# IBM 360: Happy 50th Birthday! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569 "2014-04-07T17:53:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/41 "2014-12-11T18:59:17Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > A trick to play with the impact printer was to advance to the middle of a page then overprint print a row of “-” or “\_”\* several times then advance a full page. The paper would rip at the printed perforation and royally piss off the operators. > > - (could you do \_ on a card punch? I can’t remember) That brings back memories of a Decision Data printer we had at my first job. Instead of a belt or chain it had a drum that rotated vertically; when it printed a full line of the same character the sound of 132 hammers firing simultaneously made one think a semi had hit the building. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/42 "2014-12-12T00:19:17Z")
If anybody wants to watch a fictionalized account of a 1960s advertising agency getting their first IBM 360, check out the fourth episode of season seven of Mad Men. A little bit of a synopsis is [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiHurMO6DTA). ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/43 "2014-12-12T02:07:54Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > A trick to play with the impact printer was to advance to the middle of a page then overprint print a row of “-” or “\_”\* several times then advance a full page. The paper would rip at the printed perforation and royally piss off the operators. > > - (could you do \_ on a card punch? I can’t remember) It’s stunts like that (plus complete ignorance of carriage control) that cause the Purdue operators to install a kill switch on carriage control operation - forcing everything to single space. Another trick was: DO 1 to 1000 NewPage END DO My first job (operator) still had a 1403 printer - it actually used a loop of paper tape to control interpretations of CC commands. We saw fit to have a tape with every CC command defaulted to single space. It was kept close by. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/44 "2014-12-12T03:35:38Z")
I used to have, among many others, two National Geographic issues about a decade apart, each of them having a major article on computers. In the earlier one, which was from around 1972 if memory serves, a photo depicted the installation of a particular model mainframe, which escapes me now. Another pic showed a fanfold printout of some Manhattan job listings, with a guy holding it up all proud and everything, as one who would suggest it was a technological miracle of the age. (To be fair, considering how tedious it must have been to code using a cardpunch, it probably was at that.) The later article showed the same machine being removed. I wish to hell I hadn’t lost both magazines, and I don’t know how it happened. I never intended to get rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/45 "2014-12-13T00:46:50Z")
We had somewhat self service keypunch/card reader/line printer rooms in my student days. It was always amusing to watch the results when people stacked their papers/books/etc. on top of one of the line printers. Why? the entire top of the printer swung open when it ran out of paper, dumping everything on top unceremoniously onto the floor :eek: . Some nice people occasionally warned others not to do that. I was even more of an obnoxious soul back then than I am now 😃 so I just watched. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/46 "2014-12-13T05:11:31Z")
I think it was the 3211 which had that rather annoying habit - it did get the operator’s attention, but, sitting next to another printer, it was the logical place on which to place the other printer’s output for bursting. You only left one stack on that… Except for print speed, this cheap laptop out-classes the S370-168, and probably a 3033… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/47 "2014-12-13T08:02:35Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Object Oriented COBOL - it’s called “Post Increment COBOL By One.” 😃 > > A play on the name of the OO version of C, which is C++ Adding the “++” operand to a variable in C increments that variable, after the rest of the statement has been executed, called a “post increment”. Because the C++ language was the next thing after the C programming language. A nice short name, as opposed to the notoriously wordy COBOL … Now, class, we will use the Twain programming language to set LAUGHS to “nobody” and FROG to “dead”. > > I laughed for a solid half hour when I first heard that joke. Made the traffic jam we were in almost worth it. And one more level of joke, C itself was named after B which was a stripped down version of [BCPL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCPL), a language which ran on Multics and which I used heavily in grad school. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/48 "2014-12-13T16:33:38Z")
I mentioned [upthread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17268893&postcount=19) my first experience with a 360. The contrast with what you get today… Yesterday I bought a name-brand tablet for very little money for my sister-in-law. (Shhh, don’t tell her.) I’m setting it up now and loading it with apps and crap since she is far from computer savvy and doesn’t have WiFi at home. Good … freakin’ grief. This is amazing. It’s not just that it is incredibly fast and powerful. But that it’s for so little money. Even a year ago this would have cost twice as much. The change in technology I’ve seen in the last 45 years continues to astound me. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569/49 "2014-12-13T16:52:48Z")
Heh. I took a programming class in college. Pascal. Punch cards. 1979. It was way high tech. The data center communicated with the programming center via infrared light. If it was snowing, it shut down the signal. High tech for it’s time. But I got frustrated and dropped computers at the time. Hated it. Never again. Rather drive a truck. Yesterday, I updated to SQL server 2012 SSMS on my work machine so that I can work with the GIS DB’s on our servers. Pain in the ass. Things are good. But sometimes… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ibm-360-happy-50th-birthday/685569.md?page=2)