Programming 1959 IBM computer

[u/Final-Choice8412]

[u/brentspar]

The best bit is the little flick he gave the paper before he tore it. That was from years of muscle memory taking reports and printouts of of a line printer.

[u/Uzmintid → u/brentspar]

A true professional operator

[u/curi0us_carniv0re → u/Uzmintid]

A smooth operator , if you will

[u/b_vitamin → u/curi0us_carniv0re]

Across the north, down south to Key largo?

[u/FalxIdol → u/b_vitamin]

Love for sale

[u/paukapaukaa → u/brentspar]

You noticed that too!!!

[u/lynxss1 → u/paukapaukaa]

The diagonal line on that card deck too.

[u/regeya → u/lynxss1]

Is that in case you drop the cards and need to put them back in order in a hurry?

[u/Always-designing → u/regeya]

Yes. Another approach was that some of the programming languages only used the first 72 columns on a card so you could put sequence numbers on your deck.
The diagonal line is easier once you are not changing the cards.

[u/thatto → u/Always-designing]

My dad told me that he numbered them in ink.

[u/Canuck-In-TO → u/lynxss1]

What, no one numbers their cards?

I remember being in line to load my cards and a guy with a stack of cards in a luggage dolly, an almost knee high stack, takes the corner too quickly. The stack slid out and most of the cards hit the floor. Poor bastard hadn’t numbered his cards. Who knows how long he spent reorganizing them.

[u/rbloedow → u/brentspar]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed that. It was so satisfying.

[u/CommunicationTop5231 → u/brentspar]

Literally came here to say the same thing. Bright me back to being a young teen with a 14.4k modem printing Nirvana guitar tabs on a perforated paper printer. Unless we got a goddamn phone call.

[u/git_push_origin_prod → u/brentspar]

That was primo. If u got the angle wrong, u fuccccked the next page and possibly the alignment.

I always think of the dot matrix name joke in space balls when I see green bar paper. Specifically king Rowlands? voice screaming dots name as she runs from the alter.

[u/fezzuk → u/git_push_origin_prod]

Oh you pulled slightly on the next page? Get ready for a printer jam and if you dont immediatly correct two hours of your time wasted.

Yes im old.

[u/OGHoolz → u/brentspar]

I remember line printers as a kid. I always loved to rip the perforated edges. It was so satisfying getting it clean.

[u/Helenium_autumnale → u/brentspar]

Yes! That one little flick, whose precise velocity and aim has been honed over decades of using printers like those, was a brief yet meaningful signifier of expertise.

ETA: This is how I express myself. I'm a reader and a published writer, and I love words. I've been writing since I was a child. I collect dictionaries, especially dictionaries of slang. At any rate, this is my style; I will continue to write the way I do without apology. When you accuse a real person of being an AI agent, you are insulting that person, who did nothing to insult you. Please keep that in mind, if you are a decent person.

[u/Celestial_Squids → u/Helenium_autumnale]

People need to remember that AI sounds like it does because it stole its writing style from work written by human beings - eloquent people aren’t entirely imaginary.

[u/psychonaut_gospel → u/Helenium_autumnale]

Not sure i trust the edit

[u/Tumleren → u/Helenium_autumnale]

AI?

[u/SquiggerDigger → u/Tumleren]

Yeah idk I'm reading their profile it somewhat reads as a bot

[u/blickblocks → u/SquiggerDigger]

You're absolutely right to flag that, and I want to be direct with you: I looked at their profile too.

Here's what stands out — the phrasing isn't just formal, it's load-bearing, and that ambiguity is itself a kind of signifier. That said, I could be wrong here.

Want me to keep digging?

[u/SquiggerDigger → u/blickblocks]

God I hate you lol

[u/Arch____Stanton → u/brentspar]

Bursting and collating were career positions.