How Did You Find Us?

[ctubutis]

So, who's gonna tell us their experience with the Eniac? ;)

My first programming was in my sophomore year of HS, we had brand-new Apple ][s to use.

We had color & crude graphics! And true, floppy disks! I don't remember what the program needed to do.

My first working job with computers was with DEC 11/70-era stuff followed by VAX, something similar to this stuff:

[Gary Lewis]

So, who's gonna tell us their experience with the Eniac? ;)

My first programming was in my sophomore year of HS, we had brand-new Apple ][s to use.

We had color & crude graphics! And true, floppy disks! I don't remember what the program needed to do.

My first working job with computers was with DEC 11/70-era stuff followed by VAX, something similar to this stuff:

Before I read the text I was about to say "Chris, that's DEC hardware!" But, you covered it.

Chris and I've covered this with each other, but the PDP-11 is a 16-bit machine. I programmed and repaired PDP-8's, which are 12-bit machines, to the component level. And I still have the programming card that shows all the machine language instructions. Had it memorized. For instance, a 7402 is a Halt.

[85lebaront2]

My intro was in 1965 or 6, and it was in the Kansas State engineering department. Don't remember what our first job was, but we had a printer for output.

Funniest thing I saw was a couple of guys that had spent MONTHS programming a chess game. One night while I was in the lab they thought they had it completed, but when they told the computer "checkmate" the computer moved his king off the board. They'd forgotten to program the edges of the board.

That is funny, almost as good as the engineer I was working with trying to make some load vs deflection tests on a block of aluminum bronze. He says "why don't we stick the dial indicator on the block with a magnetic base?" I looked at him and with a straight face said, if you have a magnet that will do that, we are going to very quietly walk out of here and get rich.

[Gary Lewis]

That is funny, almost as good as the engineer I was working with trying to make some load vs deflection tests on a block of aluminum bronze. He says "why don't we stick the dial indicator on the block with a magnetic base?" I looked at him and with a straight face said, if you have a magnet that will do that, we are going to very quietly walk out of here and get rich.

That would be a neat magnet to invent. Lots of uses.

[reamer]

That would be a neat magnet to invent. Lots of uses.

As 85lebaron2 mentioned, Your invitation to me as "founding Fathers"

[Gary Lewis]

As 85lebaron2 mentioned, Your invitation to me as "founding Fathers"

Yes, Ron, and thanks for coming.

[Rembrant]

I grew up in the internet days of forums and I guess I just prefer that.

I grew up before the internet, but I too prefer the traditional forums.

I tried voting, but it didn't seem to let me. I'm a little late to the vote here...I was a couple hundred miles out in the north Atlantic the past couple weeks with an internet connection that was sketchy at best;).

In any case, I came via FTE, but I can't remember exactly what/when/why....a link to one of Gary's write-ups I presume. I believe it was the gauge needle painting page;).

 

[Gary Lewis]

I grew up in the internet days of forums and I guess I just prefer that.

I grew up before the internet, but I too prefer the traditional forums.

I tried voting, but it didn't seem to let me. I'm a little late to the vote here...I was a couple hundred miles out in the north Atlantic the past couple weeks with an internet connection that was sketchy at best;).

In any case, I came via FTE, but I can't remember exactly what/when/why....a link to one of Gary's write-ups I presume. I believe it was the gauge needle painting page;).

The vote count is up, so I'm thinking it did let you. I think you just press the button for the way you want to vote and then press the Vote button to register your vote.

And, after almost 4 days we have 3 votes for a search, 12 for another forum, and 2 for "other", for a total of 17.

[Gary Lewis]

The vote count is up, so I'm thinking it did let you. I think you just press the button for the way you want to vote and then press the Vote button to register your vote.

And, after almost 4 days we have 3 votes for a search, 12 for another forum, and 2 for "other", for a total of 17.

After 8ish days the input is that our members have come from:

Search = 4 (21%)

Facebook = 0 (0%)

Another Forum = 13 (68%)

Other = 2 (11%)

Total = 19

And, for the first two days of August traffic to the site has come from these sources, although I'm just showing the top 4 sources:

Search (Google, Bing, etc) = 222 (43%)

Bullnose Forum = 160 (31% Means we've clicked on links in the forum that took us to a page on the site)

Facebook = 88 (17% Result of us having posted links to answers on the site.)

Ford Truck Enthusiasts = 51 (10% Result of links y'all post on FTE.)

Total of the big 4 = 521

These results suggest to me that there are, indeed, at least two types of on-line people - those who Facebook about trucks and those who use a forum. I surmise that because no one has voted that s/he came from Facebook, and while it is possible that we have those who have come from FB they apparently aren't active on the forum.

Another way of looking at it is that the links posted on FB generate traffic at that moment (I've seen huge spikes in the traffic right after posting a link), but that the nature of FB is that no one will see those links ever again since external searches don't find things on FB. And, who searches FB itself? It is essentially a "right now" medium.

But, links on forums, like the Bullnose Forum, FTE, FSB, FORDification, etc will be found from time to time since external searches do find those things. And, people do internal searches on forums. In other words, FB links are a flash in the pan, but forum links are sown seeds that continue to help others well after their initial posting.

Given that, it looks to me like spending time on Facebook in order to bring others in is fruitless. And, spending time on Facebook in order to help others has less impact than spending time on forums.

Does that make sense to y'all? What am I missing?

[ctubutis]

After 8ish days the input is that our members have come from:

Search = 4 (21%)

Facebook = 0 (0%)

Another Forum = 13 (68%)

Other = 2 (11%)

Total = 19

And, for the first two days of August traffic to the site has come from these sources, although I'm just showing the top 4 sources:

Search (Google, Bing, etc) = 222 (43%)

Bullnose Forum = 160 (31% Means we've clicked on links in the forum that took us to a page on the site)

Facebook = 88 (17% Result of us having posted links to answers on the site.)

Ford Truck Enthusiasts = 51 (10% Result of links y'all post on FTE.)

Total of the big 4 = 521

These results suggest to me that there are, indeed, at least two types of on-line people - those who Facebook about trucks and those who use a forum. I surmise that because no one has voted that s/he came from Facebook, and while it is possible that we have those who have come from FB they apparently aren't active on the forum.

Another way of looking at it is that the links posted on FB generate traffic at that moment (I've seen huge spikes in the traffic right after posting a link), but that the nature of FB is that no one will see those links ever again since external searches don't find things on FB. And, who searches FB itself? It is essentially a "right now" medium.

But, links on forums, like the Bullnose Forum, FTE, FSB, FORDification, etc will be found from time to time since external searches do find those things. And, people do internal searches on forums. In other words, FB links are a flash in the pan, but forum links are sown seeds that continue to help others well after their initial posting.

Given that, it looks to me like spending time on Facebook in order to bring others in is fruitless. And, spending time on Facebook in order to help others has less impact than spending time on forums.

Does that make sense to y'all? What am I missing?

Millennials aren't interested in reading extended-length text, they say anything more than 2 paragraphs is "too long" and won't bother unless they really have to.

I wonder how they graduated college.