"Missing Links" - July 10, 2020

[JeanneC]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

[boharr]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

1K memory model! Like my brain trying to recall past meta mechanisms.

[Abide]

Late start this week. No Google for grid; no meta after 20 minutes. Not reading 16 pages of comments but the 2.5 star rating tells me to come back in an hour or so.

[FrankieHeck]

Dom and I have solved, but it took some affirmation in a private message exchange with FrankieHeck to keep me on the right track, so we are forgoing the mug chase. I hope Frankie gets a mug!

I hope so too! Haha. But if it weren't for our exchange, I wouldn't have realized I had forgotten to submit my answer, so I'd say we're even!

[NaluGirl]

Spent way too much time ignoring my first instinct and chasing those wascally wabbits. Ashore and grateful for the ride!

[Bob cruise director]

I've now washed up on shore and I'm feeling really dumb. I was looking in the right general direction the whole time, but I was massively overcomplicating it.

Eric
I have you at 62 for 64 since we started the blog. If you can overcomplicate things then the rest of us mere mortals feel much better.

Bob

[Bob cruise director]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

Wasn't it amazing what could be done with 1K of memory.

We flew a missile with 8K of memory. I had some great programmers who could wring the most out of coding in machine language.

[Schmeel]

Got to a late start this week. Tough grid. Looked for a few minutes - still on ship.

[rexthree]

Finished grid yesterday and still working on the meta. I know I am so close to shore but just can't wrap it up.

[Guy]

In good company with the late starters, Isaac a Whiskey Mule please if will if it will not run afoul of the bourbon laws...

[MajordomoTom]

do they even tell the students these days that machine language exists?

I don't know that they would. It's all Visual C++ and Perl and Java. Not Cobol, where they need more bodies.

My first PC was an actual IBM PC, with two 5.25" floppies, 64kb RAM, no internal harddrive. That came later = a Plus Hardcard, I think it was a HUGE 10MB. Allowed me to run Wordstar without needing to have it in the first floppy drive to launch the program.

My papers for some of my undergrad classes were typed by a woman who had a typing business in her home, she stored the files on 8" disks. I don't know the capacity of those things.

Yes, I used Hollerith cards my first year undergrad, to run programs in SAS for my statistics class. Then my second year, someone found and "claimed" a PDP-8 which was moved into the living room of our suite and ... sat there in many, many different piles of parts, never to run. That was an interesting waste of time.

[Abide]

Back after a bowl of black bean/Conecuh jambalaya. All metas for this week are cleared

🏝..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 🛳

[mheberlingx100]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

1K memory model! Like my brain trying to recall past meta mechanisms.

The first PC I saw was one built by an EE student in the late 1970’s. Not very user friendly, as the inputs and outputs were in hexadecimal.

[Colin]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

Wasn't it amazing what could be done with 1K of memory.

We flew a missile with 8K of memory. I had some great programmers who could wring the most out of coding in machine language.

I was lucky enough to work at one of the UK's largest DEC installations (PDP/8). Spent days in front of that line of light bulbs and toggle switches programming in machine code, telex terminal at my side. Had to keep busy while waiting for my reports to be typed by the typing pool ... with true "cc" (carbon copy) of course! Oh boy - nostalgia creeping in again... time for a Watney's Red Barrel

[Bird Lives]

Sputtering and coughing out salt water, I finally stagger towards the shore, still clutching my 1960s Olympia Press copy of a book you can now get in any library.

[CPJohnson]

Finished grid yesterday and still working on the meta. I know I am so close to shore but just can't wrap it up.

Just keep looking......

[cbarbee002]

Got the grid Thursday but still in a trance on the meta.

On another note, I see some references to first computers people owned.

Ours was a Timex Sinclair with a 1K memory module. Traded it in for a rebate on a C64.

...and suddenly I feel old.

1K memory model! Like my brain trying to recall past meta mechanisms.

I got a PC Jr when it first came out. Used Lotus 1-2-3 as the spreadsheet. Ran out of memory when the spreadsheet got bigger than 10x10.

[Doug C]

On shore. Fun one. Completed the grid on Friday but could not catch a thread on the puzzle, despite several looks at it. Came back this afternoon and there it was. Typical for me. Grinding over the meta never seems to help. Seems it comes in a flash or not at all.

[AnnP]

ON SHORE after many LAS weeks. The grid was enjoyably challenging even without the meta.

[Jeremy Smith]

Joining the shore party. I succeeded for three days at overcomplicaing this. Hope to finally find similar inspiration for MGWCC.