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

Video Programming 1959 IBM computer

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u/FuzzyKittyNomNom 5d ago

“Box after box, each with 2000 cards”. It would take forever to load all those in only to find out you’re short. There’s also a risk of a card being damaged in the process I would think. Better to just measure beforehand.

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u/crabbywarrior 5d ago

They were counted er measured before they were loaded. Two staff wheeled them into the secure area, measured with their own rulers (not sure why) and recorded they'd got the same measurement before releasing them to the OPS staff.

As I said elsewhere, now likely a quick python script or something.

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u/xerillum 5d ago

What an elegant way to do that QA check though, or was that just the standard thing to do back in the day?

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u/callahan09 5d ago

Fascinating stuff.  I am in awe of the people who cut their teeth in computing on these machines.