For the computer geeks, some news about our server. What the heck is AlmaLinux?

[RTH10260]

How about MS DOS 3.1 to use those 3.5" floppies

You do not have to have physical CD media for each OS, you generally can load from a virtual CD file with .ISO extension. I have a library of them on my disks.

Use a utility to transfer a physical CD to an ISO file.

[much ado]

Now tell me about punch-cards

Sure.

That is an IBM JCL (Job Control Language) "JOB" card for a job named "GAVERAGE". It's the card that goes at the beginning of a deck to give the operating system the overall parameters for the job defined by the following cards. For example, this JOB card says the job is limited to 3 minutes of CPU execution time or else the job will be aborted. JCL like this was used on IBM System 360 machines and other smaller IBM machines of that era.

From the online reference:

Purpose: Use the JOB statement to mark the beginning of a job and to tell the system how to process the job. Also, when jobs are stacked in the input stream, the JOB statement marks the end of the preceding job.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.1.0?t ... -statement

[tek]

A lot of the 37 are various client-related things.. when I need to go figure out this or that, or build drivers for some specific kernel version, I just spin up a VM.

I also have images of several prior laptops whose hardware has crossed the rainbow bridge, but have things that won't run on newer OS versions. Usually there is some license handwaving to get these to work, though the older stuff seems to not care anymore. These you can make by just converting the hard disk image into a VM.

[sugar magnolia]

Now tell me about punch-cards

Sure.

That is an IBM JCL (Job Control Language) "JOB" card for a job named "GAVERAGE". It's the card that goes at the beginning of a deck to give the operating system the overall parameters for the job defined by the following cards. For example, this JOB card says the job is limited to 3 minutes of CPU execution time or else the job will be aborted. JCL like this was used on IBM System 360 machines and other smaller IBM machines of that era.

From the online reference:

Purpose: Use the JOB statement to mark the beginning of a job and to tell the system how to process the job. Also, when jobs are stacked in the input stream, the JOB statement marks the end of the preceding job.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.1.0?t ... -statement

We used huge garbage bags full of of the little punch outs as confetti at our high school football games until the Principal called my dad and told him to quit giving them to us.

[keith]

We used huge garbage bags full of of the little punch outs as confetti at our high school football games until the Principal called my dad and told him to quit giving them to us.

We did too, untill someone pointed out that the chad could get into the eyes and cause quite a bit of damage.

Sissies.

[sugar magnolia]

We used huge garbage bags full of of the little punch outs as confetti at our high school football games until the Principal called my dad and told him to quit giving them to us.

We did too, untill someone pointed out that the chad could get into the eyes and cause quite a bit of damage.

Sissies.

Their excuse to us was that it was too hard to clean up.

[tek]

unlike crepe confetti, punch-card chad takes forever to dissolve

[Reality Check]

Sure.

That is an IBM JCL (Job Control Language) "JOB" card for a job named "GAVERAGE". It's the card that goes at the beginning of a deck to give the operating system the overall parameters for the job defined by the following cards. For example, this JOB card says the job is limited to 3 minutes of CPU execution time or else the job will be aborted. JCL like this was used on IBM System 360 machines and other smaller IBM machines of that era.

From the online reference:

Purpose: Use the JOB statement to mark the beginning of a job and to tell the system how to process the job. Also, when jobs are stacked in the input stream, the JOB statement marks the end of the preceding job.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zos/2.1.0?t ... -statement

Yeah, as an engineering co-op we ran some IBM mainframe jobs from an RJE (remote job entry) terminal on the downtown IBM mainframe from a location about 10 miles away.. We knew enough JCL to be dangerous. I think we were running some FORTRAN programs and using a sorting routine that resided on the mainframe.

We punched our own cards. I soon learned how to make a drum control card. The 029 card punch machinehad a drum and you could wrap a punched card around to control the machine. In FORTRAN I think the first 4 or 5 columns always had the statement number so the drum shifted to numeric for those columns. You could also automatically skip columns that were always blank. It helped reduce keypunch errors when punching hundreds of cards.

[neonzx]

You people are weird. My only experience with punch cards was when my aunt would take me to her work (3rd shift) overnight at a data center of a fortune 500 company. Small person neon thought it was all cool as f*ck. We were the only persons in the facility sans a roaming security guard. I could go anywhere in that vast place with only one rule-- look but don't touch.

Adult me never had to deal with punch cards.

[Kriselda Gray]

We used punch cards in the first computer course I took in high school. The next year we got Apple ][ computers and learned AppleSoft BASIC. Fun times!

[Foggy]

At the height of his studies to become a Ph.D. computer scientist, my dad used to leave work in Northern Virginia and drive to George Washington University in our nation's capital, where he would pick up the results of his latest "run" of punchcards through the computer. That's how you wrote computer programs in those days.

He'd bring a box of punchcards home every night and sit down with them after dinner, and sometimes we'd find him fast asleep at 2 a.m. with his punchcards. And I pity the fool who damaged one of them by accident. That was the first thing they made that said "Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate."

Then he'd get up at 6 and drive back down to GWU to give them his box of punchcards, so they could do another run. And he'd go to work in Northern Virginia for the day, and then come back to pick up his punchcards.

For a lot of years back there, computer punchcards were a big part of life in my fambly.

But I promise you, I don't miss 'em none.

[Reddog]

How about MS DOS 3.1 to use those 3.5" floppies

You do not have to have physical CD media for each OS, you generally can load from a virtual CD file with .ISO extension. I have a library of them on my disks.

Use a utility to transfer a physical CD to an ISO file.

Probably faked

1A5866DB-58F9-471E-862A-32147E584929.png (74.1 KiB) Viewed 881 times

[RTH10260]

I have a MS Office that came iirc on 35 3.5", for a Apple desktop, around 1998

[New Turtle]

I worked at a company called MicroCompter Accessories in the mid-80s. I had a Compaq Portable for working at home on weekends. It was the size of a large suitcase and took 8” floppies.

I hated that thing. It really needed 2 to carry it but it wasn’t set up for that. The keyboard was too slow for my typing speed.

Ugh oh. Careful, I think you may be disclosing your age.

Now tell me about punch-cards

I know at least for a time, the punch cards were the same dimensions as money. Because they used old banker drawers to store them.

[pipistrelle]

I have a MS Office that came iirc on 35 3.5", for a Apple desktop, around 1998

I think mine was more than 50.

[Foggy]

I am facing two major surgeries this year, the first one just 23 days from today, but nobody's counting.

Hence, I am pampering myself a little bit.

My new mechanical keyboard was very affordable, but I also bought replacement keys to bling it up some. Maybe a photo mañana, I had a long day.

The reviews were great:

Q. Is it good for gaming?
A. Yes, but you can only play Minesweeper.

A. No, it's only for playing piano.
A. Wait, it only has 87 keys, a piano has 88.

A. No, it only works with Microsoft Notepad.

But it's not a plastic keyboard, like all my other keyboards. It's anodized aluminium, solid and high quality.

The keys are tested for up to 50 million keypresses, which oughta get me almost through a whole year.

[RTH10260]

I am facing two major surgeries this year, the first one just 23 days from today, but nobody's counting.

Have those countdown GIFs or such gone out of fashion? Didn't you once have some birds on a wire or a train off on tracks moving (I mean the train not the tracks) in your signature? Or was that on a different planet?

[Sam the Centipede]

No, that was Foggy 1.0 which was lost in Teh Grate Servah Crash. This is Foggy 2.0, which is clearly still buggy and needs upgrades to its infrastructure.

[RTH10260]

Teh Grate Servah Crash --- I scanned that as the Great Serval crash and was thinkg of that big cuddly cat looking for a warm place to settle down

[Sam the Centipede]

Teh Grate Servah Crash --- I scanned that as the Great Serval crash and was thinkg of that big cuddly cat looking for a warm place to settle down

You were dreaming of Foggy, surely?

[Foggy]

Foogie did nothing wrong.

I have two days remaining here in Rawly before I go back to Bathysphere or wherever it is to see my pa(dre).

But I'll get back to AlmaLinux sooner or later. They ARE going to force this on me, so I better get ready for it.

[RTH10260]

From all I see its simply CentOS with a different name.

ps. have the minimal version installed as VM on my notebook, when I am inclined I will play a bit. Installation was flawless with a short installation procedure in a window like setting, no command line stuff (that fun starts now).

[neonzx]

From all I see its simply CentOS with a different name.

ps. have the minimal version installed as VM on my notebook, when I am inclined I will play a bit. Installation was flawless with a short installation procedure in a window like setting, no command line stuff (that fun starts now).

Most every fork of Linux is just Linux by another name with customization. Linus Torvalds probably doesn't get enough props to what he is entitled for making that open source.

[RTH10260]

From all I see its simply CentOS with a different name.

ps. have the minimal version installed as VM on my notebook, when I am inclined I will play a bit. Installation was flawless with a short installation procedure in a window like setting, no command line stuff (that fun starts now).

Most every fork of Linux is just Linux by another name with customization. Linus Torvalds probably doesn't get enough props to what he is entitled for making that open source.

AlmaLinux is a direct copy of the latest CentOS source that RedHat has let to hang out dry. There is a consortium of major players that will support AlmaLinux in to the future. It's not just another distribution, repackaging, it will be a place where new software gets developed for the OS.

[Reddog]

Son sent me this foreign language to me:
“I’m working on setting up a website infra at home but I want to have a box running BSD that forwards requests on port 443 to less secure linux machines on the lan”

“Reverse proxy”