My old boss sent me a pack of 50 blank punch cards for Christmas a few years ago, just as a sort of gag gift. He says he uses them for shopping lists and such. I'd probably be more inclined to keep them as bookmarks, except I already use old business cards for that.
But I thought it was an interesting idea and went to eBay to see what I could get them for. My buss must have a source of his own, because the last I looked people are trying to sell old punch cards for $100 for a pack of 50, or even $10 for just one. They're antiques, now! Yeah, here we go: $11 Canadian for one. US$19.45 for 15. $26.69 for 40. Like that. Here's a test question for youngsters: Why do they "boot" a computer? Where does that term come from? I'm guessing most of them will assume it's a sort of joke, that you have to kick a computer to get the ol' clunker going, like "percussive maintenance" on a TV. Oops, an old-style CRT TV, I mean, of course, which I suppose is another thing that doesn't exist any more. --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't. -Anatole France */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Schmitt, Michael Sent: Tuesday, November 7, 2023 16:57 The card punch machines I used would punch each character as you typed it, rather than buffer and punch card at the end of the line. So, you had to type *perfectly*. A single mistake meant throw out the card. Or save it for bookmarks and grocery lists. I like to ask the new people I work with "Why does ISPF maintain sequence numbers in source?" (or JCL, sysin members, etc.). Not one answers "so you can put your punched card deck back in order when you drop it". (They also don't know why old programs, and JCL, is all upper case.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
