[Ham-Computers] RE: windows stuff

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

No, as far as I know, there was never a "home" version of Win2K.  The only
thing remotely close (actually, not even close) would be Windows Millenium
Edition (ME).  But I, like Microsoft, would like to deny all knowledge of
that product <g>.

The "Professional" moniker was probably used because Win2K (all flavors) was
targeted to the business market.  It was also used to differentiate it from
the "Server" versions of Win2K.  In all, I believe there was Pro, Server,
Advanced Server, and Enterprise Server (which was only available direct from
approved hardware vendors on enterprise-class, multi-CPU (4-way and 8-way)
servers).

COBOL - the COmmon Business Oriented Language - basically brought to life by
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USN.  One of the first women appointed the
rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy - a bit of trivia, she also coined the term
"bug" when she found a moth trapped in a relay that prevented a computer
from working properly (back in the days when computers were primarily vaccum
tubes and relays).  Since then, things that prevent a computer from working
properly are called "bugs".

I took COBOL classes in the mid-80's.  At that time, COBOL was the primary
language used in banking and accounting systems.  Great language if you
needed self-documenting and readable code, but horrible if you forgot to put
a period at the end of a line and had to dig through 20,000+ lines of code
to find it!  I remember working at a computer shop in the late 80's and a
bank brought in one of their PC's for repair.  It was they're primary ATM
coding system and had the complete source code for their ATM network on
it...it was in COBOL.  Ooooooh if I had only been more mischievous in those
days <g>.  Ahem, anyways, COBOL was the reason I decided not to be a
programmer...just too many lines of code to read and debug.  What a mistake
that was!  Y2K made rich people out of COBOL programmers as COBOL apps
written for the past 30 years needed remediation.  Many COBOL apps were
analyzed and re-compiled in newer languages - typically SQL.  After Y2K,
these same programmers were retained to maintain the new apps.  Typical
salaries for Y2K programmers was $120,000 to $150,000.

FORTRAN - never had a need to learn this as I didn't enter the scientific or
military community.  I belive AIDA replaced FORTRAN in the military, but
FORTRAN is still used for some purposes in scientific areas.

These days, some flavor of SQL is the language of choice for business
systems.  Oracle, Sybase, Peoplesoft, SAP, even webpages use SQL.  It's
simple, easy to read, and doesn't require the rigid "structure" that COBOL
required.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] RE: windows stuff

*** mid-section snip ***

Incidentally, Aaron, was there ever a W2K non-Professional?  I know there
was 
an XP Home version as I cut its CD up and used if for shim stock (didn't
work 
worth a damn there either) but never saw any mention of anything other than 
W2K Pro after the dummies in Redmond decided not to continue calling it NT5.

*** snip ***