Tale of a 40-something a few years from now

[George Toft]

"Hey, Grampa, tell us the story about 80 column punch cards, and why
a good rubber band was your best friend.  You mean you couldn't just
talk to the computer?"

"Well, Sonny, columns 1-5 were for your numeric labels.  A 'C' in 
column 6 meant it was a continuation from the previous line, and your
code went in columns 7-72.  Columns 73-80 were your card sequence
number and it was optional.  Nobody liked to put numbers there because
if we moved a block of code, we would have to resequence the cards.  
Screw that - just make sure you had a good rubber band, and another 
one as a backup in case the first one broke.  Gives you a whole new 
meaning of data backup, huh."

"Grampa, what was the deal with column 1 on the printer?"

"Oh, yeah.  Put a 1 in column 1 and the printer won't advance.  Print
about 10 lines with this:
1====================================================
and all of the print wheels on the line printer would line up and the
strikers would synchronize and go WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP and shake the whole 
computer center.  Heh, heh, heh.  The computer operators would jump
out of their skin - they definitely knew when I ran a job."

"Grampa, what's a line printer?"