2026-07-10 04:11 UTC
@tao@mathstodon.xyz
I ran the first UCLA Math departmental computer when I was a grad student under David Cantor from 1979 to 1982. We had a DEC PDP-11/23 with 512KB RAM, a 70MB disk, and 9600-baud serial ASCII terminals. I brought up Unix v6 and then v7 by generating bootable root images on 2.5MB removable RK05 disks on a computer down in the Comp Sci department.
Just as I was leaving in 1982, the department replaced the PDP-11/23 with a VAX, and another grad student, Peter Reiher, took over as sysadmin.
Replies (1)
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@splitradix@assemblag.es 2026-08-04 06:59
@weaselx86@mastodon.social @tao@mathstodon.xyz When I enrolled in Dublin City University in 1995 the first computers I got access to as a 1st year applied physics undergrad student was a VAX/VMS system with the classic green text terminals. I have foggy memories of editing config files and using text based email system. The following year it was replaced with Debian on a Digital Alpha 2000A.