2005 Backpacking Light Trip Planning Spreadsheet Contest Entries

[Nick Gatel]

"I learned Fortran back in the 1980's; had to punch my own cards! Who in the world uses that now?"

People used punch cards in the 80's? Geez the PC was available in 81. We were using mini-main frames in the 80s and could write code on terminals.

I learned my first computer language in the late 60's (ALGOL) and used punch cards on a Borroughs B5500. I re-wrote some of the programs in BASIC and ran them faster on an Apple ii in the late 70's :)

I thought everyone uses Excel (except Apple geeks). Maybe I'm mistaken. Spreadsheets have been the mainstay of PCs since the late 70's. Some I have used include VisiCalc, MS MultiPlan, AppleWorks, Lotus 123, Excel, and the new horrid Apple Numbers.

[Bob Gross]

"People used punch cards in the 80's?"

1968 maybe.

–B.G.–

[Tad Englund]

Hey, my first computer science class in '75 had me punching cards for a IBM 360. I was a terrible typist so I couldn't get the stupid thing to ever run right.

How come nobody has mentioned cobalt (should be Cobol) yet? Or the early 80's CPM ( I wish that would have been IMB's pick instead of DOS- we'd all be way further ahead of things then we are now)

[Rex Sanders]

I was still shoveling a few punch cards around for mainframes in the early 1980s. Some stuff takes a long time to die.

Including Fortran. We still have some Fortran code from the 1970s in production at work. I wrote some of it. Luckily, it's someone else's job to deal with that problem!

[Mary D]

Sorry, senior moment, that was the late 1970's when I was working on my accounting degree (kind of hard to make a living for a single mother with a degree in French and English literature and several kids to support). The firm I worked for in the 1980's was still using punch cards for their time cards and a couple of subordinate systems when I left in 1988, though. Not exactly cutting edge! I did get in on the cutting edge when our firm started using PC's in early 1981, though! We started with the Apple II and soon switched to the IBM PC. It took a long time, though, before most firms finally decided that desktop computers are not really capital equipment and should be upgraded if not replaced yearly. The firm I retired from (a different one) went to leasing, which turned out to be cheaper than buying and gave us new machines yearly.

I have Microsoft Office for Mac and make up my own Excel spreadsheets. I still tweak my gear list occasionally. Unfortunately, I can't afford to replace my own computer as often as I should, so mine is currently 6 years old–still holding up, though, although I can't use the latest operating systems on it. At least my O/S is now old enough that makers of computer viruses don't bother with it!

[Bob Gross]

"How come nobody has mentioned cobalt yet?"

At the last time that I checked, Cobalt is Element #27 on the Periodic Table. Cobol is a programming language.

–B.G.–

[Ken Thompson]

Don't even need a fire. You all are doing it already…

[Tad Englund]

Bob, you are so right- at midnight I was trying to dig too far back in the memory bank, or maybe I had a boat on my mind.

Cobol- computer programming lanuage

Cobalt- a very expensive boat, and an Element, Atomic Number: 27;
Atomic Weight: 58.933195; Melting Point: 1768 K (1495°C or 2723°F)
Boiling Point: 3200 K (2927°C or 5301°F); Density: 8.86 grams per cubic centimeter
Phase at Room Temperature: Solid; Element Classification: Metal; Period Number: 4 Group Number: 9 Group Name: none

[Scott Chandler]

Can I throw a late entry into the contest. Actually, it doesn't even qualify since it's a Filemaker 12 database, not Excel. Regardless, I think it has to be the geekiest backpacking gear checklist ever made. I built lots of Filemaker databases for my company, and I built this one out of need, and over the years I've continually refined it. When Filemaker 12 came out, it jumped it to a new level.

If you don't have Filemaker 12, you can still run this on an iPad or iPhone by downloading the Filemaker GO app. You can download the database from my website at http://www.apexweb.com.

Enjoy.

Scott

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