1985, I started to work at a telecom equipment manufacturer. We
had a main frame computer in our combined office- and lab room. We
were four sitting in the room and it was this one terminal for all
of us and maybe even for someone more.
Downstairs, we at component technology department had our big
climate controlled laboratories. I used an HP 85 computer
having the Basic programming language to automize measurements of
resistors. And there were several more of them for other
measurements of various electronic components. Also more advanced
computers were used in the labs and as I recall also with other
languages than Basic. I remember I learned briefly a bit about one
of those languages but have forgotten which one.
The secretary at the department could send Telex messages around
the world. We handed a hand written manuscript to her and she
typed it into the Telex
system. And she had a Xerox computer with big, at least the
8 inch floppy discs.
Not so many years later my manager got a Personal computer running
DOS and some years later it DOS computers also
to the staff. But also very early we had a Sun Unix station. And
for many years Unix became my daily driver at work.
Before I started to work, in school we had some education in Basic programming.
We were using the at least in Sweden very successful and good Luxor ABC 80
computer. At the end of my school time, my school got the top
notch ABC 800 with colour screen.
At home so I could get a chance to learn somewhat more about
computers and Basic programming in my own pace, I got a Zinclair ZX 80
computer, which I later upgraded to ZX 81.
One summer job when I was a student I was at Televerket,
the Swedish PTT. It meant that I visited numerous of exchange
stations. Many at the country side, some with very few subscribers
so I could hear the relay start when someone was making a call. At
bigger stations it was noise from relays all the time.
As I mentioned, after studies were completed I was working with
telecom equipment in particular for land line telephony. Not at
least I worked with components for the line cards, the card at the
telephone exchange that is facing towards the end user.
The book The_Cuckoo's_Egg is a hacker thriller based on a
true story that happened in the mid-1980's going on for a year. It
was written by the hunter shortly after.
Cliff Stoll describes Unix commands, which are similar to
Linux. He talks about passwords, about encryption and a lot more.
Many technical details he describes by using analogy with more
common non technical life examples.
A security hole in GNU-Emacs
software, a software still around today, plays a central
role in how the hacker could penetrate. To fix and update security
holes are very relevant today as well.
Many things in computers and technology have changed. But at the
same time very much of the problems are valid today although th
