I took a job in Cambridge (between Harvard and Central Sq) and moved to MA from Dallas, which was great. What wasn't great was the company moved to the former Wang Towers in Lowell. I didn't move to MA to work in Lowell.
I had a Wang as well. I think it was before we got a IBM 5150 at the tine. Green monochromatic monitor, 640K etc, I believe it was a 286 or the step down below it.
We had a Wang in my high school (in the early 70s). It was quirky because instead of a QWERTY keyboard, it was alphabetical. So much for all us touch typists.
My first Wang didn’t even have a screen or keyboard! Just this little punch card reader. I had to punch the cards by hand then load them one at a time into the reader. Did product cost accounting that way at Raychem Corporation in about 1966!
It was an early 80s thing. Part of the initial PC boom
The operating system was proprietary and not directly compatible to IBM DOS. Had to install and run a secondary program so it could process spreadsheets and databases created using the IBM
I don't think it really lasted more than a few years
That's wild. I was born in 1980. Most likely, I wasn't thinking about computers at the time. I have also never seen an 8 track. What I do remember: cassette tapes, Walkman, floppy disks, brick cellphones, landlines phones, 33(s) and 45(s), tvs with a built in stand and dials on the side.
It was a crazy time. One day all we had were monster size mainframes and dumb terminals. The next, seemed everyone was trying to market a PC. IBM should have owned it. But thought the PC was a fad. It cost them dearly. First worldwide govt contract for PCs came from Zenith, a Mich electronics Co
Omg! That was the first computer I ever used and where I learned to Program when I was back in middle school! 4k, then up to massive 16k! Built in Basic, no OS.
One of the first computers I ever got to play with; can't remember if it did anything other than word processing but that was enough. I think the one at my stepdad's office had the drive for the frisbee-sized floppy disks as well.
One night while in the Army and workig an evening shift in our secure area, a youg Sergeant came in to make an equipment count and she came up to me and asked "where is your Wang?" I just looked at her and said "Sergeant, I don't know you that well!"
I actually was a Wang operator for a while. Weird green textual menus, disk packs the size of washing machines that held 5 megabytes. State of the art!
I know Wang, Lanier, Xerox only too well. I worked as a word processor in the early stages of tech. There were ten or so inch floppy disks, 5 or so inch floppy disks. I worked mostly with teams of women who could be fierce at times. Other times, just plain nasty. I do remember some very nice women.
Haha. I used to live in the town where Wang headquarters was (Lowell, MA) and there are 3 huge towers in the town, still referred to as the Wany towers even though they were sold 30 years ago. A bunch of my friends got their start at Wang
My parents exec search firm was the 1st in Chicago to go computerized in the 1970s. They had a Wang 2000. The games were so fun for me as a kid. Feel like one of the few Gen X whose computer exp started at age 6. LOL. You made my day with this!!
Reminds me of using my first word processor circa 1981, but it changed written communications forever. Much easier than using a typewriter, but very expensive.
oh wow. I've never actually seen one of these, but my father still have the very old manuals from the Wang that he's used before. And it's one of those with the cassette tapes too
Lol... my first computer... floor model at the Montgomery Wards in the shittier mall in my silly western PA town 😆 I think mine had like, a Windows/DOS-Shell that forced me to sometimes have to still write command prompts... memory unlocked for sure #wangman4lyfe
Chase Manhattan bank had a branch in Copenhagen Denmark back around 1985. Did some programming to facilitate the arbitrage department on Wang computers.
My wife had a typing business in the 70's and bought a Wang computer. It cost about $3000 back then, which would be about $17,000 now. Now there's a profession that no longer exists.
Learning the WANG rescued me from the pit of junior accounting and into the realm of the admin assistant. Every morning I'd leave the apartment saying "Off to bang the WANG".
My computer science teacher bought a retired Wang control system from a coal power plant getting upgraded. We had a Wang filling half the room and most of the corridor. But I loved that bigWang. Thanks Mr Grayson.
You know what you get when you cross a mainframe with an AT&T satellite? A 40 ton Wang that's dying to reach out and touch somebody. This early 80s joke has been brought to you by the letter Omega and the number 3.1415926!
In the early 1980s my Dad's tire shop had a WANG mainframe to handle all the business paperwork. Green terminals and all. Those trash can lid disks were awesome. I can still hear that massive printer cranking out sales reports. GREEENTRRRRR!!!!!
I spent a lot of years in the first part of my career working on those, and successor emulators (Niakwa BASIC-2C) running on PCs over early versions of Netware. It paid the bills for a long time. Also worked on Wang VS series systems, mostly MCBA accounting and distribution software in COBOL.
That's a throwback to the 1980's. My first all-in-one was the Northstar Advantage. I actually started a networking company using Northstars. It was very popular until the latter 80's when IBM and Dell began to take control of the market. Once margins diminished, I closed the business.
Word processing on a Z80 processor with up to 64k memory. The OIS system had terminals connected to a server over a proprietary link. It used a proprietary network file system years before Ethernet was invented.
Comments
He put sap on his wang.
The operating system was proprietary and not directly compatible to IBM DOS. Had to install and run a secondary program so it could process spreadsheets and databases created using the IBM
I don't think it really lasted more than a few years
(e.g. 32k - 64k ram for downloadable microcode,
allowing Word Processing without a huge load on the cpu)
https://youtu.be/MgDZQy0nN-Y?si=gpOqlQFm2tZJ9Jmv
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZPPQVSf2227JTmWB9AFMs
If it's creaky plastic, oh no, flimsy Wang.
"My Wahini in Wang...Wangaratta".
So now you've now got a follow and I've got an ear worm 🎶
#TrueStory
Or work on them from behind
Do you have a floppy for your wang?
https://youtu.be/L1k8oHxM_6Y
I lost.
This must be what they meant...
Wang cares.
The games were stored on an 8" floppy.
<:D
( which we renamed the Dissatisfaction centre)
Always got slagged off about the 'company car' I used