Cell phones, Cameras and Computers

[TitanMike]

Just like it's almost impossible to buy a truck that's "just a truck".

Most today are fancier than the best luxury cars when I was a kid. Trucks hdidnt even have armrests. Doors were steel even on the inside as was the dash board. If the door handle broke you just put a vise grip on the stub of a shaft that stuck out. Today a set of tires costs more than a truck from the 50's.

[packrat48]

My first truck didn't have a headliner. Present truck has rear seat DVD player because I could not find one without, only used once or twice in 12 years.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

While you were out, they sent people to the moon too.

Sorry for the Hijack.

Yeah, but they used slide rules and hidden figures!

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

Yeah, but they used slide rules and hidden figures!

The engineers of today never saw a slide rule and would need a computer to figure out how to use it, or even what it is used for.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by CaptnJohn

The engineers of today never saw a slide rule and would need a computer to figure out how to use it, or even what it is used for.

Yeah. But we were talking about going to the moon 50 years ago.

[BooBoo23]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Just like it's almost impossible to buy a truck that's "just a truck".

Most today are fancier than the best luxury cars when I was a kid. Trucks hdidnt even have armrests. Doors were steel even on the inside as was the dash board. If the door handle broke you just put a vise grip on the stub of a shaft that stuck out. Today a set of tires costs more than a truck from the 50's.

My dad bought a chevy PU in 1954 or $1100. I was with him when he went looking at the dealer. He wrote a check for $1100 and the salesman said I'll have to take that to the boss to see if he will sell it for that. He came back and said no deal, so my dad tore up the check and told me we need to get to work so we left. When we got home for supper the salesman was in front of our house and said "I'll take that check now". Nothing fancy about that truck.

[onetonford]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Phones are replacing everything. Who owns a separate camera or even calculator anymore.

My phone is also a compass, barometer, and altimeter.

Who knows what the limit is.

As for sideways pictures on the forum?

I just turn my phone on its side to view them. ��

I still own a camera desktop and several calculators and I Don't own a cell phone at all.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by onetonford

I still own a camera desktop and several calculators and I Don't own a cell phone at all.

I still have my HP 11C, 37 yrs old and still going strong. Love the RPN (Reverse Polish Notation - Google it). I consider it an heirloom to hand down to the Grand children (who probably won't want it )

[hshaynes]

Originally Posted by BooBoo23

My dad bought a chevy PU in 1954 or $1100. I was with him when he went looking at the dealer. He wrote a check for $1100 and the salesman said I'll have to take that to the boss to see if he will sell it for that. He came back and said no deal, so my dad tore up the check and told me we need to get to work so we left. When we got home for supper the salesman was in front of our house and said "I'll take that check now". Nothing fancy about that truck.

My older brother went to a Ford dealer back in 1972 to purchase his first ever brand spanking new PU. After choosing his truck the finance guy takes over. About every five mInutes or so my brother keeps asking "is it mine yet?". Finally after several of the questions, they hand him the keys and tell him the truck is his. He promptly reaches into his ice chest that he brought with him, grabs a beer and commences to shake it. He stops, pops the top while aiming it inside the brand new truck. Salesman asks if he has lost his mind. Brothers answer...now I don't have to worry about spilling a beer.

[LegacyFB38]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

While you were out, they sent people to the moon too. ...

Yeah, right. Fake news...just like the whopper some guy told me about a rocket ship that could return to earth and land on a runway like an airplane. Than this joker goes on and tries to tell me that the spacecraft-turned airplane gets re-used for another trip to space! Give me a break!

[Zoom]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

I still have my HP 11C, 37 yrs old and still going strong. Love the RPN (Reverse Polish Notation - Google it). I consider it an heirloom to hand down to the Grand children (who probably won't want it )

I am still using my HP 15C purchased it in 1985. I got a kick out of telling people it used RPN and would stack four numbers for calculation. They would think I was making a joke!

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Zoom

I am still using my HP 15C purchased it in 1985. I got a kick out of telling people it used RPN and would stack four numbers for calculation. They would think I was making a joke!

You youngsters had it made. My first computer was a TS1000 (Timex Sinclair 1000), 1k of memory, up-gradable to 16k via memory brick. Connected to a b&w tv and used a common cassette recorder for storage.

You could buy computer magazines from the drug store or newsstands and enter published programs. If you made a mistake in your typing you had to debug by going over line by line until you found the error.

After it was on the market for a year then you could buy pre-programmed cassettes.

Man, those were the days.

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

You youngsters had it made. My first computer was a TS1000 (Timex Sinclair 1000), 1k of memory, up-gradable to 16k via memory brick. Connected to a b&w tv and used a common cassette recorder for storage.

You could buy computer magazines from the drug store or newsstands and enter published programs. If you made a mistake in your typing you had to debug by going over line by line until you found the error.

After it was on the market for a year then you could buy pre-programmed cassettes.

Man, those were the days.

My first computer was a Commodore 64, with a 10 inch b&w monitor and cost $1800. The hard drive was a cassette recorder same as the Sinclair. I used to program it in "machine language", it would take dozens upon dozens of hours to copy the programs into it. And god help you if you made a typo, then it was many additional hours debugging the program.

[formerFR]

I had a Commodor 64, too, and used it to do some weird stuff with my synthesizers thru MIDI(musical instrument digital interface, i think)... and a drum machine to 'create' some music, so to speak. Don't ask me how, don't remember now, many years later(!), but I know it had the good 'ol 'floopy' disk, and VERY little memory, though it seemed a great deal back then!

[TLAK]

Originally Posted by boondocking

My first computer was a Commodore 64, with a 10 inch b&w monitor and cost $1800. The hard drive was a cassette recorder same as the Sinclair. I used to program it in "machine language", it would take dozens upon dozens of hours to copy the programs into it. And god help you if you made a typo, then it was many additional hours debugging the program.

Remember deleting the spaces between the lines to make more room?

[boondocking]

Originally Posted by TLAK

Remember deleting the spaces between the lines to make more room?

I don't remember deleting spaces, but do remember how much more time consuming it was typing in non binary compared to binary.

[Wobbles]

I will tell om myself, In 1980 I bought and Osborne 1 computer. No hard drive but it had two 64k floppy drives and a 40 character monitor that you had to do a keyboard shift to go over and read the other 40 characters on the screen. Oh Ya, for those of you have may even remember it was a CPM based OS.
Those were the good ole days especially if you had 120 baud modem as that was high cotton. There were only a few BBS's at that time.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

You youngsters had it made. My first computer was a TS1000 (Timex Sinclair 1000), 1k of memory, up-gradable to 16k via memory brick. Connected to a b&w tv and used a common cassette recorder for storage.

You could buy computer magazines from the drug store or newsstands and enter published programs. If you made a mistake in your typing you had to debug by going over line by line until you found the error.

After it was on the market for a year then you could buy pre-programmed cassettes.

Man, those were the days.

Since you quoted our HP discussion, I guess I'll point out that we were talking calculators, not computers.

BTW - At least according to Wik (I had to look it up, as I wasn't QUITE sure)i, your computer came out in 1982, a year after I bought my HP-11C. And about 6 yrs after I bought my HP-21C which the HP-11C replaced. And probably 8 years after I bought my Sears 4-banger calculator that the HP-21C replaced.

And I've actually HAD to use a slide rule. So I'm probably not the youngster you think I am. (But I wish I were!)

[SailorSam20500]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

You youngsters had it made. My first computer was a TS1000 (Timex Sinclair 1000), 1k of memory, up-gradable to 16k via memory brick. Connected to a b&w tv and used a common cassette recorder for storage.

You could buy computer magazines from the drug store or newsstands and enter published programs. If you made a mistake in your typing you had to debug by going over line by line until you found the error.

After it was on the market for a year then you could buy pre-programmed cassettes.

Man, those were the days.

I wrote several college papers on an Atari 800. Had a copy of VisiCalc that I used for my finance class assignments.

[My17Ram]

As a kid I can remember watching my dad operate the IBM System 360 at the company he worked for. Late 60’s. The card sorters, keypunch machines, reel to reel tapes.....remember like it was yesterday.