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Last post Author Topic: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!  (Read 121879 times)

Fred Nerd

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #125 on: November 08, 2008, 05:08 AM »
Thats cool.....
Reminds me of what Joseph Licklider predicted.
Years before the internet he already predicted e-commerce, and he also said (partly tounge in cheek) that small items could be instantly delivered in a network of plastic tubes. Well, he wasn't always right, but he was a lot closer than most people were.

Very influential in PC evolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licklider

Shades

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #126 on: November 08, 2008, 02:04 PM »
Where I was stationed when doing my military service (draft), we had a tube post system like that. And (mis)used it mainly to send food to each other...with or without those containers  ;) 

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #127 on: November 08, 2008, 02:55 PM »
Where I was stationed when doing my military service (draft), we had a tube post system like that. And (mis)used it mainly to send food to each other...with or without those containers  ;) 

I'm not sure I want to know...  :o

cranioscopical

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #128 on: November 08, 2008, 10:01 PM »
Heliographs
Semaphore
Mores code

Used all of 'em to talk to and fro' when I was a kid.

[edit] I thought I'd typed "Morse".   
Now I think of it, mores code seems also to be of the past.  :)


« Last Edit: November 09, 2008, 03:04 PM by cranioscopical »

CleverCat

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #129 on: November 09, 2008, 01:02 AM »
Morse:Thmbsup:  ;D

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #130 on: November 09, 2008, 09:47 AM »
The art of taking notes in class...

Students today seem to expect everything as a handout or that lecture notes will be available via something like Blackboard or WebCT.

app103

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #131 on: November 09, 2008, 12:55 PM »
My father was remembering back to when I was a kid and mentioned that one of the things he enjoyed most, was watching me from the window at dusk, as I skated up and down our block wearing a pair of Union skates, with the steel wheels.

Why?

Because the bits of flint in the cement of the sidewalk would cause sparks, and as it got dark you could see the sparks as I flew past the house.  :D

FAb0m3L4MRiPsEO.jpgThings your kids will never know - old school tech!
skate-key.jpg

These skates were tough, and unless you skated on dirt or grass instead of the sidewalk, left them out in the rain, or lost a skate, it wasn't likely that you would ever need more than 1 pair over the course of your childhood. (I managed to wear out a pair a year, though, with the amount of skating I did)

They were completely adjustable (with a key)...one size fits all...and fit over your shoes. With how popular they were, it was probably the reason why kids sneakers all had that rubber toe back in those days.

Around 1980 they started disappearing, as well as the old style rubber toed sneakers, when Rollerblades came along.

My daughter has never actually seen a pair of these skates, other than in pictures, and it was rather tough finding a good pic of them online. I have often wished as she was growing up, that they never went out of style, as it would have been a lot cheaper for me not to have to buy her a new pair of skates every time her feet grew.

J-Mac

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #132 on: November 09, 2008, 01:05 PM »
I think I realized that I had gotten old when I saw that no one else I know is familiar with:
  • Slide rules
  • Morse code
  • Phonetic Alphabet
  • How to extract square roots (without a calculator)

I think I had more...

...but I forget what they were!   :o   :D

Jim

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #133 on: November 09, 2008, 04:40 PM »
Does once having learned, but long since forgotten, how to extract square and cube roots without a calculator count? If so, I guess I'm old, too  :(

Grorgy

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #134 on: November 09, 2008, 06:59 PM »
Don't worry Darwin, I wouldn't mind betting that most 'kids' who are older than you either didn't learn it when it was taught or have forgotten the experience entirely (saves your sanity, post traumatic stress and all that), or are deranged physicists in a dark room somewhere.

Lashiec

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #135 on: November 09, 2008, 07:06 PM »
Does once having learned, but long since forgotten, how to extract square and cube roots without a calculator count? If so, I guess I'm old, too  :(

Yeah, it's one of the things kids should never be exposed to, brrrr! That, and how to check if the mathematical product of two numbers is correct. I remember doing it once when I was 10, and just because I finished the assigned work earlier than my classmates, so I was assigned something else. My god, it took me more than one hour!
« Last Edit: November 09, 2008, 07:10 PM by Lashiec »

J-Mac

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #136 on: November 09, 2008, 08:50 PM »
I can still extract square roots manually very easily! Once a few nuns beat it into you, you never forget!   :o

Jim

Shades

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #137 on: November 09, 2008, 09:04 PM »
@J-Mac:
How many of those square roots did those nuns beat into you?

I mean, if you still can extract them till this day... ;)  ;D

J-Mac

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #138 on: November 09, 2008, 09:08 PM »
All of 'em!

Jim

CleverCat

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #139 on: November 10, 2008, 01:50 AM »
Heliographs
Semaphore
Mores code

Used all of 'em to talk to and fro' when I was a kid.

[edit] I thought I'd typed "Morse".   
Now I think of it, mores code seems also to be of the past.  :)



-cranioscopical (November 08, 2008, 10:01 PM)

Too true!

CleverCat

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #140 on: November 10, 2008, 01:54 AM »
My Dad's teacher (circa 1930's) wouldn't even allow counting using your fingers! I think mental arithmetic is a thing of the past...

J-Mac

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #141 on: November 10, 2008, 02:24 AM »
My Dad's teacher (circa 1930's) wouldn't even allow counting using your fingers! I think mental arithmetic is a thing of the past...

With calculators, I guess it is...

...until you find yourself in a situation where some quick mental calculations are desperately needed, as no calculator nor computer is available. I actually did come across similar situations in field construction management, though at the time mobile devices were just plain old cell phones.  :)

Jim

CleverCat

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #142 on: November 10, 2008, 03:16 AM »
It's good for the brain to 'exercise' it now and again... ;D

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #143 on: November 10, 2008, 07:48 AM »
My Dad's teacher (circa 1930's) wouldn't even allow counting using your fingers! I think mental arithmetic is a thing of the past...

My teachers in the 1970's and 1980's wouldn't allow this either... I wasn't allowed to have a calculator until high school.

cranioscopical

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #144 on: November 10, 2008, 08:51 PM »

Didn't have a four-banger until I was working for a living... I'd hate to tell you what that thing cost.

My daughter's name is Giselle, so she was intrigued to see 3773519 when the rudimentary LED display was inverted. I guess she'd have been about 8 years old.

CleverCat

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #145 on: November 11, 2008, 12:53 AM »
No hand held calculators in the 60's!  ;D

Cranio, I remember someone showing me a formula and when it appeared it said shell oil!  :D

40hz

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #146 on: November 11, 2008, 09:37 AM »
I do remember that if you didn't have a Pi key (I didn't!), you could always generate it by dividing 355 by 113.

It was easy to remember because it was just the first three odd numbers duplicated:

113355

Split it in the middle

113     355

and divide the bigger number by the smaller and you get

3.1415929203539823008849557522124

 8)

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #147 on: November 11, 2008, 09:50 AM »
Cool, 40hz  :Thmbsup: I was unaware of that... Nice to learn these little mathematical tricks.

cranioscopical

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #148 on: November 11, 2008, 08:31 PM »
I remember someone showing me a formula and when it appeared it said shell oil!

I could do with a formula for Shell oil right now, just had my heating tank refilled  :(

Darwin

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Re: Things your kids will never know - old school tech!
« Reply #149 on: November 12, 2008, 01:13 AM »
Not a formula for Shell oil, but one that if followed may yield a cheaper and altogether more cozy way of heating your home:

62 O2 (g) + C52H84O22 (s) --> 52 CO2 (g) + 42 H2O (g)

 ;D