(January 26, 2021 at 2:49 pm)A. Secular Human Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 2:46 pm)polymath257 Wrote: How about 13 channels on TV and only 4 of them worked? if you were lucky?

...and you had to get up and walk across the room to your TV to change the channels.

THE HORROR!

Dad didn't.  That's what we kids were for.

(January 26, 2021 at 2:43 pm)polymath257 Wrote: I was late to the game in owning a computer. My first was a 33Mhz 386 with 4MB of RAM and a 100 MB hard drive (and two floppy drives).

Now, my laptop has 4000 times as much RAM and my hard drives have well over 30,000 times the capacity.

Remember needing to flip DIP switches to make sure peripherals didn't confuse each other?

Wow, you were late!  My first computer was a Commodore PET.  It had 16K of RAM, a cassette drive, a monochrome screen. 

But, I had a big box that was an 8K graphics add-on, that gave me the option of memory mapped 320x200 monochrome graphics (as opposed to just 40x25 character graphics).  If not used for graphics, it could add to the main memory.

I wish I owned the floppy drive, but that was a great machine for learning.  I later got an Apple II+, which was also nice for learning.  I started to write a number of games for that one using a macro assembler, but never finished them.  I did have some good tech demos, though.

(January 26, 2021 at 2:43 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: You remember, and miss, vent windows in cars and the headlight bright/dim button being on the floor.

I loved that button! It made such a satisfying click!

Suicide knobs on the steering wheel.

(January 26, 2021 at 2:53 pm)arewethereyet Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 2:49 pm)A. Secular Human Wrote: ...and you had to get up and walk across the room to your TV to change the channels.

THE HORROR!

Dad didn't.  That's what we kids were for.

13 channels? was only 3 when I was a kid!

(January 26, 2021 at 4:51 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 2:53 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: Dad didn't.  That's what we kids were for.

13 channels?   was only 3 when I was a kid!

We had three channels till PBS hit the airwaves.

(January 26, 2021 at 4:53 pm)arewethereyet Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 4:51 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: 13 channels?   was only 3 when I was a kid!

We had three channels till PBS hit the airwaves.

First CBS and NBC. Walter Cronkite made CBS with his news show.
Then the upstart ABC. (I loved it when Disney moved to CBS and we got a much better picture.)
Then we had an independent station, played old movies and wrestling.
THEN PBS.

Well, it WAS Indiana.

(January 26, 2021 at 3:34 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Suicide knobs on the steering wheel.

Fuck, can't say I have ever been in a vehicle with one of those, but damn! Even without them Nadar knew that hitting a steering wheel without one back then would fuck you up too. Suicide nobs were like the bayonet on a WW1/2 riffle.

---

(January 26, 2021 at 6:12 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 4:53 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: We had three channels till PBS hit the airwaves.

First CBS and NBC. Walter Cronkite made CBS with his news show.
Then the upstart ABC. (I loved it when Disney moved to CBS and we got a much better picture.)
Then we had an independent station, played old movies and wrestling.
THEN PBS.

Well, it WAS Indiana.

And that's the way it is.

Our first color TV back in the early 60s had an ultrasonic remote known as "the Space Command." We found it easier just to hiss at the TV instead of bothering to pick up the remote.

(January 26, 2021 at 2:53 pm)arewethereyet Wrote:

(January 26, 2021 at 2:49 pm)A. Secular Human Wrote: ...and you had to get up and walk across the room to your TV to change the channels.

THE HORROR!

Dad didn't.  That's what we kids were for.

If you were young enough to try to view scrambled subscriptions of "SuperTV' from your neighbor's satellite tv.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_TV_(...V_channel)