Even Older Man Yells At Whippersnappers

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 20 September 2017 05:09:53 Gregory Ewing wrote:

> Rhodri James wrote:
> > Tsk.  You should have learned (a fake simplified) assembler first,
>
> Never mind that fake assembly rubbish, learn a real assembly
> language! And hand-assemble it and toggle it into the front
> panel switches like I did!
>
> --
> Greg

So did I Greg, except the cosmac super elf I started on, at least had a 
hex monitor for an os.  This was in 1978. Wrote a commercial preparation 
utility for an automatic station break machine when I was at KRCR-TV in 
Redding CA. I of course went on down the road in due time.  

Fast fwd 15 years, I'd changed women and was then the CE at WDTV-5 here 
in WV, but had some vacation time so we flew back to Oregon to visit an 
aunt who was running out of time.  While "in the neighborhood" I called 
the tv station and found that my gismo was still in several times a day 
use.  Thats an eon or two in a stations tech equipment time.

Funny part is that the next spring, at the annual NAB show in Lost Wages, 
I spotted the makings of a similar device in the Microtime booth, and 
commented that mine could do this and that that theirs couldn't. 
Microtime was rather famous for having more lawyers than engineers. The 
product disappeared from the display, and was never seen or admitted to 
even exist again.  So I was the only one to ever do that particular job, 
no one ever did anything similar, but back in the days when tv stations 
below the top 25 were all running Sony 3/4" u-matic video Tape machines, 
the image quality lost in making a copy was substantial, and my gismo 
saved a one generation copy that  markedly improved the image quality of 
our commercial breaks.  Thats good for Nielson ratings, 2 points in the 
next book, at a market 162 station.

The average General Manager would kill for a 2 point better Nielson book.
And I had fun doing it!

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>