Data. How things have changed

[Robmac]

It had been donated to the school by a local company, I was thinking the school was in Ashby but just having a Google it is in Shepshed, (was then Hind Leys secondary school).

I remember Hind Leys school Neil me being a Luffbra lad originally.

I believe it's now called Iveshead School?

 

[barryd]

Perhaps the biggest advancement for me at least was remote support. Does anyone remember PC Anywhere? Its been around for donkeys years (late 80s I think). It allowed you to take control of someones PC. You can do it free now with various packages and the best I have found is Google remote desktop but back in the day it was superb when running a help desk. I will have told you this story before but I remember being in one of our centres (Northwich I think) and Martin one of the guys down in head office was doing a support session with one of the girls where I was sat working. I think they were trying to get the remote control software working but couldnt so he was talking her through it. She had him on speaker and I remember him saying "Go to my computer" and she got up and walked across the room to her desk.

Everyone should experience working on an IT support help desk. It will drive you nuts but you don't half get some laughs.

 

[Robmac]

Punch cards, paper tape Etc. was just being phased out when I started in IT (IBM mainframes) - not that it was called IT back then! Magnetic tapes and Disks which weighed a ton (well 10kg actually), then Mass Storage Cartridges which recorded data diagonally on the tape to fit more data (genius really) then Virtual Storage and VTAM and VSAM. TSO and ISPF, VHSL and a host of other things which unfortunately now keep popping into my head.

I wish I hadn't started reading it. Thanks Barry!

 

[barryd]

Punch cards, paper tape Etc. was just being phased out when I started in IT (IBM mainframes) - not that it was called IT back then! Magnetic tapes and Disks which weighed a ton (well 10kg actually), then Mass Storage Cartridges which recorded data diagonally on the tape to fit more data (genius really) then Virtual Storage and VTAM and VSAM. TSO and ISPF, VHSL and a host of other things which unfortunately now keep popping into my head.

I wish I hadn't started reading it. Thanks Barry!

Love it! Been a great thread this.

Some happy memories for me. I hate technology at times but then I remember how it allowed me to fcuk off to Europe and do all the stuff we have since our early 40s.

 

[Canalsman]

I left school in 1970 to start my IT career which lasted till I retired in 2011 (41 years!).

My first job was with Eagle Star Insurance (remember them?) in Cheltenham.

They had two IBM 360 mainframes one of which had a memory upgrade. From 128Kb to 256Kb. (Note Kb!)

The memory was lifted into the building on a crane and necessitated the removal of a huge window to allow access!

Yes. Things have moved on...

 

[Robmac]

I left school in 1970 to start my IT career which lasted till I retired in 2011 (41 years!).

My first job was with Eagle Star Insurance (remember them?) in Cheltenham.

They had two IBM 360 mainframes one of which had a memory upgrade. From 128Kb to 256Kb. (Note Kb!)

The memory was lifted into the building on a crane and necessitated the removal of a huge window to allow access!

Yes. Things have moved on...

3 x 370/168's when I started and I think the memory had made it to 1mb by then!

 

[mariesnowgoose]

We used punch cards when writing programs for my very first ever programming job (building society).

They'd not long upgraded from paper tape!

Massive air-conditioned room for the computers (can't even remember now if they were IBM or ICL?).
Everything was run sequentially. New programs had to be tested overnight, or whenever there was a gap in the regular operating schedule.

You had to make sure everything was backed up properly as there were no facilities at the time for a test database. We used the live data so essential you were able to "roll back" and restore everything to the correct working state.

Forgotten way more than I've ever learned over the years.

IT now is phenomenal in its genius and reach - scarily so sometimes, especially when it goes unchecked and the businesses controlling it seem to be totally unaccountable to anyone.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Perhaps the biggest advancement for me at least was remote support. Does anyone remember PC Anywhere? Its been around for donkeys years (late 80s I think). It allowed you to take control of someones PC. You can do it free now with various packages and the best I have found is Google remote desktop but back in the day it was superb when running a help desk. I will have told you this story before but I remember being in one of our centres (Northwich I think) and Martin one of the guys down in head office was doing a support session with one of the girls where I was sat working. I think they were trying to get the remote control software working but couldnt so he was talking her through it. She had him on speaker and I remember him saying "Go to my computer" and she got up and walked across the room to her desk.

Everyone should experience working on an IT support help desk. It will drive you nuts but you don't half get some laughs.

In the PC shop I managed we always said it was the nut on the keyboard.

We had some very thick folk buying expensive kit for their little darlings who it seems never deleted anything.

I remember flogging 256k RAM for £20 a stick, and sitting waiting in the returns queue at VIP in Manchester with a box full of Sound Blaster sound cards, Modem & Video cards nightmare but it got me out of the shop.

 

[Nabsim]

Perhaps the biggest advancement for me at least was remote support. Does anyone remember PC Anywhere? Its been around for donkeys years (late 80s I think). It allowed you to take control of someones PC. You can do it free now with various packages and the best I have found is Google remote desktop but back in the day it was superb when running a help desk. I will have told you this story before but I remember being in one of our centres (Northwich I think) and Martin one of the guys down in head office was doing a support session with one of the girls where I was sat working. I think they were trying to get the remote control software working but couldnt so he was talking her through it. She had him on speaker and I remember him saying "Go to my computer" and she got up and walked across the room to her desk.

Everyone should experience working on an IT support help desk. It will drive you nuts but you don't half get some laughs.

I much preferred connecting up with Remote Desktop when there was no user on the other end. Was much quicker sorting problems lol

Remote connections were good for showing people what to do if I needed to though although I was normally connecting to servers.

 

[barryd]

I much preferred connecting up with Remote Desktop when there was no user on the other end. Was much quicker sorting problems lol

Remote connections were good for showing people what to do if I needed to though although I was normally connecting to servers.

That tends to be what I did / do also. I only do bits and pieces for a few cherry picked clients now one of which pays me a retainer but I just do it out of hours normally. Its brilliant through Google remote desktop. I just login from the van or where ever and see a list of all their computers, click on one, put the pin and away you go. The only issue these days is people have got greedy with their screens and some of them have three monitors. That can take some getting around and faffing when your connecting with a 15" laptop.

Used all sorts in the past. Teamviewer (very good but you need to pay for it and its expensive), Logmein (the same), Remote desktop (never got on with that one), Any desk (good for a quick one time session) and of course the one that anyone can use Microsoft Quick Assist. Quick assist is clunky but the one good thing about it is that its already installed in all Windows 10 and 11 machines so if you ever need to help someone on the fly just use that.

 

[Nabsim]

Is quick assist a cut down version of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop? I can’t really remember too well now but think I was using something on Windows 10 before I retired at the end of 2018, (did an extra year lol).
I also used a remote connection that Spiceworks had, I used to like a few of their free tools, had all sorts running from them on customers gear. I had a remote connection on the help desk software I put in as well but can’t even remember the name of the help desk now haha

 

[guerdeval]

That tends to be what I did / do also. I only do bits and pieces for a few cherry picked clients now one of which pays me a retainer but I just do it out of hours normally. Its brilliant through Google remote desktop. I just login from the van or where ever and see a list of all their computers, click on one, put the pin and away you go. The only issue these days is people have got greedy with their screens and some of them have three monitors. That can take some getting around and faffing when your connecting with a 15" laptop.

Used all sorts in the past. Teamviewer (very good but you need to pay for it and its expensive), Logmein (the same), Remote desktop (never got on with that one), Any desk (good for a quick one time session) and of course the one that anyone can use Microsoft Quick Assist. Quick assist is clunky but the one good thing about it is that its already installed in all Windows 10 and 11 machines so if you ever need to help someone on the fly just use that.

I have a nice chap from India who regularly asks to log in to my laptop remotely to eradicate a virus Ididn’t know I had, I always let him try for a while until he finally asks if I’m on windows.

 

[barryd]

Is quick assist a cut down version of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop? I can’t really remember too well now but think I was using something on Windows 10 before I retired at the end of 2018, (did an extra year lol).
I also used a remote connection that Spiceworks had, I used to like a few of their free tools, had all sorts running from them on customers gear. I had a remote connection on the help desk software I put in as well but can’t even remember the name of the help desk now haha

No its a bit different. If you type in Quick Assist (or just quick) in the search bar bottom left it will appear as an app up above. You need to sign in with a microsoft account to use it but the person you are assisting doesnt. You get them to start it and then you give them a code. Once they type that in and submit and allow you access you can see and use their screen. You then have to request control to take over. Its ok for quick help but you cant use it without someone at the other end but the useful thing is its on everyones computer by default.

 

[trevskoda]

All this tec and very few of you found and used linux, seems strange.
Please put the shotguns away.

 

[Nabsim]

All this tec and very few of you found and used linux, seems strange.
Please put the shotguns away.

I used Linux on some servers Trev for specific bits of software, mainly monitoring or diagnostics. If you had been a fly on the wall in the meetings where I tried to get everyone changed from MS Office to Google equivalents you would understand why we didn’t use Linux on desktops.