Quote from: Cali on January 11, 2018, 07:33:03 PM
That would have been Erin Grey.  She did have a sexy walk in the space suit holding that laser rifle.
https://cityjackdaw.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/erin-2.jpg

Oh yeah, she is very pretty. She also looks like my dad's type. He likes blondes.

What the... this thread is out of control, 8 pages already?

Well, how about this thing:

Quote from: Cali on January 11, 2018, 04:50:35 PM
Very true.  I was working on a computer merit badge and visited the local IBM company.  Not only did they take up an entire room, they were heat sensitive.

My grandfather worked on a huge old school warehouse computer back in the early 50's or so I think. I have no idea in what capacity, probably managerial, I don't think he was an engineer. My mom got to see it when she was really little, but didn't have details, and everyone that would have known what the deal was passed away before I was born. May have actually even been the 40s. I think it was something to do with Navy contracting but I really don't know for sure.

Quote from: Cali on January 11, 2018, 06:57:09 PM
Exactly and then was replaced by the 3" floppy.

Where it get's interesting is that a single cell phone picture today would require about 10 of those to be saved...

Insert disk 3/10...

Quote from: Roll on January 11, 2018, 08:06:55 PM
What the... this thread is out of control, 8 pages already?

Well, how about this thing:


My grandfather worked on a huge old school warehouse computer back in the early 50's or so I think. I have no idea in what capacity, probably managerial, I don't think he was an engineer. My mom got to see it when she was really little, but didn't have details, and everyone that would have known what the deal was passed away before I was born. May have actually even been the 40s. I think it was something to do with Navy contracting but I really don't know for sure.

I give up roll. What is that thing??

Quote from: sarah1972 on January 11, 2018, 08:10:54 PM
Where it get's interesting is that a single cell phone picture today would require about 10 of those to be saved...

Insert disk 3/10...

You know what was fun? Installing games that bundles of like 50+ disks.

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:12:18 PM
I give up roll. What is that thing??

You put VHS tapes in it. It rewinds them. That's it. Brilliantly versatile piece of technology.

Quote from: sarah1972 on January 11, 2018, 08:10:54 PM
Where it get's interesting is that a single cell phone picture today would require about 10 of those to be saved...

Insert disk 3/10...

Well since those ginormas computers didn't have as much power as my iPhone what was the purpose of having them at all? I mean what could you even do with them?

Quote from: Roll on January 11, 2018, 08:14:18 PM

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:12:18 PM
I give up roll. What is that thing??

You put VHS tapes in it. It rewinds them. That's it. Brilliantly versatile piece of technology.

And a brilliant way of only telling one third of the story! See, those tapes took forever to rewind, and you had two other movies to watch that night and have back at the video store the next day or pay an extra fee. If you didn't rewind them, you had to pay an extra fee.

Quote from: Roll on January 11, 2018, 08:14:18 PM
You put VHS tapes in it. It rewinds them. That's it. Brilliantly versatile piece of technology.

Rewind them? You had to rewind them?? I SO love my DVR. My grandparents have boxes of those old VHS things. With a DVR everything is stored in the cloud.

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:15:43 PM
Well since those ginormas computers didn't have as much power as my iPhone what was the purpose of having them at all? I mean what could you even do with them?

Help design a slightly better computer which helped design a slightly better computer which helped design a slightly better computer ... [10 hours later] ... which helped design a slightly better computer which helped design an iPhone. Which helped design emojis animated by facial recognition.

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:15:43 PM
Well since those ginormas computers didn't have as much power as my iPhone what was the purpose of having them at all? I mean what could you even do with them?

First, we didn't look at the technology that way because it was "New Technology".  Secondly, if it weren't for those computers there wouldn't be any today.

While I had a Texas Instrument computer and when Coleco made the Adam Computer, they were limited use computers.  My first desktop was a 486 and the memory and other stuff was let than 1/2 gig as I recall.  I bought the computer and within a year's time it was as if it were from the stone age as technology continues to grow. 

Though, sometimes I feel or believe that the technology is held bad for financial gain.

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on January 11, 2018, 08:18:59 PM
And a brilliant way of only telling one third of the story! See, those tapes took forever to rewind, and you had two other movies to watch that night and have back at the video store the next day or pay an extra fee. If you didn't rewind them, you had to pay an extra fee.

Oh, how many times I had 4 vcrs in the house rewinding simultaneously desperately attempting to get the videos done in time to return them last minute. Those late fees came out of my allowance!

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:12:18 PM
I give up roll. What is that thing??

Darn!  And I was going to say it was a Star Trek OS communicator

Quote from: Deborah on January 11, 2018, 07:38:45 PM
Don't forget Mr. Ed the talking horse.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.
He's always on a steady course.
Talk to Mr. Ed.

Ohhhhh, Wilburrrrrrrr. Why can't I have my own phooooooonnnne? (And it was a dial phone, too.)



- Stephanie

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on January 11, 2018, 08:18:59 PM
You put VHS tapes in it. It rewinds them. That's it. Brilliantly versatile piece of technology.


And a brilliant way of only telling one third of the story! See, those tapes took forever to rewind, and you had two other movies to watch that night and have back at the video store the next day or pay an extra fee. If you didn't rewind them, you had to pay an extra fee.

That's so weird. I figured they just went back to the beginning when they ended like a DVD. My dad told me about this thing my grandparents had called a laser disk player. He said it was kind of like an early DVD player only the disks were as big as one of those LP records and that half way through the movie it stopped and you had to turn the disk over. He said that thing never worked right. I've never seen it but I'm sure my grandparents have it stored away someplace because they never throw anything away. Even stuff that needs thrown away like the apple green shag carpet in their living room. Ugh.

Quote from: Steph2.0 on January 11, 2018, 08:25:12 PM

Quote from: Deborah on January 11, 2018, 07:38:45 PM
Don't forget Mr. Ed the talking horse.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.
He's always on a steady course.
Talk to Mr. Ed.

Ohhhhh, Wilburrrrrrrr. Why can't I have my own phooooooonnnne? (And it was a dial phone, too.)



- Stephanie

I'm going to apologize first and then earn it. 

Can you imagine the selfie Mr. Ed would be using on Craigslist?

Quote from: Cali on January 11, 2018, 08:22:52 PM
First, we didn't look at the technology that way because it was "New Technology".  Secondly, if it weren't for those computers there wouldn't be any today.

While I had a Texas Instrument computer and when Coleco made the Adam Computer, they were limited use computers.  My first desktop was a 486 and the memory and other stuff was let than 1/2 gig as I recall.  I bought the computer and within a year's time it was as if it were from the stone age as technology continues to grow. 

Though, sometimes I feel or believe that the technology is held bad for financial gain.

I know they had home computers a while before the internet. But why?  Without the web a computer is nothing but a paperweight. You couldn't do anything with it without the internet so why buy one? I'm sure they were very expensive.

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:26:14 PM
That's so weird. I figured they just went back to the beginning when they ended like a DVD. My dad told me about this thing my grandparents had called a laser disk player. He said it was kind of like an early DVD player only the disks were as big as one of those LP records and that half way through the movie it stopped and you had to turn the disk over. He said that thing never worked right. I've never seen it but I'm sure my grandparents have it stored away someplace because they never throw anything away. Even stuff that needs thrown away like the apple green shag carpet in their living room. Ugh.

The VHS players did have a mechanism that once the movie or tape had completely run to the end that it would rewind but alas had to get them back to the movie store.  Also, there were two types of video players, one which died out pretty quickly was the Beta or Betamax and the other VHS.

With regard to Video Disc Players.  A buddy of mine was really into new video technology bought a Video Disk Player though my mine is thinking it was called a Laser Disk Player.

I think he paid like 400 dollars for it and that was back in the late 1980s.  The Laser Disks usually ran about 80 bucks as I recall.  A short lived technology.

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:31:40 PM
I know they had home computers a while before the internet. But why?  Without the web a computer is nothing but a paperweight. You couldn't do anything with it without the internet so why buy one? I'm sure they were very expensive.

Beats a type writer.

Though really, even pre-modern internet it wasn't like computers were incapable of communication. For years there were BBSs(who wants to explain those?), local intranets, and more.

For me though personally? VIDEO GAMES!

Quote from: Julia1996 on January 11, 2018, 08:26:14 PM
That's so weird. I figured they just went back to the beginning when they ended like a DVD. My dad told me about this thing my grandparents had called a laser disk player. He said it was kind of like an early DVD player only the disks were as big as one of those LP records and that half way through the movie it stopped and you had to turn the disk over. He said that thing never worked right. I've never seen it but I'm sure my grandparents have it stored away someplace because they never throw anything away. Even stuff that needs thrown away like the apple green shag carpet in their living room. Ugh.

Computers can do a lot more than social media.  Look at the original moon landing.  NASA had a computer.  During WWII, US Intelligence used Magic to break the Japanese code.  It was a computer.

You go to the grocery store - the cash register is a computer.

I really think that an EMP would make the majority of people totally lost.