Breakfast this morning

[InTheIttaBenaHotSun]

So I’m in Clovis, CA with work for a week and walk into this busy café for breakfast. Only spot available was at the counter so I walk over and set down.

After a while, I start talking with the older gentleman to my right. General topics - weather, the town, yada, yada. I tell him that I live in Birmingham and he tells me that he was born in Columbus, GA and still has family there. Again, yada yada.

5 more minutes of small talk and he tells me that he graduated from MSU. I was taken aback then turn to him and show him the front of my gray t-shirt that read Mississippi State Baseball Camp in maroon.

Turns out his family settled in Quitman when he was young and after high school he went to State and graduated in ‘68 with a degree in Computer Science. Said he hasn’t been back to campus since Clark and Palmeiro were there.

We set and talked for 30 minutes after finishing our breakfast. Always nice to run into another dawg when you least expect it.

I fly back on Thursday and the guy behind me better NOT order water***

I’m JFWY GTA...

 

[WrapItDog]

he went to State and graduated in ‘68 with a degree in Computer Science

You sure he didn't say Poultry Science? Did the chicken or the egg come before the computer**

 

[TrueMaroonGrind]

I would be very interested to see what Computer Science was like in the 60's. Surprised MSU even offered that degree back then.

 

[WrapItDog]

I would be very interested to see what Computer Science was like in the 60's.

View attachment 11570

 

[InTheIttaBenaHotSun]

I’m an Ag guy and my knowledge of computers only goes back to Radio Shack and the mid 80’s. I had no idea what he was referring to as he spoke about his degree. I do remember him saying they used to have to program on some type of card and then do something with those cards or take them somewhere on campus to complete assignments/work.

He said he got a degree in computers. Thought he said Science but maybe I’m putting the Science part in there.

Could be the precursor to Computer Science.

Yo no sé.

 

[RocketDawg]

I would be very interested to see what Computer Science was like in the 60's. Surprised MSU even offered that degree back then.

We had a Univac 1108 in one of the buildings across from Hilbun as I recall. Had to punch cards and submit them, and you'd get the results back the next day. If you made a mistake, you didn't know about it until you got your results back.

I think you could get a degree in "Computers" then but it was nothing like it is today. I had to take a couple of one-hour lab courses in Fortran. I seem to recall that Dr Sheely's son did some groundbreaking computer-enabling work around that time.

 

[SpiritofSuttleHall]

Mississippi State is home to the world's oldest undergraduate program in Business Information Systems, founded in 1963 by Dr. Charles Moore. He had been teaching at Alabama but, because their program did not own a mainframe and we (MSU) did, he brought classes over on old 82 on Friday evenings and they would have all-night classes in Hilbun. After the UA administration turned down his request to purchase a mainframe, he got a much better response from our admin and COB Dean Bill Flewellyn, so Dr. Moore decided to come here.

Dr. Kirk Arnett was one of the first graduates of the program, which has still heavy in business statistics back then. But it is the same program that (I suspect) several on this board graduated from, including dawgstudent.

 

[Dawgbite]

I punched cards in the early 80's. God help you if you got a card out of order or God help your room mate if someone happened to shuffle his cards while he slept.

 

[RocketDawg]

Mississippi State is home to the world's oldest undergraduate program in Business Information Systems, founded in 1963 by Dr. Charles Moore. He had been teaching at Alabama but, because their program did not own a mainframe and we (MSU) did, he brought classes over on old 82 on Friday evenings and they would have all-night classes in Hilbun. After the UA administration turned down his request to purchase a mainframe, he got a much better response from our admin and COB Dean Bill Flewellyn, so Dr. Moore decided to come here.

Dr. Kirk Arnett was one of the first graduates of the program, which has still heavy in business statistics back then. But it is the same program that (I suspect) several on this board graduated from, including dawgstudent.

Those names sound extremely familiar, and I haven't heard them for almost 50 years. Thanks for the info.

 

[fieldcorporal]

In 1971 there were 2 programs:

Computer Science in the School of Arts and Sciences

and

Business Statistics and Data Processing in the Business School

The CS curriculum followed engineering curricula closely. In fact, so closely I was able to get a double major, mostly by taking discipline-specific courses and some additional math as electives.

Seems like the head of CS was named Davis, and my advisor was Dr. Brad Carter (who I believe later became head).

The BSDP curriculum did not have the language requirement, Eng Physics, Math, etc that CS required, but did require accounting, statistics and econ courses the CS did not.

The Univac 1108 was in one of those small brick buildings just north of Hull until it was moved to the brand new Allen Hall. We could sit in class on the second floor during the spring and ogle the sun goddesses at Hull.

There were also "terminals" - read "card reader/punches and printer" - in McCain, the business building that I've forgotten, and seems like 1 or 2 more places. Having a key to one of the terminal rooms was the golden key to the kingdom - your very own equipment without having to wait on the unwashed, albeit late at night.

I think, but don't know, that these two programs merged somewhere along the way.

 

[thatsbaseball]

Kinda related: Bought my first "pocket" calculator in the early 70's while in school. Paid about $100 for it and it had about 5 or 6 functions. Battery wasn't worth a damn and wouldn't hold a charge very long. Don't remember the brand but it was probably 4" long 3" wide and 2" deep.

 

[Dawgbite]

It amazes me that you guys can remember the names of professors and buildings. I can't remember a single professor and very few building names. I can ride through campus and recognize that I had had a class in that building but I couldn't remember the name if my life depended on it.

 

[wsjmsu75]

In 1971 there were 2 programs:

Computer Science in the School of Arts and Sciences


Business Statistics and Data Processing in the Business School

The CS curriculum followed engineering curricula closely. In fact, so closely I was able to get a double major, mostly by taking discipline-specific courses and some additional math as electives.

Seems like the head of CS was named Davis, and my advisor was Dr. Brad Carter (who I believe later became head).

The BSDP curriculum did not have the language requirement, Eng Physics, Math, etc that CS required, but did require accounting, statistics and econ courses the CS did not.

The Univac 1108 was in one of those small brick buildings just north of Hull until it was moved to the brand new Allen Hall. We could sit in class on the second floor during the spring and ogle the sun goddesses at Hull.

There were also "terminals" - read "card reader/punches and printer" - in McCain, the business building that I've forgotten, and seems like 1 or 2 more places. Having a key to one of the terminal rooms was the golden key to the kingdom - your very own equipment without having to wait on the unwashed, albeit late at night.

I think, but don't know, that these two programs merged somewhere along the way.

I graduated in '75 with a degree in Computer Science. I do remember some of the names you mentioned, such as Brad Carter. Most of my CS classes were in Allen, as was the mainframe. Spent lots of time in the key punch room, submitting job runs and then waiting for the results which were printed on the huge, wide green bar paper. Fond memories.

 

[The Peeper]

I remember most if not all of them, but I've only been gone since 1985

 

[fieldcorporal]

I couldn't remember the name of the building that CS was in pre-Allen, so I looked it up.

Freeman Hall - many days and nights spent there.

 

[RocketDawg]

I think I can remember most of my professors names, and probably all of them with just a little bit of help. Buildings are another matter. For some reason, Hilbun stands out in my mind, as does Lee Hall. And I can remember some of the engineering buildings (e.g., Walker).

 

[blacklistedbully]

Kinda related: Bought my first "pocket" calculator in the early 70's while in school. Paid about $100 for it and it had about 5 or 6 functions. Battery wasn't worth a damn and wouldn't hold a charge very long. Don't remember the brand but it was probably 4" long 3" wide and 2" deep.

Most likely a TI, Sharp or Casio. Maybe a Litton. Vast majority back then were 4-function or ridiculously expensive HP's.

FWIW, my high school chemistry teacher forced us to use slide-rules past the time they were obsolete.

 

[RocketDawg]

Kinda related: Bought my first "pocket" calculator in the early 70's while in school. Paid about $100 for it and it had about 5 or 6 functions. Battery wasn't worth a damn and wouldn't hold a charge very long. Don't remember the brand but it was probably 4" long 3" wide and 2" deep.

I never had a calculator when I was in school because they hadn't been invented yet. It was strictly slide rule and addition/subtraction in the head.

We got our first calculator at work in the early '70s. It was an HP-35, inverse polish, and cost about $400 at the time ... equivalent to over $2000 in today's dollars. We had one for the office, and locked it up in a safe overnight to prevent theft.

Some 10 years later, everybody in my office had a MacIntosh desktop computer (the one with the 9" screen). That's a lot of progress in just a decade.

 

[RocketDawg]

Yeah, almost certainly a Texas Insturments scientific calculator. They were extremely popular and operated algebraically instead of Reverse Polish. I got my first one around 1973 I think when I started grad school.

I can't remember if it had a rechargeable battery or if you had to use AA, or whatever they were called back then.

The first simple one we bought sometime around 1980 or so. It's solar (light) powered, and we still use it. The thing's hanging on forever. I think it's a Casio.

 

[fieldcorporal]

I still have my slide rule, in belt-hanger case.

My first calculator was a Casio Root-8S. I'll never forget the name of that thing. Seems like it cost my first-born.

It added, subtracted, multiplied, divided and....

wait for it...

did square roots!!

 

[blacklistedbully]

I have to say, I've always had good luck with Casio. They seem to make great, fully-functional calculators at a great price.

I bought graphing calculators for my daughter's a few years ago. Got the oldest a Casio FX-9860G Slim first, after researching. But since the teacher was only familiar with the TI's, I wound up buying a TI-89+ so she could more easily get help. But I tell you what...that Casio was better, had more features and was quite a bit less expensive. Great little calculator. Tremendous bang-for-the-buck.

When my youngest needed one, her older sis gave her the TI and happily took back the Casio.

 

[MeridianDog]

I would be very interested to see what Computer Science was like in the 60's. Surprised MSU even offered that degree back then.

I still have my 1960s Fortran book. The computer was a Sperry Univac, located on the ground floor (east side entrance of Allen). I can remember when thy installed a teletype machine (first remote terminal) in one of the engineering buildings (maybe 1969 or 1970). We all went over and "watched it". In my fortran book is an old key punch card. We programmed in basic and thought we were hot shots. Everything was on card decks and you wondered what someone was working on if they had a full IBM box of punch cards (one basic instruction per card). Then some guys showed up on campus with tapes - WOW! to see a guy walking across campus with a tape drive tape under their arm. There were maybe 20 key punch terminals in the computer center. They were always busy with people standing in line behind the guys punching cards waiting for them to get up so we could work on our program cards. I usually went over at 2-3 in the morning because there were usually key punch terminals open and no waiting in line.


I guess I am an old fart, just as I have suspected for a long time.

Oh, I started school with a slide rule. Still have it, a Picket Dual Base Log Log slide rule (Yellow aluminum) The wife has a bamboo Post slide rule.

Oh, the Univac was very big with a very big card sorter. Took up a lot of space and generated a lot of heat. The lap top I am typing this on has easily a thousand times more computing capacity.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I Googled 1970 calculator pics and I'm sure it was a TI and I think it was only 4 functions.

 

[SpiritofSuttleHall]

Before McCool Hall

There were also "terminals" - read "card reader/punches and printer" - in McCain, the business building that I've forgotten, and seems like 1 or 2 more places. Having a key to one of the terminal rooms was the golden key to the kingdom - your very own equipment without having to wait on the unwashed, albeit late at night.

I believe the College of Business was housed in Bowen Hall (next to the old band hall) before McCool was built.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Mine looked a bit like this one

but it was blue.

View attachment 11574

 

[bulldogcountry1]

I have to say, I've always had good luck with Casio. They seem to make great, fully-functional calculators at a great price.

I bought graphing calculators for my daughter's a few years ago. Got the oldest a Casio FX-9860G Slim first, after researching. But since the teacher was only familiar with the TI's, I wound up buying a TI-89+ so she could more easily get help. But I tell you what...that Casio was better, had more features and was quite a bit less expensive. Great little calculator. Tremendous bang-for-the-buck.

When my youngest needed one, her older sis gave her the TI and happily took back the Casio.

Back in '96, my college algebra teacher offered to get the class Casio graphing calculators for a discounted price. I stuck with it through engineering school at State when everyone else had HP and TI. It's still on my desk today, and still loaded with class "notes".

 

[thatsbaseball]

I think this was mine

 

[dawgdoug1962]

I took a course in 1962 titled "Data Processing" but all it taught was the Hollerith code used in punched cards....do not believe we had access to any type of computer. June 1962 went to work as a Systems Analyst and Programmer in Memphis....bit got all my actual training through specialized schools provided by IBM in Memphis and Chicago.....Jim Barksdale sold us computer cards and continuous reel paper....LOL.. He made his fortune as one of the founders of Netscape.....

 

[DawgInThe256]

I graduated in CS in the late 80's, Dr. Carter was my advisor. It was still under the College of Arts and Sciences, as was the Math department. So the CSMA double major was common.

I remember logging on to the Univac for some assembler class, but the punch card reader was just in the lobby of the Univac lab for display. The story was that the Univac was originally on a submarine, but I don't know if that's true.

Here's a souvenir I saved. Let me know if you need me to look anything up!
View attachment 11578

 

[EurekaDog]

I took a RPG course under Arnett sometime during '82-'84. (NM)

kjcdkdb;s

 

[EurekaDog]

Man, always, always draw something on the top edges of the cards.

If I dropped a deck, I'd just move the cards around until the drawing reappeared. Especially when I had a deck over 100 cards.

 

[dawgoneyall]

First calculator was inverse Polish. My Optics professor recommend this. He was weird.
Do they even exist anymore.

 

[RocketDawg]

Yes, that would get you close enough to look at the printed code on the card to get them back in the right order. Still a pain to drop them though. And sometimes the card reader would shuffle them for you.

 

[RocketDawg]

Yes, I think they do. They actually require fewer steps (no parentheses required) to set up and solve an equation. But the algebraic kind are more intuitive.

 

[dawgoneyall]

Yes, I think they do. They actually require fewer steps (no parentheses required) to set up and solve an equation. But the algebraic kind are more intuitive.

Had that calculator for approx 4-5 years and when got new algebraic cal took me a while to learn how to add 2 + 2.

 

[RocketDawg]

It amazes me that you guys can remember the names of professors and buildings. I can't remember a single professor and very few building names. I can ride through campus and recognize that I had had a class in that building but I couldn't remember the name if my life depended on it.

Maybe you should've gone to class more often. **

 

[RocketDawg]

I still have my 1960s Fortran book. The computer was a Sperry Univac, located on the ground floor (east side entrance of Allen). I can remember when thy installed a teletype machine (first remote terminal) in one of the engineering buildings (maybe 1969 or 1970). We all went over and "watched it". In my fortran book is an old key punch card. We programmed in basic and thought we were hot shots. Everything was on card decks and you wondered what someone was working on if they had a full IBM box of punch cards (one basic instruction per card). Then some guys showed up on campus with tapes - WOW! to see a guy walking across campus with a tape drive tape under their arm. There were maybe 20 key punch terminals in the computer center. They were always busy with people standing in line behind the guys punching cards waiting for them to get up so we could work on our program cards. I usually went over at 2-3 in the morning because there were usually key punch terminals open and no waiting in line.


I guess I am an old fart, just as I have suspected for a long time.

Oh, I started school with a slide rule. Still have it, a Picket Dual Base Log Log slide rule (Yellow aluminum) The wife has a bamboo Post slide rule.

Oh, the Univac was very big with a very big card sorter. Took up a lot of space and generated a lot of heat. The lap top I am typing this on has easily a thousand times more computing capacity.

Mine is a bamboo Post Versalog and yes, I still have it. Those things were expensive. I bought mine used for $20 from a pre-Business major .... I think they retailed for $50 or $60, which would be in the neighborhood of $300 in today's dollars. Not only does your laptop have that much capability, so does your iPhone. In fact, our smart phones have much more computing power than what we used to go to the Moon.

 

[was21]

Damn. I'm glad I was a stupid business major at State (Production/Personnel Management)...never owned a slide rule but remember seeing them hitched on to some kind of attachment on would be engineers. I ran with accountant would be majors..also never knew an agriculture major

 

[Dawgbite]

We were cleaning out my moms house last year after she passed and found my old slide rule in my old night stand. I put it in my " keep" box but later decided that I really didn't need my son to find it when he cleaned out my house so it went in the estate sale.

 

[SwampDawg]

As a HS senior in '58 I took Trig, and it required a slide rule. Of course we all hung them in their leather case on our right hip, and had quick draw duels with them. Called ourselves "The Triggers."