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[OM] Re: OT: Internet support - was Re: Re: [OT] A sincere apology -- so

Subject: [OM] Re: OT: Internet support - was Re: Re: [OT] A sincere apology -- sort of.
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 07:20:45 -0400
Piers Hemy wrote:

> Go on, it's the weekend already, we aren't in a hurry... 
-----------------------------------

I'll tell a short one.  It was probably 1969.  I had written some 
production planning programs and needed to teach our secretary, Candy, 
to do data entry on an IBM 2741 typewriter computer terminal.

Candy had never used anything but an ordinary typewriter but the 2741 
was just a fancy Selectric typewriter.  The continuous fan-fold paper 
and pin feed platen was probably a bit strange to her but she seemed 
comfortable with it from the beginning.  I started the program and 
explained how she was to enter the data.  All was going swimmingly until 
she finished the first page.  At that point the program recognized the 
end of page and automatically spaced up to the next one.

At that point, Candy literally leaped up out of her chair and backed 
well away from the terminal totally terrified.  She started looking all 
around her as though some invisible intelligence was watching her and 
started crying; "How did it know to do that; how did it know to do that?"

It took quite a while to explain it to her and get her calmed down.  We 
tend to forget how even simple, common technology wasn't always so.

ps: She was a great typist and went on to enter vast amounts of 
error-free data.

Chuck Norcutt


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