mystories | Learning computer science old school

When I attended the University of Maryland, our computer science courses were taught using a Univac 1104, fed batch-mode by punch cards. There was a room available with IBM Model 29 keypunches modified to produce the Fieldata format used by the Univac, but there weren't enough of them, so there was always a wait to use a keypunch machine. However, for last-minute quick fixes, there was one "express" machine, for five cards or less. There was always a line for it too, which moved slowly as people would hunt and peck in slow motion, then reject the card and start over. People would take ten minutes to punch a few cards!

So I acquired the habit of just going to the front of the line, and keying peoples' cards for them. I could blast through the entire line in a few minutes. As I was doing so, I'd point out errors for people, to save them the time of waiting in line again, or worse yet, submitting their botched job and waiting a couple of hours for it to fun.

Happily, people rapidly got used to my habit, and realized I really wasn't going to try to steal their homework.