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One of the owners at my company still maintains a Rolodex full of (often 10+ year-old) business cards and handwritten notes. She'll attempt to use it once in a while, only to find out that the number changed or the person is dead.
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May 14, 2019 02:35
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Konstantin posted:A long of early radios didn't have tuners. They were sold at a discounted rate by the station, and were set to only tune in to the station that sold it. Wow, I’ve never heard of that, but TV’s and radios in North Korea are set to predetermined frequencies. You can fix that of course, but you don’t want anyone to find out you fixed it.
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May 14, 2019 02:37
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I remember getting “auto tuned to one channel with no knob” radio keychains at major league baseball giveaway nights. Obviously the AM station that carried the games. Always loved those.
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May 14, 2019 02:43
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Krispy Wafer posted:Wow, I’ve never heard of that, but TV’s and radios in North Korea are set to predetermined frequencies. You can fix that of course, but you don’t want anyone to find out you fixed it. A lot of the Soviet states also used "wired radio" which IIRC was a setup where people in cities or larger towns could get a "radio" that was basically a speaker in a box with a volume knob. You'd plug it into a socket in the wall of your apartment that was connected directly to a radio station. So no need for the government to worry about tinkerers figuring out how to modify radios to listen to the BBC or Voice of America or whatever.
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May 14, 2019 08:01
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yeah a lotta non-capitalist states that survive have a siege mentality from all the constant ideological siege so I found my very first laptop from the 90s the other day while rummaging through things, a Toshiba Portege T3600CT- this thing is marvelous. It's a 486DX/75 that could run for 6-8 hours on a charge, and was super small for the time- about the footprint of a netbook but much thicker, about the size and weight of a college textbook Can't find the adapter or the floppy drive, but I might have to do some ebaying and restore this lil guy. The keyboard isn't as good as modern ones, but it's solid- it has a mouse nipple with a stock nub that melts into putty, but I replaced mine with a tougher sandpapery one from an old Dell. Many good hours playing Civilization and LucasArts games on this thing, swapping out the PCMCIA network card for a sound card when needed used to serial network it to my 90s gaming desktop and use it solely as a minimap for crazy Doom wads not my pictures, but oh~ this machine   
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May 14, 2019 08:29
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I'm watching the LRG episode about the Dot Matrix printer that does different fonts, and I am reminded of the old one we had with our IIGS. The thing was so loud and would shake the table so much it was kind of terrifying. But its super satisfying to pull the tracks off the pages once you're done.
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May 14, 2019 08:45
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twistedmentat posted:I'm watching the LRG episode about the Dot Matrix printer that does different fonts, and I am reminded of the old one we had with our IIGS. The thing was so loud and would shake the table so much it was kind of terrifying. But its super satisfying to pull the tracks off the pages once you're done. Hell yes. Fond memories of my literally screaming-loud dot matrix tractor feed printer on my C64. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I have one in my garage I bought as part of a lot of C64 manuals/joysticks/other accessories, I should see if it works. Print me off some dinosaurs from Designasaurus like it's the mid 90s again.  (it will take approximately 6 hours to print a single page dinosaur)
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May 14, 2019 08:49
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twistedmentat posted:I'm watching the LRG episode about the Dot Matrix printer that does different fonts, and I am reminded of the old one we had with our IIGS. The thing was so loud and would shake the table so much it was kind of terrifying. But its super satisfying to pull the tracks off the pages once you're done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG8RAbWs1yo
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May 14, 2019 09:02
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My work actually needed to keep one DotMatrix printer for use about... 6 times a year? Parts and replacements came out of some warehouse in Texas of all places.
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May 14, 2019 09:14
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The 80s show Moonlighting built an entire episode around one of these.
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May 14, 2019 12:49
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNTtR6ZpUOo
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May 14, 2019 13:02
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:I remember getting “auto tuned to one channel with no knob” radio keychains at major league baseball giveaway nights. Obviously the AM station that carried the games. Always loved those.
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May 14, 2019 13:45
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I had a college professor very cautiously accused me of submitting someone else’s research paper because I had printed it out on my mom’s old dot matrix printer. It must have looked like something a student wrote in 1985. Mister Kingdom posted:The 80s show Moonlighting built an entire episode around one of these. An entire movie was written around a Rolodex. Originally it was to be titled ‘Rolodex’ (or something similar) but they couldn’t get the rights so it became ‘Taking Care of Business’ starring Charles Gordin and the lovely Belushi. Rolodexes were like an integral cultural thing that just disappeared virtually overnight. The cemetery most of my family is buried at has an office that is straight out of the 1950’s. All its records are kept on what is essentially a massive Rolodex. 
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May 14, 2019 14:45
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Never seen a filing paternoster before  e: Oh they're actually pretty common, although not for card files 
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May 14, 2019 14:50
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Any of you guys been to the Cray museum in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin? If you're in the area, I highly recommend it. I didn't take nearly enough pictures but here are a few. https://imgur.com/a/BPWIgMr
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May 14, 2019 17:17
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When I was a kid this style of address book was a common alternative to the Rolodex. You'd move the slider on the right to the letter you were interested in and press the button. The address book would spring open to the first page of that letter. The pages had little tabs on them to register with the slider, and as those tabs wore out the address book would become useless. 
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May 14, 2019 18:02
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GreenNight posted:Any of you guys been to the Cray museum in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin? If you're in the area, I highly recommend it. I didn't take nearly enough pictures but here are a few. Is the museum in a office from 1986 because that’s what it looks like. Also more supercomputers need leather seating. It’s the little touches that make the experience that much better.
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May 14, 2019 18:23
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Krispy Wafer posted:Is the museum in a office from 1986 because that’s what it looks like. They share an old rear end building with a Boys & Girls club. They've been hurting for funds since the GOP took away all state funding.
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May 14, 2019 18:26
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In the last image what is that strange thing that looks like a big brass DC motor?
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May 14, 2019 18:30
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Dick Trauma posted:In the last image what is that strange thing that looks like a big brass DC motor? Drum storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_memory
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May 14, 2019 18:39
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I'm imagining a giant crank on the side and having to start the thing like a Model A. When I was a teenager I worked at an accounting firm that had one of the old rack mount hard drives that had to be turned on before the minicomputer. You'd throw the switch and the thing would slowly come to life, and a noise like a distant siren winding up would fill the room until it reached a constant pitch and then you could proceed.
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May 14, 2019 19:11
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Dick Trauma posted:When I was a kid this style of address book was a common alternative to the Rolodex. You'd move the slider on the right to the letter you were interested in and press the button. The address book would spring open to the first page of that letter. hell yeah, growing up, my folks had a slick 80s plastic-and-faux-leather version of the same thing- looked different, same mechanism, mostly got busted out for christmas cards you had to write new addresses in with gaps between em, in case someone changed address and you needed room putting an entry right below another was an assurance that the person above was probably staying at the same address for a while e: starting to remember why I was so stoked about getting one of these in the late 90s: 
Peanut Butler has a new favorite as of 20:05 on May 14, 2019 |
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May 14, 2019 20:01
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Code Jockey posted:Hell yes. Fond memories of my literally screaming-loud dot matrix tractor feed printer on my C64. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Oh yea, I once used clipart and the Apple Paint program to make a really nice picture of the Enterprise and my dad let me print it out. Took like 3 hours. Here's the actual video he posted https://youtu.be/D1jojSZsoqo That's rad as hell.
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May 14, 2019 20:11
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Dick Trauma posted:When I was a kid this style of address book was a common alternative to the Rolodex. You'd move the slider on the right to the letter you were interested in and press the button. The address book would spring open to the first page of that letter. Ha! I had forgotten about these... so much in fact that it took zooming into the pic to remember that they were friggin’ made out of metal! Push that broad button near the bottom and unleash the spring, right to the page you needed... caught me right in the nostalgia My dad had stories of being a grad student and making the arm attached to the head of one of those huge “washing machine” hard drives seek back and forth to make it walk like an unbalanced well, washing machine
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May 14, 2019 20:12
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Peanut Butler posted:hell yeah, growing up, my folks had a slick 80s plastic-and-faux-leather version of the same thing- looked different, same mechanism, mostly got busted out for christmas cards Or maybe just use a pencil.
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May 14, 2019 20:30
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ReidRansom posted:Or maybe just use a pencil. thx for the advice 25yrs too late, lol- my folks werent exactly big into foresight when it came to small details of life like that
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May 14, 2019 20:53
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Pencil smudged or became faint. You needed that poo poo inked. This isn’t something new. We’re not figuring out a secret trick Boomers hate. You wrote it in pen and you left extra space. If it filled up you were happy because that meant you had lots of friends and family.
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May 14, 2019 20:57
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Don't forget the powers of white-out.
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May 14, 2019 21:06
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If you've watched Deutschland 83 or 86, you'll have seen the scenes set in Stasi headquarters complete with 70s/80s brown and green everything and lots of old rotary phones, heavy East German typewriters etc. The scenes in Stasi HQ were filmed on location because parts of the old Stasi headquarters have been preserved exactly as they were with furnishings and fittings intact. They're well worth the trip if you're around Berlin and into that period. So not only obsolete technology but a sort-of failed state too!
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May 14, 2019 21:13
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Peanut Butler posted:hell yeah, growing up, my folks had a slick 80s plastic-and-faux-leather version of the same thing- looked different, same mechanism, mostly got busted out for christmas cards I remember when they started making these personal organizer devices that could communicate with each other via IR or RF. ( I dont' remember which) I wanted one SO BAD so I could talk to the friends I didn't have in class.
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May 14, 2019 21:38
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Cavs 14% chance top pick 44% chance for a top 3 Wrong thread lol
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May 14, 2019 21:42
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The Cavs are obsolete and failed, so almost right thread.
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May 14, 2019 21:45
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Peanut Butler posted:thx for the advice 25yrs too late, lol- You can still heed that advice on the address and emergency contact page in your passport though.
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May 14, 2019 22:10
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Unperson_47 posted:I remember when they started making these personal organizer devices that could communicate with each other via IR or RF. ( I dont' remember which) I wanted one SO BAD so I could talk to the friends I didn't have in class. aww yeah! I wanted the model that had a little microphone and speaker on the back, that you could hold up to any phone, dial their number, and sync email/articles- but it had some kind of ridiculous monthly fee that rly wasn't worth it to write emails in class to internet pals to send later on a payphone
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May 14, 2019 22:20
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Danger - Octopus! posted:If you've watched Deutschland 83 or 86, you'll have seen the scenes set in Stasi headquarters complete with 70s/80s brown and green everything and lots of old rotary phones, heavy East German typewriters etc. The scenes in Stasi HQ were filmed on location because parts of the old Stasi headquarters have been preserved exactly as they were with furnishings and fittings intact. They're well worth the trip if you're around Berlin and into that period. So not only obsolete technology but a sort-of failed state too! One of my history profs was in Berlin a few days after the the wall came down and reunification happened. He was walking around the Brandonberg Gate and noticed in the dirt something, it was a Stasi pin. Clearly some officer saw what was going on, and pulled it off their lapel and went on like they had never tortured anyone to rat out their friends. Every time I see one of those electronic personal organizers from the early 2000s, I'm reminded of when i worked for HPs online store, the number of calls I'd get that were people asking if their PDAs could make phonecalls. Its kind of amazing only a few years later, yea you can do that.
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May 14, 2019 22:21
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Krispy Wafer posted:The cemetery most of my family is buried at has an office that is straight out of the 1950’s. All its records are kept on what is essentially a massive Rolodex. I worked in a bank in the mid-90s and they had one of these for the signature cards. Remember when you had to fill out a signature card for a bank account? The theory was that you could pull the card and compare the data/signature on the check/passbook/document to validate its validity.
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May 14, 2019 22:33
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Peanut Butler posted:I wanted the model that had a little microphone and speaker on the back, that you could hold up to any phone, dial their number, and sync email/articles 
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May 15, 2019 01:20
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We just got a shiny new dot matrix log printer at work, it's a requirement apparently. I think we're done with floppies though
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May 15, 2019 02:10
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I remember we updated our LG washing machine by dialing a number and holding the phone to a place on the control panel. It was sold only with super-water-saving mode enabled but an over-the-phone update let it default to the 5 gallon setting so clothes would actually wash. Some requirement to meet water saving levels to be sold in the US or something. Had a remote that did the same thing. Conical/triangular Sony universal remote that you could stand up on it's butt. Had a phone update setting, you could dial into Sony and tell them your model of TV and amplifier and it would do a program thing.
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May 15, 2019 03:01
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