Andre Norton Forum

Re: All Damnthings

: : I've met Irene a time or two, but I don't know if she is old : : enough to remember that all computers used to be : : called "beasts". Andre has never became a Beastmaster (or : : Beastmistress), I guess. :)

: I don't remember the Damnthings in the 'Fuzzy' stories. Guess : I'm going to have to visit the library.

They were four-legged animals that would charge a human with a deadly ferocity. The hero of the LITTLE FUZZY novel had to stand and fire on one directly as it charged him. I think they were supposed to be sort of like mad moose with sharp horns or something like that.

: Maybe calling computers "beasts" is a regional thing?

I don't believe so.

: I've been in computers since they first got user terminals - : ah, that means punch cards for most programming and paper : tapes for re-booting, and user terminals for Wang calculators : (like the credit card calculators of today) and terminals for : the NEW on-line programming language APL. I remember that even : 6 years later I was using a tele-type terminal that I could : type faster than it could print the letters on it's paper.

Well, my first exposure to computers came in 1975. I was able to tinker with them on and off for a couple of years and then went to a technical school in 1978 for a Data Processing program.

I learned to keypunch on IBM 021 and 023 keypunch machines, but occasionally had to use the lead-cased 010 keypunch to fix up my cards. I thought the Data General 8010 was really fast and neat (futuristic looking, even). And then in 1980 I got involved with mini-computers, where you had a terminal and typed your code directly into the machine and things were interactive. What a concept! :)

: I advised Andre not to use drums to disrupt the robots in "No : Folded Handes", but she went with them. My suggestion was have : the drums bring lightening - that could disrupt the innards of : a robot, and probably any communications with a home base.

Haven't read that one, but then, I've never come across a science fiction story which handled computers correctly anyway.

: In a more modern time, I would have just suggested that she : send a virus to the robots - or better yet, just have them all : have Microsoft operating systems - then they'd crash often & : just have to be re-booted.

LOL!

The lost alien virus jumping up from the planet in the form of a raw lightning bolt to infect Picard's Enterprise still sickens me, but I have to admit, even with the breakup, there is a very real danger that we'll be saddled with Microsoft's crummy operating system for at least another generation.