> Jecel Assumpcao Jr.
> 
> Tim Rowledge observed:
> > Which is all well and good until you run out of 1's, like we sometimes
> > used to when I was a young'un trudging to school barefoot in the snow,
> > uphill both ways.
> 
> Ron Teitelbaum exclaimed:
> > You had FEET?
> 
> Eliot Miranda clarified:
> > yes, but there was only the one pair to share between all 17
> > siblings...
> 
> You guys are being silly, but when I was in the first year of the
university I
> actualy kept a bag full of 1s. The computer was a Burroughs
> B6700 and students had to use punched cards to program it (this was
replaced
> with terminals the following year). While on normal days the both the card
> reader/printer room and the keypunch room were deserted, on the due dates
> for student projects the lines were Disney-level long.
> To have a faster turn-around for small edits, I had previously collected a
bag full
> of chad from the keypunch machine (the 1s), had typed a card with all
characters
> to have a reference for the codes and had a razor blade for cutting new
holes
> (the 0s). There was no need for tape or anything like that to keep the
chad in the
> covered up holes as the card went through the reader: both the hole and
the
> chad had rough borders and rubbing a fingernail on them on a smooth
surface
> would expand them slightly.
> 

That's pretty funny. 

> -- Jecel
> p.s: the 1s and 0s in this story are probably inverted - just apply XOR
> 1 and it will be true
>