Six Weeks That Changed Everything

In the summer of 1965, the Texas Aggies and the National Science Foundation turned me loose with an IBM 7094 computer, a FORTRAN IV manual, and some really outstanding math profs, along with a several other interested high school kids.  My world hasn’t been the same since.  

Almost 60 years later, I’m a long-retired software engineer, and I’m itching to go grab my granddaughter’s Raspberry Pi computer and see if we can teach each other to program in Python.   

One of my first programs, an exchange sort as I recall

A write-up from our high school newspaper

The mandatory certificate of participation, signed off by Gen. [James] Earl Rudder, then President of Texas A & M  University and formerly the lieutenant colonel who led a group of US Army Rangers up the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944 (“D-Day”)      See Battle of Pointe du Hoc.

Our classes were held mostly in the old Main Academic Building, where a platoon of vending machines stood in the rotunda.  These were well-patronized by students and faculty alike as part of the College Station mid-summer afternoon survival regime.   Gen. Rudder’s dog, “Earl,” who had the run of the campus, stationed himself there prominently to emphasize his willingness to accept tips in the form of licks of purchased student ice cream treats.  His efforts were usually well-rewarded.  

We got a tour of the Texas A & M Research Reactor about mid-way through the program.  It was interesting, but I questioned my own sanity for going down to photograph the reactor’s Cherenkov radiation, something of a photon shockwave around the reactor.  The radiation pattern is shown below.  

Cherenkov Radiation

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I wrote this in August 1965, long before Google Translate and at the very dawn of sophisticated computer program translators (compilers), but the echoes are familiar:

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1960s “Big Iron” IBM Computers

Big Iron, ‘60s Style (https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.timetoast.com/public/uploads/photos/7916580/la-evolucin-de-los-sistemas-operativos-4-638.jpg?1478234293 link)

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