Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Cell phones and no cable TV

Stop, you're killing me!
Robert — (archived)

Geez, nothing like a thread where people reminisce about the primitive good old days and I share each and every reminiscence, to remind me what an old fart I am! I mean, yes, I admit it, I've tested "tubes" on a dimestore "tube tester". Gas was at 29 cents for so long that I thought ".29" was a natural constant like pi. I remember my first color TV. I remember the "tube"-based reel-to-reel tape recorder I used to record the sound from the (black-and-white) TV during Gemini missions...yes, Gemini, hell, I got up before going off to first-grade to watch "Uncle" Al blast off in his Mercury capsule. Geez, I probably worked at the factory that built the calculator somebody's waxing nostalgic about. I have the particular memories of a lifelong technogeek. I remember meeting my first minicomputer in a six-foot cabinet complete with tape deck; it was like the first monolith scene in 2001. Yes, yes, I created paper tape on a Teletype to program that minicomputer. I remember why they're called "floppies": They used to be cardboard squares 8" on a side and they flopped around in your hand when you walked them from computer to computer because networks hadn't been invented yet. I worked on hard drives as big as washing machines. Guess what? Those old sci-fi movies aren't that silly, computers really did used to have flashing lights on the front panel and big bulky toggle switches. Ask me about the 4004, the first microprocessor worthy of the name and which spawned the famous 8080 that founded the "PC Revolution" and on that fateful day in Harvard Square inspired Bill Gates to rule the world. And speaking of Bill, yes, I met him in 1978 at a Forth convention, pre DOS when he just was curious about computer languages. Forth? Oh, that's an old computer language from the 70s, spawned PostScript...oh gawd, I am oooold!

Thanks for listenin' to an old feller, sonny, that was right kind of you. Now run along and don't let me bend yer ear any longer. It's a nice day out there, an' I think I'll just set a spell here in the sun in my nice comfy rockin' chair....

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (114 posts)