Picking up an old text book

Yesterday I took a look at a textbook I have had ever since I took a course in 1972-1973. The book was published in 1969 so it is 50 years old now and is titled "Computer Organization and Programming" by Professor Charles William Gear. Professor Gear is still around; currently at Princeton.
The book does not look very worn; no marks or writing or even food stains.
I read a little bit of it yesterday. Well written, fascinating and requiring more focus and attention than I am likely able to provide at this age.
Why is my copy so pristine?
It was the assigned text for Computer Science 202 a course taught at York University by Professor Frieder Schwenkel. That was his last year at York; he was appointed a Professor at the University of Hamburg in 1973 and passed away in 2012.
Neither I nor my classmates really looked into the book very much when we took the course. Professor Schwenkel's
attention was focused on an Interdate 70 16 bit mini-computer that resided in a room across the hall on the 6th floor of the Ross Building from his office. For reasons good or bad he decided to have us learn about it.
In some ways it was a good choice that made for a fascinating course, especially for me. The Interdata 70 was a half word machine with many of the same instructions as an IBM mainframe cut down to 16 bits. Picking up how to program it in assembly language was not that difficult and we learned quickly how to work with a machine in hands on fashion.
Professor Schwenkel was pretty flexible about we did and at one point he offered me the chance to work on some of the CS408 projects. The one that intrigued me was the development of an interpreter to execute programs written for another computer. I never did program it then but did some work in the area later on.
In the meantime there were some practical problems to solve.
One thing I learned from the course was that you could never totally trust the documentation that came with computers. The machine had shown up with a teletype machine with paper tape as the primary input system but at some point a floppy disk (8 inch size) drive showed up. It was run through an auxiliary processor which Interdata termed a channel (just as IBM did). Only problem, it didn't work the way the documentation said it would. Much scope for endless experimentation the need for which got me a prized key to the machine room for 24 hour access.
Now as I glance at Professor Gear's book I wonder if I would have benefited from a course more focused on its concepts. Certainly I would have approached programming from a more principled and academic foundation as opposed to figuring things out from first principles.
Maybe I should read the book although it does seem a little quaint with flowcharts and program examples written in Fortran. Flowcharts I never bothered with unless an assignment required one but I can sort of still read Fortran and it might challenge my brain a little. And, help me justify having kept the book for 47 years although keeping books around never needed much encouragement for me.

A big move

Big move...living in a different place now. Belleville instead of Moosonee.
Late last fall, after 36 years in Moosonee I moved to Belleville, Ontario. I spent my work hours in Moosonee at Keewaytinok Native Legal Services where I worked as executive director and lawyer. That's a long time to work and live in one place; probably something that few people starting out today will duplicate.
For 21 of those years I lived in a two room apartment in the office. It was not luxurious but it was handy to work. I just walked past the washing machine and into the reception area. I didn't have to go outside at all.
Outside the office was the tidal Moose River and an incredible view of sunrise every morning. Over the years I managed to keep on good terms with some of the local wildlife, particularly the ravens who knew to show up each morning to pick up some breakfast.

Well, all of that is over. Today I live in a seniors apartment project that is much less draft and leaky than my place in Moosonee. If I want to see the sun come up I need to head down to the Bay of Quinte. I don't see any ravens around home although I have spotted a couple in town and I know there are lots out in the country.
Moosonee was an isolated place. No roads led there so I spent a lot of time taking the train back and forth to Cochrane. Moosonee was also an expensive place. Almost always amazed when I go shopping at how cheap things are in comparison.
Because there are no roads to Moosonee it was hard to get things delivered. Nobody wants to ship by rail so it cost a fortune to have anything sent there. Here I can order from amazon and stuff shows up in a day or two. Kind of amazing.
Winter down here is pretty mild although sometimes there is freezing rain but certainly not cold like Moosonee.
Moosonee was a relatively free place in a lot of ways. People did more or less what they wanted unless someone objected very strongly. Belleville is a different world, lots and lots of rules.
Biggest difference between the two places: in Moosonee I knew almost everyone I saw; in Belleville I am pretty much anonymous. Good or bad?

Another great day with a raven family.

Yesterday was a bright sunny day with a good strong wind. Perfect weather in Moosonee for photographing a raven family.
Family may be a strong word; two adults and four juveniles that pester them for food and spend their time screeching away to no one in particular.
The wind made it easier for the ravens to hang in the air, to fly slowly enough for even me to be able to capture them in pictures.
The juvenile ravens will not be around for long. Past experience has shown that they disappear pretty fast. I am sure that their life expectancy is not great; some of them get hit by vehicles before they understand about roads. The parents drive the others off to find their own space. But it is a treat to have them around for a while.
As usual I posted my pictures on my smugmug website:  Pictures of Ravens

Living without a highway

I live in Moosonee, a small town in Northern Ontario. A couple of thousand people, one main store, half a dozen smaller stores, three schools, a bunch of churches, the post office and one bank. Probably not that different from a lot of other small towns.
But there is one big difference. Moosonee is not connected to the Ontario road network. You cannot drive here (well not most of the time). If you want to come to Moosonee you need to take the train or fly.
Moosonee is not the only place in Ontario that is not on a highway. There are lots of much more remote places plus Moose Factory which is just across the river.
Living off the highway network brings some challenges.
For one thing no courier companies come here. If you want something it is going to come in the mail or on the train. You can ship stuff here by courier but the courier company is just going to throw your parcel in the mail. Fortunately, the post office works pretty well.