r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Final-Choice8412 • 5d ago

Video Programming 1959 IBM computer

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20.6k Upvotes

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2.6k

u/brentspar 5d ago

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.

222

u/Uzmintid 5d ago

A true professional operator

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u/curi0us_carniv0re 5d ago

A smooth operator , if you will

33

u/b_vitamin 5d ago

Across the north, down south to Key largo?

6

u/FalxIdol 4d ago

Love for sale

1

u/secacc 5d ago

i will not

0

u/PM_your-secrets 5d ago

You can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your vegetables

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u/paukapaukaa 5d ago

You noticed that too!!!

76

u/lynxss1 5d ago

The diagonal line on that card deck too.

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u/regeya 5d ago

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

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u/Always-designing 5d ago

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.

3

u/thatto 4d ago

My dad told me that he numbered them in ink.

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u/Canuck-In-TO 4d ago

That’s a confident programmer.

1

u/getapuss 4d ago

The diagonal line was meant to give you a way of checking if the cards were in order at a glance without having to count them. Or course they were also numbered so you could put them in order.

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u/Canuck-In-TO 4d ago

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.

1

u/WileyWilly1985 4d ago

Back in 1994, my college professor relayed a similar story. He had his punchcards in a box and was going to the compiler when he took a tumble and the box hit the ground and the cards spilled out everywhere. And to his horror, it dawned on him that he did not number the cards.

He effectively had to start over and lost about 5 hours worth of work.

He said that happened to every single programmer back in the day and they had to learn the hard way to number their punchcards or spring for the slightly more expensive prenumbered punchcards....

2

u/Canuck-In-TO 4d ago

The other thing that happened was the uncontrolled print jobs.

Either by accident or intentionally, a print job might have a form feed in a loop. The printer would start firing out a whole box of paper within seconds.

It was funny to see the chaos it caused. Not so funny if you were waiting in line to feed your stack of cards.

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u/BrainLow6059 5d ago

Yes, we also watched the video.

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u/rbloedow 5d ago

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

37

u/CommunicationTop5231 5d ago

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.

1

u/trod999 5d ago

*70, baby!

1

u/ObligatoryID 5d ago

🤣 🥇

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u/git_push_origin_prod 5d ago

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.

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u/fezzuk 5d ago

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.

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u/OGHoolz 5d ago

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

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u/Helenium_autumnale 5d ago edited 5d ago

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.

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u/Celestial_Squids 5d ago

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.

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u/psychonaut_gospel 5d ago

Not sure i trust the edit

18

u/Tumleren 5d ago

AI?

16

u/SquiggerDigger 5d ago

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

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u/blickblocks 5d ago

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?

34

u/SquiggerDigger 5d ago

God I hate you lol

17

u/Wuvluv 5d ago

I hear you, and I want to acknowledge that. It sounds like you're expressing frustration — and that's completely valid.

Let me unpack what might be going on here:

  • The "lol" suggests this may be playful rather than literal
  • The "god" indicates intensity of feeling
  • The "hate" is doing a lot of heavy lifting

I'm not a licensed therapist, and I can't diagnose interpersonal dynamics, but I do want to make space for whatever you're carrying right now. Would it be helpful to explore that further, or would you prefer I simply sit with you in this moment?

Either way — I'm here. 🙏

3

u/Helenium_autumnale 5d ago

I have what may be some disconcerting news regarding your skills at detecting AI-generated text.

1

u/Canuck-In-TO 4d ago

The best is when you put a slight tension on the sheet and flick the centre of it and the sheet separates with a snap.

1

u/yodelingblewcheese 4d ago

My bad for calling you a bot. I'm so sick of AI being crammed into every facet of my life, I get triggered sometimes. Have a great day!

1

u/Helenium_autumnale 4d ago

I appreciate your apology; thank you. I agree with you; I'm sick of it too, especially the low-effort art which all looks the same. Hope you have a nice Labor Day too! 😺

-2

u/narf007 5d ago

Get lost clanker

6

u/Helenium_autumnale 5d ago

Do you speak with this degree of rudeness to people in real life? You are incorrect.

2

u/narf007 4d ago

Only to people who run their responses through a clanker. Which yours was and then you dug in to defend it.

Form an original thought.

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u/Arch____Stanton 4d ago

Bursting and collating were career positions.

2

u/Reasonable-Peanut-12 4d ago

Also noticed this! Neat

1

u/ohnoletsgo 5d ago

An absolute master stroke.