Funny Non-Sherlock Pictures

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Did hard drives exist before the 70's?

Well, I think disc drives been around for a little while at least, but mostly on those older computers that took up an entire room.  I once had a conversation with a programmer from those early days; she told me that in order to do maintenance they would walk inside the computer.  ("Where's Charlie?"  "Oh, he's over in Bit 3.")

My programming experience occurred mostly in the minicomputer era (when computers were "only" the size of a refrigerator).  Disc drives were very popular then.  The drives we used could hold as much as 5 megabytes!  And our computer's main memory was 8 kilobybtes!  The systems could be used in a normal office environment, with prices somewhere in five figures (equivalent to far more now).  We didn't refer to our storage devices as "hard" drives, by the way, because "floppy" discs (remember those?) weren't invented till a few years later.

Of course nowadays you can go to Walmart and buy a much faster laptop with far more memory and far more storage for a couple hundred bucks.

 

 

[Artemis]

 

 

 

[Artemis]

 

[Artemis]

 

[Arcadia]

On 11/25/2020 at 12:23 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Well, I think disc drives been around for a little while at least, but mostly on those older computers that took up an entire room.  I once had a conversation with a programmer from those early days; she told me that in order to do maintenance they would walk inside the computer.  ("Where's Charlie?"  "Oh, he's over in Bit 3.")

Didn't those use magnetic tape? (Or is that just what they looked like?)

Hard to imagine that the first computer I used didn't even have any storage; you put one disc in and loaded the program, then took that out and put in another disc to save your files to. That did teach me some very good habits ... save your files often, and back them up!  Of course, both of those are now done automatically......

[Carol the Dabbler]

5 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Didn't those use magnetic tape?

The ones in movies and tv sure did!  Those filmed "computers" were presumably just big cabinets with blinking lights and huge tape drives (or something that looked like them) whirling away.  Disc drives aren't very dramatic -- all the action takes place where you can't see it.

 

6 hours ago, Arcadia said:

the first computer I used didn't even have any storage; you put one disc in and loaded the program, then took that out and put in another disc to save your files to.

*ahem*  That was your storage -- it was simply removable.  The first computer that I used was similar, all the discs were removable, which gave us a fair amount of flexibility and minimized the danger of running out of space.  Ours had two drives, though, so we could make backup copies.

Big computers of that era had much larger disc drives, with multiple discs sort of stacked on top of one another.  I'm not sure those were removable (other than by a repair tech).

 

[Artemis]

 

[Arcadia]

On 11/29/2020 at 2:09 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

*ahem*  That was your storage -- it was simply removable.

  I meant inside the computer, doof! But yeah, okay, point to Carol.  

5 hours ago, Artemis said:

 

*ahem*  Netflix still sends me DVD's. (Okay, the envelope says DVDs.com, but it the same account it always was....)

[Arcadia]

Artie, somehow I missed seeing your NY Christmas tree post at first. I heard about the owl but missed the rest of the story.  Good grief!  

[Carol the Dabbler]

I assume the explanation I saw was true -- the viral photos show the tree immediately after being delivered and unbundled.  Apparently it soon relaxed into a perfectly fine shape. (But that's not as funny, is it?)

 

[Arcadia]

14 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I assume the explanation I saw was true -- the viral photos show the tree immediately after being delivered and unbundled.  Apparently it soon relaxed into a perfectly fine shape.

I hope so!

The little town where I work has a live tree they decorate every year. It got so misshapen that it became a laughingstock, and a couple years ago they cut it down and planted a new, more perfect one. But the top five feet of lights went dead, so at night it looked just as ridiculous as before....

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 11/25/2020 at 1:23 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Well, I think disc drives been around for a little while at least, but mostly on those older computers that took up an entire room.  I once had a conversation with a programmer from those early days; she told me that in order to do maintenance they would walk inside the computer.  ("Where's Charlie?"  "Oh, he's over in Bit 3.")

Hey, I like this!

Imagine working in office, the computer alone would give you space from other pesky humans namely colleagues and bosses. It's probably possible to rig in some mild electrocution device for unwanted visitors. Good old times, yeah.

When I am working in the office or just living, I always have my own complete stationary, because I hate things not being around when I need them. However, many people don't, and they.. gasp.. borrow things and don't return them immediately, or don't return it. This is very high on my kill list. I also hate it when people come and commenting on my works or looking at my things, when it's not their business.

So to rid of those problems in my work place, I wrote this big, nice note with red marker and make it look like the font is bloody dripping, not precise because it's different language, but something like "Whoever touch, borrow, look, minding, move, or even curious...DIE" with very obnoxious dripping emphasized on DIE. It actually worked really well, I don't have anything missing, and colleagues would scramble to return my things 🙂. The best thing was when my bosses walked in with some important consultant and they walked around my table when I was not around. My collagues told me they looked and didn't stay long around my table. 

On 11/25/2020 at 1:23 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

because "floppy" discs (remember those?)

I read many youngsters see floopy disk and wonder why anyone bother to 3dprint SAVE icon. 😋

[Carol the Dabbler]

15 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I read many youngsters see floopy disk and wonder why anyone bother to 3dprint SAVE icon.

True, it must seem like a really arbitrary symbol to anyone less than -- what, ten years old?

Sort of like why is a train called a choo-choo?  (Or is it, any more?)

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

True, it must seem like a really arbitrary symbol to anyone less than -- what, ten years old?

I think even those up to their twenties! Count the years when they are not exposed to technology yet too.

Pretty sure my teenager nephews and nieces don't know what are those.

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

 

Sort of like why is a train called a choo-choo?  (Or is it, any more?)

I got one.

They don't know why ending a phone conversation is called 'Hang up'.

 

Actually, I came to post this wisdom:

[Carol the Dabbler]

10 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

They don't know why ending a phone conversation is called 'Hang up'.

Quite true.  I don't think a lot of people even my age know that!

Maybe they think it comes from wall phones, where the handset really does "hang" on the wall unit:

... but "hang up" was used long before those became popular -- even during the era when pretty much all phones looked like this:

In fact, all the way back to the first commercial telephones, which looked like one of these:

       

... where in order to end a call you would hang the receiver (i.e., the part that you listened to) on a hook, which would be pulled down by the weight of the receiver, breaking the connection.  The transmitter (i.e., the part that you talked into) was permanently mounted on the body of the phone.

Since roughly the 1940s, of course, land-line phones have had both the receiver and the transmitter on the removable part, technically called the handset.  But a lot of people still call it "the receiver" because it's removable, like the original receivers.

Oh, and the reason we "dial" a phone number is that phones from the 40's into the 70's used rotary dials (the circular part on a couple of the phones above) to enter the number.

 

[Artemis]

Probably unlike most people, I always had a rotary phone in the house until 2008.  The last one was a very old wall-hanging style left over from when the house was built in the early 20’s.  I had a toy rotary when I was little too, and I have one now, but it’s a Halloween decoration (which I keep out all year ‘cause it looks cool, lol).  I like rotaries.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I think most phone companies still support rotary dialing. At least ours apparently does, based on a problem we had for several years -- see my prior post for details.  Turned out the problem hadn't really been fixed that time, or the next summer/fall either.  We finally realized it was occurring only in hot, humid weather, and we're pretty sure the tech du jour (Fred, bless him) fixed it earlier this year, by actually replacing our line card in the aforementioned pedestal down the road.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 12/5/2020 at 1:17 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Quite true.  I don't think a lot of people even my age know that!

Maybe they think it comes from wall phones, where the handset really does "hang" on the wall unit:

... but "hang up" was used long before those became popular -- even during the era when pretty much all phones looked like this:

 

Hold on! I indeed only know these 😁

Have never used rotary phone, although I think I understand how.

 

Anyway, I think it's the disadvantage of modern day. 

It used to feel so good when you hang up on somebody. You suck! HERE's WHAT I WANT TO DO TO YOU!!! and BLAM!

While nowadays you have to channel all the pissy mood into one button smaller than your thumb and have to do it carefully and gently. Argh!! I AM MAD! ENOUGH TALKING! and slowly and carefully press the button. What's the fun in that?

[Artemis]

2 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

It used to feel so good when you hang up on somebody. You suck! HERE's WHAT I WANT TO DO TO YOU!!! and BLAM!

While nowadays you have to channel all the pissy mood into one button smaller than your thumb and have to do it carefully and gently. Argh!! I AM MAD! ENOUGH TALKING! and slowly and carefully press the button. What's the fun in that?

Hey that reminds me of something...
 

 

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

See??? The struggle is real! 😆

But I don't understand his gesture, he seemed to turn some buttons? Which phone is that?

First generations of phones were still fun, you can still 'slam' shut close flip phones. And my friend actually throw, throw those bulky nokia phone to a thief who snatched his bag, and it landed good on his head.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I don't understand his gesture, he seemed to turn some buttons? Which phone is that?

I don't know exactly, but he did say "cordless phones."  So he's talking about landline phones with cordless handsets, not cell phones.

 

[Artemis]

 

[Artemis]

 

 

 

[Artemis]

[Link]

 

[Artemis]

"it's like this but with aliens"

[Link]