Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Crow3]

Right. Back then, you needed mostly a toolkit and a tube caddy, with the most common tubes in there. The circuits were standardized from one make to another, so it was mostly less than a hundred tubes in the caddy.

You could visit the sick TV, flirt with the housewife, yank the back off, and change out the dud. Watch as the picture and sound came back, collect the bill, and go on to the next one.

About 10 percent of the time, the TV needed more fixing. If so, load it up, haul it to the shop and run up a large repair bill. If too large, give a discount, write it off to goodwill and truck on down the line.

Early computers were loaded with thousands of vacuum tubes, mostly low failure rate diodes, thankfully, but repair was often necessary.

A computer as good as the one on your desk did not exist. That had to await better programming, lots of solid state electronics and Bill Gates and other geniuses now filthy rich or beyond, as well as IBM, the main driving force.

I just updated my computer with a new Mother Board and case. It cost me less than 200 bucks and a lot of aggravation getting the damn bugs out. The old IBM roomsize computer could not do even a tenth of what mine will do.

If you are not yet using the latest OS, I say wait a bit. Microsoft is soon coming out with yet another new one.

Already in Beta testing.