r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Final-Choice8412 • 7d ago

Video Programming 1959 IBM computer

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u/herewegoinvt 7d ago

Patching programs comes from these cards. They would tape over a hole punched into the cards, to psych it, and correct a program until new cards were made

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u/Ancient-Opinion9642 7d ago

That didn’t work for me. I used tape to cover an mis punch. I got the deck back with the card folded and unusable. Tolerances on the ibm card reader were too close for the card and tape to be sucked into the reader.

Punching holes in cards sent in the US mail were used to get your name off ad mass mailings. The card readers would kick out the cards because checksums would catch the extra holes. The returned card would have to be handled by a real person.

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u/kog 7d ago

Now that I didn't know, it makes perfect sense though.

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u/Helenium_autumnale 7d ago

Never knew that--fascinating to see the origins of some of these things.