Homebrew PCBs

Our system was pre CompuServe. It was a mainframe located at another 
aerospace contractor located several miles away.  I remember that the 
system monitor used a question mark for the prompt.  It was very 
frustrating.  You would type in a line of code, and instead of getting a 
result, you got back a question mark.  There were no error messages, and 
only a few system messages.  Once, one of the guys go so frustrated that 
he typed in HELP.  He didn't realize that that was a reserved word.  The 
teletype sprung to life in a manner not often seen.  The message that 
came back was- System operator notified... Help is on the way.  The 
cavalry did not, however, come up over the hillside.

On 3/21/2016 4:14 PM, 'keith printy' keethpr@... 
[Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:
>
> I remember that back in high school. I believe it was through 
> compuserve , which is now owned by AOL
>
> *From:*Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, March 21, 2016 2:17 PM
> *To:* Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] TV Typewriter: Custom G10 copper clad
>
>
>
> On 3/21/2016 1:45 PM, Harvey Altstadter hrconsult@... 
> <mailto:hrconsult@...>
> [Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:
> >
> > Aargh! You reminded me of my first encounter with the time sharing
> > service that our company contracted with in the 70's. Dial up, 300
> > baud, acoustic coupler. I/O was a KRS 33 Teletype. No operating
> > system, just a Monitor. I am convinced that that situation caused
> > many of our employees to be wary of the PCs when we finally got them.
> > That time sharing system was so gruesome that it scared people away
> > from wanting to use computers.
> >
> Hello--
>
> Gruesome, indeed. One advisory message on our primitive 1970s-era
> time-sharing system read, "Changes not saved. OK?"
>
> 73--
>
> Brad AA1IP
>
>