28 Jan
1998
28 Jan
'98
4:27 p.m.
Just this past year, my wife's uncle was throwing
out some "old books" when
he decided I might just like them, so he dropped them off at our house.
Wouldn't you know it, but there was a Navy coursebook in "Introduction to
Programming in BASIC" in perfect shape, revised in 1983.
Well, that is one of three, there is also one on COBOL, and another on
FORTRAN. I know I did all three while I was an Electrician in the Navy in
'88. It's when I found out the Navy had a Rate that did nothing but
computers. In '90 I switched Rates to Data Processing Technician, in late
'96 I got out as a DP1(SW). Amazingly I taught myself enough while in the
Navy to get a good job, their computer courses for the most part are
totally pathetic, only one was even slightly challenging.
The 3&2 is pretty cool, especially if you can get an older copy than I've
got. The older copies have a bunch of IBM/360 stuff in it. The Modern DP3
manual was pretty good. Don't really remember the modern DP2 manuals (they
had two in the matter of a couple years), the DP1&C book is basically all
military related, not computer related, though it does have a little old
Mainframe stuff.
Other manuals that would be good would be the (they did the Hardware)
manuals. I remember 2-3 years ago sitting in the computer room while at
sea, looking over and being dumbfounded that one of the guys was studying
core memory for a test he had to take. I wish I had a set of these.
The NEETS modules are also good, there is something like 23 of them. They
are on Electricity and Electronics, including how to use test equipment.
Then of course there are all the course materials I collected over the
years, but except for the stuff for the Honeywell DPS-8 Mainframes that's
all garbage.
As of sometime last year there are no longer Rates known as "Data
Processing Technician", or "Data Systems Technician". At least that was
the plan when I got out, one of the reasons I got out. All the Data
Processing Tech's were being converted to Radiomen, go figure. Oh, well, I
make about 3x what I did in the Military, and I even get to come home at
night :^)
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
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