IBM 610 workstation computer 3356

re:

i started out taking intro to fortran 2hr credit clbutt, half-way thru the semester i was trying to write my own fortran program to calculate orbital positions. also about that time they got a 360-30 to replace the 1401 ... which then ran mostly in 1401 emulation mode ... ref

they got used to seeing me around ... and were trying to figure out what this new 360 stuff was ... so eventually they turned a lot of it over to me to figure out. I got my own key to the machine room (which was kept locked at all times). the univ. normally turned everything off by 8am sat. and nothing officially was scheduled until 8am monday. I could come in a little before 8am sat. before the friday night 3rd shift left .. and then have the whole machine room to myself for the weekend. since i was doing an application that did a lot of tape and unit record stuff ... i also had to learn how to be my own operater ... not only mounting tapes ... but doing the regular 8hr shift cleaning of tape drives, card punch-readers, printers, etc.

the 360-30 was supposedly interim getting ready for 360-67 (which was going to replace the 709-1401 setup) running tss-360. tss-360 was never succesfully deployed (at the univ). although some of the ibm'ers would interrupt parts of my weekends (after the 360-67 came in for weekend tss-360 testing). however, ibmers never worked more than a single 8hr shift (or rarely two shifts) on the weekends ... so i would still have most of the 48hr period to myself.

lots of postings about getting to play w-computers as undergraduate:

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