210
H. von Storch, J. S ¨
undermann, and L. Magaard
big nets around a whole school of tunas and fishes, and get tens of tons of tuna out.
The Peruvian fishery was growing at that time, at a tremendous rate.
It was a very exciting and productive era, I met Jakob Bjerknes at that time,
he came often down from Los Angeles. My neighbors were Jonny Knauss, Joe Reid,
Wooster, all these people, we were all together there; Benny Sch¨ afer was the director
of fisheries research.
Was that the time when you started using a computer?
Yes, that was the time when we first wanted to get maps of surface temperature on
a monthly basis and if you do that, you need data in a short time. Ship observations
were collected. They came in by radio through the meteorological network and you
had to collect and to process them. We had the task with thousands of observations
that we wanted to map and so one day I said we have to use computers and we looked
for someone who could do computer programming. We found a graduate chemistry
student. He came up to me and I explained to him what we needed, he said that he
could do that, but I would have to write him some instructions. In a couple of days
I wrote down the instructions, and when he came back the next time, I handed him
the sheet and he looked at the sheet, then he looked at me and he said, “oh, you
have written a computer program”. This was a list of instructions on how to go in
sequence through the mass of data. I had no idea about computer programming at that
time.
Did you yourself any programming?
No, never.
At times I had up to four, five computer programmers working for. I knew what goes
in and what comes out, but that was it. Like with an appendix. I don’t start to study
medicine when I want my appendix out.
Did you begin to use a personal computer for writing and email?
Yes, in the NORPAX project we were among the first to use email, because we were
on the Office of Naval Research circuit. For the Test Shuttle we used it as early as
1975. That was “telemail”. My secretary used it every morning.
But you did not use it yourself, you did not type yourself?
No.
Another thing. My first computer programmer was hired for the Indian Ocean Atlas,
it was done largely by computer. Then she became pregnant and she retired for a
year and then she wanted her job back and I took her back with great welcome. Then
she got her second baby and she wanted to work at home and we bought her a little
computer, with which she could use her home telephone and connect to the university
computer. So, she could work at home while waiting for the baby. These were the
first explorations in computer. It was an exciting time.
Now Scripps. Why I got out of Scripps? The answer to that is very simple.
In Scripps at that time—it has changed by now—there were two sorts of people,
H. von Storch, J. S ¨
undermann, and L. Magaard
big nets around a whole school of tunas and fishes, and get tens of tons of tuna out.
The Peruvian fishery was growing at that time, at a tremendous rate.
It was a very exciting and productive era, I met Jakob Bjerknes at that time,
he came often down from Los Angeles. My neighbors were Jonny Knauss, Joe Reid,
Wooster, all these people, we were all together there; Benny Sch¨ afer was the director
of fisheries research.
Was that the time when you started using a computer?
Yes, that was the time when we first wanted to get maps of surface temperature on
a monthly basis and if you do that, you need data in a short time. Ship observations
were collected. They came in by radio through the meteorological network and you
had to collect and to process them. We had the task with thousands of observations
that we wanted to map and so one day I said we have to use computers and we looked
for someone who could do computer programming. We found a graduate chemistry
student. He came up to me and I explained to him what we needed, he said that he
could do that, but I would have to write him some instructions. In a couple of days
I wrote down the instructions, and when he came back the next time, I handed him
the sheet and he looked at the sheet, then he looked at me and he said, “oh, you
have written a computer program”. This was a list of instructions on how to go in
sequence through the mass of data. I had no idea about computer programming at that
time.
Did you yourself any programming?
No, never.
At times I had up to four, five computer programmers working for. I knew what goes
in and what comes out, but that was it. Like with an appendix. I don’t start to study
medicine when I want my appendix out.
Did you begin to use a personal computer for writing and email?
Yes, in the NORPAX project we were among the first to use email, because we were
on the Office of Naval Research circuit. For the Test Shuttle we used it as early as
1975. That was “telemail”. My secretary used it every morning.
But you did not use it yourself, you did not type yourself?
No.
Another thing. My first computer programmer was hired for the Indian Ocean Atlas,
it was done largely by computer. Then she became pregnant and she retired for a
year and then she wanted her job back and I took her back with great welcome. Then
she got her second baby and she wanted to work at home and we bought her a little
computer, with which she could use her home telephone and connect to the university
computer. So, she could work at home while waiting for the baby. These were the
first explorations in computer. It was an exciting time.
Now Scripps. Why I got out of Scripps? The answer to that is very simple.
In Scripps at that time—it has changed by now—there were two sorts of people,