COBOL! Neat!
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I only heard about the programmer who got stuck in the shower after reading the shampoo bottle instructions:
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
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OOOOOO... endless loop!
Fortran 4 for me in the mid 70's, and punched cards... OUI!
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what happens when the shampoo bottle runs dry? Sounds like a crash to me?
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In high school I was selected to attend a trial program at NCSU. They were so proud that they had just received new terminals so that some of the classes didnât need punchcards any longer.
Null pointers are the worst.
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LA36 DecWriter II ??
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We didnât even have a punch card reader. We had to fill out our punch cards, send them to a city 60 miles away where they would load and run your app. They would then send back the results which you would get in class the following week, which might say something like âSyntax error on line 30.â
Needless to say, debugging code was a slow process!
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...and here we used to think it was bad when we had to have our decks in by 2pm, and would get them and the printouts back (supposedly) by noon the next school day. Two hours to debug, punch new cards (in another building, on two machines, at the same time as everyone else) and resubmit.
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I grew up in a family business with a huge 80c card shop centered around a modified IBM 402. No Fortran there, these were hardwired panelboards (spaghetti boards). We owned nearly all of the machines and did our own maintenance on those. I hate working on an 026 !!
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Which "conspiracy", the one where the CIA WAS involved in assassinating our own president or the one where joe biden got paid from China. Ridiculous stuff
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Right on! X10 seems to have launched it all and worked well for me for 15 yrs. Though still mostly wired, Insteon was great with its hub and programming. Hubitat then fit the need to be independent on wireless/cloud: Amazon, etc. Speaking from healthcare device experience with UI design, intra/intra/extra net integration, I feel a new plateau has been achieved in the iot space. My wife never benefited from all this tech, until the Alexa integrationâŚwow, they hit that out of the park. All are welcome to a lot of old, fully functional, X10 and Insteon stuff.
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My Hubitat journey has been gratifying! It took some learning, but with the help of this community and phenomenal developers, I'm constantly discovering its endless capabilities. I can't stop tinkering with it and adding new automations and controls.
One day I'll tackle dashboards, but I'm scared of how much time I'll lose in that rabbit hole! I'm nothing short of happy and proud to support HE with remote and cloud backup. It also saved my me a few times in the past.
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I was out of town for a week. I kept wondering why the lights werenât working. Oh yeah, they use switches. 
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[chuckle] I have motion sensors in my den only. I don't notice it working after several months living with it. But as well, I'm beginning to have a "WTF?" moment when I walk into other rooms and the light don't turn on in the dark.
HE has indeed elevated my satisfaction with home automation devices and controls. It was a natural evolution, in hindsight, having a HUe hub that was mainly controlled via Homekit very simply. A bit overwhelmed with other possibilities, I don't feel quite so limited now, either. A great introduction to all manner of devices one can take advantage of, outside of the more plug-play cloud offerings.
HE goes hand in hand with this site too. I couldn't have gone as far as successfully w/o the insights gleaned from y'all in attendance (as well as them who's whereabouts now might not be known).
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Iâve had all my lights automated for a few years. They also change color between cool white and warm white over a span of hours. Iâm definitely spoiled. 
As I clean up and consolidate my system Iâll add some switch overrides for guests. They will only be to help others adjust to the system.
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I am just wondering if I should keep the X10 crap (NO) that I keep tripping over,
try and sell the stuff,
donate the lot to Goodwill/Salvation Army,
or trash it all?????
There aren't any usable parts in it, even for an electronics collector.. unusual relays, triacs (maybe), micro (special), transformers, diodes.......
Anyone interested in these things for a small price???
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Yes - this exactly. Both my wife and I will walk into a room where we're staying and then realize we have to go back to the wall by the door to turn on the lights.
We also have a touchless faucet in the kichen and will repeately be seen waving our hands around under the dumb faucet looking like we're trying to swat flies...
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I hate the idea, but time to trash. I need to get it done as well. Thinking that I could sell my Insteon generation, but may be a lost cause.
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I tried selling my X10 components on Craigslist. No takers, even when free. Occasionally my county or another entity will have an electronics recycling day, so I take such items there.
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