OT: A look at the future from 1954

trekgeezer · January 19, 2006, 12:03:37 PM

pops_mcfly's post made me remember I had this picture. This is the home computer they invisioned for 2004 over 50 years ago.

My only question is, what's the steering wheel for? Did they invision Grand Turismo way back then?

odinn7 · January 19, 2006, 12:33:21 PM

Sorry Trek, the pic is a hoax.

I had seen this some time ago on a different board with a link to the story already.

trekgeezer · January 19, 2006, 12:53:50 PM

I don't give a s**t if it's a hoax, it's a cool pic. Even if it is a submarine control room it's interesting to see how far things have progressed.

Just a little over 20 years ago this is what I used to work on:

The hard drive on the right there held an amazing 5 megabytes, while the 8" floppy held 175 kilobytes. Then you have the giant dot matrix printer on the left that was really good for printing out those ASCII nudie calendars.

odinn7 · January 19, 2006, 01:11:32 PM

Back in the late 60's my father worked with computers...you know, the ones with the punch cards? I got my first computer in the early 80's which was a Timex Sinclair and then I replaced that shortly afterwards with the Vic-20 complete with tape drive! I was living!

trekgeezer · January 19, 2006, 01:29:37 PM

I still have a Timex 1500 computer (bigger than the 1000 with keys that look like chiclets) complete with 16k memory expansion and 40 column thermal printer. I also have a TI 99/4A somewhere that I gave 30 bucks for about 20 years ago. Don't know what happened to the cassette drive I had for 'em.

raj · January 19, 2006, 03:40:04 PM

First computer I ever used used punch tape.

Ash · January 19, 2006, 04:38:49 PM

Before knowing that pic was a hoax, I too thought that it resembled maybe the deck of a ship.

Mr_Vindictive · January 19, 2006, 06:09:04 PM

trek_geezer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
\ Then you have the giant dot matrix
> printer on the left that was really good for
> printing out those ASCII nudie calendars.
>
> --------------------------------
>
>

Mmm.....ASCII porn.....drool..............

Ed, Ego and Superego · January 19, 2006, 08:01:55 PM

Hoax aside... I love looking at old Popular Mechanics magazines at the "Gernsback Future" of air cars, robots, auto-kitchens, and moon cities.
Where is my freaking air car???

-Ed

peter johnson · January 20, 2006, 12:34:00 AM

Yeah!! YEAH --
I'm going to be 50 years old in March.
We were all led to believe that aircars, flying belts, pills for dinner, and colonies on the moon would all be reality by now --
Bastards . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

daveblackeye15 · January 20, 2006, 12:35:31 AM

Man I want the computer that guy has!

I LAWL'ED

trekgeezer · January 20, 2006, 08:19:40 AM

Yeah, where's the friggin' black monolith!! I like Peter and Ed, I am severely disappointed in the way the future turned out.

odinn7 · January 20, 2006, 08:21:58 AM

trek_geezer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
am severely disappointed in the way
> the future turned out.

Yeah, you and me both.

Dr. Whom · January 20, 2006, 09:17:33 AM

Which still leaves the question, did fifties nuclear subs really have the steering wheel of a hot rod?

AndyC · January 20, 2006, 10:48:42 AM

My first computer was also a Timex Sinclair 1000 (at $69.95, I could finally convince my Dad), and I eventually picked up the huge 16k expansion module (16,000 characters -- how could you ever fill it?) The great thing was that even though the Timex didn't really catch on in North America, the library had a whole bunch of game books in its particular flavour of BASIC, thanks to the popularity of the ZX81 in Britain. Remember books of computer games? Spending anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours typing in lines of BASIC (hoping like hell it worked), so that you could sell virtual lemonade? That was fun.

Eventually graduated to a CoCo 2, which I still have. Keep meaning to put it on display with my Atari 2600 and 80s album covers.