I only found out about this a few years ago but it seems like a pretty big deal.
He gave Bill Gates and Paul Allen their first jobs writing code.....
JimmyBob did you know him....he was down in basement of the Math Science building using the computer in the mid to late 60's... I didn't start using that computer until '74!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/...r-has-better-things-to-do.html?pagewanted=all
The article is too long to include here but below is the OSU part
Like so many scientists, physicists and mathematicians who fell into computing in the 1950's and 1960's, Mr. Roberts found the computer tools compelling and abandoned his intended field. He went to Oklahoma State University and graduated with a major in electrical engineering. In the mid-1960's, Oklahoma State was one of the few universities that gave undergraduates direct access to the school's mainframe computer, instead of making them submit programs to white-coated operators who were the only ones authorized to touch the precious machines.
The open policy at Oklahoma State, Mr. Roberts recalled, was ''really a bold idea at the time.'' He programmed engineering problems in Fortran on an I.B.M. 1620, and the power of computing ''opened up a whole new world,'' he said. ''And I began thinking, 'What if you gave everyone a computer?' ''
He gave Bill Gates and Paul Allen their first jobs writing code.....
JimmyBob did you know him....he was down in basement of the Math Science building using the computer in the mid to late 60's... I didn't start using that computer until '74!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/...r-has-better-things-to-do.html?pagewanted=all
The article is too long to include here but below is the OSU part
Like so many scientists, physicists and mathematicians who fell into computing in the 1950's and 1960's, Mr. Roberts found the computer tools compelling and abandoned his intended field. He went to Oklahoma State University and graduated with a major in electrical engineering. In the mid-1960's, Oklahoma State was one of the few universities that gave undergraduates direct access to the school's mainframe computer, instead of making them submit programs to white-coated operators who were the only ones authorized to touch the precious machines.
The open policy at Oklahoma State, Mr. Roberts recalled, was ''really a bold idea at the time.'' He programmed engineering problems in Fortran on an I.B.M. 1620, and the power of computing ''opened up a whole new world,'' he said. ''And I began thinking, 'What if you gave everyone a computer?' ''
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