Mainframe Memories with Liz Kaufman

In this video, Liz Kaufman, a veteran of the mainframe era, shares her experiences working with mainframe computers at Pan American Airways in the 1970s.

[@dammitdad]

Computer science and engineering were real jobs back then. You had to know what you were doing. Today we have tools that are too powerful and have allowed weak and incompetent people into the industry. It's a big tower of babel now because very few people understand the architecture or systems. They don't know how the machine works or how life itself works. As a student the university had some hp1000 systems operational for their CAD and photoplotter. Everyone had moved onto PCs by then but the workshop staff could still maintain the machines. I was the only student who used the mainframe because I appreciated how it worked and I got free reign over the old computer room. The staff loved having something interesting to do away from fixing stuff broken by undergraduates. The photoplotter made a hell of a noise too. I was always taken aback by how mechanically complex much of the equipment was. That's a real delight to an engineer. I suppose today we have the same regard for steam trains!