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guitarman2010
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02 Oct 2012, 3:32 am

ruveyn wrote:
guitarman2010 wrote:
I have a love for old computers :)


Then you will love the late 1950 and 1960 vintage computers that filled entire large rooms and required humongous air conditioning to operate correctly.

The 1960 disk drives were unbelievably bulky. A disk drive holding a disk with a 500,000 byte capacity was the size of a bowling ball cleaner.

ruveyn


Yeah, those really old ones are awesome. ENIAC always caught my interest too :)


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Fogman
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02 Oct 2012, 3:13 pm

pezar wrote:
equestriatola wrote:
I am always amazed as to how when new technology comes out, it is pricey; but as the years go by, it becomes cheaper.

Like when microwaves came out, they were about $600, now the average one is about $80.

'
The average calculator was $100 in 1974, the equivalent of maybe $1200 today. Now, they're throwaway items, you don't even replace the battery when it croaks, you just toss it. You can still find old calculators on Ebay. Buyer beware though-they ARE 40 years old.


In 1974 a calculator was $100, but by 1979, a basic pocket calculator could be had for 5-10 US$.


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StuartN
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03 Oct 2012, 7:40 am

Fogman wrote:
In 1974 a calculator was $100, but by 1979, a basic pocket calculator could be had for 5-10 US$.


I have my Sinclair Scientific, one of the first domestic electronic calculators. It uses Reverse Polish Notation. I love the bright red LED display.



auntblabby
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03 Oct 2012, 9:54 pm

i like my 1985-vintage sony discman :)
i also like my 1992 vintage hughes SRS box :) it does wonders to a stereo image :o



ruveyn
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04 Oct 2012, 7:05 am

Try flying or flying in a bi-plane vintage 1925, open cockpit and all.

ruveyn



equestriatola
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08 Oct 2012, 5:55 am

I remember the first CD players were tabletop, and cost about some $700 in 1984 dollars........ those were things of beauty in those days!


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auntblabby
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08 Oct 2012, 11:14 pm

equestriatola wrote:
I remember the first CD players were tabletop, and cost about some $700 in 1984 dollars........ those were things of beauty in those days!

i liked the looks of the original phillips tabletop machine. it had a decent sound quality, at least the equal of the original sony CDP-101.



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10 Oct 2012, 8:08 pm

Old tech is fun to find. Go to my school, and you can still find ancient projectors, all but entirely replaced by smart boards now.



ravenloft68
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11 Oct 2012, 7:05 pm

I have a 286 Desktop I found at a thrift store for $5.00, 4MB RAM with 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 floppy drives. I have a couple of Compaq 386 lunchbox portables. The only issue with these is that in order to change out the CMOS battery, you have to remove the motheboard from the back of the system.
Older computers were just built like tanks with Steel Cases and whirring fans. I love finding them and restoring them to their former glory :).


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equestriatola
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14 Oct 2012, 11:43 pm

True story: As recently as 5th grade for me (1998), we had turntables that periodically used. One day, for some reason, some kid got mad and "scratched the record on the needle" in anger. I got a good laugh out of it, for some reason.


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Thatmew
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16 Oct 2012, 2:55 am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9dpXHnJXaE[/youtube]

How does a 1964 modem sound for antiques?


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auntblabby
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16 Oct 2012, 10:56 pm

^^^
cool 8) there was something almost magical about that technology back in the day...
anyways-
pre-digital era, the dolby CAT43 noise suppression unit was a cleverly designed analog single-ended noise reduction processor that could rescue noisy takes from live on-location film sound recording work.



C64boy
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17 Oct 2012, 7:30 pm

Ya I'm into old OS's as of right now I have MS-DOS 5.0, OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp 3. Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98SE and GEOS for the C64



auntblabby
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17 Oct 2012, 10:51 pm

the puter which i do most of my digital audio restoration work on, is a p4 1.5GHz using windows 98se, just as i bought it back in the late 90s. it can't do anything else anymore, no email or web, it's too slow for all that.



BlueMax
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18 Oct 2012, 12:15 am

I keep my eyes open for a nice, local Tandy 1000 variant (TL series preferred.)

My Tandy1000SX was my beloved first PC... I'd like to build a working shrine of one and do what some others have done - upgrading it to the max it will allow!

Heh... I remember the catalogue that came with it... an internal 10megabyte drive was $1600 Canadian, and another 10MB external drive was about $1800. :P
Just having a second floppy drive where one would boot DOS and the other would have an app was an early luxury!


There's a neat chemical cleaner substance (I forget the name... durabrite??) that gets rid of the yellowing of old electronics plastic.
Image



auntblabby
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18 Oct 2012, 12:51 am

i miss using my old konica film camera, it took fine pictures in all light conditions, even with natural light [using 400 ISO film and a steady braced hand]. i rate its picture quality superior to any digital camera i've seen, there were no "jaggies" in blow-ups of its negatives. i wish it were still 1995 or so, i belong back there and not in the present day. :hmph: