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Comments about General Electric Computer Department, IBM, Control Data, Measurex, Landis&Gyr,and, Dilbert Thelen, Ed & Digital Computers
A Typical Day, Some flattering pictures of Ed, a memorial
A "Short" Biography of
- Ed Thelen -
I started this web site in 1996, when most guys showed themselves in their favorite T-shirt next to a red convertible. Being a contrarian, and having no favorite T-shirt nor red convertible, I refused to do that.In 2003, George Runkle asked for a picture, and J.P. Moore asked for a short bio.
Sensing fame and fortune at my doorstep ;-)) I agreed.Here goes!
Hmmmm - a bio - you asked for "a little bio" -
Left puppy died April 2005 at age 16 :-(( Center puppy still writing web sites ;-)) Right puppy was a super dog, died April 2004 after challenging/ignoring an auto for right of way :-((( "Current" "News",
Ah good, that means I can
- leave out all the disgraceful stuff
- leave in only the hero/intellectual stuff.
- and spin everything to my advantage :-))
- - Gee - I could go into politicsOK - lets try it -
A "short" autobiography of (bring up the sound of trumpets)
Ed Thelen
ta ta
ta
ta
ta ta
Executive Summary of Ed Thelen A proposed script for "Dilbert" by Scott Adams
Ed and Dilbert don't know how to flatter the ladies. This year I'm 89, maybe next year I'll learn ??
- Lady says to Dilbert, "Say something romantic."
- Dilbert (Ed Thelen) says "Kepler discovered the paths of the planets."
- Lady thinks "I wish I remembered Bill Clinton's telephone number."
Dilbert vs SalesTypes
What NASA is hiding on the moon ;-))Looking back,
My general motivation, especially in college, seemed to be
The Carrot and The Stick
The Carrot being - I wanted to be able to afford a comfortable family,
The Stick being - I did not want to be poor in old age !!
and "save up for a rainy day !!"Ed has sophisticated tastes, likes Uff da, Minnesota, Minnesota, St. Patrick's Day in Minnesota ;-))
Also a music lesson :-)), a carrot clarinet and OH Yes - Senior Moments, My Life Style
OK, I really like this, and Renée, and, and for a change of pace ;-)) - and this (Hazmat) ;-))
and this for you space junkies - a horse laugh for folks trying to back up a trailer ;-))
A guy's guide to avoiding sexual harassment problems."Golden Years???" - I can identify with this one. - More seriously
Who says guys don't like classical music? - Click on picture)
Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
Victor Borge actually plays the piano.Early on it appeared that I was short of "dumb luck" - other than
- I was not a bad sample of being in the local majority race
- having caring parents, regular food, safe environment
- access and encouragement toward education
- thrift and a work ethic pounded into my skull
so I was in an easy position to try for "Earned Luck" ;-))It turned out that I graduated from engineering at the same time as
- the cold war, more sophisticated weapons, need engineers
- the space race was heating up, need engineers
- computers were more practical, economical for more applications, need engineers
OK, maybe "Earned Luck" was actually "dumb luck" -And this Dilbert was married to a thrifty reasonable woman who
- bore three great kids
- put up with me for 24+ years
and I have been married to another thrifty reasonable woman
- for almost 35 years, (I will be 90 in 2021)
- and all above are "comfortable" and get along "just fine" :-))
My retirement "plan" is (currently) keeping up with inflation.I regard myself as an ex-farmboy super-techie.
Most things farmers produce (grains, animals) get sold and eaten, (die)
so they think a lot about reproduction and new life.
Currently, U.S. college graduates are not reproducing enough to keep their population up.
Old info is that college graduate women average 0.6 kids each.
Considering wars, traffic, etc., 2.5 kids each would seem minimal.
A short tale of my life
As a kid, I seemed more curious about the world than most -
Other kids would say "Curiosity killed the cat!"
I would respond "But satisfaction brought it back!"
In high school I liked physics & chemistry - why??
- but chemistry appeared restricted to DuPont, which seemed limiting
- but in physics, I was also stumped by the double slit phenomena,
so I became a enjinerr .
In my usual chaotic fashion, after getting married and having 1st kid.
Now I'm a grandpop, and remember all of thisA ?universal? truth
My corner
Occasionally
- Ancestors - People keep digging them out of the ground - in Africa yet -
- 13 million year old proposed ancestor of great apes, and me
Alesi skull Alesi skull - from the the Leakey Foundation.
And a 3D animation of the Alesi skull computed from the ESRF microtomographic data. It shows first the skull in solid 3D rendering, then transparent surface rendering is used to show the endocast shape (light blue), the internal ears (green), and the permanent teeth germs (grey and brown). © Paul Tafforeau / ESRF- dated as "just less than 3.18 million years old."
Lucy skeleton - More info.
Her knees and other skeletal features indicated she could easily walk upright, not shuffle as a chimp or gorilla.- No other skeletons - that I admit to ;-))
- Parents? - Yes, two of them - see Tales Of My Parents
- Mother - a nice picture
- Mom was "stay at home", a farm girl with college degree, had taught high school math
- knew the meaning of "hard work - physical labor"
(A day of farm work makes us city slickers moan and groan!)
No kidding, some people really work.
- gave our food to the "out-of-work" in the 1930s
("Out-of-work" seemed the only option for many good people at that time.)
Oh - mother & father married, then found mother had tuberculosis.
No drugs then, she lived on the front porch for several years.
After cure, had me, then my sister- Father - So you would like to know about your grandparents
- Dad was a farm boy, worked through college with help from his sister Lucy, held elected county job. A writing about Lincoln
Stillwater was primarily a farming community of 7,000 in the 1930s and still is.
He was an excellent tenor, by far best in town. He sang with an entertainment group to stay in the public eye for election. Had considered trying for N.Y. opera. Decided that even if he won, how ever remote, life as a singer was not a good way to raise a family. Took up law instead, his sister helped with his expenses, worked as a reporter for the other half.
I thought he sang like Richard Crooks YouTube but needing just a little more practice. He would listen to Sunday afternoon opera on the radio. If Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" was on, tears would stream down his face.
The story, music, and this aria rattles my cage even today, 75 years later.
- Born? - Sounds likely, but I don't remember.
- Age? - 39 - Oh Yea - well maybe a little more
- My kids are now older then when I started to lie about my age.
- born in early 1930s - upper mid-west
- - and now that I'm into volunteering, I'm "fudging" my age again- Sex? - Yes :-))
- Life as kid? - I hated it. (And people would smile and say this was the best time of my life!)
- - I have a sister, two years younger, but faster, bigger, smarter than me :-((
(Are sisters designed to torment brothers?) (I catch up with sister about age 15.)- - My mother wanted me to get into college quickly, talked the grade school into taking me a year early
Unfortunately, I was small for my age and maturing slowly,
Complete with thick glasses and braces on my teeth.
I was so far down the pecking order that girls would talk bullies out of beating on me
by saying I was not worth picking on. I never had a real fight.
AH - I hit a kid once, some kid from 2 grades down started beating on me -
the thing to do.
I hit him back, and everyone jumped on me "pick on someone your own age !!!"- My father worked for the county, near the Superintendent of School's office. The kindly man let me look at the books publishers sent to him. Science books were a big hit with me, he let me borrow them.
- In middle school I studied all the science books in the local library
- Saturdays in high school I took the bus to the St. Paul Public Library.- We had "adopted" an extended family.
- - I was the middle and high school science whiz,
- the complete nerd - thick glasses, dental braces, social retard -
- Boy Chemist
- WWII Pig Farmer :-((
Many weekends went to nearby big city library for science books.
Sometimes lurked around the physics and engineering buildings at the University of Minnesota.
It would have been great to have the Khan Academy !!- My favorite non-science book was "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" - I felt oppressed - The politically correct book was "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" - but he had friends, was too middle class, I didn't empathize -
Later came "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court" ;-))- I wanted to run away, but was too incompetent.
- - Summers mostly spent on family farm, mostly not working hard
I now think of myself as a farm boy and super-techie- Did I mention that my parents were thrifty? You don't get rich working for the county. But they wanted to save for a "rainy day", and medical insurance was unheard of.
So - my father bought a bushel of wheat (probably from a feed store) each fall, and all winter we ate boiled cracked wheat for breakfast. I got SO tired of the stuff. I tried all the different spices to get a change from that blasted bland tasting stuff !!- - During World War II, I was about age 14, my father met a renegade optometrist
who said that he could get many young people out of glasses (and into the AirForce).
His method worked on me until age 50, when I got the usual presbyopia :-)))- - Again, about age 14, we had a neighbor who lost "everything", wife, family, business, house, ... playing with booze and benzedrine -
My high school class was 155
- didn't need a nose ring and spiky green hair to be recognized ;-))
Three guys eventually died in the Korean war. (One by the Chinese!)
I promised to leave out all the disgraceful stuff - but -
When my bio chemicals kicked in - I just couldn't get my eyes off of buxom Marian White, two seats to my left
The teacher should have had mercy on us and moved me to the front of the room! I was embarrassed and awful :-((
Our family got its first TV (black & white of course)
- after I got out of high school.
Executive Summary of "growing up".
I hated it !!!
If I could live all over again, but have to re-live this childhood,
- I'd likely say "thanks but no thanks".but I've always wanted kids - Graduate from High School? - Yes - at last - longest 12 years of my life
- there has got to be a better way!!!
The teachers seemed glad to see me leave
I guess that was nice and friendly.- Long Held Biases
- First Job
- Military Career? - A short three years
- Title? - "Knob dicker", I adjusted and fixed Nike radar and computer things.
- See www.ed-thelen.org
- College? - Yes - several - Maybe too many - like how many folks you know took 8 years to get a B.S.?
- College support? - Parents, reading to blind, janitoring, loading trucks, G.I.Bill, instructing, manufacturing techie
- Got asked to leave College? - Yes
- Graduate from College? - Yes
- Major? - That was a problem, tried several - didn't seem to fit,
- but now I are a happy enjineer :-))
- Ed, the Oil Well Consultant ;-))
- Vice(s) other than the "seven deadly" - I compute Pi :-))
- Hired? - Yes, Several times
Honeywell, G.E.ComputerDepartment, IBM, CDC, Measurex, Landis&Gear
- Fired? - Not too often
Measurex - insubordination - Yup, this product sucks, I ain't goin ta do it. ;-))- What did you do at work? - I don't tell people,
especially not my bosses.
Folks have a right to privacy you know!!
(Actually a computer programmer in industry, had seen enough of government.)- Memories? - frustration, what did I get done today?? this week??
- Why are my feet stuck in mud?? - It is mud isn't it?? - Oh! No! - its poop!!!
- Married? - Yes - too often
- About 1958, a young lady gave a no longer drifting ex-soldier, now engineeering student, a serious book - "Introduction to Finite Mathematics" by Professor John Kemeny, of Dartmouth College. The student was so impressed by the young lady's obvious good taste, and other things, that a year later he proposed and was accepted.
- First lasted 24.3 years - just couldn't squeak it to 25?
- After 24.3 years of my Dilbert type imperfections, and kids mostly out of high school, she left. Now 29 years later (2011), she is still searching. I figure it was a better marriage than most :-) but I sure was sad at the ending !!
Amazing what you can find on the Internet ;-))
from http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/43434/1/1958-59-15.pdf - included in a long list of terminations -- "Irene S Talsness Secretary St Paul Student Center effective May 28, 1959"
The poor dear had resigned to marry me.- Current marriage has lasted 22 years (2011)
- Nerds like me shouldn't get married,
- Guys with property and/or prospects worry about this
- While others are "attentive", which seems to attract women
- most women seem to prefer jerks like Bill Clinton
- Got pregnant? - Never :-((
- Got someone else pregnant? - Yes, several times :-))
- Kids? - yes :-)) Sons, in order of birth
and grandkids, Mason, Rose, Arthur ;-))
- Edward, What I do
- Carl, B.A. Berkeley, w G. Larson, electric car, Thelen Family CoatOfArms
- Randy, website an autobiography;-)), wedding ;-)) Display of a FORTH processor at early Vintage Computer Fair West Randy, MIPPY, 1984 Job Review (still in high school, but he refused to pass history), published in 1994 Byte, starts 3rd page.
- Comment on kids? - If ya ain't got kids, yur missing out on half of life.
I've always wanted kids.
- Kids on welfare? - Not too often
- See kids? - Yes - Everybody about 20 miles apart,
- maybe right distance.- Gramps?
:-)))
- Hey, Hey - Look at this
"Kids" and Mason
Rose
Arthur@60Hrs
Christmas 2013Two grandmas, one grandpop, three sons, two daughters-in-law, three grandkids :-))
- Millisecond of Fame? ;-))
1. The first edition of "Fire in the Valley The Making of the Personal Computer", Paul Freiberger & Michael Swaine - Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Copyright 1984, IBSN # 0-88134-121-5 has my picture at the Home Brew Computer Club on page 92. I'm the guy with the beard in the exact center of the audience. :-)) I ain't vain - I bought only 3 copies of the book!!! ;-)) Unfortunately, this picture did not survive into the next edition :-((
McGraw-Hill didn't ask me to use this picture of me, I didn't ask to use it either ;-))2. My adventure in the Steve Jobs garage. - Current occupation?
- Retired in 1996 -Knockin about, tellin lies, goin to enjineerin talks way over my head, docent at several local museums. Havin fun, almost as good as young Muslim males kill for, and I also have Betty, a pond, and the Internet :-)) - www.ed-thelen.org - Spending a lot of time helping restore an old IBM 1401 computer, and when I can play with Big Toys.The idea that I am not totally dependent upon the government Social Security system seems to horrify some of my liberal friends - who seem to think that the government should be "the Great White Father in Washington" to us all, not just the tormented Native Americans.
- Retirement - hopes vs reality
HOPES - 1960 REALITY - 2011 Live long enough to retire
- my father died at 64I'm 15 years longer lived Own home Yup - nice water garden in back Be married Yup, different woman :-) Have grand kids handy Yup - three ;-)) Have computer, maybe a transistorized LGP-30
w 16 K words of memoryYup - a super scalar, pipelined ...
w a million times more memory- maybe twice as fast Yup - a million times faster - a faster Flexowriter Yup - two color moniters, faster than me - current cost about 5 houses - current cost about 1/500 of a house Spend a lot of time in library Spend a lot of time on Internet, even better Have some interesting friends Yup - almost too interesting Have some health Gettin old is a drag Have enough jingle in the jeans to:
- NOT have to live in the men's dorm
- of the county poor farm- Enough control and cash to
have spiked egg-nog for New Years- Eat ice cream every day :-))
Mostly Yup:
- Yup - paid up house - no bank loan/lien
- Yup - got enough jingle in jeans
to take wife out every week- Nope - I'm round enough already !!
- Known Beauty?
- Yes, some aspects - Even though I like some country/western & popular music - Mozart, Beethoven, Puccini can truly send me (I still tear up when listening to Madame Butterfly talk/sing to her son of his returning U.S. Navy father.) - One late night while studying differential equations, Green's theorem, etc. I had a flash of the beauty of the symmetry of mathematics. Unfortunately the flash did not last, but it was a *really* interesting feeling! - There is something beautiful about gardening and raising kids. but bugs and noise ain't - and mountain meadows and peaks in the growing season - sublime - I'm told that poetry can be beautiful - but something doesn't resonate with me :-(
- Biases (known)
1) Primitive I grew up in Minnesota, Obviously Minnesota people are better than say Iowa people! 2) Always did like history. Figured the world would be a better place if: a) History was as accurate as possible News "spinners" really irritate me! b) Folks bothered to check history for what seemed to work and what didn't work. c) Watching what we have been doing to/with our country for the past several decades - is depressing - 3) Within certain limits, science seems a good way to know the world.
- Admired People - with a bias toward physics ;-)
Shake hands with:
- Galileo Galilei
- Seymour Cray
- Hyman Rickover
- Isaac Asimov
- Copernicus
-Sit respectfully at feet of:
- Johannes Kepler
- Isaac Newton
- Archimedes
- Albert Einstein
- Carl Friedrich Gauss
- Richard Feynman ;-))--- a stolen quote --- from John Dubinsku
From what I've read, Galileo was.... on the arrogant side while Newton was an unpleasant, sociopathic sort of guy ... . Kepler — seemed to be the one who was the most 'normal'. While unravelling the mathematical mysteries behind the motions of the planets, he still had time to raise a family with a bunch of kids, write science fiction, think about music and mathematics and defend his mother in a witchcraft trial, all in the midst of the Thirty Years War. Now that is an interesting person.
- Most appreciative of - last 50 years
Mikhail Gorbachev & Ronald Reagan
Who had the courage and confidence to wind down the "Cold War", peacefully.
- Religion?
Not Currently, I'm not really hungry or scared.
but I'm open - just don't know which religion yet
Muslim but the idea of being awarded 78 virgins for killing some "unbeliever" - doesn't seem right - I take it the virgins don't have a say in the matter -
- - besides, I like classical and country/western music
Buddhist but I like Chinese chicken salad Christian my mother tried to get me to believe - but I couldn't understand why a loving God would give us mosquitoes and cancer
- and I'm not much into turning the other cheek -
Conservative boring - sad but true, except when arguing with Liberals ;-)) Liberal too far from reality, especially when arguing with Conservatives ;-)) Atheist but are we sure? - - we don't even know what a photon "looks" like
Maybe sun worship ain't so bad after all -
most of us do it anyway
- what day is today (how many times did the sun re-appear)
- it is time to go to work (the sun angle is that way)
- and we wear watches, watch clocks,
and most of us gear our lives to the sun much more
than to any other idea, except maybe various hungers -
- Aggression?
"Good fences make good neighbors." ;-))
You stay on your side of the fence, and we'll all feel comfortable.
If I dig a well, I might be willing to share, especially for something in trade
but you want to take it - I'm willing to fight unless you can scare me offI'm told our likely ancestors - the ramapithecines of 15 million years ago - had already lost their baboon like fighting teeth.
Had they already picked up the stick/spear to poke the eyes and throats of hungry predators
- like the big cats (lions, leopards, ...) which made their/our fangs redundant?
To carry clubs and spears proto-people need to walk/run on two feet
To hunt/defend effectively, a group helps, and detailed communicated plans/commands help group actions.
A fun read - The Hunting Hypothesis: A Personal Conclusion Concerning the Evolutionary Nature of Man by Robert Ardrey
- Worst Mistakes?
I've had a long and varied life, and have done my share of regretted screw-ups that I know about,
and surely many I don't know about.
However - suggesting/permitting two of my three kids go to University of California at Berkeley seems to take the cake!
I thought it good for them to go where
- free discussion,
- diverse opinions,
- varied backgrounds
would open up their world.Instead they were thrust into an environment where
- dissidents are shouted down or demonized,
'cause "they would do that to us if they could"
- fire or fail anyone with different opinion
- varied backgrounds by a *really* unfair quota system
and I think they suffer long term negative effects of this brain-washing.
- "Human Resources" in companies "H.R."
- Philosophy?
- Modern college folks tend to tease folks that have kids by calling them "breeders".
Having read about the birds and bees, and Darwin, I call "non-breeders" - "drones", "Darwinian Failures". :-))
Possibly the world would be a better place if say Grace Murray Hopper had great kids instead of COBOL.
(Actually, she developed predecessors, and sent others to COBOL committee meetings.
Konrad Zuse may have defined the first computer language.)- - Ya know, we ought to redefine marriage, like we are redefining everything else. People expect too much - we aren't like the beaver couples or farm couples going out two-by-two to set up house in some remote region - and trying to cooperate with each other in the struggle against nature and make a family together as long term partners.
- We ought to face that we are now a city people - and do change partners about as fast as we change cars or houses. We ought to tell kids early "This is your Temporary Daddy - soon Temporary Daddy and I will have a big fight or get bored or get the hots for someone else - then we will make a hell of a mess, split - then I might get you another Temporary Daddy.
- "Yeah, I know that Temporary Daddies tend to mistreat their Temporary Kids, but he's got such cute buns. And I just know (my intuition tells me) that he won't get drunk and beat me like he did that other woman. And he promised me not to do drugs anymore if I let him move in with us. If that doesn't work out I can get the county to help pay the bills and the child care. We will see what works."
- That way kids know what to expect, and might not be so shattered when the inevitable happens. We should recognize that with DNA testing we can figure out who made who, and not expect the liberated females to hang out with just one guy - just so some guy isn't stuck with supporting somebody else's kid. Time to face reality.
- Or maybe the Muslim idea is realistic - the guy repeats "I divorce thee" three or four times and "thee" is outta there. (Apparently the woman has to appeal to a local (religious) court if the husband does not wish her to divorce.) In "Western" countries the effect is about the same except it takes a few months and the lawyers and accountants get into the act - for what reason? So that the lawyers and accountants can get a cut of the deal? (I have no idea what the Muslims do about any kids involved.)
- (The above is not necessarily personal experience, but I've watched a lot of unpleasantness and needless sadness.
If we remember that we are just silly ducks quacking and dancing around the pond, and not the serious, studious geese nearby, we should all feel better.)- I am reading "Lord of Arabia", by Armstrong, a biography of King Ibn Saud, and his rise to power in the early 1900s from very humble beginnings. Muslims can have four wives at a time. Ibn Saud kept three most of the time - so that if it seemed a good idea to marry another right now, he would not have to return home to divorce one. He claimed to have had hundreds of wives during his life time, with out ever exceeding the allowed 4 concurrent rule - smart fellow. I think? :-)) In one raid, he got wounded in the thigh. (page 94) His allies figured he was useless and were ready to leave, or even turn on him.
"He would show them he was not unmanned. He was still a man. He called a sheik of a neighbouring village and bade him find him a girl, a girl and a virgin, fit for him to marry. That night, that very night he carried out the ceremonies and consummated the marriage in his tent in the middle of the camp and ordered all the camp to celebrate the occasion." It worked, he was a hero again. On to the eventual conquest of Arabia.
- "We will raise some kids through high school together, then all bets are off".
That might help a lot!! My (our) kids were mostly through high school, when the wife left, "to pursue other interests". (Well - OK - She asked me to leave the ski touring section. There was Jim Weaver, a ski touring leader.) There was ample evidence of her plans, getting college, working her way "up" the income scale. The timing was a little unexpected - but I was devastated anyway. If the marriage "contract" had stated "kids through high school", I maybe would not have hoped/dreamed of later "golden years" together.- Lots of folks split "when the nest is empty". I just read the Lowenstein biography of Warren Buffett. Wife "Susie-O" did a great job of raising the kids and caring for the absent minded, pre-occupied Warren. But when the kids left, she went off to fulfill her dream of becoming a cabaret singer. Settling in San Francisco, a thousand miles from Warren, visiting family affairs as though all was just fine. They didn't divorce - Warren's friends found him a compatible girl friend, a compulsive bargain hunter, and the three seem just fine at family occasions. Maybe there is a lot to be said for that.
- Same sex marriage? - Ya just gotta be kidding - I think all marriage should probably be outlawed as too risky.
- We make motorcycle folks wear helmets, when they are much more likely to be shattered by a failed marriage than any other "accident".
- And what gives the government the "right" to make "us" get a license to get married anyhow? What a whakky idea. George Washington didn't need to get a license - this marriage license stuff was invented in the 1800s presumably as a way to prevent us from marrying another race!- Marriage is a horrible financial decision!
- Long ago, there was a little tax incentive to get married -
- Now, unmarried women with children can get "Section 8" paying 90% or more of the rent. Also, they are eligible for many other financial aids from the feds, the state, and local governments.
So, I recommend that couples that want children SHOULD NOT MARRY!!
They are way ahead in many ways living together, having children, and getting a lot of financial aid.
A friend of mine rents out houses in Silicon Valley, and there women with children can get Section 8, to pay $3,000/month rent :-)) Imagine having all that extra money to spend !! And they can still live with the "boy friend".- Heroes
- (Admiral) Hyman Rickover - got the navy superb nuclear submarines 10 years early.
- (Computer designer) Seymour Cray - world's fastest computers for 3 decades.
unfortunately, they were both a little asocial and a pain for administrations.
- (Executive) Andy Grove, author of "Only the Paranoid Survive",
added after experiences "volunteering".- What I think I learned
- A "little white lie" ain't all that bad -
Still don't like 'em - and - I don't fool anyone :-((- I'd rather be a little hungry all the time :-(
rather than big fat all the time :-((
- Now when I take a break, I get a glass of hot water instead of food. It helps a lot!- "Being a little hungry is a good strategy."
from Robert Garner (who, based on results, uses a number of good strategies.)- What I haven't learned
- Patience, do nothing - just relax