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The Freeport &
Rockford Illinois Years ~ 1959 |
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I first worked at
Burgess Battery In Freeport for over a year. Then I worked for
Anderson Brothers, a very small company in Rockford that manufactured
machine tools. The last job I had was at Amerock in Rockford and
my boss there wanted me back there after my military service. They
did have a large installation when I was drafted but after seeing San
Francisco and the Pacific Ocean and of course, Los Angeles, Hollywood
and Monterey, I was hooked, never to return to the Midwest!
One evening after work, I was sitting in a bar having a cocktail
before going home for dinner. There on the TV was an announcer
stating there were missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida and
pointed at the major cities along the Atlantic Coast. Needless to
say I wondered what that meant! Well shortly after I
received a special letter in the mail stating I needed to go for the
induction process to enter the Army! I was not a happy camper but
as you will see, things did turn out all right!
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| IBM 405 |
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The IBM 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine, 1934. This was IBM's
high-end tabulator offering (and the first one to be called an
Accounting Machine), complementing its numeric-only 285. The 405
was programmed by a removable plug board with over 1600 functionally
significant "hubs", with access to up to 16 accumulators, the
machine could tabulate at a rate of 150 cards per minute, or tabulate
and print at 80 cpm. The print unit contained 88 type bars, the leftmost
43 for alphanumeric characters and the other 45 for digits only. The 405
was IBM's flagship product until after World War II (in which the 405
was used not only as a tabulator but also as the I/O device for
top-secret relay calculators built by IBM for the US Army Signal Corps
in 1943, used for decrypting German and Japanese coded messages). In
1952, IBM first used core memory in an experimental 405 model.
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This is the top of the board that we wired to
create the tabulation for reporting. |
And this is the reverse side where the metal
plugs met the receptors in the computer to relay the instructions. |
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IBM Control Panels
Note:
I
was sent to Chicago to learn how to wire these control panels for my
first job in the computer industry!
The very first punched-card tabulating machines were custom-built to do
just one job, such as tally the US 1890 or 1900 census data.
Starting in 1906, tabulators were made more flexible by addition of a
wiring panel to let users control their actions to some degree, thus
allowing the same machine to be sold into different markets (government,
railroad, etc) and used for different purposes. But this also meant that
if one machine were to be used for different jobs, it would have to be
rewired between each job, often a lengthy process that kept the machine
offline for extended periods. In 1928, IBM began to manufacture machines
with removable wiring panels, or "plugboards", so programs
could be prewired and swapped in and out instantly to change jobs. The
plugboard fits into a receptacle in the machine.
By the 1930s, most IBM punched-card equipment -- tabulators,
accounting machines, multiplying and summary punches, calculators --
operated under the control of a plugboard, now formally referred to as a
control panel. Users wired plugboards to specify exactly which card
columns were to be read or punched, which card fields were to be fed to
which accumulators, and so forth, depending on the machine. The
instructions were given by connecting holes ("hubs") with
wires. For example, a simple task on an accounting machine might be to
print columns of numbers from a deck of cards, in which case a series of
wires would connect card columns to printer columns. A slightly more
ambitious version of this task would also accumulate totals by
connecting the same card columns to accumulators, and then print the
totals at the end.
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Presidio of San
Francisco California ~ Military ~ 1963 |
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The photo on the left is a view of the barracks I lived in during my
stay in the military at the Presidio! The second photo is a view
from Crissy Field where the computer center was located with a nice
beach and the City and bridge in the back ground.
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This is the area where the computer center was located, next to the
Golden Gate Bridge. We were ten minutes from where all the action
in town was, so after the swing shift was over, we went to Lombard
Street and met the girls and danced the rest of the night away!
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| IBM 402/403 |
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The IBM 402 accounting (tabulating) machine, 1948, was an
"improved and modernized successor to the 405 accounting machine,
the choice of type number notwithstanding". The 400 series of
machines was used to read standard 80-column IBM cards (at speeds of 80
to 150 cards per minute, depending on options), accumulate sums (of
positive and/or negative numbers), subtotals, and balances, and to print
reports on its integrated printer, all under control of instructions
wired into its control panel,
that specified which card columns to accumulate in which counters and
how to format the report. The 402 rented for $290 per month in 1955.
The 402 series, like the 405 before it,
used a typebar print mechanism, in which each column (up to 88,
depending on model and options) has its own type bar. Long type bars (on
the left in this photo) contain letters and digits; short ones contain
only digits (each kind of type bar also includes one or two symbols such
as ampersand or asterisk). Type bars shoot up and down independently,
positioning the desired character for impact printing. The arrangement
of typebars suggests the most common application for these machines:
spreadsheet-like columns of numbers, with alphabetic labels for each row
on the left.
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Note:
After
working in various companies around northern Illinois in the computer
field, I was drafted in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis in
1963. Since my IQ test scores were extremely high and I had
computer experience, the military wanted me to go to Officers Training
to be a Second Lieutenant. My Platoon Sergeant, the First Sergeant
and the base commander would get points if someone in basic training was
accepted into officer's school. I also came in top shot and
won a medal as a sharp shooter, the best out of 800 men! I
found out by accident, that I was to be posted to the Presidio in San
Francisco overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge! A general's personal
aide told me and I was to keep it a secret until I was told I was posted
for my two years to the cream of the crop, where all the retiring
military went before leaving the army!
So after basic training I was sent to the Presidio of San Francisco
to be the swing shift supervisor of the installation situated next to
the Golden Gate Bridge. When I landed in San Francisco I thought
to myself, this is it, this will be my home for the rest of my
life! And all this started from a farm in Illinois in 1959!
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| IBM 407 |
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The IBM 407 Accounting Machine (1949). This was the last
and best of the all-electromechanical IBM accounting machines
(previously known as tabulators).
The 407 reads a deck of punched cards on their integrated card reader
(left), accumulate totals, subtotals, or other simple statistics in
counters made of gears, and print the results on their integrated
132-column line printer (center). Speed: 100 to 150 cards per minute
(the 407 replaced the earlier typebar printing technology with a much
faster print wheel mechanism). As with all IBM punch-card equipment
(except the key punch and sorter), a control panel (left) is
wired to specify the details of operation: what card columns to read and
what to do with them, how to format the report.
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IBM Service Bureau of
San Francisco ~
1965 |
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| IBM Check Sorters and IBM 407s |
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  The first job I had after leaving
the Army was working for the IBM Service Bureau in the Ferry Building. I worked the swing shift and we were bonded and took metal
boxes of checks from small banks that IBM had contracts with, and put the
checks into the trunk of our cars and drive to another computer center
that had the latest check sorting machines.
We would feed the checks
into the sorters where they were scanned and edited into bundles.
The check numbers and totals were printed for each batch and if the batch
did not match the manual total of each batch, we would have to review the
batch to determine the error and solve it. This was time consuming
and not very much fun.
After a year, many of the banks decided
they could afford to do the check balancing themselves or sent them to a
central banking office to process checks.
So that was the end of my
first job but then I interviewed at Fireman's Fund Insurance, little did I
know I would be there for over 15 years!
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Firemen's Fund
Insurance Company of San Francisco Years ~ 1966
A
Montage of Firemen's Fund History! |
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Note:
The following
information was supplied by my friend and co-worker Sherrod Holyfield at
Fireman's Fund during the 1960s and 1970s. Sherrod was a shift
supervisor of the computer installation when I first worked as a computer
operator and later as an assistant supervisor.
He told me we had a 1401, 1460 and a 1410. We inherited the 1410 and the 1460 when
we merged\took over the American Insurance Company. the 1410 was
over by the 7080. The 1460 and the 1401 were on the same wall. The
1460 was closer to the 1410 and the 1401 was originally in the room were the
supervisors office was located. That's were it was when you started at the
Fund Chuck. It was later moved inside next to the 1460.
Another thought. The 1410 was used almost exclusively to run American Insurance
Company (mainly auto & homeowners ins). The only 1410 programmers we
had came from the American Insurance side of the house. The fund programmers
were 705, 7080 and 1401 Autocoder programmers. Do you
remember the problems we had when we bought a program (and several consultants)
that converted or tried to covert and recompile all the 705 and 7080 source code
from Autocoder to COBOL so we could run the old programs on the NEW
generation of IBM machines the great and wonderful 360 series. (remember
sys1.flushlib?) As I recall the 40 was the first of the new generation to
be brought in and replaced the 1410 and the 1460. My favorite machines to
operated were the 705 because of all the blinking lights, the noise of the tapes
(remember, the tape drives on the 705 did not re-read what it wrote, so if you
had a bad tape, you had to start all over again! The damn thing looked like
something right out of a 50's move (DEKSET) also loved the 1401, because I
could do quite a bit of programming on it. If we had a problem, the
programmer would phone in a patch and I would manually go in and bypass or fix
the offending code. Never did like the new generation. You couldn't
get and fix things like you could on the old generation.
I may not be in the picture taken of us in front of the IBM System
Model 40, because It was about that time that I transferred to the training department.
It was nice of Sherrod to send me the types of computers we had
in-house and their locations in the installation and some of the problems
associated with running them. Read on for more information and
a good photo of us in front of the Model 40!
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| IBM 705 |
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The IBM 705 was one of the most powerful data processing systems of the
mid-1950s. It was engineered primarily to handle business data. The computer's
memory consisted of tiny ferrite cores strung on frameworks of fine wire.
Note:
This model was just being taken out of service when I joined the
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company in San Francisco in 1966. I
remember we used to laugh as the ferrite rings were strung on the fine
wires as stated above but, some wise guy flipped some metal paper clips
into the memory and they were hanging and swinging in the breeze as the
computer did it's final calculations!
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| IBM 1401 |
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Note:
I liked operating the 1401 almost as much as the 1410. Both
allowed the operator to run the jobs from the ground up.
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The
following is the text of an IBM Data Processing
Division press fact sheet distributed on October 5, 1959.
The all-transistorized IBM 1401 Data Processing System places the features
found in electronic data processing systems at the disposal of smaller
businesses, previously limited to the use of conventional punched card
equipment. These features include: high speed card punching and reading,
magnetic tape input and output, high speed printing, stored program, and
arithmetic and logical ability.
The elements of the basic 1401 system are the 1401 Processing Unit, 1402 Card
Read-Punch, and 1403 Printer. Configurations include a card system, a tape
system, and a combination of the two.
The 1401 may be operated as an independent system, in conjunction with IBM
punched card equipment, or as auxiliary equipment to IBM 700 or 7000 series
systems.
The 1401 performs functions previously requiring a number of separate
machines: card reading and punching, separation of output cards, calculating,
and printing.
As an auxiliary to large scale data processing systems, the 1401 performs
magnetic tape sorting and editing, card-to-tape and tape-to-card operations and
high speed printing. The larger system is thus made available for data
processing and logical operations.
New simplified programming techniques make the 1401 extemely powerful and
more efficient than many other systems of comparable or even larger size.
Variable length data and program instruction words provide maximum utilization
of the magnetic core storage; there is no waste of storage capacity as with
fixed record length systems. Program steps may be skipped or reread in any
desired sequence, a feature which greatly increases programming flexibility.
With the 1401, manual control panel wiring is eliminated, and transfer of
cards or paper between machine units is greatly reduced.
The 1401 incorporates the building block principle, providing for expansion
and a variety of configurations to fit the needs of individual users.
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| IBM 1410 |
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Note:
I loved running the IBM 1410! One sat at the console and
had complete control over running the system. One loaded the
tapes, ensured the disk drive was active, and was able to check if there
was a bad record on a tape and correct it in memory, skip the bad
record, and restart processing. You could initiate the job, run it
to a successful conclusion and then print out the product and send to
the appropriate sources. One felt like he or she was on the
command deck of the Star Ship Enterprise.
Later
with the IBM 360s and 370s, one sat at the console and the computer ran
itself. Another group setup the job stream and it was
automatically run by the computer. Even though there were
problems, it wasn't the same.
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Announced September 12, 1960 and withdrawn March 30, 1970.
A. The IBM 1410 Data Processing Card System was a
high-speed flexible system containing large volume storage facilities and fast
input/output units for up-to-the-minute, accurate punched card output and
printed reports.
- IBM 1402 Card Read Punch
- IBM 1403 Printer
- IBM 1411 Processing Unit
- IBM 1414 Input/Output Synchronizer, Model 3 or 4
- IBM 1415 Console
B. The IBM 1410 Data Processing Tape System added to the
speed and efficiency of the 1410 Card System with high volume storage capacities
and increased data input/output speeds. The 1410 Card System could be expanded
to include:
- IBM 729 II Magnetic Tape Units with the 1414 Input/Output Synchronizer,
Model 1
- IBM 729 IV Magnetic Tape Units with the 1414 Input/Output Synchronizer,
Model 1
- IBM 7330 Magnetic Tape Units with the 1414 Input/Output Synchronizer,
Model 2
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| IBM System/360 Model 40 |
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The Model 40 made its debut in April 1964 as part of the IBM System/360
roll-out. It was a powerful stand-alone system in the medium price range
with communication facilities.
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Fireman's Fund Insurance with an IBM System/360
Model 40 and the swing shift operators and shift supervisor, Charles W.
Buntjer - front and lower center. Since
Fireman's Fund Insurance had one of the largest computer centers on the
west coast, we had IBM Service and testing at our
installation. By allowing testing of new computer equipment, we
had on-site maintenance which at that point in time, was invaluable due to
the newest installation of main frame computers. We also had some of
the most bazaar equipment being tested and most of the time, it never made
the market place!
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| IBM System/360 Model 65 Operator's Console |
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The Model 65 was introduced a year after the initial System/360 launch and
was first shipped -- to MIT's Lincoln Laboratory -- in November 1965. This is
the operator's console on the computer's IBM 2065 central processing unit.
Note:
This
was a huge mainframe and we felt like we were on the vanguard of the
computer age! At this point I was working in the computer center
as a part time assistant supervisor/computer operator, worked in Tech
Support, Data Entry, Quality Assurance and Documentation
Standards. I sometimes was asked to come and see why something
didn't work.
I remember one time I sat at the console and everyone hovered over me
and I got mad and told them to keep the 'F' away from me! They all
were shocked and asked me what I had said. I said I couldn't
figure out the problem with them hanging over me and mumbled some
more. It must have sounded all right as they did leave me
alone. For some reason, some people are good at certain things and
I could just sit there for a while and fiddle around and suddenly the
system would take off.
I heard the staff one night telling each other, "We should ask
Chuck to see what is wrong as he seems to be able just to sit there and
eventually fix the problem!" I thought that was very nice and
true, sometimes one just has a second sense on certain things.
Strange but true! Too bad we can't be that way with all problems!
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| IBM System/370 Model 145 |
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Note:
Patricia Memoli Wood, on the left of the
photo taken in 1969 in front of the IBM System Model 40, told me when she was hired as a tape certifier in
1968, we had 11,000 tapes in the tape vault! We eventually were
the Beta test site for the IBM System Model 370 and had approximately 17,500
tapes at that point. We had people working in the tape vault just
to gather tapes needed to run jobs and also to restock them in the
correct slot after being processed When we converted to the 370s,
we went to disk packs and that basically, was the end of tapes and tape
drives!
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Announced September 23, 1970 and withdrawn November 10, 1971.
The following is the text of an IBM Data
Processing Division press release distributed on September 23, 1970.
In a major departure from conventional computer technology,
International Business Machines Corporation today introduced its first
computer using a main memory made entirely of monolithic circuits.
To store its data and instructions, the new IBM System/370 Model 145
uses silicon memory chips, rather than the magnetic core technology that
has been the mainstay of computer memories for the past 15 years. More
than 1,400 microscopic circuit elements are etched onto each
one-eighth-inch-square chip.
Monolithic circuitry also is used throughout the Model 145's central
processor to perform all of the system's arithmetic and logic functions.
"When we introduced System/370 three months ago," said
Thomas J. Watson, Jr., chairman of the board of IBM, "we thought it
would do very well, but it has done even better than we expected. We
believe that Model 145, with its significant advance in technology, the
monolithic main memory, will make the capabilities of System/370
available to an even wider range of users."
With the Model 145, many more business and scientific users can
obtain the increased performance-per-dollar advantages of System/ 370.
They will not have to reprogram their existing applications written for
System/360 and earlier IBM computers. The first models of System/370,
the 155 and 165, were introduced in June for users of larger systems.
"In the Seventies, up-to-the-minute information from a computer
data base is as vital to the people who run medium-sized organizations
as it is to those who run large ones, "said F. G. Rodgers,
president of IBM's Data Processing Division. "The Model 145 has all
the characteristics needed to make advanced data base applications
practical and profitable for intermediate system users."
"The innovative technologies in Model 145 represent significant
engineering achievements," Mr. Rodgers said, "but even more
important is how they add up to better performance, efficiency and
economy for the user."
One of the key advantages of the Model 145 for multiprogramming and
data base applications is its ability to use IBM's newest and fastest
disk storage devices. They include the IBM 3330, announced in June, and
a new disk storage facility, the IBM 2319, announced today. The 2319,
available only with the Model 145, has a capacity of 87-million
characters of information, expandable to 233-million. It attaches to the
central processor, thereby eliminating the cost of a separate disk
control unit.
Equally important are new program products announced today for
handling data base applications using remote terminals. IBM's Customer
Information Control System (CICS), previously available only for large
systems, will be available in two Disk Operating System versions. They
are designed to assist users in speeding such information as customer
account records, inventory status, production and engineering data and
student records to where it is needed, while allowing the files to be
updated directly from the computer terminal.
Monolithic main memory
In conventional memories, data is stored in magnetically charged
cores strung on wires. The use of monolithic memory technology, with its
very high circuit density, allows IBM to offer Model 145 users more than
a half-million characters of high-speed storage in about half the space
that would be required by core planes for an equivalent amount of
memory. The more than 1,400 circuit elements on each monolithic chip are
interconnected to make up 174 complete memory circuits.
IBM has pioneered the use of monolithic memory technology in its
highest performance computers, which include System/370 Models 155 and
165 and System/360 Models 85 and 195. In those systems, monolithic
memory technology is used in high-speed buffers that match the speed of
very large main core memories to that of the central processors.
The Model 145's internal operating speed is up to five times faster
than that of the widely used System/360 Model 40, and up to 11 times
faster than the Model 30's. Users have a choice of six main storage
capacities, from 112,000 to 512,000 characters -- twice the maximum
available with System/360 Model 40.
The ability to run programs written for earlier IBM computers,
including the 1400 Series and 7010, is provided with the Model 145 at no
additional charge. Users can also run Disk Operating System programs
under control of the more powerful Operating System without
reprogramming.
Reloadable control storage
Another innovation that enhances the Model 145's efficiency is a
reloadable section of monolithic memory that augments the main memory.
It is called Reloadable Control Storage (RCS).
The code for the basic System/370 instruction set, including all
system control functions, is stored in the RCS. Users will be supplied
with a prewritten disk cartridge containing all needed instructions, as
well as those for selected optional functions. Options might include the
instructions that enable the Model 145 to emulate earlier IBM machines
or perform arithmetic with extended precision to 34 decimal digits.
The console operator can load instructions from the disk cartridge
into RCS in about 45 seconds. The standard 32,000 characters of control
storage provided with each Model 145 can be expanded to 64,000 by using
a portion of main memory, if needed, to accommodate optionally available
functions.
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Consulting Over the
Years |
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Boole & Babbage Software
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Sterling Software
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IBM
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William-Sonoma
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Deltanet
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Wells Fargo
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Visa
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Schwab
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Banc of America - Y2K Fix
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Franklin Templeton - Security
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and many other corporations in the Bay Area
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Some of the companies I have worked for.
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1987 ~ Blue Cross of California |
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1997 ~ William Sonoma |
1999/2000 ~ Banc of America Y2K Fix. I worked in
both of the buildings shown above. The stock brokers worked in the
Transamerica pyramid and the computer center was in the new building
across the street from the pyramid. This was a great location to
work and play at the height of the dot-com era! |
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I may be retired in 2006 but I still work on some
consulting projects for people, especially setting up internet web
sites. My 2005 note book computer is equivalent to a
mainframe computer in 1960!
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