# Idiot Sighting and it's not me.



## easyrider (Feb 28, 2011)

I handed the teller @ my bank a withdrawal slip for $400.00 
I said "May I have large bills, please           " 
She looked at me and said "I'm sorry sir, all the bills are the same size."



IDIOT  SIGHTING
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it.  We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I  watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked.  'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'it's open!'  His reply: 'I know. I already got that  side .'

This was at the Ford dealership in Canton , MS

 IDIOTSIGHTING
We had to have the garage door repaired. 
The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the  opener.
I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower.  
He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a  1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. 
He said, 'NO, it's  not..' Four is larger than two.'         

We  haven't used Sears repair since.



  IDIOT  SIGHTING
   My  daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the clerk  a $5 bill. 
Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. 
She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.  
She sighed and went  to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request. 
I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but we could not do that kind of thing.' 
The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.  

Do  not confuse the clerks at McD's. 



IDIOT  SIGHTING 
I live in a semi rural area.
We recently had a new neighbor call the local  township administrative office
to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. 
The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! 
I don't  think this is a good place for  them to be crossing anymore.'

From  Kingman ,  KS  



IDIOT  SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE
My daughter went to a local Taco  Bell   and ordered a taco. 
She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' 
He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce.
  -- From   Kansas City  



IDIOT  SIGHTING
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked,
'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' 
To  which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' 
He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened in   Birmingham ,   Ala. 



IDIOT  SIGHTING 
How would you pronounce this child's name?
"Le-a"
Leah??                NO
Lee - A??            NOPE 
Lay - a??             NO 
Lei??          Guess Again.  
This child attends a school in   Kansas City ,   Mo.   
Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong.  
It's pronounced "Ledasha". 
When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, "the dash don't be silent."  

SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember to pronounce the dash.  
If they ask you why, tell them the dash don't be silent.

STAY ALERT!
They walk among us......


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## pjrose (Feb 28, 2011)

:hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical:


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## Cheryl20772 (Feb 28, 2011)

easyrider said:


> IDIOTSIGHTING
> We had to have the garage door repaired.
> The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the  opener.
> I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower.
> ...


These are priceless!  My favorite is above.  I would have loved to ask him if he would rather have 1/2 pizza or a 1/4 pizza.  Hopefully that would have been his "Doh!" moment.


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## pjrose (Feb 28, 2011)

Cheryl20772 said:


> These are priceless!  My favorite is above.  I would have loved to ask him if he would rather have 1/2 pizza or a 1/4 pizza.  Hopefully that would have been his "Doh!" moment.



Is that "Doh" or "Dough"????


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## cotraveller (Feb 28, 2011)

Cheryl20772 said:


> These are priceless!  My favorite is above.  I would have loved to ask him if he would rather have 1/2 pizza or a 1/4 pizza.  Hopefully that would have been his "Doh!" moment.



Reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote - 

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.


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## DaveNV (Feb 28, 2011)

I work in IT tech support for a hospital.  When users call our Help Desk, I'm often the one who takes the call.  A doctor once called to say she was trying to print to a certain printer, but it wasn't installed on her PC.  She was very frustrated.

I told her to open a certain command box on her computer, and type two backslashes and the word print.  It should have read "\\print".  She said she did that, and it didn't work.  We went over it several times, with the same result.  I asked her to read me what it said in the box.  She said, "It says backslash backslash print."  We went through it a few more times, with me getting more and more confuused.  I did this kind of thing numerous times a day, and it was very straightforward.

Finally, I asked her to read me exactly what she'd typed in the box, letter for letter.  She started to read it:  "It reads B-A-C-K-S-L-A-S-H..."

I about fell out of my chair.   

Dave


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## BevL (Feb 28, 2011)

The McDonald's one hit a nerve.  My bill was $4.06.  I handed the clerk a $5 which she rang into her computer, indicating 94 cents change.  "Wait a minute," I said, "I have six cents," which I handed to her.

When she tried to hand me a handful of change, I said, "No, you owe me a dollar.  You were going to give me 94 cents, so I gave you six cents.  That makes a dollar."

She had to get a manager to help her sort it out.  The manager left and came back with ... a calculator!!


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## glypnirsgirl (Feb 28, 2011)

BevL said:


> The McDonald's one hit a nerve.  My bill was $4.06.  I handed the clerk a $5 which she rang into her computer, indicating 94 cents change.  "Wait a minute," I said, "I have six cents," which I handed to her.
> 
> When she tried to hand me a handful of change, I said, "No, you owe me a dollar.  You were going to give me 94 cents, so I gave you six cents.  That makes a dollar."
> 
> She had to get a manager to help her sort it out.  The manager left and came back with ... a calculator!!



This happens alot! I have gotten in the habit of telling the clerks how much money I am handing them and telling them to enter the full amount into the register so that they can give me exact change. It astounds me.

The other thing that astounds me happens to me several times per week and drives me crazy. I am a bankruptcy attorney. The longest that a Chapter 13 plan can be is 60 months - a longer payout is not allowed. A year or two into the plan, one of my clients will miss paying something that they are supposed to pay - most common is property taxes or income tax. They will call me and ask me if they can add it to their plan. I tell them yes, but it will make your plan payments increase. "Why?" Because we added more money for you to pay through the plan and we can only divide it by the number of months that you have left. You only have 30 more months. You want to add $3000, your plan payment is going to go up by more than $100. "Why?" It's math. It is how it works.

Drives me nuts!

elaine


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## easyrider (Feb 28, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> I work in IT tech support for a hospital.  When users call our Help Desk, I'm often the one who takes the call.  A doctor once called to say she was trying to print to a certain printer, but it wasn't installed on her PC.  She was very frustrated.
> 
> I told her to open a certain command box on her computer, and type two backslashes and the word print.  It should have read "\\print".  She said she did that, and it didn't work.  We went over it several times, with the same result.  I asked her to read me what it said in the box.  She said, "It says backslash backslash print."  We went through it a few more times, with me getting more and more confuused.  I did this kind of thing numerous times a day, and it was very straightforward.
> 
> ...



:rofl: :rofl: thats good


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## MuranoJo (Mar 1, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> I work in IT tech support for a hospital.  When users call our Help Desk, I'm often the one who takes the call.  A doctor once called to say she was trying to print to a certain printer, but it wasn't installed on her PC.  She was very frustrated.
> 
> I told her to open a certain command box on her computer, and type two backslashes and the word print.  It should have read "\\print".  She said she did that, and it didn't work.  We went over it several times, with the same result.  I asked her to read me what it said in the box.  She said, "It says backslash backslash print."  We went through it a few more times, with me getting more and more confuused.  I did this kind of thing numerous times a day, and it was very straightforward.
> 
> ...



And that's a doctor??  Oh well, we are all only human. I'm sure I frustrate the IT guys myself.  But still it amazes me.


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## caribbeansun (Mar 1, 2011)

My favourite was at a local, fairly high end, restaurant.  3 of us took a business contact to dinner.

When it came time to order the wine one of guys asked the waitress about a particular white wine and asked "is this a dry wine?"

She replied with a bit of a smirk on her face "No, it's wet." 

We thought she was kidding but no, in fact, she was quite serious.

I don't think I'll ever forget that one - You CANNOT make this stuff up!


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## Weimaraner (Mar 1, 2011)

When we were on a cruise, my husband was interested in trying an entree but he had eaten too much already and didn't think he could eat the whole thing. He was thinking of a smaller portion so he asked the waiter if he could get a "small plate" of the dish. The waiter brought out the full size entree piled about six inches high, teetering on a small plate. We just laughed about it because he literally got the small plate he wanted.

On another occasion we went to visit Texas to see friends and we stopped at an Old Navy to get a swimsuit for my husband. At the checkout, my husband asked "so what's the damage?" when the young clerk rang it up. The clerk proceeded to do an inspection of the swimsuit to see where this so-called damage was. She didn't realize he was asking "how much?" Needless to say, my husband's friend teased him about getting older.


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## K&PFitz (Mar 1, 2011)

Those stories made me laugh, but then I got a little worried about the level of math skills people have today.  In the 70s, I had a summer job where I was a helper to a machine operator.  He was an immigrant from Mexico, and his English may not have been perfect, but he could add and subtract fractions in his head.  He had to slit a 36 inch coil of steel into smaller widths.  Ask one of those McDonald's clerks to add 3 3/4, 2 1/8, 5 1/2, and 5 1/4,  and subtract it from 36 to know how much is left over.  

We are turning out a frightening number of young people who can't read or do math. How are they supposed to make a living?  How will they ever comprehend a timeshare presentation?


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## Mel7706 (Mar 1, 2011)

*Enjoyed the laugh but...*

For years I drove through a town and one of the few fast food restaurants  to stop was a particular chain burger place. I would get impatient because the cashiers were almost always incapable of doing any math that the register didn't show(like giving them $5 + 20cents for a $4.95 meal to get a quarter change). Also, they often made mistakes with the order and seemed to be slow thinking. Finally, one day I became indignant and demanded my money back and began to leave. The counter manager followed me to the door and explained to me that she was sorry about the order but part of their business plan was to work with a local school with "special" teens. They were trying to help them adjust so they could function in a "normal" workplace. They were loyal employees but took a lot of patience to develop. After that when I stopped there it was with a whole different perspective. I saw the young people in a different light. They really were special but in a positive way.


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## derb (Mar 1, 2011)

So the lady asks the Park Ranger...Why were so many Civil War
Battles fought in National Parks.


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## Texasbelle (Mar 1, 2011)

Mel, our supermarket baggers are "challenged" so I cut them some slack.  I ask that things that go in the refrigerator be bagged in plastic and the rest in paper and get varied results.  Baggers in general have not been taught how to sack groceries.  My husband was a "box boy" in the 50s and he just shakes his head.  I know, I should bring reuseable bags.


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## pjrose (Mar 1, 2011)

K&PFitz said:


> Those stories made me laugh, but then I got a little worried about the level of math skills people have today.  In the 70s, I had a summer job where I was a helper to a machine operator.  He was an immigrant from Mexico, and his English may not have been perfect, but he could add and subtract fractions in his head.  He had to slit a 36 inch coil of steel into smaller widths.  Ask one of those McDonald's clerks to add 3 3/4, 2 1/8, 5 1/2, and 5 1/4,  and subtract it from 36 to know how much is left over.
> 
> We are turning out a frightening number of young people who can't read or do math. How are they supposed to make a living?  How will they ever comprehend a timeshare presentation?



Your last question is funny, but of course the rest isn't.

Too often math is taught with stress on the answer - which is often figured out with a calculator - rather than stress on comprehending the meaning and process.  

My kids' elementary school math curriculum had an emphasis on problem solving, teaching skills such as "guess and check," "draw a picture," "estimate first," and another three or four methods.  They were taught and practiced these methods, but then the later curricula seemed to only count whether the answer, figured out by pushing buttons, was right.  Obviously they have to understand something about the problems to know how to set up their button-pushing. 

Unfortunately, we're left with many who can't begin to mentally figure out the price of a $10 item at a 20% off sale.


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## DaveNV (Mar 1, 2011)

I've posted this before, but if falls into the trend this thread is developing:

My daughter came home from 2nd grade one day, all excited.  "Daddy, I learned how to tell time today!"  

"That's great," I said.  Pointing at the analog wall clock, I said, "So what time is it now?"

"Oh," she said. "I can't tell time on THAT kind of clock.  I can only tell time on a DIGITAL clock!"

 

So we took the opportunity right then to make a clock face from a paper plate, hour and minute hands from some construction paper, and a paper fastener to hold it all together.  I taught her how to tell time on ANY kind of clock.  This was more than 25 years ago.  

She remembers the lesson, and says she can't wait to do the same thing with her daughter.  Some lessons are timeless (so to speak...  :hysterical: )

Dave


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## Karen G (Mar 1, 2011)

K&PFitz said:


> How will they ever comprehend a timeshare presentation?


I think you are on to something. Maybe that's why people are still buying from the developers--they can't do the math. And this may also explain why people of a "certain age" aren't invited to presentations--they CAN do the math!


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## pjrose (Mar 1, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> I've posted this before, but if falls into the trend this thread is developing:
> 
> My daughter came home from 2nd grade one day, all excited.  "Daddy, I learned how to tell time today!"
> 
> ...



At least one of the schools in our district recently replaced all the big wall clocks with digital ones.  I can't remember if it was a middle-school or high-school.  

It seems ridiculous to me that they aren't teaching kids on a "regular" clock, but then again, how many of us can use a slide rule, a stick shift, or a butter churn?  I had to show DD how to use a rotary dial phone years ago.


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## K&PFitz (Mar 1, 2011)

Feeling old after your post, pjrose.  I used a sliderule in HS chemistry.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 1, 2011)

K&PFitz said:


> Feeling old after your post, pjrose.  I used a sliderule in HS chemistry.



One of the shelves on one of the bookcases in my office is for "engineering momentos".  It includes my old slide rule (a very fancy 24-scale Pickett, still with its leather case), a Handbook of Hydraulics (with pages and pages of tabulated coefficients for discharge over weirs, through orifices, friction coefficients, etc), and a CRC standard math tables book.  If I still had my original Rockwell calculator that would be up there as well.

That calculator was pretty impressive in its day - not only did it add, subtract, multiply and divide, it could do a square root, exponentiate, store a result to memory, and nest two levels of parentheses.


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 1, 2011)

Would you like my PCjr or my Compaq Lugable?


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 1, 2011)

vacationhopeful said:


> Would you like my PCjr or my Compaq Lugable?


Nah - to qualify for the shelf it has to be something I owned and used professionally.  So even though my first computer was a VIC-20, that wouldn't count for the shelf because I didn't use it in my work.


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## pjrose (Mar 1, 2011)

I used a slide rule too, and my first calculator was a "Bowmar Brain" - ten digits!  

And then there were the punch cards....mag tapes....KayPro.....Lisa.....

But regardless of the technology, people should be able to understand the conceptual basis of simple arithmetic and do it in their heads!  

Don't get me started on spelling and word mix-ups.  Maybe we should start a new thread with a list of those!


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## KarenLK (Mar 1, 2011)

And fast food staffers don't listen to orders, either. At a local Tim Horton's, I always order the breakfast sandwich with bacon, instead of the sausage which seems to be the standard. I now have to open it in front of them to verify that I got the bacon, because of so many mistakes.
They just stare at me.


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 1, 2011)

Listening to orders/instructions was a skill taught to the very young for their survival. A few words to convey important concepts: STOP. Don't move. DON'T TOUCH. Listen to me.  Tone of voice was the other element of importance.

Now _I get _reminded to not raise my voice at the 6'5" kid, as it hurts his feelings?  

Whatever happened to the good old days, when you got eye-to-eye with the kid, hands on the upper arms, and said: DO NOT LEAVE MY SIGHT! THIS IS NOT A GOOD PLACE TO PLAY GAMES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? (Ghettos are not places to explore.) No playing hide & seek!


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 1, 2011)

pjrose said:


> I used a slide rule too, and my first calculator was a "Bowmar Brain" - ten digits!
> 
> And then there were the punch cards....mag tapes....KayPro.....Lisa.....
> 
> ...



My first programming was in high school, using yellow punch tape - it was a timeshare computer!!!

Control Data (remember them?) sold off-hours computing time on their mainframes to educational institutions.  There was a terminal in one of the science rooms where you keyed in your program; the terminal converted the keystrokes to holes in the punch tape.

When we were done entering our code, we dialed up the computer on a phone line, and fed our punch tape into a reader attached to the telephone.  The reader read the tape, converted the holes to analog tones, which were then converted back to digital and transferred to the compiler.

About three days later we would get our printouts back via mail.

****

I thought I was in heaven when I went to college and started using punch cards instead of tape and I could get my printouts back in hours instead of days.


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## pjrose (Mar 1, 2011)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> My first programming was in high school, using yellow punch tape - *it was a timeshare computer*!!!



OMG, I forgot that we were, indeed, timesharing!   And yeah, I remember.  

My wind-up Timex watch says it's time for my Geritol.  Fortunately I know how to measure my dose without using a calculator LOL.


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 1, 2011)

Oh, please. IBM 1401. 026 keypunches. No operating system. No modems or dial up. Held the class scheduling for my college. Got every class I wanted as I preregistered every semester. :hysterical: It was called a B & E.

Did papertape on Honeywells ... used the money towards buying my vacation house in Poconos near Camelback.

Had an IBM PC in 1981. 

Sister was on the development team for PCjr in Boca. Has a better job now with company who has less letters.


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## shagnut (Mar 1, 2011)

Thank you Mel!!  My daughter has worked in a grocery store for 12 years and is never late, always clean, and does a great job. Her problem is she is EMH (emotionally, mentally, handicaped) but doesn't {"look it") so when she gets upset it can go badly. She takes it very personal when someone complains on her. Kelli has a great sense of humor. One day she was getting the trash up outside, had on her apron etc, someone came up to ask her "do you work here" She said No, I just love digging in trashcans.  She also gets upset when she brings in the carts and someone told her they should let a "boy" do that. Kelli just shakes her head and goes on about her work.  shaggy


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## Mel7706 (Mar 1, 2011)

*Word problems can be difficult also....*

Can anyone help me find another word for synonym???


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## pjrose (Mar 1, 2011)

Mel7706 said:


> Can anyone help me find another word for synonym???



ooooh, that's evil.


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## ada903 (Mar 1, 2011)

She does have a great sense of humor, that was funny and cute!  Thank you for sharing! 



shagnut said:


> Thank you Mel!!  My daughter has worked in a grocery store for 12 years and is never late, always clean, and does a great job. Her problem is she is EMH (emotionally, mentally, handicaped) but doesn't {"look it") so when she gets upset it can go badly. She takes it very personal when someone complains on her. Kelli has a great sense of humor. One day she was getting the trash up outside, had on her apron etc, someone came up to ask her "do you work here" She said No, I just love digging in trashcans.  She also gets upset when she brings in the carts and someone told her they should let a "boy" do that. Kelli just shakes her head and goes on about her work.  shaggy


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## DaveNV (Mar 1, 2011)

vacationhopeful said:


> Oh, please. IBM 1401. 026 keypunches. No operating system. No modems or dial up. Held the class scheduling for my college. Got every class I wanted as I preregistered every semester. :hysterical: It was called a B & E.
> 
> Did papertape on Honeywells ... used the money towards buying my vacation house in Poconos near Camelback.
> 
> ...



Aah, yes.  Keypunching was the beginning of my first computer training in the Navy, way back in 1972 during my advanced schooling, when I was a skinny teenager who still had a full head of hair.  (That ship has sailed, believe me!) I loved the idea of a career in computers.  They made much of being able to read Hollerith Code (the name for the method of square holes punched in those "IBM cards."  Anyone remember 12-row, 11-row, 0-row?)  Now, 39 years later, I'm still in the industry, still a computer tech, and I've probably forgotten more about computers than a lot of folks ever learn.  But you know what?  For all I forgot, I still remember that dang Hollerith Code.  Trouble is, nobody wants to know!  :hysterical: 

Dave


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 1, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> Aah, yes.  Keypunching was the beginning of my first computer training in the Navy, way back in 1972 during my advanced schooling, when I was a skinny teenager who still had a full head of hair.  (That ship has sailed, believe me!) I loved the idea of a career in computers.  They made much of being able to read Hollerith Code (the name for the method of square holes punched in those "IBM cards."  Anyone remember 12-row, 11-row, 0-row?)  Now, 39 years later, I'm still in the industry, still a computer tech, and I've probably forgotten more about computers than a lot of folks ever learn.  But you know what?  For all I forgot, I still remember that dang Hollerith Code.  Trouble is, nobody wants to know!  :hysterical:
> 
> Dave



A story I remember that one of my computer science profs relayed to us in class back in 1970.  I've never fact checked it; I took it as true because he was, well, around when it supposedly all happened.

Sperry was actually the first company to bring the first main frame computers to market, ahead of International Business Machines (soon to become IBM).  IBM, of course, had a stranglehold in the typewriter market.

Sperry figured that the real money in computers would be in the business of punching the cards that fed the data to the computers; that would be a market similar to the office typewriter market that IBM controlled. So Sperry devoted its resources to developing and perfecting the punch card machine, including taking patents out on just about every way possible that they could think of to punch holes in a card to feed to a computer.  Sperry's punch card machines created oval-shaped holes.

IBM, however, saw that the real money was in the computer.  They figured out a way around the Sperry patents, and the system they came up with created rectangular holes.  But IBM put most of their effort into becoming the technology leader for main frame sales and service, and IBM soon left Sperry in the dust, as Sperry tried to sell customers on their wondrous punch card equipment that worked only with inferior mainframes.   

*******

At that time there were a few systems around at that time that still used punch cards with oval holes; when you encountered one of those you could be pretty sure that the associated main frame was a Sperry unit. 

I have a vague memory that in the late 1960s and early 1970s one of the turnpikes in the Northeast used cards that had oval holes. When you got on the pike you got a small card that had the oval holes indicating when and where you had gotten on the pike; when you exited you gave the card to the toll collector, who inserted it into a reader which then indicated the fare and recorded the trip information.


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## pagosajim (Mar 1, 2011)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> I have a vague memory that in the late 1960s and early 1970s one of the turnpikes in the Northeast used cards that had oval holes. When you got on the pike you got a small card that had the oval holes indicating when and where you had gotten on the pike; when you exited you gave the card to the toll collector, who inserted it into a reader which then indicated the fare and recorded the trip information.



I'm pretty sure the NJ Turnpike used that technology back in the day.  You didn't dare lose that card or you would be charged the full amount from one end of the Turnpike in your direction of travel .


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## MuranoJo (Mar 1, 2011)

Was on the B.I. on our first t/s visit, and out to a romantic dinner overlooking the water.  We ordered a bottle of wine, but they were out of what we ordered, so we asked for a house recommendation.  The waitress returned with a bottle of very recent vintage and proudly stated, "You will really like this--it's our 'freshest' wine."


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 2, 2011)

pagosajim said:


> I'm pretty sure the NJ Turnpike used that technology back in the day.  You didn't dare lose that card or you would be charged the full amount from one end of the Turnpike in your direction of travel .



You are giving the NJ Turnpike too much credit. It didn't matter which direction you were travelling - they just got you for the FULL/MAXIMUM toll.
And they still do.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 2, 2011)

muranojo said:


> Was on the B.I. on our first t/s visit, and out to a romantic dinner overlooking the water.  We ordered a bottle of wine, but they were out of what we ordered, so we asked for a house recommendation.  The waitress returned with a bottle of very recent vintage and proudly stated, "You will really like this--it's our 'freshest' wine."



About 30 years DW, DB, SIL and I stopped for dinner in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  SIL asked if they had wine.  The waitress said sure and asked if SIL wanted red or white.  SIL asked if they had any rosé.  The waitress thought for a moment, then her face brightened and she said,  "Sure!  We just fill the glass half with red wine and half with white wine."


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## pjrose (Mar 2, 2011)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> About 30 years DW, DB, SIL and I stopped for dinner in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  SIL asked if they had wine.  The waitress said sure and asked if SIL wanted red or white.  SIL asked if they had any rosé.  The waitress thought for a moment, then her face brightened and she said,  "Sure!  We just fill the glass half with red wine and half with white wine."



No way; you've got to be making that up.  Please tell me it isn't true.


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## lvhmbh (Mar 2, 2011)

We are raising a 14 year old.  His school has a calculator on his list of required school supplies.  Recently he took the SSAT (secondary school achievement test) and they allowed NO calculators.  Thank heavens he did okay but it was a challenge for him and he is in honors math!


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 2, 2011)

pjrose said:


> T_R_Oglodyte said:
> 
> 
> > About 30 years DW, DB, SIL and I stopped for dinner in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  SIL asked if they had wine.  The waitress said sure and asked if SIL wanted red or white.  SIL asked if they had any rosé.  The waitress thought for a moment, then her face brightened and she said,  "Sure!  We just fill the glass half with red wine and half with white wine."
> ...



Totally true story.  That's the kind of stuff that you can't make up.


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## Rose Pink (Mar 2, 2011)

pjrose said:


> Too often math is *taught with stress* on the answer - which is often figured out with a calculator - rather than *stress on comprehending* the meaning and process.


This explains why math classes were stressful to me. And since stress kills brain cells, I can blame math for my poor memory.  It's simple logic.


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## jlwquilter (Mar 2, 2011)

Fast food places have their way of doing stuff, regardless of what you say/order. As we do not go to fast food places often, it took me a few tries to figure it out.

One place (one fo the big 3), only offers (or did, I think it's changed now, probably due to me!) cheeseburgers on it's cheapie menu. DD doesn't like cheese on her burgers. So I ordered the item and specificed ketchup and mustard only. And repeated it twice. Of course it came with cheese. Ok. Second time I specified that I only want two things on the burger - ketchup and mustard. Still came with cheese. Then I got the clue. I have to order no cheese first, then tell them what to put on the burger.

To be fair, I can see why they do it the way they do. I just had to learn their system.


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## Fredm (Mar 2, 2011)

BMWguynw said:


> Aah, yes.  Keypunching was the beginning of my first computer training in the Navy, way back in 1972 during my advanced schooling, when I was a skinny teenager who still had a full head of hair.  (That ship has sailed, believe me!) I loved the idea of a career in computers.  They made much of being able to read Hollerith Code (the name for the method of square holes punched in those "IBM cards."  Anyone remember 12-row, 11-row, 0-row?)  Now, 39 years later, I'm still in the industry, still a computer tech, and *I've probably forgotten more about computers than a lot of folks ever learn. * But you know what?  For all I forgot, I still remember that dang Hollerith Code.  Trouble is, nobody wants to know!  :hysterical:



I can relate to forgetting. Began my dp career in 1963.

Can anyone name the first random access mass storage computer?


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## vacationhopeful (Mar 2, 2011)

The Star Trek computer from 1963?  

It was an RCA machine built at the U of Penn ... EINAC

I was part of the first undergraduate computer science class of "Rugters: The State University", Livingston College. First graduation 1973. Had have years of PhD and Masters classes as part of the Rutgers' Electricial Engineering programs (Bells Labs had many attendees).


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## kwilson (Mar 2, 2011)

"momentos"? Maybe you should add a dictionary to that shelf.


T_R_Oglodyte said:


> One of the shelves on one of the bookcases in my office is for "engineering momentos".  It includes my old slide rule (a very fancy 24-scale Pickett, still with its leather case), a Handbook of Hydraulics (with pages and pages of tabulated coefficients for discharge over weirs, through orifices, friction coefficients, etc), and a CRC standard math tables book.  If I still had my original Rockwell calculator that would be up there as well.
> 
> That calculator was pretty impressive in its day - not only did it add, subtract, multiply and divide, it could do a square root, exponentiate, store a result to memory, and nest two levels of parentheses.


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## Fredm (Mar 2, 2011)

vacationhopeful said:


> The Star Trek computer from 1963?
> 
> It was an RCA machine built at the U of Penn ... EINAC
> 
> I was part of the first undergraduate computer science class of "Rugters: The State University", Livingston College. First graduation 1973. Had have years of PhD and Masters classes as part of the Electricial Engineering programs (Bells Labs had many attendees).



Nope. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first general purpose computer (it was used by the Army).  Had no mass storage. Never mind no randomly accessible mass storage. Its practical application was computation of artillery solutions.

Hint: the first mass storage device was a mag tape servo. Today, we consider a disk drive to be random access mass storage.
So, the question is what was the first computer with random access mass storage?


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## pjrose (Mar 2, 2011)

jlwquilter said:


> Fast food places have their way of doing stuff, regardless of what you say/order. As we do not go to fast food places often, it took me a few tries to figure it out.
> 
> One place (one fo the big 3), only offers (or did, I think it's changed now, probably due to me!) cheeseburgers on it's cheapie menu. DD doesn't like cheese on her burgers. So I ordered the item and specificed ketchup and mustard only. And repeated it twice. Of course it came with cheese. Ok. Second time I specified that I only want two things on the burger - ketchup and mustard. Still came with cheese. Then I got the clue. I have to order no cheese first, then tell them what to put on the burger.
> 
> To be fair, I can see why they do it the way they do. I just had to learn their system.



Is this the BK Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe?  It was on the value menu, but the hamburger equivalent cost more, so I would specify "Jr. cheeseburger deluxe, no cheese, no onion, no mayo, with ketchup and lettuce, and with extra pickle please."  It usually arrives without the cheese.  It helps that now most of the drive-throughs show the specific order on-screen for you to verify.  Some of the staff said I could just say "Jr. Hamburger Deluxe...." but when I did that I usually got charged more.


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## susieq (Mar 2, 2011)

shagnut said:


> Kelli has a great sense of humor. One day she was getting the trash up outside, had on her apron etc, someone came up to ask her "do you work here" She said No, I just love digging in trashcans. shaggy




:hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: 

Way to go Kelli!!!!

(You should also tell them "Here's your Sign!!)


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## Ridewithme38 (Mar 2, 2011)

pjrose said:


> Is this the BK Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe?  It was on the value menu, but the hamburger equivalent cost more, so I would specify "Jr. cheeseburger deluxe, no cheese, no onion, no mayo, with ketchup and lettuce, and with extra pickle please."  It usually arrives without the cheese.  It helps that now most of the drive-throughs show the specific order on-screen for you to verify.  Some of the staff said I could just say "Jr. Hamburger Deluxe...." but when I did that I usually got charged more.





jlwquilter said:


> Fast food places have their way of doing stuff, regardless of what you say/order. As we do not go to fast food places often, it took me a few tries to figure it out.
> 
> One place (one fo the big 3), only offers (or did, I think it's changed now, probably due to me!) cheeseburgers on it's cheapie menu. DD doesn't like cheese on her burgers. So I ordered the item and specificed ketchup and mustard only. And repeated it twice. Of course it came with cheese. Ok. Second time I specified that I only want two things on the burger - ketchup and mustard. Still came with cheese. Then I got the clue. I have to order no cheese first, then tell them what to put on the burger.
> 
> To be fair, I can see why they do it the way they do. I just had to learn their system.



I can relate to this! I've got a 'sensitivity' to vinegar which requires me to kinda stay away from ketchup and pickles...When ordering at McDonalds...If i don't order Specificly "ONLY CHEESE" they'll screw it up...BUT at Burger King i can actually say "Plain w/ Cheese" and they understand


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## MuranoJo (Mar 2, 2011)

O.K., I'll poke fun at myself this time.

I was pretty 'hick,' having been educated in 2-room country schoolhouses before moving to the 'big city' of 3000 population in Jr. High. One of my early jobs was waitressing to earn $ for clothes and school expenses.  A family of tourists came in and ordered milk shakes for the kids. I told them we only had malts (as that was all that was on the menu).  The father smiled and informed me all I had to do was leave the malt out and I'd have milk shakes.   

Besides this obviously embarrassing story, I love malts and nowadays can't get them anywhere.


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## pjrose (Mar 2, 2011)

And in that spirit, get the idiot sign out for me:

DH and I were driving back from NYC to PA one extremely cold winter day, close to zero or maybe even below.  The car was covered with dirty glop from a NYC snowstorm, so we drove through an automatic car wash.  As I said, it was extremely cold......and after the car wash our newly clean car was coated with about an inch of solid ice!


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## DonM (Mar 3, 2011)

Ridewithme38 said:


> ...I've got a 'sensitivity' to vinegar which requires me to kinda stay away from ketchup and pickles...



Can you elaborate on what you mean by sensitivity? On occasion e.g. if I eat a salad with lots of vinegar I may start choking because the vinegar's acidity constricts my trachea.

Is this what you experience?

don


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## AwayWeGo (Mar 3, 2011)

*I Resemble That Remark.*




muranojo said:


> I love malts and nowadays can't get them anywhere.


Same here.  Only place we've been to lately that has'm is Steak & Shake.  

As it happens, there aren't any Steak & Shake locations around here.  We like to eat there when we're vacationing in Florida -- mainly for the shakes & malts.  

The Stake & Shake we went to most recently (January 2010) is in Largo FL, not far from Indian Rocks Beach.  

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## MuranoJo (Mar 4, 2011)

pjrose said:


> And in that spirit, get the idiot sign out for me:
> 
> DH and I were driving back from NYC to PA one extremely cold winter day, close to zero or maybe even below.  The car was covered with dirty glop from a NYC snowstorm, so we drove through an automatic car wash.  As I said, it was extremely cold......and our newly clean car was coated with about an inch of solid ice!


I imagine that put a dent in your MPG!!  (And you may have gotten some interesting glances from others passing you on the road.)


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