On Apr 16, 2010, at 10:40 PM, Mike Miller wrote:

> I worked for the employment department in California [EDD} when they
> got a
> second megabyte of memory for the mainframe. They were so proud! It
> cost
> them less than a dollar a byte [Around $750,000 IIRC]. That was CORE

And now you can buy a 2Tb drive for $139 and 4Gb of memory for $125!
And, yes I'm old enough to remember CORE memory.  And old enough to
remember when I got a weekly email with the IP name and address of
every computer on the internet to put into /etc/host of all (well
both) of our internet connected computers

r!

> storage.
>
> Mike
>
>
> On 4/16/10 6:40 PM, "Jim Felder" <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>> Funny how things work out. When Germany surrendered, we got the
>> liquid
>> scientists here in Huntsville. The Russians took the solid fuel
>> scientists.
>> They had powerful rockets that could throw anything into space, but
>> they
>> couldn't be controlled as well for exploration. We got the weaker
>> liquid
>> rockets because of the German team we got. We therefore focused on
>> miniaturizing everything we put into space. That led to the
>> transistor. That
>> led to personal computers. That led to the internet that we are
>> communication on right now.
>>
>> One time when I was at NASA with my dad, Dr. Von Braun knew I was
>> there and
>> came out and asked me to hold something. He put a funny-looking
>> cube in my
>> hands. It was the strung iron core memory (anyone remember THAT?)
>> for the
>> mercury capsule, about 16 bits in all if I remember. He said
>> "you're holding
>> two million dollars." What a feeling!
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 8:27 PM, frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Jim,
>>>
>>> I envy the extent of your experience with him! I met Werner when
>>> he was
>>> Director of Marshall Spacecraft Center. We spent an amazing 3+ hours
>>> together during our first meeting on so many subjects including
>>> our mutual
>>> acquaintance, Dr. Willy Ley. I had interviewed Dr. Ley when still
>>> in high
>>> school and spent an amazing weekend at his home on Long Island. I
>>> had a
>>> number of shorter exchanges with him during later years. I later
>>> came to
>>> know Werner even better after he left NASA. As a history buff and
>>> amateur
>>> archaeologist, I was able to visit Peenemunde, Nordhausen and many
>>> of the V2
>>> sites. I was always interested in the chemistry and engineering of
>>> liquid
>>> rocket based propulsion and he got me invitations to several
>>> reviews of the
>>> Saturn propulsion system. Our greatest overlap was the dream of
>>> exploring
>>> Mars. He was focussed on human flight to Mars and I have always been
>>> interested in searching for signs of life or of a second genesis
>>> beyond the
>>> earth. Incredible memories! The man was the most spell-binding
>>> imagemaker I
>>> ever encountered!
>>>
>>> Frank Grunthaner
>>>
>>> On Apr 16, 2010, at 5:31:32 PM, "Jim Felder"
>>> <jim.felder@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> From:"Jim Felder" <jim.felder@gmail.com>Subject:Re: VW quality &
>>> Mercedes
>>> FI & Japanese FI - was - Massive Maintenance and costDate:April
>>> 16, 2010
>>> 5:31:32 PM PDTTo:frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com>Cc:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
>>> Where did you run into Von Braun? My dad worked for him. Everybody
>>> here knew him, we all went to the NASA picnics, tours of NASA, say
>>> him
>>> at sears buying a lawnmower and stuff like that around town.
>>>
>>> He gave me a "Ticket to Mars in Your Lifetime" once. I left it at my
>>> grandparents' house and never saw it again. Wish I still had it!
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:48 PM, frankgrun <frankgrun@aol.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Neat! Knew the man well, never the daughter!
>>>>
>>>> Frank Grunthaner
>>>>
>>>> On Apr 16, 2010, at 4:14:57 PM, "Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> From:  "Alistair Bell" <albell@SHAW.CA>
>>>> Subject:    Re: VW quality & Mercedes FI & Japanese FI - was -
>>>> Massive
>>>> Maintenance and cost
>>>> Date:   April 16, 2010 4:14:57 PM PDT
>>>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>>> Ah ha, looks like the Triumph was just giving you the old "up
>>>> yours"
>>>> on account of your passenger's father.
>>>>
>>>> :)
>>>>
>>>> alistair
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 16-Apr-10, at 2:45 PM, Jim Felder wrote:
>>>> Maybe it was the TR4 distributor that flew apart in the middle of a
>>>> Georgia forest with
>>>> Dr. Werner Von Braun's daughter in the passenger seat in the
>>>> middle of
>>>> the night on the way to Atl anta.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>

I remain, as always
YrLyl&ObdntSrvnt,

r