Effect of smart meters on AV2 Homeplug ethernet networks

I have always had a deep interest in Railways but not professionally.

I originally wanted to be an Electronics Engineer. I left school at the end of 1964 and had about 9 months before starting University. I managed to wangle a temporary job through a friend’s Uncle in the Research Lab of a Computer Manufacturer. The lab covered both HW and SW activities and on Day One still at the tender age of 17 I was asked if I’d be happy to do some programming as they had a need. Of course I said “fine”. There was no Assembler so the programming was done in absolute machine code. Every time you wanted to add any instructions you had to manually recalculate any affected jumps.

Three years later there had been some mergers and I joined what had then become the parent group of that original firm. By now Assembly Languages were in vogue but in the early 1970s they switched to the Algol 68 like language. Its compiler produced extremely efficient object code.

Not sure how relevant this is to the OVO forum so I’ll stop here!

Not sure how relevant this is to the OVO forum so I’ll stop here!

Good news for ya - the House Rules are actually pretty chill about that as we go off of context. Since you’re talking about network stuff anyway and how it plays nice (or not) with Smart Meters, we’re cool about it. In fact, we actually LOVE these technical discussions here.

We’re always chill about it because it actually helps other users out (you’ll be surprised!). Since you’re not trying to use it as a chance to plug your online store or make money out of the Forum, that’s one of the things which makes us way more OK with it. :)

If you’d like to get official word from the Forum Moderators, we can totally request that for you too, but hopefully this unofficial explanation helps for now.

Good point about going off piste but it's sometimes nice to make a bit more of a connection with a customer. It compensates for the ones who have no respect for people trying to help them. A machine code junkie. You don't meet many of those. Punch card progamming. What was wrong with that?

Thanks for those reassuring words!

Back in 1965 the lab was using paper tape (rather than punch cards) mostly to input programs. They had high speed paper tape readers on the computers and slightly less high speed paper tape punches. There were no magnetic discs yet but several magnetic tape decks. Paper tapes were prepared on typewriter-like machines called Friden Flexowriters. These displayed what was being typed on a paper roll and a paper tape could be loaded and its entire contents printed. It could also be copied to another paper tape (there was a slow paper tape punch attached as well as the reader) and there were some rudimentary editing facilities. I remember writing a program which would read the paper tapes on a computer reader at high speed and back them up to mag tape from where copies could be made using the computer’s card punch much faster than a Flexowriter could copy. Also by copying from one mag tape to another you had secure backup on an arguably more resilient medium than the paper tape which was prone to tearing. Happy times!

“I left school at the end of 1964 and had about 9 months before starting University. I managed to wangle a temporary … “

This was exactly me. too. My ‘temporary … ’ was six months in the apprentice school of a Spanish steelworks, where I learnt a great deal about machine tools and technical drawing, which helpfully exempted me from a compulsory ‘workshop practice’ course at some stage in my first undergraduate year. I also made many lasting friendships among the ebullient youth of an obscure Asturian town.

My introduction to real computing also involved paper tape, but our time as undergraduates on EDSAC2 was strictly limited to three minutes per session - one second beyond and the procedure stopped. I can’t be sure at this distance, but I think I remember EDSAC2’s decommissioning. Someone put a vase of daffodils on top of the I/O console and the old lady printed out her own epitaph, which I can’t remember. Happy times indeed!

Computer time was indeed precious and every attempt was made to maximise utilisation. Because my temporary position was of a lowly status I was eligible for generous overtime on top of my modest basic wages. So I sometimes worked an entire night shift or all day Sunday at enhanced rates to top up my earnings. Often I would be under the wing of a Graduate Engineer who would complain that at his grade no overtime was paid. For the night shift one enterprising such Engineer had negotiated that in lieu of extra pay the Company would provide a bottle of whisky to sustain him through the night. Of course I was expected to assist him in consuming it. On the Sundays we were entitled to a lunch. The Company canteen of course was closed and in fact the only place open for miles around was a very expensive French restaurant. So we lunched in great style at Company expense!