just outta curiosity - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

8 Apr 2001

...
 Nope, we intend to keep everything from you young
whipper-snappers.  Your
first history lesson is to understand that computers used to sit behind
big panes of glass, accessible only to the priesthood that maintained
them.  You communed with them only through a small hole where you passed
your punched cards and got your results back (usually just error
messages). 
...
 So too it is with computer history.  You can only have
access to the
knowledge we pass to you through the little hole in the window.  Do not
try to subvert our authority or we will find it fit to smite thee. 
...
 And let's just get one thing straight, you were
either born to compute or
you ended up being some post-degree market-molded wannabee nerd who
couldn't get a job in your chosen profession and just jumped on the
bandwagon during the great Internet bubble economy of the late 1990s and
"became" a programmer. 
...
 So it is not true that "gurus were neophytes
once".  Gurus are born,
not made. 
...
 Ah, nothing like a good rabble rousing to start a
Sunday morning. 
...
 Sellam Ismail                                       
Vintage Computer  Festival
...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
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 International Man of Intrigue and Danger               

http://www.vintage.org

well....there werent always punchcards....my grandfather once let me see a 
"supercomputer" that was programmed entirely by pushing switches....

anyways...im 16....i've been into computers since i was about a year 
old....have been a "programmer" since i was 5 and discovered BASIC...now im 
more into figuring out hardware design and all that fun stuff....
but the gurus should be nicer to us cause there are more of us than there are 
of them....and if need be i'll go find the info i need on my own...its 
amazing what you can do when you dont have a girlfriend or much life outside 
of school....heh

Robert Cobbins