[Yr11 Information Technology] Life before the Internet

Tue Apr 29 12:36:02 EST 2008

Right you asked for it
I worked for the SEC in Monash House as an Engineer on Transmission Line 
Design and Development, 8th floor. circa 1976.
So when you go to broken hill, mildura and see the large towers along 
the way with the capacitor sub stations, yep i was on the team that put 
them there.
We used flexi time, when i finished up i was 5 hours down
So after a 2 hour lunch the boss made me stay back for those hours
Have you any idea what a young engineer can get up to when left on their 
own for hours owith a mainframe when not very sober and with all the 
main passwords?
I was contacted 6 weeks later
They had put another engineer on full time to try and remove the little 
messages i had embeded  in the  print spooler.
Every print for every department had comments entered at the top of the 
report - not bad ones just silly ones
Sir Charles Trethowan was not amused as they say.
They had deleted my account and therefore NO ONE had  the permissions to 
edit, delete, any of the entries
They needed my exact password on my account recreation in order to alter 
the entries, yes it worked but i think it cost them a fair bit in the 
end, more than the 5 hours i owed i think.
So am i shocked and distressed when some students play with our network 
- ahhh that would be a no.

is this a true story, only the shadow knows
now enough away with you, i have to catch up on my work now!

regards
kev

Kevork Krozian wrote:
> Hi Kevin and Kent,
>
>  All of this is bringing back memories ....  
> Started teaching in 1988 ( after a few years on the oil rigs in Bass Strait )  but the Yr 11 reference ( 1990 to 2007 ) was for the VCE version of IT. Prior to that I remember teaching Yr 11 programming where we did Turbo Pascal all year with functions, procedures parameter passing, arrays of records, files of records etc. . Soon afterwards the Office suite arrived and we tried spreadsheets and databases etc. with the requisite 5 folios of each that were the flavour of the VCE IT courses of the time. 
>
> Kev ( Feely and not Krozian ) ,  I take your point about the ease with which people connect to the internet. Where are the days of setting up the TCP/IP stack, Winsock2, the shim programs and all of the tweaks for the MTU ( Max Transmission Unit ) and the Rx, Tx and other settings.  I remember one late Friday night where a modem would not connect because it was set to dial without listening to a dial tone and so this had to be reverted to the listening for dial tone with a command line tweak ......
>
> Yes, we are all spoilt now aren't we ?
>
> As for the loud printers, I remember the labs at Monash Uni in the Comp Sci department 1980 - 1983 ) were in their own rooms due to the loud banging/printing process that could be heard a long way down the corridor.
> Then there were the mark sense cards that took hours to fill and just when you had debugged the program would have had too little lead left on the cards and had to be re-marked to allow the reader to input.
>
> Ahhh, it is much nicer in 2008. I can connect to my server from anywhere in the world; run web based internet businesses; check email on the fly and more.
>
>
> A bit of nostalgia feels quite relaxing, and is probably cheaper than market rates of therapy
>
> Take Care
> Kevork
>
>
>  "Kent Beveridge" <kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au> 28/04/2008 6:00 pm >>>
> Ok, who can beat the 'I've had a class since..."..I cant compete with those posted so will just watch from the sidelines for a chuckle...
> hehe..
>  
>  
> but..I have worked on mainframe and super mini computers...I suspect there are only a handful of us mainframers about (mine was a big IBM spread over 3 floors!! cop that!) cant remember the model..too long ago.   what about the racket the high speed impact printers used to make at lots of ppm speeds!  memories....
>  
> KB.
>  
> Kent Beveridge,
> I.T. co-ordinator
> St. Brigids Catholic Sec. College
> Horsham
> email.. kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au 
>  
> |<3|\|7  b3\/3r1D93 ?  ;-)
>
> Wishes and Eggs, one you make and one you break!  A bit like promises.....
> "This email and any attachments may be confidential.  You must not disclose or use the information in this email if you are not the intended recipient.  If you have received this email in error, please notify us immediately and delete the email and all copies.  The School does not guarantee that this email is virus or error free.  The attached files are provided and my only be used on the basis that the user assumes all responsibility for any loss, damage or consequence resulting directly or indirectly from the use of the attached files, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not.  The content and opinions in this email are not necessarily those of the School."
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Kevin Feely
> Sent: Mon 4/28/2008 4:40 PM
> To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: [Yr11 Information Technology] Life before the Internet
>
>
>
> Hi Kevork,
> i can beat that, i (yep - me only) have hosted a y11 IT class since
> 1984, actually 1983 when we had a micromation cpm machine and did some
> maths activities on it. in 1984 we upgraded to microbee and i taught
> wordbee ( yep typing ! the old stenos had a fit ) and basic.  Then with
> kambrook 286 and 386 machines we taught DOS and BASIC. The Y11 class
> made up modem cables ( but i think maggie might have beaten me here) and
> we used the school telephone system to send messages from one pc to
> another. Yes the kids carried the PC's to different offices and set them
> up, and knew all about the RTS, CTS, RX, TX, protocols with line speeds
> of up to 9600 baud. The principal had an absolute fit as he thought we
> were phishing phone calls.
> Melbourne PC User Group was in its heydey! Late 1980 we had an internet
> computer and pre berners-lee it was all dos based.
> I have a vivid memory reading a report from a pro cyclist in Europe
> reporting back to Giant America on their new, secret carbon model!?
> Now its all done for you, connecting to the internet, sending messages
> etc are no longer the blacks art they once were - sob!
> Now its all namby pamby windows - i think the study design should be
> based around linux and they should build apache servers and and and and
> fly to the moon?
> kev
> Oh what was the question? oh yep we still have a y11 and 2 yr 12 classes.
> Why did i respond?
> Ummm, i think kids look at what they want to do in yr 12 and make sure
> they are in those y11 classes plus 1 other.
> As such maybe if they are unlikely to want y12 IT they will not pick it
> at y11
> So Y12 IT needs to be a winner to them
>
> I think i cheat a bit and run Advanced Yr9 IT, so that they are fast
> tracked and do Y11 at year 10, and complete the vce it subject in Y11.
> To students this becomes very attractive. If they dont like the Y11
> course they can drop it and pick a full subject range at y11. Or if they
> stick with it they get a Y12 subject done before starting Y12.
>
> kev
>
>
>
> Kevork Krozian wrote:
>   
>> Hi Frank,
>>
>> Many thanks for your generosity in sharing this with others.
>> Unfortunately my Yr 11 IT class ( 1990 - 2007 unbroken run )  did not survive into 2008 and is now dormant. Who knows, if it is resurrected all of these resources will help a great deal.
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Kevork
>>
>>  
>>     
>>>>> "Gaylard, Francis D" <gaylard.francis.d at edumail.vic.gov.au> 28/04/2008 10:15 am >>>
>>>>>        
>>>>>           
>> For what it's worth, here's my outcome.
>> And - Access or FP? No contest! Filemaker - but access unfortunately has more...access.
>>
>> Also - something worth considering for database activities. The Census at school project from the ABS has a number of activities you can do at school if you join in. Good resource.
>>
>> Frank Gaylard
>> Thomastown SC
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Hubbard, Jenna J
>> Sent: Fri 25-Apr-08 12:07 PM
>> To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
>> Subject: RE: [Yr11 Information Technology] Life without Internet
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello all.
>>
>>
>>
>> Does anyone have any useful class handouts as well as their actual SAC for outcome 2 to send to the  list.
>>
>> I chose to do outcome 3 before 2 because I am not confident in teaching this content at all.
>>
>>
>>
>> What database program would you recommend? Access or Filemaker Pro?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> Jenna
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
>> Sent: Monday, 21 April 2008 2:43 PM
>> To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
>> Subject: [Yr11 Information Technology] Life without Internet
>>
>>
>>
>> I know you are all busy but thought you'd appreciate this. Safe to play in class to secondary school students.
>>
>> Enjoy :-)
>>
>> In this South Park episode, most of the nation was without internet. What does such an internet-connected society do when faced with such a technological dilemma? Face the giant Linksys router that controls all traffic in the country.
>>
>> http://gizmodo.com/381088/how-to-fix-the-internet-according-to-south-park <http://gizmodo.com/381088/how-to-fix-the-internet-according-to-south-park?autoplay=true>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
>> http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/>  <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/>
>>
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