I remember back in 64 where I went to tech school and the IBM360 was on back order. I finished one year to be an operator and was on course to programming, but started playing pool with the army recruiter and ended up flying instead. Didn't get back to computers until I had a DW and kids and the kids got me back into the computers and spending a lot of money keeping up with the times. I finally slowed down and only have two broke computers and one working. My DW was 68 before she found a game she liked enough to play with the computer for the first time. The slots. Now I have to take her to the boats since her computer broke.
My first programming class in college in the early 70's was RPG II using punch cards on a time-share computer. All that we had on our end was a punch card reader, modem and a printer. Have no idea where the actual computer was. After completing that class I wondered why anyone would ever consider programming as a career! About 10 years later I took a C programing class on an IBM PC. I liked that much better and have been programming ever since.
Hmmm, I wrote my first computer program for the Bendix G-15 in 1959.
As mentioned by 1995brave, there has never been a computer as awesome as the AN/FSQ-7. The SAGE computer drew enough electricity for a city of 100,000 and filled a huge multi-story building.
curious Bob - we fulltime with our Cairn Terrier, in 01 National Islander, and 00 Saturn LW2
Popsie wrote: Hmmm, I wrote my first computer program for the Bendix G-15 in 1959.
As mentioned by 1995brave, there has never been a computer as awesome as the AN/FSQ-7. The SAGE computer drew enough electricity for a city of 100,000 and filled a huge multi-story building.
Of course a big part of that power consumption was AC to counter the heat from all the vacuum tubes Without the SAGE the AC would downright freeze you out of the place.
And the building was so big because the walls were so thick! It was built to take a punch
My first (work) computer took 5 minutes of flipping paddle switches on the front (manually toggling in the tape reader code) just to start it up! Iron-core memory, teletype with paper tape reader/punch.
After the Q-7 i went to Colorado Springs and learned and worked on a start of the art computer system(transistors and multi plug in circuit boards)the Philco 2000. It was a 48 bit word async computer that no one could beat for speed at the time. The best part was the Dec 24th programing where Santa and his sleigh would track across the US on all the screens in NORAD.
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Without the SAGE the AC would downright freeze you out of the place. 
