Advancing Computer Technology

[TurcoLoco]

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD).

The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.

Let us start appreciating our 4 GB finger-size flash drives...

[F1]

Here's another oldie: The FASTRAND II, circa 1968 weighed 2.25 tons and had a capacity of 88 MB. It was used with the UNIVAC 1108 series....

[TurcoLoco]

It looks bigger than my apartment...

[jholland1964]

It looks bigger than my apartment...

Hey everything electronic or "technical" used to be huge! I remember as a kid our neighbors had the first color tv on the block...we all gathered at their house that first Sunday night to watch Bonanza...which was one of the very few color programs even on tv at the time. Their TV was huge, or at least looked huge to me at the time. I would bet the screen was probably no bigger than 19" though but the entire set itself was gigantic. They also had one of the first home stereo systems...speakers the size of a small refrigerator and you could hear every scratch or piece of dust on the....record...yes...an LP record...which probably held about 12 songs and we all ooohed and aaahed at the great sound. Today we have tv's that fit on your wall like a picture frame and has a clearer picture than looking out a window. An iPod can fit in your shirt pocket, hold hundreds of songs and has speakers smaller than hearing aids and deliver sound so clean and pure you feel like you are sitting in a concert hall...amazing!
Heck, my Uncle had one of the first microwave ovens I had seen and it was also gigantic, he had to build a table to sit it on...it was the size of an igloo cooler! Now they fit on small trays or up under your cabinets.

[Gizmokid2005]

ROFL!! Y'all are making me feel young here....

[jholland1964]

ROFL!! Y'all are making me feel young here....

Hey, I never said I was a "spring chicken"...I honestly remember when my parents bought their first tv...1952, I was 6 years old. They went together with my Uncle to buy a tv because NBC announced they were going to broadcast the Democrat and Republican Conventions that coming summer...honest...that is the only reason they bought a tv! We had TWO channels then! That was all, no more. I am sure the picture was snowy, but it sure looked amazing to us!

[Gizmokid2005]

I didn't say that was bad...I only remember reading articles about that stuff......I've been around since the days of the 100MB 3.5" IDE drives....

[jholland1964]

I didn't say that was bad...I only remember reading articles about that stuff......I've been around since the days of the 100MB 3.5" IDE drives....

Oh I know you didn't say it was bad...just reminiscing here for the "good old days" when life was safer and not so complicated I guess

[TurcoLoco]

......I've been around since the days of the 100MB 3.5" IDE drives....

Dude, that is still around today!! that is not even old enough to refer as 'the good old days', more like 'good old 2003/2004'...

Judy, we didn't get colour TV till the late 70s, even till early 80s there was only 1 channel and it blew chunks! the only thing I cared about back those days were Flintstones and Laurel & Hardy!

I got my first PC (if you can even call it that) in Spring of 1983, a Commodore 64K (don't wanna know what K stands for Gizmo, those who only know Megas and Gigas wouldn't dig it).

I was loading programs and games from cassettes....the main problem with loading programs this way was the misaligned head of the tape reader which required fine-tunning using a small screw driver to adjust it.

A few months of gaming and I started hacking into games at age 12 using a program called 'FreezeFrame', I think that was the name...less than a year later I made my first game (I believe the programming language was based on some form of Basic or Pascal). It was a 370-line side-scroller....lol.

~TL

[jholland1964]

My Dad bought his first color tv in 1968, I was all ready married. He "allegedly" bought it so we could enjoy the Winter Olympics in color! Plus my husband was off in Viet Nam and I was expecting our first daughter and Dad "said" it would help me pass the time...my Dad was cheap, he always had to have a good reason to do something...guess the Winter Olympics was a good enough reason and helping me keep my mind off the war was too...didn't help, just brought the Tet Offensive, Live and In Color right into the living room!