Slide rules went hand in hand with log tables at school for me. Hand operated adding machines was a skill that could be learnt during lunch-times, just like chess in the chess club etc..
ICI was inordinately proud of its mainframe (fed with punch-cards) when I started work, but all it did was stock control and the wages - something more than easily handled by Excel today.
Who knows what a Vernier is and how it works, without looking for help on Wikipedia? The word gets used in lieu of caliper where I work and I get laughter and disbelief when I explain the nonsense that they are talking when used in that way - no-one under something like 40-45 will have ever used a Vernier in all probability, let alone understand how it works (one of life's very simplest but most elegant bits of maths/science).
The biggest disaster of all - mind-numbingly good healthcare and support across the world, even in the back end of beyond in very many cases, not coupled with sensible birth control.
ICI was inordinately proud of its mainframe (fed with punch-cards) when I started work, but all it did was stock control and the wages - something more than easily handled by Excel today.
Who knows what a Vernier is and how it works, without looking for help on Wikipedia? The word gets used in lieu of caliper where I work and I get laughter and disbelief when I explain the nonsense that they are talking when used in that way - no-one under something like 40-45 will have ever used a Vernier in all probability, let alone understand how it works (one of life's very simplest but most elegant bits of maths/science).
The biggest disaster of all - mind-numbingly good healthcare and support across the world, even in the back end of beyond in very many cases, not coupled with sensible birth control.