1973 - HP 2000C timeshare on an ASR-33 terminal. I loved the Star Trek game and wanted to learn how to create my own. Went over to the University Bookstore in LaCrosse, WI and bought the programming reference manual. We had 8k of ram and 100k of program storage and kept our own programs on punched paper tape. Still have the Star Trek game on a roll of punched paper tape.

You can always use Lazarus[^]. It's free.

I've purchased them from Ebay - used or new. They work fine and are cheaper than brand new. I bought 24 port / 48 port and 8 port used switches for very reasonable prices. They've been working fine for years.

We were cool... then. now we're just old.

14 in 1973 - 300 baud dialup on an ASR-33 to a HP-2000C timeshare refrigerator. Integer basic. 8K ram with 100K of personal storage (not including punched paper tape!) I still have my copy of Star Trek on blue tape!

Yes you will. By wednesday it's supposed to back into the 40's with rain/snow mix possible.

Here's a possible solution... You can implement your own locking mechanism simply by having a lock table. (this way you can have an editable table that, in case the client loses connectivity, another user can go to the administrator edit screen and clear the lock, if necessary) tblLocks: TableName , IDNum, LockedBy (primary key: TableName,IDNum) when the edit is about to take place, try adding a record with the table/id/username if you get an error, that record for that table is locked. otherwise leave that entry there until they quit or save and exit. then delete the record. The LockedBy field is not necessary, but then you can see who has it locked, if you so desire. Just use the windows login name or if your software has a login, use that.

Yep, punch cards (dropping your stack and having to reorder it all), punched paper tape (over a 300 baud phone modem on the ASR-33 teletype), Apple II DOS and 6502 machine language. Those were the days. Then came the infamous IBM PC with "dual floppies". My first 20mb drive was $400. Then the IBM AT came out and we could pop in faster crystals from Radio Shack to pump the clock. DOS was our world then.

Just because someone is smart, doesn't make them good at their job. I had an algebra teacher in high school who was very smart. Nice guy, out of class... but a lousy teacher. Could not relate his information well.

Of course we're professionals! It's the Doctors who aren't.. After all they only practice their trade.

Seems to me I might still have my punched paper tape roll of Star Trek.

I started back in 73 (I was 14) on an ASR-33 connected to an HP-2000 via accoustic coupler. I learned pointers while taking an Assembly class at Control Data Institute. I had over-written my Base Pointer for my project. Once the instructor explained what I had done, I had a much better idea of what they were and how they were used. Needless to say, these days, many programmers don't understand them (and don't have to with the tools available today). The nuts and bolts of my assembly days are no longer necessary learning. I guess I'm old.