Our Anniversary

Today Elaine and I celebrate our 31st anniversary. I was thinking back to Elaine being in the hospital with our new baby on our 1st anniversary. The years have flown by since then.

Before I was married I was staying with an older couple in our church. I had just started my job so only planned to go to Camp for the weekends. I ended up getting sick and couldn't go the first weekend. I was feeling sorry that I had to stay home while everyone else was at Camp. I kneeled beside my bed and prayed that when I went to Camp the next weekend I would meet a new friend. When I got to Camp it became clear that Elaine wanted to be my "friend." And we became even more than friends. By that November we were engaged, and the next April we were married.

Last year while I was in hospital in critical condition, a nurse was asking Elaine how long we had been married. She said that we would be coming up to our 30th anniversary. The nurse asked what we planned to do to celebrate our anniversary. Elaine replied "We are going to celebrate being alive!" God answered prayer and I did revive. After a lengthy recovery, I was out of the hospital before our anniversary last year. And I was well enough that we were able to go out for supper for our 30th anniversary, and "celebrate being alive."

Now another year has gone by and Elaine and I can still "celebrate being alive!"

Happy Birthday Janny

Today is Janny's birthday. Our family has two April birthdays. Ten days ago Mike turned 25, and today Janny is 30. To put it in perspective, I was almost 25 when Janny was born, and almost 30 when Mike was born. Ok, you do the math.

Janny's birthday is the same day as her Grandma A's birthday, as well as the same day as her cousin Lisa's birthday (she's 13!!).

It is hard to believe it is 30 years ago that our first little baby was born. And she got to be our only child for over two and a half years before Mary showed up. Now she is back here as the only one with us for a time ( a lot taller but just as cute).

Happy Birthday Janny. We will see you in a week when you are back from your trip to the Left Coast.

Today's Verse

This week I have started a new part of my blog labelled Today's Verse. I just added a simple text box that I manually edit periodically when I feel inspired to do so.

Often I use a Bible program to find verses I am thinking about, searching by word or phrase. I have used a program called Online Bible for many years, that can be downloaded for free from www.OnlineBible.net. I also sometimes use a website www.BibleGateway.com to find verses I am looking for. Of course I still use a regular concordance, but these Bible programs are helpful.

Today's verses are by special request of Janny. She has often reminded me of these verses.

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Col 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Hooray for Mary

Maryanne has now successfully completed the Comps for her Phd program, with 3 written exams April 7th, 9th and 11th, followed by the oral exam today. Reading 200 books in preparation for these comprehensive exams required a lot of endurance and perseverance.

Congratulations Mary, you have made a major accomplishment. You have gone a long way since we first saw you head off to school. You will do great as you move on to the next phase.

Happy Birthday Mike

Today is Michael's birthday. It is quite a thing for his Mom and I to think that our youngest is now 25. This is a big year for him finishing his degree ( BA Honours), and we are proud of how well he has done and what he has accomplished. And there are more exciting times ahead with hopes to get established in a permanent career, and working on wedding plans and house plans.

Happy Birthday Mike. Have a great year!

Canadian Computer History

In the early 1960s Canadians were at the forefront of computer development. The FP-6000 computer was developed by Ferranti Packard Canada with the first production machine completed in early 1963. Only five production machines were ever built with the largest FP-6000 installation used by Saskatchewan Power Corporation for twenty years.

The picture above shows a keyboard used by the operators to control the computer and some of the magnetic tape drives. The computer itself filled an entire wing of the building.

The FP-6000 had very advanced features and capabilities for its time. It only had 32k of memory, which is minuscule by today's standards, but it could control up to 64 input/output devices. It was one of the first computers to use an Operating System to allow multi-tasking of programs. This is now standard with all computers. Prior that computers had to be extensively reprogrammed to allow them to run a single application.

Ironically, Ferranti Packard Canada was located in Malton Ontario just down the road from where the famous advanced Canadian fighter jet the Avro Arrow was developed before being cancelled by the government in 1959. The Canadian computer advancements in the FP-6000 met a similar fate when Ferranti Packard Canada's parent company, owned by the British government, discontinued the FP-6000 and moved all computer development to England. The FP-6000 has been referred to as the "Avro Arrow of the Canadian computer industry". Also similar to the Avro Arrow, the Canadian government was more interested in development in the US than recognizing Canadian innovation.

I was involved in programming the FP-6000 for several years in the late 1970s, using a language called ALGOL, and an assembly language called Autocoder. The programs and data were entered on punch cards as described in my previous post on Computer History. At the time I was not aware of the FP-6000's place in computer history.

In 1983 the Saskatchewan Power Corporation's FP-6000 was donated to the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw to "provide a lasting example of an important Canadian contribution to the Information Revolution".

Another Milestone

At the end of February I posted when it was One Year Later after being in hospital in critical condition. As of today, April 13, I have reached another milestone. It is now one year since I got out of the hospital after being there seven weeks.

I am very thankful to God for the measure of health I have had in the last year. And I am looking for further improvement.

Some Good Quotations

About 10 years ago I took a management course given by the organization started by Dale Carnegie. He was an American writer and lecturer who lived from 1888-1955 and developed courses for personal development and business.

His best known book was How to Win Friends and Influence People that has sold 50 million copies since 1936. About friendship he said: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Which is another way of saying that the way to make a friend is to be one" We also see this in Proverbs 18:24 "A man who has friends must himself be friendly."

Dale Carnegie's daughter said of him: "The importance and joy of work - overcoming fear and defeat by courage and persistence - love and gentleness and courtesy between human beings - a strong sustaining faith in God: this was his creed" He was a great optimist and was a strong proponent of a positive outlook on life and positive personal relationships.

One thing he wrote that showed his positive outlook was: "About 90 percent of the things in our life are right and about 10 percent are wrong. If we want to be happy all we have to do is concentrate on the 90 percent that are right and forget about the 10 percent that are wrong. If we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcers all we have to do is think about the 10 percent that are wrong and ignore the 90 percent that are glorious"

Even though Dale Carnegie lived several decades ago, his writings still have some very practical advice for our everyday living.

On a Wing and a Prayer

For my work I used to travel quite often to places in Canada and United States for meetings, conferences and training courses. I was used to flying frequently, but one trip was particularly memorable. In the mid 1980s I went to a course in Schenectady, New York, near Albany the state capital. The travel agent had booked a different route going down compared to coming home. While I was at supper one night, I mentioned the small regional airline I had been booked on to fly from Albany back to Toronto. The local people laughed when I mentioned this airline. I thought to myself "This is not a good sign"

I made a trip by bus over the weekend to visit an aunt and uncle in New York state. Then when I returned I tried to call a taxi to go to the airport. Someone had ripped out all the pages for taxis in the phone book and only wrote in one number. I had no choice so called the number and an old beat up car came with a rough sounding motor. He opened the trunk with a screw driver and then wired it shut for the trip to the airport. Along the way I wasn't sure if the motor would die. Then he called the dispatcher and said "How do you get to the airport anyhow?"

We made it to the airport and I headed to the gate and found it deserted. No other passengers and no one at the desks. I double checked and was sure this was the right place. Then I saw two young kids (I thought about high school age) around a twin engine commuter plane. They came in and put on their jackets and captain's hats and said they were ready for the flight. These were the pilots! I was their only passenger so we went out to get on the plane.

While on the runway as they revved up the engines there was a loud buzzing sound in a control box between the seats. One pilot gave it a whack with his hand and the buzzing stopped. He said, "Those stupid mechanics we have don't know what they are doing!" I decide to do an additional preflight prayer. With that we were off and flying.

We landed at a stop in Rochester. The young pilots headed off into the airport to look for a pop machine. (Obviously a low budget operation.) While they were away I overheard the baggage workers saying "Did you see last time those guys landed here? The plane ran over a baggage cart when it came around the terminal building." So far I am not hearing a lot of good endorsements for this airline.

Then the announcement came over the intercom "Now boarding at gate 57, ---Airlines Flight to Toronto" Of course I was still the only passenger. The pilots had found their pop so we were off for the last part of the trip. When we finally landed in Toronto and taxied up to the gate the "Captain" threw off his headset and said "We made it!" Why is he surprised??

I would have to say that was one of my more "interesting" flights.

Calculator History

For many decades before the advent of calculators and computers the slide rule was the standard for scientific and engineering calculations. Most people learned to use a slide rule in high school science classes. Engineers were known for walking around with a slide rule hanging in a leather holster on their belt. In university I had a very good quality precision slide rule like the one below (Geotec Versalog II). I received it as an award for being the top student in first year engineering.
When I was in first year university one of the other students got the first calculator we had ever seen. Every one crowded around to see this new marvel of technology - a pocket sized four function calculator! (It doesn't take much to get engineers excited.) I believe he paid several hundred dollars. Then a while later I bought my first calculator, a Sears Digimatic 8 like the one below for $89. This made an amazing difference for homework but I still had to rely on my trusty slide rule for many calculations.

After the first pocket sized calculators came out there was rapid advancement with more and more functions resulting in the availability of scientific calculators. By the end of second year university I bought a Hewlett Packard HP 35 calculator like the one below for $255. The HP 35 was the world's first pocket scientific calculator and used Reverse Polish Notation. This was an engineer's dream. Unfortunately after using this all through third year it malfunctioned and wasn't repaired on warranty in time for final exams. I had to go back to my slide rule for my exams (I still did OK though.)

So ends my second chapter in the history of technology. Stay tuned for further episodes.

The Birds

By special request I have been asked to retell the story of The Birds. This is a true story. Only my name has been changed ... OK back to the story.

Where I work there used to be a hedge along the front of the parking area. There were birds that had nests in the hedge (I think people said they were shrikes). As we would come and go between our cars and the building these birds would swoop and dive at our heads with a loud shrieking sound. One day as I was coming out from the office going along the sidewalk to my car I could see a group of these birds circling in formation and starting to swoop down closer to me. I started to walk faster and faster with my briefcase in one hand and my oxygen tank in the other hand. Just as they were coming down above my head, I was nearing my car and trying to hurry to open the door and get in. In my rush I got the oxygen hose tangled around my leg as I tried to get into the car, and then couldn't get my leg in to close the door. I finally got myself untangled and closed the door as the birds hovered and shrieked outside the window.

These birds are history now since the hedge was removed a number of years ago. But the story is one that my family and some of their friends seemed to find quite amusing.