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Negrostrike posted:It's hella funny when TV shows that were supposed to be 4:3 are now shown in widescreen: I thought video was going to be a fanboi-whine, but it's a really justified rant that includes this issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWNGq70Oyo aspect is addressed from 8:30 onwards Shut up Meg has a new favorite as of 11:35 on Apr 26, 2019 |
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Apr 26, 2019 11:33
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ryonguy posted:What is even the point of cropping like this in this scene? The video suggests that they simply ran the whole episode through some aspect-changing software and left the box marked 'auto' checked. Which if it is true, is like the laziest job ever. Heck, you could get an intern to simply move the crop box around and they'd probabl enjoy the break from unwanted sexual advances for a few hours.
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Apr 26, 2019 15:44
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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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spookygonk posted:The office I worked in, back in 1985 had a dot matrix printer in the room, encased in a much larger sound proofed box. The (A3 sized?) continuous paper came in large boxes and was fed in the back through a slot and back out through another slot, so it was still loud (but not as stupidly loud as when you lifted the lid). Of course the paper would get jammed or the perforations would tear off, but then we still had a typing pool and, I think, a mimeograph. I have a lot of affection for dot matrix printers and I've just realised why:  2,300 sheets from a single box. None of that 'PC Load Letter' bullshit or having to fill the papertray every time you want to print anything: that bastard would stay full for a whole month. And it never jammed, either. As long as no-one dropped something heavy on the paper as it was fed, it would motor on relentlessly.
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May 16, 2019 22:00
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Jedit posted:It's more interesting than it sounds because some of it is poo poo he made up so he could wave his walking stick at all this modern tomfoolery. For example, after Phone Day all UK numbers became a standard 11 digits long whereas previously London numbers had been only 10 digits It's weird to be cheerleading the UK phone network, but you're right that it's a pretty logical system now - which is impressive given that it has organically grown on the original system using 'Hello, Operator, what number please?' What is obsolete is giving a poo poo about your phone number: quote:PhONEday was a change to the telephone dialing plan in the United Kingdom on 16 April 1995. It changed geographic area codes and some telephone numbers. In most areas a "1" was added to the dialling code. In Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield the area codes were replaced with new codes and the subscriber numbers gained an extra digit. The PhONEday changes also made provision for new ranges of subscriber numbers in those five cities. A £16m advertising campaign, and an eight-month period of parallel running during which old and new codes were active, preceded the change.[1] PhONEday followed a change made in May 1990 when the old London area code 01 had been released from use, permitting all United Kingdom geographic numbers to begin with this prefix. Originally planned in 1991 to take place in 1994,[2] in 1992 the change was postponed until 1995.[2] I think I can remember 4 telephone numbers now - I genuinely find it easier to google a business name on my phone and one-press dial it than I do to remember how to dial a number using android. And my personal contacts all exist in my address book - those that I actully call, rather than WhatsApp. Humphreys posted:I bought things:
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May 20, 2019 09:41
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Okay that is spooky: it was my memory of sitting down with an ebay-fresh copy of Bladerunner in the best cut, only to start swearing at my bluray player before I noticed that the case was red.
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May 20, 2019 12:57
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T-man posted:I'm young enough that my first sexual experience was seeing a picture of Princess Peach naked on the internet. And now I'm like this. I miss sexy lady ASCII art. You don't get artistry like that any more. I am not sure how they created them with the technology they had at the time - did someone 'paint' them by hand?
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Jun 4, 2019 21:11
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T-man posted:...they had dot matrix printers. No, I don't mean bitmapped images: that was a relatively simple process to create a printable image. I mean ASCII art that created 'photorealistic' images out of letters: I'm pretty sure you couldn't convert a bitmapped image into a letter-based format with a simple app using the tech of the time. SubG posted:Yeah. ASCII art predates the computer. The first commercially successful typewriters were made in the 1870s. The first known examples of typewriter art are from the 1890s. Yeah, those are what I am thinking of, but you 'paint' them with the typewriter. Did they do that with a terminal? E: They did! code:
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Jun 4, 2019 22:01
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Grand Prize Winner posted:For about a month when I was in 5th or 6th grade (around 2000 or so) the copier at my school broke so everything was done on an old ditto machine. The principal, who was very old, had a special assembly to celebrate his foresight in not sending it back to the district for scrapping when they replaced it in the late 70s. Say what you will but apparently that thing still worked after two decades of storage. Yeah, I have had bosses like that. Fucks up by not having redundancy or a maintenance contract with an SLA on mission-critical equipment; pats self on back for paying for storage of obsolete tech for 20 years that requires staff training to use and produces inferior output. Reminds me of the time I found a 25-year old minicomputer in an outbuilding. You never know when you might need it!
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Jun 25, 2019 09:30
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Unperson_47 posted:What were those devices that you put your credit card on it at store register a long rear end time agos? It was kind of like a mandolin slicer. Imprinter 
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Jun 25, 2019 09:31
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Fun fact: a popular form of fraud replied on companies not taking care with the used carbon paper and leaving a perfect copy of your credit card lying around. Always take the carbons.
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Jun 25, 2019 10:04
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Sweevo posted:My UK middle school still had old style desks with lift-up tops and inkwells (long disused and stuffed full of pencil shavings and 10 year old gum). This would have been 1988-92. The "fun" class project on the first day of the school year was to give the kids sandpaper and tell them to remove last year's graffiti. Whoa, what's with the centrally-placed inkwells? What kind of left-wing, namby-pamby, airy-fairy school did you go to where left-handed weaklings were tolerated instead of being rapped across the knuckles until they learnt to write with the correct hand and also gain a stutter?
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Jun 25, 2019 11:38
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Computer viking posted:At this point there's a fair chance someone would pay to take a minicomputer off your hands, especially if it was still working or easily repaired - but I get the impression this was a little while ago? Yeah, it was a dozen years ago and it turns out that storing sensitive electronics in an outbuilding with a leaky roof leaves you with something that you can't even convert into a cocktail cabinet for nerds. It was more a laugh at the idea that someone thought to store it for such a long time in case it became useful - which wasn't helped by not storing any peripherals or documentation along with it.
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Jun 25, 2019 12:49
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Horace posted:Same, we started with those awkward Berol Handwriting pens and graduated to cartridge pens when we proved competent enough. Christ, you just triggered an old memory for me.  I can still taste them.
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Jun 25, 2019 16:23
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Most of my bills used to be paid by cheque/check: credit cards, utilities, etc If you were having a tough month, you could always gain a couple of extra week of liquidity: send the credit card cheque to the gas company, the gas company cheque to the electricity company and the electricity cheque to the credit card company. Wait for them to call/write you, apologise and promise to post the right cheque out immediately.
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Jun 27, 2019 21:07
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 Also, I feel there should be a lot of stories about bored office workers sending inappropriate things through these tubes.
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Jun 29, 2019 16:48
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Computer viking posted:What's that screenshot from? Yup. I can't tell you the significance of it because it was from the last season I watched. E: I gave up when I realised they probably weren't going to explain the magic smoke. Shut up Meg has a new favorite as of 22:16 on Jun 29, 2019 |
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Jun 29, 2019 19:39
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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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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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Platystemon posted:All software running today can be traced to ancestor programs for which humans set bits by hand, with something like punch cards or front panel switches. I'd like to see someone do the archeology on this and find a specific example: point to a fragment of code from the latest OS that was originally punchcode.
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Jul 30, 2019 20:14
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Geoj posted:I started working for FujiFilm as a field tech in 2004. The only proprietary formats I recall from the era were MemoryStick (Sony), SmartMedia (Toshiba) and xD (Fuji/Olympus.) When you say 'MemoryStick', do you mean Memory Stick, Memory Stick Select, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Memory Stick Micro (M2), Memory Stick XC or Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX?
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Jul 31, 2019 22:49
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uli2000 posted:None of the above. Let me introduce you to the late Sony Zuma Before Sony got in bed with Ericsson, I think they used their own phone designers, borrowed from their quality radio division. Their stuff felt really good to the touch and I am not sure it has been surpassed since. Look at those buttons: straight off their high-end shortwave radios. The 'Mars Bar' phone - called cause it felt you were holding a satisfying chocolate bar in your hand and let's be honest, what's a better feeling than that?  
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Aug 5, 2019 17:23
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Shibawanko posted:"CELLULAR TELEPHONE" said in that 1920s radio voice That's made me think a little: See the earpiece and how in one photo it is 1/4" higher up the phone than the other? Although there is are SEND and END buttons to make and end the call, you could also do it by sliding the earpiece up/down - mimicking the actions of a landline phone. I wonder if that was done to reduce the learning curve? Incidentally, the extendable aerial was completely fake and apparently, a lot of phones had fake ones too.
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Aug 5, 2019 20:21
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Almost certainly apocryphal, but I still love it:quote:An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her pet dog always barked three times immediately before the phone rang and she wanted to know why.
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Aug 6, 2019 15:33
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Exit Strategy posted:I continue to be delighted by how "durable enough to commit murder with" is apparently the stand-out feature of old tech. I miss the tactile aspect of metal and mechanical switches. Everything these days is made of crappy plastic and touchscreens. I want things that go 'click' when you press them and that you can polish with a rag and WD40 All the bits of my car are plastic or controlled by soft buttons. Even my electric drill is made of plastic
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Aug 6, 2019 17:05
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I miss when My TV regularly crashes. (How you gently caress up something as simple as a screen that displays different channels is beyond me, but it does.) The power button won't kill the power to let me power-cycle it. I have to pull the goddamn plug. It's not like a switch is complicated technology - why not spend the 10c and include one. stevewm posted:Its funny how everyone thought in the future every call would be a video call. Then the future arrived. Video calls are possible from just about every cellphone. And a myriad of devices. Yet a good majority of calls are still done audio only.
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Aug 6, 2019 20:50
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Unperson_47 posted:This is mind-blowing. Have you ever checked if there was a firmware upgrade that fixed it? Software upgrade? Mine came with 3 apps for viewing local TV channels. One was outdated when I unboxed the TV. One ran for 6 months before being depreciated. One last an entire 18 months before it stopped working. Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_5thEfEPHA
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Aug 6, 2019 22:44
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LifeSunDeath posted:well you got me to sit through a linus video, and yeah it's exactly what I expected, slow as poo poo not worth the cost. The card or the Linus video?
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Aug 8, 2019 09:07
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Sweevo posted:The early 80s was weirder for that. Half the magazine would be 1/6th page black and white ads with a hand-drawn image and the titles of a few clearly home-made games you've never heard of. No screenshots or even descriptions, just titles and prices:  I like how they often included a calculator watch.
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Aug 15, 2019 16:52
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Horace posted:I had one of those unbranded calculator watches. It was difficult to use, too big to be comfortable and then I got mugged for it on the top deck of a local bus. I've always been curious: did the watch bear any resemblance to the Casio calculator watch of the time? That sold for more than £10 at that time, I am sure. (your name/avatar is very apt for this conversation)
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Aug 15, 2019 22:20
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Horace posted:Horace was my first video game! The calculator watch was kinda like the Casio ones... I think it looked a lot like this: In the event that I discover time-travel, you've saved me £10. an actual frog posted:So I'd never heard of this and did a cursory search, Gromit posted:I have the 1990 Australian Personal Computer Hardware Buyers Guide on my bookshelf and it is a terrifying array of under-specced computers for premium dollars. Not cheesy at all, but it's amazing to see how many different manufacturers there were back then. Anyone remember graphics cards made by Number 9? Their Pepper Pro-1280 had 256 colours (a trade-off for the amazing 1280x1024 resolution) which was a steal at AUS$5,000. Where there any display devices that could handle that resolution at that time?
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Aug 16, 2019 08:33
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Gromit posted:There were a few choices, so long as you had $4-$5k to drop on a high res monitor. A ColorMAX cost over $14,000 with a screen size of 485mm (19 inch), but it had a much higher horizontal frequency than most of the others in the lower price bracket. Mind blown: I was rocking SVGA (800x600) in 1994 and that was the best you could get on the standard consumer market. I guess 1280x1024 in 1990 is like 16K today.
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Aug 16, 2019 09:16
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Buttcoin purse posted:No way, well maybe that's the best you could get from a chain store or something, but I'm looking at PC Magazine from 24 Sep 1991 and you could get an ATI (I just picked a known brand) VGA Integra for $189 supporting 1024x768, even non-interlaced! I'm sure that by 1994 I had some kind of Tseng ET4000-based card that could do 1024x768 but in combination with my monitor I could only get interlaced. An ad later in the magazine has that card for only $129, apparently at 1024x768 it's only 16 colors (like my card was IIRC). I hate it when I have to be reminded just how old I am.....You are correct, this was 1991 when I had that monitor and it came on a machine with Windows 3.0
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Aug 16, 2019 10:27
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU quote:We embark on the restoration of a very rare and historically significant machine: the Apollo Guidance Computer, or AGC. It was the revolutionary MIT-designed computer aboard Apollo that brought man on the Moon (and back!). Mike Stewart, space engineer extraordinaire and living AGC encyclopedia, spearheads this restoration effort. In this first episode, we setup a makeshift lab in his hotel room, somewhere in Houston. The computer belongs to a delightful private collector, Jimmie Loocke, who has generously allowed us to dive in the guts of his precious machine, with the hope of restoring it to full functionality by July 2019, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
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Aug 16, 2019 15:02
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Empress Brosephine posted:Mafia 1 is what blew my mind. I never really thought computer games looked that much better until I saw that game and begged my mom for a new computer. Like you, most of my experiences have been pleasant, but not earth-shattering. But with two exceptions: 1993 Doom. Playing a level that was a tight maze in a basement with lots of the pink monsters hiding there. Turn the wrong corner and they'd rip your face off, so you needed to move cautiously. The hidden monsters would occasionally howl and I legit found myself scared of them and nervous.. It was a revelatory moment to be genuinely scared, in a blood-run cold way, by a computer game sound effect. Second time was upgrading from a ps2 on a poo poo CRT to a 360 with hdmi on a HD screen. Modern Warfare, sniper level. Watching the detail on the ghillie suit as each clump of fibres moved independently of the others, as a result of my moving the controls just blew my mind that such detail, better than LOTR on the big screen at the same time, could be generated on the fly.
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Aug 18, 2019 00:23
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Cojawfee posted:I watched that earlier and that's American as gently caress to do. The tape is a different size, the holes are in different places, and the tape heads are put in upside down. Once someone buys the Sears tape player, they can only use Sears tapes. He describes it as 'one of the most cynical formats ever created' and all I could think was 'oh, honey'
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Aug 24, 2019 13:10
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Platystemon posted:No, because the counterfeits aren’t whole-cloth replicas based on your publicity photos.  quote:Remember the StikBox? The creative smartphone case selfie stick raised over $40K on Kickstarter for a product that would eventually cost about $47. But before the Kickstarter was even over, China was selling a perfect copy for as little as 8 bucks. 
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Aug 25, 2019 23:19
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bring back old gbs posted:Red is sourcing bottom of the barrel consumer components to build their drives when they could source higher quality server grade internals and still have a product with an insane markup. I don't mind that they are taking a $250 generic component, sticking it in a custom case and charging more: that's the way business goes. But charging $2,500 for that branded product is just insulting. and, as you say, it's not even a particularly good quality generic component.
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Aug 26, 2019 13:46
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LifeSunDeath posted:you guys remember the game-gear would just chew through batteries... I remember when I bought mine. Took it home, played my first game of Mickey Mouse, paused after a couple of levels and the batteries were dead. I think space heaters used less power.
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Aug 26, 2019 22:27
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Humphreys posted:1.5VDC vs 1.2VDC Which always annoyed me. If you are making a substitute for a 1.5V battery, why would you make it 1.2V?
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Aug 27, 2019 10:23
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