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9. It was a prepaid that used Powertel/Voicestream cards. Used it all throughout high school (early 2000s) and it cemented my love for sturdy Nokia products. Wanted 13 and 14, but couldn't afford either one.  Wound up getting a V710 because it was on discount and no one else I knew had one (for good reason, turns out).Actually owned 17 during college. Best way to describe it as a half-assed iPod/iPhone hybrid with no touch screen. Still thought the slider was cool, though.
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Jul 28, 2019 05:24
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I got 16 for my college grad and loved the flip keyboard. Using GPS navigation ($2.99 for 7 days activation) was amazing.
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Jul 28, 2019 05:26
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Mine is not on the list. My first was a dual band Qualcomm when they finally started selling it with their own branding and not just as a Sony branded phone through Sprint. Second check from when I worked at Circuit City in the 90s.
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Jul 28, 2019 05:46
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Jerry Cotton posted:Ericsson When I first moved to Sweden, our dormitory had this model in the hallway with its dial deactivated, so the people could receive calls to a POTS line (which cost a lot less to call from abroad than a cell). The foreign students used it a lot. It was also constantly getting called up by creepy guys who'd gotten its number at bars from some girl on my floor who couldn't be arsed to just make up a number.
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Jul 28, 2019 07:33
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Groda posted:When I first moved to Sweden, our dormitory had this model in the hallway with its dial deactivated, so the people could receive calls to a POTS line (which cost a lot less to call from abroad than a cell). The foreign students used it a lot.
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Jul 28, 2019 07:41
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mystes posted:The dial was physically disabled? If it was pulse couldn't you just manually toggle the switch hook to dial? I had a tone dialer that worked on the line without any trouble, but I didn't want to abuse it and lose it. Ironically, I got in touch with the phone company to get my own POTS line for my dorm room, and, while installing it, they tore out all of these hallway phones.
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Jul 28, 2019 07:49
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I sort of had a Nokia 5110 as my first phone, but it was really the family phone. Whoever was going somewhere took it, so they could dial the landline at home and ask to be picked up  The first phone that was mine alone was a Nokia 3510i (96x64 screen with 4096 colors!), which I racked up some serious bills on, before I got a plan with unlimited texting.
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Jul 28, 2019 10:09
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Ericsson EH237 See the silver band around the body? That's the metal chassis which appeared to have been quarter-inch thick plate steel with holes milled in it for components. If you dropped it, you weren't worried about a shattered screen. You were worried about a shattered paving slab. These days, if I go down a dark alley, I make sure to hide my smartphone in an inner pocket. With the ol' Ericsson, I'd take it out of my pocket (actually, unclip it from my belt) and hold it in my hand. With the extended battery taking up the weight, you could seriously crack skulls with it.
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Jul 28, 2019 11:56
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I don't quite remember what phone i had, but it was likely something similar to 9. My mother has been an LPN for a long time and they got in early on cell phones. She started with a bag phone, and when things advanced to handheld, the local cellular place (which has since been bought out by Verizon) I guess had a deal for 2 lines, so I've had the same phone number for like 20 something years now. Makes things easy to remember.
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Jul 28, 2019 15:24
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I had a tiny little Ericsson around 2000 that was a tank. But that extended nub antenna got bent in my pocket. And by bent I mean the part you’d screw a replacement into as well. Antenna damage wasn’t covered under my insurance so I was forced to destroy my phone through conventional means. It took like three thirty foot drops to do anything. I eventually had to run it over.
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Jul 28, 2019 15:29
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Started with a 14 when I was 14. Didn’t upgrade to an iPhone until 2011.
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Jul 28, 2019 16:21
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I made the worst cellphone picks, lol. I can't remember my first, but I had 2 Palm Pilots and a Blackberry Storm throughout high school. The Storm was utter garbage in nearly every way, though the screen click could've been cool (if it wasn't a physical thing but haptics). Finally got a Samsung Alias u740, which lasted me a few years and was honestly pretty workable. Had a cool Metal Gear Solid VR-mission-like game for it, and texting was far better than on t9 phones.
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Jul 28, 2019 18:04
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My first cell phone was a VisorPhone module for my Handspring Visor Prism. So I've never not owned a smartphone, sort of, even before the term was coined. I remember it being nice, as much as I remember anything about that time.
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Jul 28, 2019 18:15
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Two Nokia 6010s, followed by two Motorola V551s. Then I moved into the smartphone world with a Blackberry, can't remember the model.
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Jul 28, 2019 18:45
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I watched a documentary about hacking ages ago and they started out by talking about the Phone Phreaks, specifically one known as Captain Crunch. He was known as that because he could use a whistle that was given away in a box of the cereal in a way to imitate the tones the phone companies used to use to communicate in the early automatic systems. Mostly just to get free long distance calls and such. He talked about how he used to walk around the airport near the phone banks and blow the whistle in a way that would disconnect everyone. That reminds me of all the phone gadgets in that classic MST3K Short Century 21 Calling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW7a5gr8zWE I know i could post the actual one from AT&T but this is my second favorite short. I don't think if pagers would have caught on if they were called Bell Boys though. LGR posted a video about the Ken Williams Pc Jr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-VBITW94zI I'm always amazed at how chunky and clunky old HDs look. Also I am curious what that wheel does.
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Jul 28, 2019 19:47
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twistedmentat posted:I watched a documentary about hacking ages ago and they started out by talking about the Phone Phreaks, specifically one known as Captain Crunch. He was known as that because he could use a whistle that was given away in a box of the cereal in a way to imitate the tones the phone companies used to use to communicate in the early automatic systems. Mostly just to get free long distance calls and such. He talked about how he used to walk around the airport near the phone banks and blow the whistle in a way that would disconnect everyone.  The Atari 2600 and 2600 magazine are both named after that very whistle trick, it’s a 2600Hz tone.
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Jul 28, 2019 20:36
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Dewgy posted:
And then there's the Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak connection. Phone Phreaks took over the world and made it proprietary (well, one of the Steve's anyway).
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Jul 28, 2019 20:39
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twistedmentat posted:I watched a documentary about hacking ages ago and they started out by talking about the Phone Phreaks, specifically one known as Captain Crunch. He was known as that because he could use a whistle that was given away in a box of the cereal in a way to imitate the tones the phone companies used to use to communicate in the early automatic systems. Mostly just to get free long distance calls and such. He talked about how he used to walk around the airport near the phone banks and blow the whistle in a way that would disconnect everyone. by most accounts, Cap'n Crunch was an insufferable nerd who smelled bad. As reported by other nerds like Mitnick.
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Jul 28, 2019 20:40
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Exit Strategy posted:Handspring Visor Prism  Ah, that strange period when almost every device was named in such an abstract aspirational manner.
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Jul 28, 2019 20:47
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Dewgy posted:
That's cool. Krispy Wafer posted:And then there's the Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak connection. That is less cool. It's too bad Woz wasn't a better marketer, we might be in a better computer world. TotalLossBrain posted:by most accounts, Cap'n Crunch was an insufferable nerd who smelled bad. As reported by other nerds like Mitnick. I could not smell him in the doc, but the thing about him disconnecting peoples phonecalls did sound like a jerk move. Also Jobs also was a insufferable nerd who smelled bad, because he was vegan, and therefor didn't smell.
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Jul 28, 2019 20:52
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After watching the video for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer for the first time in a while I decided to see what other videos he made and came across this video for his 1993 song Steam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt87bLX7m_o (  for CG titties and butts, and a male stripper wearing almost nothing thrusting into the camera)The whole thing is basically a demo reel of obsolete and failed 90s CGI and visual effects. It was obviously trying to be the "Sledgehammer" for the 90s but whereas Sledgehammer took well-established artistic techniques (mainly stop-motion animation) and executed them to timeless perfection, Steam took every bleeding-edge visual effect it could get its hands on and threw it into a blender with a middle-aged Peter Gabriel and a bunch of fashion models to much less timeless success (and it was successful at its release, it won two awards and was nominated for a third). The bit at 3:35 where a motion-captured CGI Peter Gabriel head (by itself straight from the depths of the uncanny valley) inverts itself and then the camera flies inside it is particularly bad/horrifying. Mr.Radar has a new favorite as of 21:11 on Jul 28, 2019 |
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Jul 28, 2019 21:07
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blugu64 posted:It was a landline. The kind that was on the wall with the tangled cable. You know the one.
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Jul 28, 2019 21:34
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 My very first phone 
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Jul 28, 2019 21:46
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Bobby Digital posted:
I didn't know it was possible to feel the waves of 1997 coming from a simple image, but here we are.
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Jul 28, 2019 21:53
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frosted translucent plastic not a right-angle to be seen "vtech" it's a design I am immediately drawn to and disgusted by at once
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Jul 28, 2019 22:05
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Peanut Butler posted:frosted translucent plastic I am sure you know where this design was 
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Jul 28, 2019 22:26
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Powered Descent posted:I didn't know it was possible to feel the waves of 1997 coming from a simple image, but here we are. They didn’t make these until after the apple stuff came out so 99 at the earliest. I remember these as being terrible compared to the 2.4Ghz Panasonic phones.
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Jul 28, 2019 22:34
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Mr.Radar posted:After watching the video for Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer for the first time in a while I decided to see what other videos he made and came across this video for his 1993 song Steam: This is actually a Tim and Eric sketch
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Jul 28, 2019 22:36
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Powered Descent posted:I didn't know it was possible to feel the waves of 1997 coming from a simple image, but here we are. If you want to feel a lot more of that, browse this Tumblr: https://y2kaestheticinstitute.tumblr.com
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Jul 28, 2019 23:04
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mints posted:They didn’t make these until after the apple stuff came out so 99 at the earliest. I remember these as being terrible compared to the 2.4Ghz Panasonic phones. The translucent plastic craze got a boost from the imac, but it was already well underway by '97. Picking a few 1997-tagged examples from this link: Horace posted:If you want to feel a lot more of that, browse this Tumblr: https://y2kaestheticinstitute.tumblr.com    (It was a relief to find these, for a moment there I was worried my nostalgia processor had gotten a few years out of alignment.)
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Jul 28, 2019 23:20
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yah I was gonna say it went back a little bit further, I kinda miss the aesthetic of the clear/grey kind even though I generally prefer a more 80s smoked/hard edge/silver/woodgrain look everything was so blobby, too, even before the iMac- my first MP3 player was the second (?) gen Diamond Rio, departing from the rectangular Rio to be in the shape of a thing that does not exist
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Jul 28, 2019 23:32
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Mine was similar to 10. I also had 14, years later.  Powered Descent posted:The translucent plastic craze got a boost from the imac, but it was already well underway by '97. I still keep one such relic, a Skeleton Sega Saturn circa 1998. 
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Jul 28, 2019 23:36
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Peanut Butler posted:yah I was gonna say it went back a little bit further, I kinda miss the aesthetic of the clear/grey kind even though I generally prefer a more 80s smoked/hard edge/silver/woodgrain look 90s and blobby, you say? 
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Jul 28, 2019 23:44
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Personally, I was/am a big fan of the trend of translucent plastic so you could see the circuitry. Friend had a phone like this where the plastic was super clear and a light that flashed when it rang that I was jealous of. Found a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyxek51WVCU It was like this but was a newer model made in the 90s because I'm pretty sure it didn't have a neon in it. Unperson_47 has a new favorite as of 00:06 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 00:03
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twistedmentat posted:LGR posted a video about the Ken Williams Pc Jr He said the wheel is connected to the stepper motor, which controls the motion of the heads, and the video he linked to talks about it some more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UJ0YE1a1Fs&t=58s I have no idea why there's a wheel there though, maybe they were trying to balance things so that there was the same amount of weight on both sides of the motor? I have to assume that shaft goes out the other side of the stepper motor too (and into the part of the drive with the platters) otherwise how the hell is the motor doing anything with nothing physically attached to the shaft.
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Jul 29, 2019 01:12
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Yes the shaft goes right through. One end goes into the drive and the other end that would normally be flush with the rear of the motor is extended slightly and has the wheel on it. Talking of chunky drives, I just scrapped a bunch of 5.25" double-height scsi drives that came out of some early 90s video editing hardware. They must have weighted 6-7kg each, and had 14 platters inside. I assume they were kept in a rack in a different room from the user because they sounded like a washing machine on full speed, and there were six of them. Each drive took ~20 seconds to spin up to running speed, and the power-ups were staggered so that they wouldn't all try to spin up at once and overload the power supply. Sweevo has a new favorite as of 11:17 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 11:08
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I assumed it was to make it easier to free up the motion a bit if it seizes up
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Jul 29, 2019 11:14
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Mr.Radar posted:The whole thing is basically a demo reel of obsolete and failed 90s CGI and visual effects. It was obviously trying to be the "Sledgehammer" for the 90s but whereas Sledgehammer took well-established artistic techniques (mainly stop-motion animation) and executed them to timeless perfection, Steam took every bleeding-edge visual effect it could get its hands on and threw it into a blender with a middle-aged Peter Gabriel and a bunch of fashion models to much less timeless success (and it was successful at its release, it won two awards and was nominated for a third). The bit at 3:35 where a motion-captured CGI Peter Gabriel head (by itself straight from the depths of the uncanny valley) inverts itself and then the camera flies inside it is particularly bad/horrifying. What a nonsensical and mindlessly angry pile of words.
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Jul 29, 2019 13:38
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immortalyawn posted:What a nonsensical and mindlessly angry pile of words.  I was going for slightly exaggerated contempt? It's definitely not an aethestically pleasing video (though I do enjoy it on an ironic/nostalgic level).
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Jul 29, 2019 13:54
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Peter Gabriel seems to have had an affinity for terrible CGI during the 90s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Ah2dxTcWw
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Jul 29, 2019 14:02
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