I worked on a computer, it wasn't even in the same state as me.
I was in High School. We had a terminal, which was like a huge steam-powered typewriter,with a big roll of paper in it. You dialed the phone to some place in the next state, where the computer we shared time on was. Then you put each end of the phone handset into a tight-fitting rubber cup on the side of the terminal. This was the modem.
You typed a command line into the terminal, and hit return. The message went down to Ohio, where the computer was. A few moments later, you'd get a response which would type out on the terminal. There was no screen! Having something in another state type something out right in front of you seemed like magic!
Each time you got a response from the machine, you also got a number back, in the margin. This number was the number of computer cycles you had used--usually a few dozen, or so. The school paid for computer time by the CPU cycle, and that was how you could track your account!
And yes, I do own and know how to use several slide rules!
And no, I'm not older than water. Older than booze, but not water!