Originally Posted by
India Four Two
mixture,
The first computer I used was an English Electric KDF9 with 32k of ferrite-core memory. Enough power for a whole universtity!
Similar here - except 16k which filled a whole Terrapin building. The soon-to-be-MrsJim (and all the female programmers & operators) were barred from the computing suite because they were said to be jinxed: the machine kept falling over whenever they entered.
Turns out that the multi-layer petticoats they wore (No, this wasn't 1859 it was 1959!) were causing so much static that the console circuits were detecting the sparks as well as the (presumably weakish) signals from the paper tape readers.
We have indeed moved on a bit since then.
