Are Our Brains Getting Bigger While Our Electronic Devices Get Smaller?

December 28, 2012

Can anyone out there remember punch cards and punch card readers?

If so, you can likely just as vividly remember the frustration of a deck of 50 or more of those little demon cards flying out of your hands while trying to get them fed into the reader. Or, you remember the feeling of victory if you could just get the complete deck read through the machine without any "card jams."

Anyone under 40 is probably scratching their heads wondering what on earth we’re talking about, but rest assured, these behemoths were the granddaddy to your favorite handheld devices.

If you are able to remember the punch cards, it’s a given that you remember "green bar paper" also. Not only was it the paper that your programs printed out on once you ran the punched cards into the computer, it was also the only way to get the cards back in the correct sequence later on down the road if you ever needed to.

We hope this trip down memory lane doesn’t cause you to start having nightmares about being a keypunch operator. That said, please let us know if this conjures up any experiences you had with these wicked devices.

More to come………

Janet F.
Weston Branch