Early experiences of seeing inventions that are now commonplace

[Promethea]

There's a wonderful scene in the 1960's set show Mad Men where the employees of Sterling Cooper ad agency gather in a huddle to gaze with awed yet slightly frightened wonder upon an exciting new invention, the Xerox machine. The reactions are hilarious and somewhat endearing but I'm sure we all have our own similar reactions to glimpsing new technology and at the time thinking "I am truly living in the future". Obviously, it is funnier if the invention turned out to be mundane.

My own - the video recorder. We'd record nearly everything especially films and watch them endlessly just because we *could*. It seemed unbelievable. (Oh, and blank tapes were typically only an hour long and cost a fortune at first - like upwards of £20 IIRC.)

Any others?

[cormac]

remote control for the telly back when remote controls had two buttons - one for sound and one for the channels. My sister worked out that if she screamed at the right frequency, she could change the channel and my mum discovered tha shaking a bunch of keys at the tv turned off the sound. both used their 'discoveries' to their advantage.

These days you dont get TVs without remotes, whereas in them days a remote was a new fangled extra.

[Sinfai]

Because I was raised in a remote part of Africa where we had Tilly lamps and charcoal braziers for cooking our very infrequent visits to my Grandmother in Scotland were filled with wonder for me. Even running water from a tap or switching lights on and off had me mesmerised.
The things that stick in my mind most are the television and escalators.
I encountered my first escalator at an airport and was so scared I had to be carried on. No way was I stepping on that thing. To this day I still baulk at very steep downward escalators on the underground.

[Xploder]

Well, I was gonna say our Pong game, but y'all have me SERIOUSLY outclassed.

[Martini Enfield]

I remember the first USB drives that came out; being 4-8Mb in size and costing an insane amount of money ($50? Something like that. They weren't cheap.) No-one I knew saw the point, because a CD-RW was about $8 and held 700mb, not to mention the fact it could be re-used. And a few years after that, DVD-RW drives became affordable, and affordable USB sticks were still piddling around at the 128/256/512Mb level until probably three or four years ago (at least in this part of the world). It's only been fairly recently that the multi-Gb sticks have plummeted in price, at least in my observation. Even a year ago, an 8Gb stick was still AUD$50 and that was with some shopping around.

[elmwood]

A lot of my wonder was directed at things that have been around for ages, but which were considered extravagant luxuries when I was a child (1970s), but which are now considered commonplace. Automobile power windows, television remote control, car radios with FM, electronic calculators with more than four functions, and digital watches were all things I lusted after.

I was much more of a geek in my childhood than I am now. I read Byte when I was 12 or 13, and had Internet access since 1987, so computer technology to me seems like a gradual evolution rather than any "wow" moment. There were times when I was awed, though: the first time I saw a laser printer, used an Apple Lisa, and saw an LCD monitor.

Cell phones: Mom got a "car phone" in 1992. Normally, my parents were five to ten years behind the curve when it came to adapting new technology, but the car phone was one time when they were actually far ahead of it. (It's still in the car -- yes, Dad still has that same car -- but the phone no longer functioned after the AMPS system was abandoned.) Seeing people use cell phones in thete 1990s gave me a different reaction then compared to when I see it now; they were still status symbols, and people using them tended to be much more conspicuous about it.

[Promethea]

Originally Posted by Sinfai

I encountered my first escalator at an airport and was so scared I had to be carried on. No way was I stepping on that thing. To this day I still baulk at very steep downward escalators on the underground.

How old were you? Escalators give me slight pause too but I think that's no bad thing, really. You can come to substantial harm on them, after all. Weirdly, I find stepping on the upwards ones more unerving - I always worry I'll not notice my foot is actually on a gap between the steps and that when the steps separate as the escalator gets going, the sudden shift in balance will send me toppling backwards.

[cormac]

Originally Posted by elmwood

Seeing people use cell phones in thete 1990s gave me a different reaction then compared to when I see it now; they were still status symbols, and people using them tended to be much more conspicuous about it.

I got my first mobile phone in 1994. if the fecker rang while I was walking down the street, I would have to find a secluded doorway before answering otherwise passersby would think i was a poser. they'd be right mind you.

[Darmund]

I remember being insanely jealous when my 6th grade teacher told me she had this new thing called a "Betamax" that could play movies on your TV, whenever you wanted them!

[Khampelf]

I remember renting a VCR to play movies, which I could only do when visiting a relative in a bigger city. This would be the early 80s. Always got 'Mad Max' to watch, if they had it. Being able to choose what to watch? Science Fiction, baby! Live it.

[hakuna matata]

Fax machines--which are NOT common at all anymore but still occasionally used. I remember them revolutionizing the construction industry and every General Contractor was required to have one at the job site. I could draw a sketch in my Architect's office and send it to him! Wow--how amazing. Before he had to wait until my next trip to the site or me trying to convey via words to him what I wanted done.

Now with the pdf files, etc the fax is pretty archiac, but when it first arrived on the scene it was pretty awesome. Now it seems clunky! I am willing to bet that within a couple of years, we will see GC's with drafting programs, that we send files directly to them. Things all seem to be merging closer and closer especially with the new 3D modeling programs. Lots has changed in my 30 years in the industry and I am glad I have kept up!

[welby]

My family was always behind the times tech-wise, so it was all pretty cool to me growing up. I inherited the idea that things works until they die, then you go buy something to replace it, preferably used. For example, a few months ago I replaced the 28 inch Zenith (with remote!) that my parents bought when I was 11 and which finally died (26 years old!) with a used 28 inch off brand, used, with no remote. The only thing in my home remotely up to date technology wise is my computer, but that's mainly becuase I do work on it and want it to be fast. My kids occasionally accuse me of having Amish blood.

[Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either]

Originally Posted by hakuna matata

Fax machines--which are NOT common at all anymore but still occasionally used.

Huh? 90% of the offices in America still have fax machines. They're not really necessary if you've got e-mail, but there's still a generation of office managers which has to die off before everyone can just use .pdfs.

I was shocked- shocked- when the Super Nintendo came out. Six buttons, not even including Start and Select! Six! What game could possibly be so complex as to require so many buttons?

[Chacoguy]

I remember a bunch of us standing around admiring the new bicycle, that this kid had, that allowed you to actually shift gears!

[Zeener Diode]

/waiting for Islander to tell us about life before The Sun.

[Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either]

I do remember the first time I used a digital camera- a Casio QV-10, that my dad still has somewhere. It was the first one that had an LCD screen on the back to preview your images. I was totally gobsmacked at the idea that you didn't need to waste film anymore.

[Agent Foxtrot]

Hell, I remember the home PC being an amazing device when we finally got one. When I was a kid, we had an IBM PC-XT, however, the state-of-the-art box we finally abandoned that one for was a shiny new Dell 386SX (25MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, SVGA graphics... the 3800 baud modem came later on). I got to know every single in-and-out of the software, hardware, and OS on that machine... I was fascinated.

[SmartAleq]

I went to Expo '70 in Osaka and the Bell people were breathlessly touting the very newest thing--the touch tone phone! I established that it could play "Mary Had A Little Lamb" within the first thirty seconds of messing around with it but it didn't really impress me much since back in the day kids just didn't usually make phone calls. Parents made the calls and passed the receiver so we could say hi to grandma, mostly.

I was an early digital camera adopter, had this cool lens that pivoted so you could take pics of yourself. Resolution was 320x240 and it cost me three hundred bucks. I think I still have that thing somewhere, still works.

Heh--on edit, my first PC had 256KB of RAM, no hard drive, just two 5.25 floppy drives. I still remember being impressed at being able to afford a hard drive that was a gigantic 500 MB--nowadays even the media box has close to 2 TB onboard. Storage has become ridiculously cheap, yay!

[AuntiePam]

I still remember my first look at a color TV, at a friend's house. Mr. Magoo was on, and everything was very green. I whispered to my friend "Can your dad [yeah, it's sexist but this was 1950-something] fix it?". She said no, her parents were afraid to mess with it.

Another invention that impressed me was the transistor radio. I worked beans in the summer with a friend who had one. Sure made the time pass quicker, listening to Neil Sedaka and Roy Orbison.

And cat litter. We used to fill a cardboard box with sand, or dirt from the garden, then toss the whole thing in the trash when it got stinky. But I think there were fewer strictly indoor cats in those days -- maybe because providing toilet facilities was such a PITA. Our cats only came indoors on cold winter nights.

Boxed dinners too, starting with Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti and pizza. Used to be all you could get at the grocery store was food!

A friend who'd been in jail for a couple of years was impressed when a barmaid opened his bottle of beer without an opener.

[tunaman]

heh. My parents (actually, my dad) was always first on the block to have the latest gadgets... which kind of sucked in reality, as he would pay top dollar for them when new, but would refuse to upgrade them later (when far better models came out) because he'd spent so much money on the first-generation product. For example, he paid $1800 (in 1976 dollars!) for a VCR that weighed 2 tons and was made obsolete in less than 2 years. Or my Apple II+, which he bitched about upgrading when I went to college (in 1991!) because "it cost $2000!" (in 1979!).

It was the same thing with the microwave oven. My dad bought my mom one as a "surprise gift" sometime in... 1976, I think? My sister (born in April 1975) was still pretty small.

Anyway, the giant user's guide (remember those?) and free cookbook that came with it made it seem like a wondrous invention! Baked potatoes in 6 minutes? Pot Roast in 15 minutes? Popcorn in 3 minutes? It seemed like a magical time to be alive.

Of course, none of the recipes from the cook book came out even remotely looking like the picture, plus there were usually a lot more steps than what first appeared (you had to sear the roast on the stovetop, for example).

Eventually, the microwave became a device just to reheat leftovers and pop popcorn... but there was still that moment, when the box was opened, that it looked like delicious cakes, beef roasts, souffles, and more could be ready in 10 minutes. It was like something out of The Jetsons!

[Scruff]

I have two.

The home computer. Back when I first started messing with 'puters (back in 1971 or so), the computer was this big scary machine that sat in a separate room with limited access. When I worked at DEC, I remember the orgasmic thrill of being at a friends house and discovering that he had a PDP-11/20 in his den. Well, he was an engineer!!
Hell, I had one of the first TRS-80s in Montreal; it was a choice between that and the Commodore PET. That was in about 1977, I think. No floppies at all -- audio tape for program storage, 4K of memory expandable to 16K...

Now, we have a home wireless network with ?7? computers on it (2 macs, a Tivo, two XBoxes and 2 PCs) and it's not at all remarkable.

And the VCR
Back in Edinburgh, when I was in the AI lab (1974-1976), we had a video tape recorder with the 1" tape and the large reels that recorded black-and-white footage in "acceptable" quality. This was amazing stuff.

[Stubby Boardman]

Originally Posted by tunaman

heh...
It was the same thing with the microwave oven. My dad bought my mom one as a "surprise gift" sometime in... 1976, I think? My sister (born in April 1975) was still pretty small.

Anyway, the giant user's guide (remember those?) and free cookbook that came with it made it seem like a wondrous invention! Baked potatoes in 6 minutes? Pot Roast in 15 minutes? Popcorn in 3 minutes? It seemed like a magical time to be alive.

Of course, none of the recipes from the cook book came out even remotely looking like the picture, plus there were usually a lot more steps than what first appeared (you had to sear the roast on the stovetop, for example).

Eventually, the microwave became a device just to reheat leftovers and pop popcorn... but there was still that moment, when the box was opened, that it looked like delicious cakes, beef roasts, souffles, and more could be ready in 10 minutes. It was like something out of The Jetsons!

Heh, yeah, I remember that moment of glory, too. You could have steak and baked potatoes in no time.

And, yeah, you could cook steak and potatoes, but it wasn't as good as the regular kind, and yeah, you started using the microwave to heat leftovers and hot dogs, but man, it was marvellous for a while.

And yeah, the amazing VCR, and the amazing Pong...and wow, I can remember when it was a huge treat to go to an uncle or aunt's to see COLOUR TV! Sure, the colour was mostly green, including people's faces, but it was so, so sweet.

[rhythmonly]

My future-is-here moment was also with a VCR. My girlfriend and I went to her friend's house. He'd taped some Bugs Bunny cartoons, and we settled down to watch them. When the first cartoon was over, there was a slight pause.

Then another cartoon played.

Another slight pause.

Then another cartoon played.

Another slight pause.

Then another cartoon played.

By this time I'm looking at her friend like he'd just turned lead into gold, and was probably going to pull a rabbit out of his ass next . I remember thinking "But how did he get rid of the commercials?!?".

[Yorikke]

I remember seeing an ad in some computer mag - Byte, maybe - advertising a massive 30 MB hard drive, and thinking, "Who could possibly need that much space on a home computer?"

Joe

[Who_me?]

Let's see...

First touch-tone phone in like 1964/5. My aunt had it, she played Mary had a little lamb for me and thought it was really cool. What she thought was less cool was catching me trying to do it myself later... hey, I was about 7, give me a break.

First home computer, an Atari 800. You could put your phone receiver in this little cradle and get on these things called bulletin boards and see nekid girls... provided you didn't have to use the phone for an hour or two.

[aFewGrayFederales]

The first digital clocks. Not an arrangement of LED's, but rectangular chips of plastic with numbers printed on them, 4 in a row, that would flip mechanicaly like an old fashioned scoreboard. It would make you jump at 9:59 when all four would flip simultaniously.

Watching a movie, without commercials, at home. Whoa!

Seeing someone buy something without money. But those early credit card embossers looked dangerous as hell. And almost as loud as the clock.

[Promethea]

The stories are great - and indeed SmartAleq's memory reminds me of the tale of my grandparents many, many decades ago of being woken up by the electronic trilling of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". It apparently took them a long time to locate the source- the (then) new fangled digital watch that my grandfather had bought in the pub.

[blank]

It think it was a programmable calculator from TI. I remember it had a red LED screen and a simplistic, almost machine code like programming language. As this was a few years before home computers, this was the nearest thing.

[Islander]

Originally Posted by Zeener Diode

/waiting for Islander to tell us about life before The Sun.

Wal shoot, I do remember life before dial telephones. Dial, I say!

When Pioneer Woman was but a lass of 5 or so, she would pick up the "receiver" and a woman's voice (the Operator) would come out of the instrument and say, "Number, please" and I would say "1548-R, please" and then I would hear a phone ringing at the other end, and my 7-year-old cousin would come on. He would say, "What's cookin', good-lookin'?" and I would reply, "What's buzzin', cousin?"

Then someone invented dial telephones and put a lot of nice ladies out of work.

[Khampelf]

Ooooh, Ooooh. When I was 10, 1979 or so, we had a Trash-80, I worked on the Commador PET at school. It was the marvel of the nerd crowd at school that I had a computer at home. I spent hours typing in programs in Basic, and saving them to cassette tape. My Dad was a ham (radio enthusiast), so we soon had the super high tech add ons like a stand alone floppy drive, and even (gasp!) a modem. That you stuck the phone reciever into these big honkin rubber cuffs. I remember I could whistle into it and make the computer freak out.

[Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either]

Nitpick: Commodore.

[Khampelf]

Originally Posted by Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either

Nitpick: Commodore.

Sorry, all the drama around here lately has my vowels in an uproar.


I actually typed it that way first, and it didn't look right.

[Scarlett67]

Originally Posted by Khampelf

Ooooh, Ooooh. When I was 10, 1979 or so, we had a Trash-80, I worked on the Commador PET at school. It was the marvel of the nerd crowd at school that I had a computer at home. I spent hours typing in programs in Basic, and saving them to cassette tape. My Dad was a ham (radio enthusiast), so we soon had the super high tech add ons like a stand alone floppy drive, and even (gasp!) a modem.

My dad was a ham too, but we got a Timex Sinclair 1000 and hooked it up to a small black-and-white TV. I remember happily writing BASIC programs for it, including one that drew a face and made the eyes dart from side to side.

Way before that, in the early 1970s I'd say, we got one of the first pocket calculators. It was black and about the size of a paperback book (including thickness) and had a red LED display. It had four functions, and I don't remember whether it had memory. I do remember that it cost about $100. And I had a great time spelling out things like "hE110" on it.

Later on my mom had a Casio calculator that had something like 16 digits, and you accessed the last 8 (to the right of the decimal) by pressing a red arrow key. And if you divided by zero and then press the arrow key, you'd see those decimal digits furiously counting up from 0. I guess dividing by zero blew its tiny mind. I think she still has that goofy thing.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Islander

When Pioneer Woman was but a lass of 5 or so, she would pick up the "receiver" and a woman's voice (the Operator) would come out of the instrument and say, "Number, please" and I would say "1548-R, please" and then I would hear a phone ringing at the other end, and my 7-year-old cousin would come on. He would say, "What's cookin', good-lookin'?" and I would reply, "What's buzzin', cousin?"

You remember your number too? Ours was 1171-J, in the very early 1950's. Phone calls must have been expensive, because we almost never called anybody.

When you moved, your phone stayed with the house -- damn thing was screwed to the wall.

Anyone remember how phone bills were structured? Was there a base rate and charges for additional calls?

Also, I think I remember that before the AT&T breakup, you didn't "own" your phone -- the phone company owned it. If you moved, the phone company came and got your phone, or moved it to your new place. Am I remembering right?

[3acres]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Anyone remember how phone bills were structured? Was there a base rate and charges for additional calls?

For the average single-line customer, you'd choose between individual or party line, measured service or flat-rate service, and residence or business line. This determined the base monthly charge for your phone service. Party lines were cheaper than individual line service; the more parties on your line, the less you paid. Two-party was normal in my neighborhood, but 4 and 8 party lines were available too. Flat rate service had no call limits; if you opted for measured service, you typically got 40 calls per billing period as part of your base rate, and paid an extra charge per call over the 40-call limit. If you wanted extensions, you paid for the installation plus a monthly charge. When Touchtone came along, there was a monthly charge for that. There was no long distance included; you were billed for long distance calls based on the mileage, duration, and time of day the call was placed (typically you had day, evening and night rates).

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

Also, I think I remember that before the AT&T breakup, you didn't "own" your phone -- the phone company owned it. If you moved, the phone company came and got your phone, or moved it to your new place. Am I remembering right?

Line equipment ownership was in contention before the AT&T divestiture around 1984. But yes, the Bell System owned everything, including the telephone, until court orders forced them to allow what they used to call CPE (customer provided equipment). And phones were hard-wired to the wall connection unless you paid extra for jacks and jack-equipped phones. These were four-pronged jacks, not the modular ones that we're accustomed to now. I think the modulars first started showing up in the mid-70's, along with the orders to allow installation of customer equipment. (You still had to pay to get your phone connections converted to modular, if you wanted a modular hookup.)

[john ingram]

My moment was the first time I saw a car. I had just left the hospital, having recently been born, and my mother was standing there on the sidewalk holding me (they weren't required to wheel you out in a wheelchair upon discharge back in those days) when my father pulls up inside this giant metal box on four wheels. It was belching smoke and creating this rancorous cacophony and I remember laying there and thinking "Shit, mate... THIS is the future!"

30 years later and the fucking things are EVERYWHERE. Seriously. You'd have to go get lost in the Gobi Desert NOT to see a car.

[Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either]

I see what you did there.

[john ingram]

Oh good. Give me the Cliff Notes version. I got lost, but don't really have the time for a long explanation.

[Islander]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

You remember your number too? Ours was 1171-J, in the very early 1950's. Phone calls must have been expensive, because we almost never called anybody.

When you moved, your phone stayed with the house -- damn thing was screwed to the wall.

Anyone remember how phone bills were structured? Was there a base rate and charges for additional calls?

Also, I think I remember that before the AT&T breakup, you didn't "own" your phone -- the phone company owned it. If you moved, the phone company came and got your phone, or moved it to your new place. Am I remembering right?

I think 3acres plowed all that territory, so I'm just coming along behind to rake up some personal memoirs.

No, I remember my cousin's number. Since I never called home (at that age anyway), I don't remember any of the many numbers we had over the years.

We did have an 8-party line at one time, and oddly, I do remember that number: 736-M11. The 11 referred to the peculiar ring pattern assigned to each of the 8 households. You see, the phone rang in all 8 houses, and you could tell by the pattern whether the call was for you, e.g. ours was an initial long ring plus the 11—two short rings, like this: deeeeee-dit-dit. Naturally, busybodies all along the line would pick up too, to catch the gossip. If you wanted to place a call, and someone else was using the line, you had to wait till they hung up. When I broke my arm, my dad had to practically threaten tar-and-feathering to get some teens off the line so he could call the doc.

As recently as the early 90s, we had a two- or three-party line because it was cheaper. Only when we opened a home business did we opt for a private line. On party lines, if the neighbor's cat knocked the receiver off the hook (I know, curious antiquated jargon fer you youngsters) no one could get any service until someone discovered it and replaced the receiver.

It was only in the last 10-12 years that the last little nest of operator-assisted calls in the country was finally automated—here in Maine, I believe in Bryant Pond over in the Western Mountains. Good times, those were.

[tunaman]

Man, this thread has made me nostalgic for my early computing days:

- The Christmas I got my Apple II, I couldn't wait for my relatives to leave. When they finally did, I set the computer up in my room, snagged two gallon-size bags of Mom's leftover sausage balls, and locked myself in my room for two days. I didn't sleep, either.

- Using a hole punch to cut a notch into the other side of the floppy disk, so you could use the back side.

- Games with such lame copy protection that a 9 year-old with less than six months experience (me) could crack them in under 20 minutes. It was fun at first, but it got old... and then I learned about a little program called "Locksmith" that would do the cracking for me.

- My Apple II came with a 5.25" floppy drive, but I played around with saving programs to cassette once or twice. I stopped that REAL QUICK when I saw that it took 15 minutes to load a 4KB program off tape!

- Getting the new issue of Byte, and typing in those long programs by hand. And they NEVER worked. The first 4-5 times you'd try to run them you'd get syntax errors because of something you'd typed incorrectly. Eventually, you'd get all those worked out... but it *still* wouldn't run. So you'd try to come up with a workaround, which usually fixed that issue but broke something else. Eventually you'd just give up and wash your hands of the whole mess... until next month's issue, when they'd have the code for some cool widget... which never worked.

- Playing Wizardry for hours. I found the disk images for that on a website a year or two ago, and ran it in an Apple II emulator. I couldn't believe that that silly game used to hold my interest for hours at a time.

- Taking a "computer programming" class in 8th grade, using the same Apple II I'd used since 4th or 5th grade. The stuff was so basic that I did all of that week's assignments on Monday, leaving the rest of the week for me to create fake "computer systems". Back then I was obsessed with writing my own bulletin board software... only when I worked on it at school I'd name it something like "The Pentagon" or "White Sands Nuclear Missile Range". So when the teacher walked behind me to see what I was doing, she'd see "DDNET004.THE PENTAGON. WARNING: Misuse of this site is a felony under federal law. Please login." or some such, and she'd ALWAYS get freaked out, even though the computer had no modem or network connection of any kind. WarGames was still fresh in people's minds, and she was terrified that I'd start a war or have the feds raid the school or something.

- Monochrome green screens! Man, I woulda given *anything* for a color screen back then (he wrote, staring at his 22" widescreen LCD monitor).

- I *did* get busted for hacking... by my own mom. I was a *huge* fan of this one particular BBS, and soon found out that they had a "hidden" message board where people traded logins and long distance "access codes" (back then, if you had Sprint, you had to dial a local number, enter a 5 digit access code, then dial the number). I wrote my own wardialer with ten whole lines of Applesoft code (which was written by Microsoft, by the way). It would dial the Sprint number, try a code, then dial the number of an Air Force base in Florida. If the connection was successful, the access code was dumped to a text file. I'd share that with the guys at the BBS, and they'd give me logins for all kinds of sites. It was the most fun I had my entire childhood... until one lady who ended up with a $5,000+ Sprint bill called my house to see what the hell was happening. Ooooops!

[SoylentPopTart]

Not a lot to add about my impressions then but my family got one of these Amana Radaranges in the very early 80's or very late 70's. It was easy to believe you could cook a turkey in it because it was big enough to fit a turkey in it. Anyway that thing got daily use at my parents house up until just two or three years ago when my folks moved into their new house. Even then, they could have still used it but the new house has a built in microwave so really no need to have two. In that time, I grew up, moved away from home and have personally gone thru three craptastic microwaves in the meantime.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's sitting in their storage as we speak. They just don't make them like they used to.

[Islander]

Ain't that the truth. When we rebuilt after the fire, my kids suggested a microwave for the kitchen. Pioneer Woman had her wood burning & gas combo stove and wanted nothing to do with a little neutron bomb on the sideboard. But a year or two passed, and PW caved. She broke down and bought a perfectly average Panasonic with a dial (not a keypad). It was used mainly when I forgot to take something out of the freezer or wanted a quick cuppa tea. We got a Wearever hot air popcorn popper at about the same time, so both are roughly 25 years old and still performing like the day they took up residence here.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by SoylentPopTart

I wouldn't be surprised if it's sitting in their storage as we speak. They just don't make them like they used to.

Ours wasn't an Amana, but it was huge and you could roast a turkey in it -- it would even get a nice brown skin. Mom bought it for us in 1985 and I still have it, in a little kitchen in the basement. It still works, and even though it doesn't have a turntable, it makes better popcorn than the newer (smaller) one upstairs.

3acres and Islander, thanks for the phone info and memories.

Oh! I remember a party line thing in the 80's, but it was my kids (teenagers then) who used it. You could dial a number and talk to bunches of strangers. Sorta like a chat room, only on the phone.

[AHunter3]

In 1965, attached to our black-and-white vacuum-tube powered 13 channels-only television set, was a remote toggle switch that would turn the sound off when the commercials came on. Cord long enough to operate from the dining room table.

And although I did not own it yet (or have use for it at the age of 6, for that matter), the 1965 Pontiac Bonneville I was eventually to buy from my grandmother was at that point my grandfather's vehicle. It had power electric windows, power electric 6-way tilt front seat, automatic trunk pop-open button, tilt steering wheel, and fanciest of all an automatic headlight dimmer mounted on the dashboard like some Star Trek phaser.

[Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either]

Originally Posted by SoylentPopTart

I wouldn't be surprised if it's sitting in their storage as we speak. They just don't make them like they used to.

No, but would you rather have a $10,000 microwave that lasts 30 years, and accumulates 30 years worth of smells and becomes 30 years out of style (being a homeowner now, I have come to learn from my dear fiancee that appliances are subject to the dictates of fashion too), or a $60 one that you can toss out after a couple of years when it gets grotty?

[SoylentPopTart]

Originally Posted by Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either

No, but would you rather have a $10,000 microwave that lasts 30 years, and accumulates 30 years worth of smells and becomes 30 years out of style (being a homeowner now, I have come to learn from my dear fiancee that appliances are subject to the dictates of fashion too), or a $60 one that you can toss out after a couple of years when it gets grotty?

I don't think that thing cost $10,000 even in 1980 dollars. We were poor.

This kind of consumerism is why our landfills are to capacity but I don't/am not going to have children to clean up our mess so you're right, I should go hog wild.

Suggested reading

[Falcon]

I always lag behind technologically. My most recent marvel was last summer when I had a new garage door put on, along with a new garage door opener that has . . . get this . . . a keypad you can use to open the door!

Wow. I don't need to carry the garage door opener in and out of my house with me anymore. It just stays in the car. And the keypad is really handy when I want to mow the lawn. Type in a few numbers, and the door opens right up. Who thinks up these things?

The funny thing is if the contractor had asked me if I wanted keypad entry, I would have dug in my heels and said no--what do I need *that* for? Just another thing to break. So I'm glad he didn't ask.

I'm not sure I'll be able to handle keyless entry when I get another car someday. I don't even have power steering on my current car.

[hakuna matata]

Originally Posted by Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either

Huh? 90% of the offices in America still have fax machines. They're not really necessary if you've got e-mail, but there's still a generation of office managers which has to die off before everyone can just use .pdfs.

Perhaps you are right in regular corporate America, but out of thousands of pieces of information I get, I will get one fax. So perhaps I overstated my case The vast majority of the files I get though are .pdf files and are via email. Out of all my consultants and contractors I can only think of one who sends me faxes, and our shipping/receiving office turns them into .pdf files and emails them to me.

Our office has several fax machines, all collecting dust. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone using one. Once we got the ability to run documents through our xerox machines and make them into instant .pdf files the fax machines fell out of favor. Personally I love .pdf files. I get them and can put them electronically into the correct folder, only have to print them if I need them. I used to hate to have all this paper around me, and then filing it afterwards was a pain in the ass. Now I can file immediately, once I am done, it automatically goes back where it is supposed to be and I can find it again next time.

[hakuna matata]

Originally Posted by Falcon

I'm not sure I'll be able to handle keyless entry when I get another car someday. I don't even have power steering on my current car.

You sound like my wife. When we bought our new truck a few years ago, she wanted to make sure it had: a radio, electronic locks, electronic windows, intermitent wipers. power steering, and air conditioning.

I was like what? Evidently the truck she had been using before we got married had none of these. That amazed me--I don't know if she had purchased a strip down model or what--haven't most of these been standard features for years?

Needless to say, she loves the new truck. And the new garage door and opener I installed. There is nothing like bringing your spouse into this century.

[Islander]

Originally Posted by Really Not That Fucking Stupid Either

No, but would you rather have a $10,000 microwave that lasts 30 years, and accumulates 30 years worth of smells and becomes 30 years out of style (being a homeowner now, I have come to learn from my dear fiancee that appliances are subject to the dictates of fashion too), or a $60 one that you can toss out after a couple of years when it gets grotty?

A little hyperbole?

My Panasonic is approaching 30 years old, and I'm sure I paid less than $200 at the time. It works just fine. I keep it clean; it's not grotty. There's nothing on it to go out of style, and anyway, style means nothing to me in the kitchen. I see no reason why it shouldn't be good for another 30 years. Are you suggesting that instead of cleaning my appliances, I just replace them every few years?