Spiked punch

It’s the early 1970s and pilot fish is a college student taking computer courses. These are the days of punching programs on cards, which is done using keypunch machines. Lots of students needing to submit lots of programs need lots of keypunches, and the school has installed eight IBM 029 keypunch machines in a converted classroom.

But eight isn’t enough (despite what a popular TV program would say a few years later), and the lines to use the machines are usually long. And one day the line is especially long, because three of the machines are out order. Word is that the IBM support person won’t be coming for several hours.

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