VANITY: Modern Computer Technology (1954/2004)

Email ^ | 1954 | RAND Corp.

[Fiddlstix]

I received this in an Email today. I just thought I'd like to share it with you J

Fifty Years ago (1954) This is what the "Great" RAND Corporation (Think Tank) thought a "Home Computer" would look like in the year 2004..............

Click the Pic

[Nick Danger]

Had to be a hoax. I'm staring at that "teletype" thinking, "That's a DEC LA-180... circa 1978." No way that existed in 1954.

[Ichneumon]

My money is on this being a modern photo-shop picture. For one thing, the steering wheel is obviously pasted in.

LOL -- ironically, the steering wheel is one of the few things that *wasn't* "pasted in".

[Swordmaker]

Sorry, Urban Legend picture. That is a display of a US submarine control area. The television has been Photoshopped in.

[SunkenCiv]

Hmm... I think I have one of these somewhere under the clutter...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[rapture-me]

Your computer room looks better than the original edition from 1954. I notice that you have a picture of Joan Kerry on your wall, but who is the chick in the top right hand corner?

[El Gato]

Hoax!!

Thought it might be, that teletype is an anachronism. It's much more recent than that Sub control room panel.

OTOH, at work we have some pictures of 60's IBM "data processing" equipment. (Outside the room with our server farm in it). It's amazing how much the buttons, two different kinds, and keyboard, look like those used in the consoles on the AWACS. Not too surprising, the basic AWACS console was designed in the late 60s and early 70s at IBM.

[Covenantor]

I know it's a fake because in the right hand corner you can peer into the other room and see the million Timex-Sinclair 1000 processor array. See the 16K RAM memory modules.

Oh, and that wheel is take the slack out of the cassette tape drive before booting from cassette.

heheheheheheh....

[El Gato]

Back in those days of early computing, you had to wear a coat and tie to even get near a computer.

Not just a coat and tie, a suit and tie, with a white shirt.

[El Gato]

Where can I get an MS XP compatible steering wheel??

Try this place (there are lots of others)

[El Gato]

How quaint who said that?

Scotty, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home (aka "Save the Whales")

[TChris]

Actually, this isn't a "home computer" photo at all. The text was appended to the photo of a control panel for submarines. (Notice the large, shiny wheel)

[SlowBoat407]

I don't care. I'm still fascinated with the visions that people in the 1930s - 1960s had for today. Some of it is eerie, some of it hilarious. I'd love to collect some of the real images from old science magazines.

[bubbleb]

Ha,Ha Click on the picture and you'll hear a song!

[TChris]

...more info: It's a full-scale mockup of a nuclear submarine maneuvering room. Here's the link to the related Urban Legends page

...and the original, undoctored picture:

[Nik Naym]

" For one thing, the steering wheel is obviously pasted in.

LOL -- ironically, the steering wheel is one of the few things that *wasn't* "pasted in"."

Yup. I am chuckling too. By the time I posted, there was the shot of the original pix from the sub control console, along with the snopes links and so on.

It's a good thing I can laugh at myself ;)

(at least I was right about it being a paste-up spoof.)

[mathluv]

I remember my first 'computer' class - around 1960. We just talked about them. The only time we got to see/touch one was one night we drove to Amarillo to one of the banks that had a mainframe.

[Rastus]

[Capitalism2003]

not completely relevant, but since the thread got moved into the computer forum where nobody looks, I thought I'd post it here to help you guys out...

How to kill SPYWARE on your computer

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

My first computer was a PCjr, still own it, no internet. Working with a wireless LAN pulling 2 T-1s today. My how we have progressed. I have more memory also.