Kitz Forum

Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: Achilles Last Stand on November 24, 2007, 09:04:52 PM

Title: Home computer 2004
Post by: Achilles Last Stand on November 24, 2007, 09:04:52 PM
Every home should have one  ;)

(http://users.net1plus.com/scottm/HomeComputer.jpg)

Shame some of the text is missing  ::)
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: dave.m on November 24, 2007, 09:45:40 PM
Very interesting, Steph.
I am just wondering why they have an 'Ahead' and 'Astern' throttle valve wheels for.
It is more like one of the engine rooms on an old warship than my PC.
dave
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: roseway on November 24, 2007, 10:35:35 PM
Where did you get that picture of my computer room Steph?
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Floydoid on November 25, 2007, 09:39:41 AM
I can actually admit to having used a 'teletype interface' for programming in FORTRAN.

Quote
the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work

Surely they can't mean Windows?
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: tuftedduck on November 25, 2007, 11:38:29 AM
I hadn't realised that the new ones were as tiny as that.  :blush:
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: UncleUB on November 25, 2007, 11:48:53 AM
My Dell is the same as that except I upgraded the monitor to floor standing  :lol:
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Pwiggler on November 25, 2007, 12:25:27 PM
Very interesting, Steph.
I am just wondering why they have an 'Ahead' and 'Astern' throttle valve wheels for.
It is more like one of the engine rooms on an old warship than my PC.
dave


 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: kitz on November 25, 2007, 06:13:06 PM
Quote
I am just wondering why they have an 'Ahead' and 'Astern' throttle valve wheels for.
It is more like one of the engine rooms on an old warship than my PC


Sorry to spoil the fun  :( - well spotted dave.

Take a look at the pic of a Submarine Maneuvering Room from www.navy.mil (http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_8/smithsonian.html)

(http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_8/smithso5.gif)


Fully story (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp#photo2)
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Achilles Last Stand on November 25, 2007, 08:35:08 PM
 :lol: :lol: I love Snopes  :D
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: ianrj on November 25, 2007, 11:41:52 PM

Take a look at the pic of a Submarine Maneuvering Room from www.navy.mil (http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_8/smithsonian.html)

(http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_8/smithso5.gif)


Fully story (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp#photo2)

How did you spot that?  :shrug2:
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: kitz on November 26, 2007, 02:44:53 AM
>> How did you spot that? 

If truth be known..  I was actually sent the image quite a while back and remember it being done as a joke.

So because I remembered the e-mail (which iirc was from my cousin) ... it was just a case of doing a google to see why I remembered it.


-----

Still doesn't detract from the fact that it was a brilliant piece of work by the author - and gave us some of us a giigle :D
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: mr_chris on November 26, 2007, 11:47:24 AM
LOL - had me fooled  :-[
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: ianrj on November 26, 2007, 11:35:16 PM
 :D I prefer the spoof.

Fortran and teletype interface. Now that takes me back ...  ::)

I did my first piece of programming at school when I was 15 or 16, in Basic, and it was a paper tape interface, 5 hole I think! We all traipsed off to the local computer magnates - Elliots, later GEC Elliots. Can you guess the year?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Brothers_%28computer_company%29

(Gosh I love the internet!)
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Floydoid on November 27, 2007, 05:51:12 AM
Ah so somebody else can remember paper tape?  Only used it briefly before we moved onto punched cards.
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: roseway on November 27, 2007, 07:06:51 AM
I remember using an abacus at school.
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Pwiggler on November 27, 2007, 07:52:09 AM
i didnt realise they made abacus's that long ago eric??   :P
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: roseway on November 27, 2007, 07:58:29 AM
They didn't, we had to make our own using string made from grass, and wood carved with flint knives. 8)
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Achilles Last Stand on November 27, 2007, 08:19:51 AM
Nothing wrong with a nice abacus


(http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m87/passionplay65/Amusement/16-bit-computer.jpg)
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: UncleUB on November 27, 2007, 09:01:00 AM
I,ll  :drink: to that Steph
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: Floydoid on November 27, 2007, 09:47:46 AM
I still have a slide rule here - my 3yo grandson likes playing with it for some bizarre reason.
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: roseway on November 27, 2007, 10:07:51 AM
Steph, is it possible to buy an abacus like that without the silly bead thing on the top? ;D
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: UncleUB on November 27, 2007, 10:45:49 AM
I got 3 for £20 in morrisons yesterday :drunk:
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: canon on November 27, 2007, 02:21:10 PM
Quote
I did my first piece of programming at school when I was 15 or 16, in Basic, and it was a paper tape interface, 5 hole I think! We all traipsed off to the local computer magnates - Elliots, later GEC Elliots. Can you guess the year?
In 1961 I joined AEI as an Student Engineering Apprentice. A few months later (early 1962) I worked with programmer to produce printed instruction sheets for an operator of a machine tool; the sequence of instructions was optimised by a program so the component was made in the shortest possible time -  a sort of forerunner of numerical control.
The computer was an Elliot 803B with thermionic valves, input/output by punched tape and filled a room the size of an average lounge. We had a similar machine at college on which I did a bit of programming. The company later used one of its own machines, an AEI 1010 with transistors, that filled a much bigger room and had punched card input/output.
Ah, the good old days when programs needed to be efficient because the power of the machine was a fraction of what we have on our desks now.
Terry.
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: roseway on November 27, 2007, 04:27:20 PM
Good heavens, small world. I did a 1-5-1 sandwich course with them, starting in 1963 in Rugby, later in the electronics lab in Leicester.
Title: Re: Home computer 2004
Post by: canon on November 27, 2007, 05:32:47 PM
It IS a small world - I was a thin (that was better than being 'thick') sandwich student '61-'65, at Rugby College of Engineering Technology. I stayed with the firm through all it's re-incarnations on large electrical machine manufacture; retired early 5 years ago so I'm really busy now  ;). It's good to be nostalgic sometimes! There must be 100's of ex AEI apprentices around all over the world
Only about 200 work in the 'machines' bit now but they are very busy & making money I'm told. Quite a change from the 60's when 6000 worked on the site.
Terry.