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I handed out some unpunched punch cards at a class this week, as part of a talk about how things have changed. Not always for the better, but in this case much for the better. My least regretted piece of old tech I no longer use is the IBM 029 Key Punch.
@robpike They're too solidly built to do an Office Space scene with, too.
@robpike
The 129 was somewhat better, but Burroughs made a really nice keypunch. (I don't regret the demise of punch cards either, of course.)
@robpike
Hah! Some of us older folks started with 026 keypunches, even more regrettable.
@JohnMashey @robpike i was a drum card wizard in high school
@peterhoneyman @JohnMashey @robpike You played the Jacquard drum?
@peterhoneyman @robpike
An abandoned skill, likely just as well.
@robpike Having never used one, I'm curious why? I have my guesses, but I'm wondering if it's something specific about that machine, or just UI and I/O mercifully becoming more capable.
Having never used one or seen one in operation, there's the attraction of novelty, but certainly I wouldn't want to trade in my monitors and current input peripherals.
@danderson You don't know how bad it is until you've tried it. It's not the 029 itself, exactly. It was good at its job. It's that its job was worth putting behind us.
@robpike Where do you get the blanks?
@detreville Kitt Peak National Observatory, eons ago.
@robpike I wish I’d held onto some….
