> On Mon, May 08, 2000 at 07:33:48AM -0400, Pennell, David wrote:
> > Bert,
> > 
> > Nice poem - but I wonder how many of the young folks on the list
> > know what "Face down, nine-edge first" means...
> 
> I'm probably on the youngish side for people on the list, and I 
> was wondering what this meant.

Its a reference to punched cards.  The 9's were along one of the
edges.  I think it was the bottom.  Somebody once pointed out that 
all the information in punched cards was stored in the holes, so
I threw the rest of them away...  On my first coop assignment, we
got to drive 30 miles across town to the CDC office to hand 
suitcases full of those things across the counter so an operator
could read them in.  No, the "old days" weren't better, just different.

-david