so this is just a wee little bit off topic
(hey, what would life be without me to take things off topic?
)
never used a computer of any type before i went into the army
as a artillery surveyor-we were trained-exhaustively-in our mos trng to do manula comps of survey data using logarithms, anti logs, and other big brainiac math
we had several books with pages and pages of log tables and emphemeris' for doing astronomical surveys which we derived positions and direction from
we also had to train on this 1960's P.O.S. that was nearly absolutely useless
the M18 FADAC
affectionately known as "freddy"
then we --thankfully--went to the very handy back up computer system. a chip driven handheld texas instruments machine-which is STILL in use today as a component of the far more advanced AFATADS computer
I didn't have a PC in my home until about 16 yrs ago--does it show through my outstanding lack of knowledge on the subject?!
you got to admit though-after having to go through the nightmare of freddy fadac and some other choice instruments- WHY my faith in computers didn't take hold till later in life