Generation gap, sorta

[madbaker]

Friday night I went to an alumni cocktail reception for a relatively new institute the college set up - it's a quantitative economics program, so right up my alley. I would have done that track in a heartbeat if they'd had it when I was there. Reasonable chattage with folks there, although I was the only alum from anywhere close to my era.

At one point, I was talking to four seniors. So, they're about 20 years old. I was explaining how two days before our semester-long econometrics regression project was due, the VAX crashed, and they hadn't made a backup since before the semester started.

After about five minutes, one of them got up the courage to ask me "So, what's a vax?"
The others piped in, obviously relieved, "Yeah, was it a kind of intranet?"

(pause)

"No, it was a mainframe system. We didn't have an intranet back in the late '80s. See, PCs didn't have the power to run computational packages, and..."

"What's a mainframe? Was that a forerunner of Excel?"

(pause)
Eventually, I told them to look it up.

Comments

[farmount.livejournal.com]

Dude, if you started early, they could have been YOUR kids.

How's that for scary?

*hugs*

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I thought of that. It didn't bother me the way the utter lack of knowledge did.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Don't worry until you find yourself using the term "whippersnapper."

[iricus.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no amount of edjumacation is gonna make people learn about the past. History is lost on the young.

Next time ask them if they know what a Walkman is.........(frikkin i-pod generation)

[tsgeisel.livejournal.com]

A Vax is an early form of a server, based on Charles Babbage's computational engine. You programmed it with punch cards, and it ran on steam. The operators spent a lot of time shoveling coal into the boiler, and removing stuck cards - which, of course, meant that you had to figure out which card went wrong, and re-load your entire program.

Still, it was able to communicate with the outside world, by means of morse code, but you had to have a special device on the receiving end in order for it to be translated automatically. Otherwise you had to transcribe the data manually, which is why so many old-time computer people also have Ham Radio licenses.

They stopped producing the VAX when the complaints about the pollution from the coal-boilers got to be too much. Fortunately at around this time IBM was developing some higher-powered machines that ran more efficiently, so the computer industry was saved.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I was too dumbfounded to start prevaricating. I like your version, though!

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Very nice story. For some unexplainable reason I have the fear that those seniors haven't heard of Charles Babbage.

[aastg.livejournal.com]

' "What's a mainframe? Was that a forerunner of Excel?" '

You know, in similar situations I always wonder if the little dears are putting me on. "What's a mainframe" -- for Chrissake.

I must say I prefer "punk" or "twerp" to "whippersnapper".

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to wind me up. Le sigh...

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Next time, tell them it was the kind of computer that ran on "Star Trek".

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

chortle

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Ours didn't have Majel Barret's voice, though.

[lifeofglamour.livejournal.com]

Oh geez. These kids are woefully underprepared for the disappointment of life in the corporate (read: slow moving) world. My company still runs mainframe and IMS systems. I was poking around in our mainframe last week (I *hate* it, but I do it, cause that's life, kidz). These are seniors? Caution - Sharp learning curve ahead...

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Okay, not knowing what a VAX was is one thing -- at 20something, I can see that. They were standard when I graduated College, and the University of Alaska was upgrading from an old Honeywell system to DEC VAX and all that.

However, not knowing what a mainframe computer is (and I do mean "is", because they are still in use in large companies ...) is really pathetic.