Eclipse user

Hi, All

 I have been an Eclipse user  B4 it got really, really "popular."   I had been on quite  a few of the Stenograph systems, including

when Stenograph first started with CAT and data cassettes were used and we had to read the cassettes  in a data reader,  and send them

to Chicago for translation.  I wsa on the SMUG Board (forerunner to the current STAR) at the time Case Catalyst was introduced.

In short, I eventully found my way to Eclipse and I too have never looked back. 

There is so much that E can do and I just don't utilize all the great features that it has yet.  But I love the system.

In case anyone cares, I live in Minnesota (affectionately referred to as the "frozen tundra" ).  

Take care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome, Jim!

My, you do go back.  (Giggle) I remember data cassettes, too, but we didn't have to send them to Chicago.

I used to live in South Dakota.   Around April it would warm up to O degrees and everybody would run about saying, It's spring! It's spring!

I went to the wedding of a court reporting student friend of mine in North Minnesota, close to the Canadian border.  I didn't know any place  could be colder than South Dakota, but it was!

Glad you're here!

Hi, Wynne

Glad to know that my post went through.  I couldn't find it in the Eclipse section.

Just so you know, when I said we'd send cassettes to Chicago, I mean it would

be read in Mpls. then sent via telephone to Chicago!!   One of the first

transcripts I got back had transcript pages of somebody else right

in the middle of mine.   Actually, it was Stenograph's first attempt at a

transcript center using Data General Hardware.  A  person's dictionary was

located on an individual "doughnut" that was inserted into a huge drive each time

you wanted to work on your transcripts.  Aah, those were the days!!!

Who's the reporter whose wedding you attended?  Are they still around?

Take care. 

 

 

Hi!  I remember huge round "things" we called our dictionaries that we inserted into a big Baron main frame!  Is that what you call the "doughnut"?

I'm vague on my friend's name.  Might have been Pam Dennis....unless that's someone I know now! (giggle)

She was tall, short blond hair.  Her first job was in Champagne, Illinois.  Never saw her or heard from her after graduation, but I remember vividly going to her parents' home close to the Canadian border in Minnesota.

I think it was Pam Dennis.   Fiance's name was Craig I think.  He was a runner, ran 2 miles a day or more.  Her father was a minister.  Think she moved on to a big city after the job in Champaign.  Anybody know her?

Hi, Wynne

Nope, it was not Baron.  This was Stenograph's first attempt at CAT with a translation center in Mpls.   Bill Braun was a court reporter in Mpls  who was heavily involved in getting their CAT program started and they used Data General hardware.  They were about 25 - 30 inches tall, blue in color and the "doughnuts" were assigned one for each reporter.   When you wanted to work on your transcripts, you inserted your doughnut into the Data General slot (drive mechanism?) and you could then start.

 After that there was some goofy product that was going to interfact with the transcript center and the Data General hardware  which never took off.  Then came Cimmaron - remember them?  They were pretty much mechanical with 8" floppy disks.  Cool, huh?  If I was at Page 10 and I wanted to go to Page 25 or whatever, you would hear the computer clunkity-clunkity-clunkity-clunkity get to your request.  Same thing if you wanted to back or forward to another page.  Ahh, those were the days.

Just so you know, it's about 50 - 55 degrees here today - natural air conditioning!!

 

Hi, Jim

Special request:  Please send some of that frigid weather my way.  I'm tired of 105+ degree weather.  Even our overnight lows are in the 80s.

I remember those 8" floppies.  And then, of course, the 5 1/4".   I was telling my nephews about it (teenagers) recently.  I don't think they believed me.  And that monitors were black and white.  And having to flip all those tractor-feed pages to remove the carbons.   I don't know if it was Cimarron or Xscribe  that would come up with the Bad Data error.  Remember that?  (or was it "bad files"?)

Good thing I was only 12 when I started reporting or I'd be feeling old right about now.

Hi, Jim and Trish,

Yes, I remember the klunkity-klunk as it moved through the pages 

Waiting for the job to print at the end of the day was the worst.  And the "bursters" that would separate the pages.  My, we've adapted quite well, haven't we, to all this new stuff.

Actually court reporting was kind of boring before all the computer stuff came into being.

50 degrees?  How lovely.  It's in the 80's here this week.  After Labor Day we start seeing upper 70 and 80 degree weather.

Tricia, seeing your post brought back memories. I worked in an office with about six reporters. Our first system was TomCAT. We would "load" all the translations at 5:00 when we left the office and hopefully they'd be done by 8:00 the next morning! And that "universal dictionary" was a trip. You'd never know what you were going to get. Before that it was typing it up on a selectric with two carbons. Oh how I hated to make a mistake. It would never line up right. And don't forget the dictation years...in-ter-rog and per-ri-odd. Now Eclipse is telling me how to write with this auto-brief feature. Life is good.

Hi, Nancy!  Welcome! 

Thank goodness we have Greg and Jeremy!

Tricia,

 

Gosh you brought back a lot more memories abou tthis than I had remembered!  You're right, monitors black and white and the tractor fed carbons. What a difference a few years make.  It was bad data error - and when you got it, well, start over or figure out where it went bad.

Don't want to make you feel bad, but it reached about 55 degrees here today.  I enjoy the cool weather.  I really don't mind the hot, except when the humidity jumps to around 75 fto 85 percent.

What is really funny is when the temp gets to about 35 to 40 degrees and you see out-of towners wearing gloves/hats and a scarf.  The only analogy to that is a Minnesotan going to New York and seeing the sea of tall buildings!!!!!!!!  I'll try to push the cool weather back your way.  Take care.

 

i 

 

 

>>What is really funny is when the temp gets to about 35 to 40 degrees and you see out-of towners wearing gloves/hats and a scarf.

 

35 or 40 degrees?  GEEZ!  I'd be in gloves and scarf at 50-60 degrees!!!  Jacket at 70, probably.   ;-) 

Trish,

That's how I was when I moved to South Dakota (from Texas).  I used to get grumpy in the fall in Dallas in the fall when the leaves started falling and the squirrels started scampering.....and I didn't like the cool wind.

Then I moved to South Dakota!