Trip down memory lane and how sexy computers once were

[zridling]

Eileen Brown posted a host of retro ads. Hey Jack, computers were fun back before everyone spied on you!
http://www.zdnet.com/nostalgia-tech-2-20-retro-pc-ads-7000009131/#photo

[Renegade]

Dot matrix printers... Wow. To think that I remember that stuff.

[40hz]

Dot matrix printers... Wow. To think that I remember that stuff.

In my case I wish I could forget them. Especially those old mainframe high-speed line printer models that used to come with acoustic isolation cabinets so they wouldn't damage people's hearing after repeated exposure. Too bad you used to have to "pop the top" to keep them cool enough to not "thermal off" if you were running some huge time-critical print job - like several thousand payroll checks - or a monthly 100,000 page corporate financial "stack." One printer was bad enough. But when you had five or six of those monsters cranking simultaneously, it was actually painful to be in the same room with them.

[Renegade]

Dot matrix printers... Wow. To think that I remember that stuff.

In my case I wish I could forget them. Especially those old mainframe high-speed line printer models that used to come with acoustic isolation cabinets so they wouldn't damage people's hearing after repeated exposure. Too bad you used to have to "pop the top" to keep them cool enough to not "thermal off" if you were running some huge time-critical print job - like several thousand payroll checks - or a monthly 100,000 page corporate financial "stack." One printer was bad enough. But when you had five or six of those monsters cranking simultaneously, it was actually painful to be in the same room with them.

I think someone is a bit older than me~!

I remember those huge cabinet sized printers with feed-paper in university. But I don't remember them being particularly loud. A bit, but nothing too bad. But 4 or 5 in a room? Never saw that. Probably very different things that what you've mentioned.

I had a DMP at home. Bought it with money I made mowing lawns and delivering papers and stuff. $500 was a lot of money back then, which is about what it cost.

[40hz]

Check out this guy's collection.

He even has pictures of some of the rare analog (as in no CPU) computers that you'd occasionally see back in the early 60s. They were also called "electronic slide rules" because that's really more what they were. An uncle of mine gave me one of these puppies one Christmas when I was kid - and I never looked back.

Check out the rest of his collection. He even has one of the (now) almost completely forgotten Exidy Sorcerers. And a 1997 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM)? I didn't know any of those were actually put into production - let alone sold! (The price tag was a nosebleed inducing $7,500.) Talk about a rare bird...

So...how many of these little orphans do you remember?

[40hz]

I think someone is a bit older than me~!

Count on it bro! Count on it.  

[Renegade]

I think someone is a bit older than me~!

Count on it bro! Count on it. 

Will do~!

I remember in 1996 looking at the Internet and thinking what total crap it was. I'd been using Gopher and Archie before that, and the "Internet" as email, etc. But the graphical "revolution" and whatnot seemed pretty lame at the time. Yeah, it sucked then, but man... HTML5 has a LOT of promise.

Now my ideas are fundamentally different. I think in terms of openness and all that. I still don't like some of HTML5, but, functionally, it's great. I would much rather have open standards that aren't patent encumbered. But, we have what we have.