[speaker001:] So, the ques-, the question had something to do with usage of personal computers, um.
[speaker002:] Yes, we are, we are talking about computers this morning.
[speaker001:] Um, I'm a firm believer in, in having lots of them. I'm sitting at my desk now with four machines [LAUGHTER] in front of me.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] You have, you have four machines around you, boy, well, you've, uh, you've got me beat. I have a, a Zenith here
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and at home I have a Commodore
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and a Zenith, and my wife has an A T and T Twelve Hundred, I believe it is.
[speaker001:] Good grief. What do you do with all those?
[speaker002:] Well, actually on my Commodore I mainly study lottery numbers, would you believe. I have written some, uh, programs in Basic
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] whereby I can select any number of, uh, drawings
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and from that extract the numbers that have appeared the most
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] I have another program in which I can look at the cyclical, uh, appearance of these numbers
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] to see if there's anything that's consistent on that. I have another number that allows me, another program that allows me to add all the numbers I want, and then it generates a complete set of numbers so that all combinations are covered
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] so this is what I do most of the time, uh,
[speaker001:] That's what you do on your, at least one of your machines
[speaker002:] On my Commodore
[speaker001:] on your Commodore.
[speaker002:] on my Commodore, uh-huh. And of course I have, uh, word processors, and I write all my letters
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] it's wonderful, uh, my, uh, thoughts in my head
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] come in bursts of about a paragraph at a time, and I get
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] them all down, and naturally on a computer if you make a mistake, who cares, you can go back and, uh, correct [LAUGHTER] it very easily
[speaker001:] Yes, yes.
[speaker002:] so that makes it very, very nice. I get all my thoughts down and go back and clean it [LAUGHTER] up very, very readily. So how about you, Charles?
[speaker001:] Well, I, um, I do an awful lot of preparation of documents, um, uh, and I use word processors and, and fancier programs, I mean
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you know, graphics programs and simply make all of our slides, some of them I do on a Sun, some I do on an X T
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] now maybe we don't call these personal computers, um, I started out with, you know, an I B M P C back in the, you know, about a year after they came out
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and, you know.
[speaker002:] So, whe-, where, may I ask where you work, sir?
[speaker001:] I work for the government in Washington.
[speaker002:] I know you work for the government, I just wondering are you an, or what, what, what section of it,
[speaker001:] Of, in, in, in an obscure part of the defense department.
[speaker002:] Oh, uh-huh, because, see, that's my type of work, too. I work at the Applied Research Lab
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] here, here on campus, and, my, my field is underwater acoustics
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and there's a lot of things we can do with computers into, uh, studying how, uh, things vary in the water, you know
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, uh, taking advantage of them, and so forth, so it's a very nice, very nice field, and I, I am retiring at the end of this month. End of December, excuse me.
[speaker001:] Are, are, are you, are you also a professor, or, or do you
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] just research.
[speaker002:] I'm a, I'm an associate professor, but my, I, I'm a full time researcher
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] and it's, uh, been a very, very interesting career, believe me.
[speaker001:] I can believe.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] What are you going to, what are you going to do when you stop, I mean, take all your machines with you, or,
[speaker002:] Well, uh, the ones here in the laboratory obviously I'm, they're going to stay, but I have similar machines at home.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] I would consider doing some more consulting when I get home
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] but I have a very, very busy extra life anyway. I'm also a musician, and I play in several symphony orchestras
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] and, uh, I run a concert band, {C and
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] so } I have a lot of external, uh, interests
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] but I do want to get very deeply, much more deeply into computer work, because obviously the world is going to be controlled
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] run and operated
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] by computers in the future. There's no doubt about it, because it is really taking over, and the amount of work that we're doing and the depth of things that we are studying can basically only be handled by computers, because, uh, it's so much [LAUGHTER] involved
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and it sounds as though you're probably more aware of that than I am, because, uh, I don't get to use it in my daily work as much as I would like to. Here again
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] let's say I'm starting to getting ready, in preparation for retirement
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and, uh, so basically what I'm doing is slowly getting rid of my things. For many, many years I had a full size acoustics, uh, study laboratory
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] whe-, where I could take recordings and, and, uh, perform experiments
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] with them and so forth, and so that's gone now, and so I'm sort of out of business.
[speaker001:] Um.
[speaker002:] Uh, as I say, I worked with fellow named Steve Blazey
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] was the fellow I worked with for many, many years
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and he is now retired. So it's been an interesting life, and computers have come in towards the latter end of that. I wish we had had computers in the very beginning. It would have been,