My first job was in an office which got quite regular bomb threats. We would be cleared out and the police would do a sweep. Some of the guys were inspired to make mock-up spherical black bombs as desk ornaments. Next bomb scare the police were very very unamused!
Also just remembering one day we were told to go home at 4:30. After some digging we found that the bomb was due to go off at 5:00. Showed a lot of faith in the bomb builders!
Ha. A minor government department. Some folks got the idea we were big brother. This was in the 70s. We had one computer between 50 or so developers. It had less than 100k memory, card input, and all tape to tape. Honestly they were deluded.
Off topic, but to summarise: it was (by today's standards) so so very slow. One overnight compile per developer per day. Programs were on cards which sometimes got dropped or jammed. And much more time thinking than doing.
I used to hand write Cobol programs on coding pads, send them off to data-entry to be typed up and saved to tape. Then I would take the tape to ops, they would run an upload and compile when things were quiet. Get the listing back with errors, then create patches on punch-cards to apply fixes. Talking circa 1977 here.
Yes, a similar pattern except I started in 71. Coding on sheets but then punched up onto cards. The cards were printed along the top edge so you could riffle through your program in a box. The more senior people were used to punching their own cards on a 12 button hand punch. I never got the hang of that.
[Edit] oh, and chewing some card to push into a hole to make a fix.
Also just remembering one day we were told to go home at 4:30. After some digging we found that the bomb was due to go off at 5:00. Showed a lot of faith in the bomb builders!