Talk:Sumlock ANITA calculator

I realise that this is trivia, however as I suspect that that I am one of only a few editors to have used such a device in earnest - to calculate insurance premiums - I thought I'd mention a quirk that its programming allowed/facilitated. If one divided any number by zero the display went to 9999999999 and then decremented by 1 every 0.1 seconds. This was very precise and we used/abused it to monitor colleagues' rest-room breaks and time spent on personal phone calls. It was never clear if this feature was designed in or happened by chance.

Of course the only way to stop it was to switch it off - an early introduction to program loops and re-booting. Saga City (talk) 20:01, 17 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am quite sure the reference to Kitz working on Pilot ACE is quite wrong. He did work on early computer projects, but at Birkbeck College with Dr Andrew Booth. They worked together on the APE(X)C series of machines. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Krmurrell (talk • contribs) 06:36, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Saga City and Krmurrell: Clearly WP:NORUSH applies here(!)-I worked for Sumlock from 1972-1976 providing software for the Compucorps machines that they marketed in the UK. I still have an 811 in my cupboard & FWIW remember most if not all the Compucorps 425 (Scientist) 8bit opcodes. The 811 was given to all staff and caused utter astonishment when first shown. They cost a mere £80, most of the cost being the leather case. The company couldn't make them fast enough. The company closed in September 1976 & I did a few weeks work for Munroe providing a device driver for a Bryans plotter. Sadly although I have a 512 byte magnetic card, I don't have much in the way of references. Regards JRPG (talk) 18:59, 11 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]