I wrote plotting programs to graph the output from a gas chromatograph on a Tektronix 4014 scope and archive the data on the HP2100. Three stories:

First story: I had to manually key in the paper tape loader so I could read the disk bootstrap from paper tape. When I started the job it was slow and laborious, but after about a month I had it memorized. I'd come in in the morning, open the lab, get a cup of coffee, fire up the 2100, and key in the loader, then load the papertape and let 'er rip. Word got round that I had memorized the loader, and they started a betting pool. After a while all the other labrats would show up to watch me start the machine; if I made an error and had to start over, one side won; if I successfully read the loader on the first try, the other side won. Probably about $20 in $1 bets changed hands avery morninig; my 'hit' ratio was about 4:1 in favor of a successful load, and they actually kept track and gave odds to the betters!!! I have a bunch of HP2117 machines now, but none running (no time). And no paper tape reader (damn!!!).

Second story: the guy who ran the lab was an alcoholic; we sectioned rat brains from a drug study, prepped them using liquid nitro, and then analyzed them in the chromatograph. He kept a bottle of vodka which he'd immerse in the liquid nitro to chill it... One night he got *way* drunk, grabbed a (dead) rat, and dropped it in the vat of nitrogen with tongs... after it was solid, he went out in the hallway of the engineering building where the lab was located, started muttering about how stupid the administration was, and threw the rat agains the wall... it shattered into *tiny* pieces which distributed themselves ALL OVER the hallway (highly polished linoleum, very crystallized icy particles of rat). The next morning the building SMELLED BAD.... so bad they closed it down and had a hazmat team clean the hall!!! I may be the only witness as to what actually happened...

Final story: I wrote a program to generate paper mazes on the Univac 1108 that lived in the building. The kind where you start at the 'start' box and find your way through with a pencil... I used to generate and print mazes that were 100 or 200 pages long on large greenbar paper, print them out and then a bunch of students would tape them to the walls in the hallways around the engineering building. At lunch 30-50 students would be standing in front of a page finding their way through with a pencil...

WE had paper tape, and cartridge disk, nothing else... was a 2100MX, I believe. I got 4 HP 2117F machines, fully loaded w/cards, but minimal peripherals; they have a non-HP government floating point board set that replaces the external floating point unit; wish I had that!