I saw a kid sit down at a computer and wiggle the mouse to wake it up. No joy: the computer was off. The kid was stumped. "What the hell are we doing?" I asked myself as I pressed the big red switch.
So>Excellent points. I guess it is not surprising that kids today do no
have any concept about how computers operate, or how they boot
>themselves when they are turned on. Good grief, it wasn't always that
>way. Some older readers will remember when you had to toggle in the
>boot codes from front panel switches, simply to have a paper tape
>reader read the tape which held the program or operating system
>instructions.
>
>Still, knowing how to do simple things like this is partially how I
>make my living as a consulting engineer. And, if you have no boot ROMs
>on the older systems, and no front panel switches, then they generally
>have a second life as boat anchors. I've never encountered one without
>either, since how would you have started them in the first case except
>from a second computer (and I've seen that done).
>
>Kids, on the earlier computers like the DEC PDP-1 through the PDP-6,
>to boot the machine you had to key in the boot sequences from front
>panel located switches, and that would enable the machine to read the
>boot tape, which in turn would tell it how to read and load program
>tapes includin the operating sytem.
>
>It took about 10 years later, circa 1975, for self-booting systems to
>arrive on the scene, and another 10 years later (circa 1985) for the
>first personal computers to arrive. Networking came much later, but I
>forgot in what year for the PCs. Unix systems had it much earlier,
>with their networks mail systems over dial-up lines. That where the
>Internet started, but originally only selected computers that were
>allowed on the network.
>
>Harry C.
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>> > It is totally impossible to store information in a computer once the
>> > power is off!
>>
>> I guess you are too young to know about magnetic core memory...
>>
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>> but you must have heard of EEPROMs or Flash memory?
>>
>> and you must have heard of "Hibernate" or "suspend to disc" power
>> management mode supported by most Operating Syatems including Windows...
>>
>>
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____________________________________________________ "I like to be organised. A place for everything. And everything all over the place."