Support NeoGAF

[Des0lar]

ayyy

 

[Ricker]

keypunch operators

There was a great demand for keypunch operators, usually women, who worked full-time on keypunch and verifier machines, often in large keypunch departments with dozens or hundreds of other operators, all performing data input.

Yep I kinda remember back in school when we did surveys or whatever ,we use to punch holes in cards,with this stapler looking little tool...

 

[test_account]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

And both were cutting edge technology?



What did people store on those harddrives?

 

[Corto]

And both were cutting edge technology?



What did people store on those harddrives?

ascii Porn.

 

[exfatal]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

OHKO this thread is done

 

[GhostTrick]

60 years later... you can hold 40 000 times more data... on a card as big as your nail.

 

[test_account]

ascii Porn.

At what year did they advance to ansi porn?

 

[DiabolicalBagel]

Buzz off, Lighthouse has been posting some insightful interesting posts on the history of PC's, it's fascinating how the concept of a PC has been in the works since the 1940's or even earlier!


Thanks for the history lesson Lighthouse <3

Although we may be nemeses, I'm going to have to agree this time.
Lighthouse, thanks for all the info. =)

 

[Movalpolos]

Personal computer history doesn’t begin with IBM or Microsoft, although Microsoft was an early participant in the fledgling PC industry.

Altair 8800The first personal computers, introduced in 1975, came as kits: The MITS Altair 8800, followed by the IMSAI 8080, an Altair clone. (Yes, cloning has been around that long!) Both used the Intel 8080 CPU. That was also the year Zilog created the Z-80 processor and MOS Technology produced the 6502. Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC compiler for the Altair and formed Micro-soft.
http://lowendmac.com/2014/personal-computer-history-the-first-25-years/


1980 was the year Commodore opened the floodgates of home computing with the $299 VIC-20.

Estimates are that there were one million personal computers in the US in 1980.

Yet another 1980 disaster was the Apple III, which shipped with 128 KB of memory, an internal floppy drive, and Apple II emulation. Alas, it just didn’t work right, forcing Apple to recall them all, fix a number of problems, and rerelease the Apple III some time later with 192 KB of RAM. This was also Apple’s first computer to support a hard drive, the 5 MB Profile


Of course, the most significant event of 1981 for the personal computing industry was the introduction of the IBM PC on August 12. This computer ran a 16-bit CPU on an 8-bit bus (the Intel 8088), had five expansion slots, included at least 16 KB of RAM, and had two full-height 5.25&#8243; drive bays.


The second most significant event of 1981 was dependent on the first: Microsoft got IBM to agree that PC-DOS would not be an IBM exclusive. This paved the way for the clone industry, which in the end marginalized the influence of Big Blue.


Time magazine called 1982 “The Year of the Computer” as the industry grew up. By 1983, the industry estimated that 10 million PCs* were in use in the United States alone.

* Ever since IBM entered the market, the term PC has taken on a different meaning. Although it retains the original meaning of “personal computer”, the IBM architecture has so dominated the industry that it soon came to mean IBM compatible computers to the exclusion of other machines.

VisiCalc met its match in 1983 when Lotus 1-2-3 shipped for the IBM PC. That was also the year Microsoft Word 1.0 shipped, although it remained a small player until Windows dominated the PC world.




Windows

Microsoft first shipped Windows in 1985, and this DOS shell was content to run even on old 4.77 MHz PCs, albeit slowly. That was also the year Aldus invented the fourth major productivity software category by releasing PageMaker. Desktop publishing was born, and Apple found a strong niche market for the Macintosh and LaserWriter.

Compaq PortableCompaq, an early IBM compatible maker and the first to make a portable IBM compatible, shipped the first 80386-based PC in 1986. Compared with the typical 8-12 MHz performance of the 80286, the 16 MHz 80386 was a real barn burner. It also introduced some new operating modes that would make later versions of Windows far more powerful.


The overall count was about 54 million personal computers in the US in 1989, the vast majority of them running MS-DOS. Apple shipped the heavy (16 pounds!) Mac Portable, the first “notebook” computer with a built-in trackball and possibly the first with an active matrix display.


Microsoft Windows 3.1 shipped in 1992. Between Windows and the hardware of the day, the resources finally existed for Windows to become a major player. Windows soon became the default operating system shipped with new PCs.

In February 1993, Apple shipped its 10 millionth Macintosh.




Although the World Wide Web had been created many years earlier, it was in 1995 that it rocketed into public view. Window 95 shipped in August, and Intel unveiled the Pentium Pro in November. The Pentium II and Pentium MMX followed in 1997. Be began porting its BeOS to Intel hardware in 1997, 56k* modems took the industry by storm, and the first cable modems shipped.



As explained on the No Hype 56k Modem Page, these modems could theoretically reach 56 kbps, were limited by the FCC to 53 kbps, and commonly connected somewhere in the low-to-mid-40s. Still, that was faster than the old 28.8 and 33.6 modems – and most users never realized that what they gained in download speed (up to 56k) came at the expense of upload speed, which was still limited to 33.6 kbps and decreased as download speeds increased when both processes were taking place concurrently.



Windows 98 shipped in 1998, and Intel unveiled its low-cost Celeron CPU the same year. On the Apple side of things, the iMac helped push USB as the eventual successor to the parallel and serial ports common on Windows PCs.

I remember in the 80's when you referred to PC you were essentially referring to IBM.

 

[KevinCow]

60 years later... you can hold 40 000 times more data... on a card as big as your nail.

It is absolutely insane how far technology has come in such a short time.

I can't even imagine where things will be in another 60 years. I just hope I'm still around to see it.

 

[Corto]

At what year did they advance to ansi porn?

I knew someone would pick on that! hehe

 

[Corto]

I remember in the 80's when you referred to PC you were essentially referring to IBM.

There was a time you refer to PCs from other companies as IBM clones. Good times.

 

[Astral Dog]

Those Old Computers, are a thing of beauty

 

[test_account]

I knew someone would pick on that! hehe

Hehe

 

[Jetman]

Yeah there are still many, very many companies that still rely on ultra legacy computer devices...

There was a 60 Minutes episode a year ago where they were allowed to tour current day, American nuclear launch facilities in the Midwest, that were using some old legacy equipment like this. Thought it was crazy, but the officers in charge of the facility said it was for security reasons.
Is it possible that maybe some other companies store certain data on machines like this to avoid corporate espionage type situations?

 

[IndoAssassin]

pls

Has he induced Primary Lateral Sclerosis upon thee?

 

[Henrar]

I still want a LaserDisc player now. It's the highest quality format you can get the un-Lucas-fucked-with original Star Wars trilogy.
.

You can get unaltered Original Trilogy on DVD. It was released somewhere in 2006.

 

[Transistor]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

Holy shit. My sides....

 

[jroc74]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

cot damn

 

[Daffy Duck]

Lol, cheers gaf, the laughs have been great in here.

Also much information on old stuff as well.

 

[cyba89]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

It's funny 'cause it's true.

 

[Jason Frost]

There was a computer on the last season of Mad Men doing god knows what.

Yes, I also remember the giant computer in Mad Men, but why did they buy a computer?

What did the computer do?

Spoiler

Except making a guy crazy paranoid and make him cut his own nipples...

 

[Zaru]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

How does GAF always get these amazing first posts?

 

[Skelter]

Come on, you can't post that and not explain why he was banned.

Looks like he did just that.

 

[Funyarinpa]

my fucking sides

 

[dbztrk]

Well, since we are all going to reply to that first post...

I find this gif very disturbing and i'm not usually all that sensitive.

 

[Miroku129]

Im dying...

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

 

[elhav]

Thanks for the interesting read lighthouse.

Assuming the world won't be completely torn apart by a nuclear war, I wonder how technology will advance in another 60 years..

 

[Thoraxes]

Man, i've seen a lot of this stuff too. I did a lot of research on early electronic music for part of my grad studies, and some of the computers they used were amazing. I focused a lot on Babbitt and the RCA Mark II Synth, and just seeing people make music on an iPad from something like where it all started (first programmable) is nuts. It's funny how some pieces would take hours or even days to render just one take.

Imagine messing 1 note up and having to do the whole thing from scratch.

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

Holy shit.

 

[twinturbo2]

Well, since we are all going to reply to that first post...

I have no idea why this makes me laugh, but it does.

Love the rest of the thread, too, it's fascinating how far we've come in such a short time.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Man, this is an interesting topic but all the shit posts about how "Funny" the first reply was have made this thread a chore to sift through.

 

[twinturbo2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the biggest consumer hard drive be 8TB? I think I saw that on the Apple Store website, unless it's two 4TB drives duct taped together and put in the same enclosure.

 

[Sesuadra]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the biggest consumer hard drive be 8TB? I think I saw that on the Apple Store website, unless it's two 4TB drives duct taped together and put in the same enclosure.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XS423SC/?tag=neogaf0e-20 seagate sells an 8TB archive HDD. 223$ lol..I wish I could go back in time and show these guys how cheap it is.

 

[Yoday]

Personal computer history doesn’t begin with IBM or Microsoft, although Microsoft was an early participant in the fledgling PC industry.

Altair 8800The first personal computers, introduced in 1975, came as kits: The MITS Altair 8800, followed by the IMSAI 8080, an Altair clone. (Yes, cloning has been around that long!) Both used the Intel 8080 CPU. That was also the year Zilog created the Z-80 processor and MOS Technology produced the 6502. Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC compiler for the Altair and formed Micro-soft.
http://lowendmac.com/2014/personal-computer-history-the-first-25-years/


1980 was the year Commodore opened the floodgates of home computing with the $299 VIC-20.

Estimates are that there were one million personal computers in the US in 1980.

Yet another 1980 disaster was the Apple III, which shipped with 128 KB of memory, an internal floppy drive, and Apple II emulation. Alas, it just didn’t work right, forcing Apple to recall them all, fix a number of problems, and rerelease the Apple III some time later with 192 KB of RAM. This was also Apple’s first computer to support a hard drive, the 5 MB Profile


Of course, the most significant event of 1981 for the personal computing industry was the introduction of the IBM PC on August 12. This computer ran a 16-bit CPU on an 8-bit bus (the Intel 8088), had five expansion slots, included at least 16 KB of RAM, and had two full-height 5.25&#8243; drive bays.


The second most significant event of 1981 was dependent on the first: Microsoft got IBM to agree that PC-DOS would not be an IBM exclusive. This paved the way for the clone industry, which in the end marginalized the influence of Big Blue.


Time magazine called 1982 “The Year of the Computer” as the industry grew up. By 1983, the industry estimated that 10 million PCs* were in use in the United States alone.

* Ever since IBM entered the market, the term PC has taken on a different meaning. Although it retains the original meaning of “personal computer”, the IBM architecture has so dominated the industry that it soon came to mean IBM compatible computers to the exclusion of other machines.

VisiCalc met its match in 1983 when Lotus 1-2-3 shipped for the IBM PC. That was also the year Microsoft Word 1.0 shipped, although it remained a small player until Windows dominated the PC world.




Windows

Microsoft first shipped Windows in 1985, and this DOS shell was content to run even on old 4.77 MHz PCs, albeit slowly. That was also the year Aldus invented the fourth major productivity software category by releasing PageMaker. Desktop publishing was born, and Apple found a strong niche market for the Macintosh and LaserWriter.

Compaq PortableCompaq, an early IBM compatible maker and the first to make a portable IBM compatible, shipped the first 80386-based PC in 1986. Compared with the typical 8-12 MHz performance of the 80286, the 16 MHz 80386 was a real barn burner. It also introduced some new operating modes that would make later versions of Windows far more powerful.


The overall count was about 54 million personal computers in the US in 1989, the vast majority of them running MS-DOS. Apple shipped the heavy (16 pounds!) Mac Portable, the first “notebook” computer with a built-in trackball and possibly the first with an active matrix display.


Microsoft Windows 3.1 shipped in 1992. Between Windows and the hardware of the day, the resources finally existed for Windows to become a major player. Windows soon became the default operating system shipped with new PCs.

In February 1993, Apple shipped its 10 millionth Macintosh.




Although the World Wide Web had been created many years earlier, it was in 1995 that it rocketed into public view. Window 95 shipped in August, and Intel unveiled the Pentium Pro in November. The Pentium II and Pentium MMX followed in 1997. Be began porting its BeOS to Intel hardware in 1997, 56k* modems took the industry by storm, and the first cable modems shipped.



As explained on the No Hype 56k Modem Page, these modems could theoretically reach 56 kbps, were limited by the FCC to 53 kbps, and commonly connected somewhere in the low-to-mid-40s. Still, that was faster than the old 28.8 and 33.6 modems – and most users never realized that what they gained in download speed (up to 56k) came at the expense of upload speed, which was still limited to 33.6 kbps and decreased as download speeds increased when both processes were taking place concurrently.



Windows 98 shipped in 1998, and Intel unveiled its low-cost Celeron CPU the same year. On the Apple side of things, the iMac helped push USB as the eventual successor to the parallel and serial ports common on Windows PCs.

This summary really kind of puts into perspective just how much computer advancement has slowed down over the last six or seven years. The computer I had in 1996 was a relic compared to the one I built in 2004, yet the computer I built five years ago is still running modern games just fine (slight GPU upgrade a few years ago).

 

[Filter]

When they went to the moon with the Apollo program, the memory on the ships guidance computer was rope memory.

"Software written by MIT programmers was woven into core rope memory by female workers in factories. Some programmers nicknamed the finished product LOL memory, for Little Old Lady memory."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory

 

[test_account]

Man, this is an interesting topic but all the shit posts about how "Funny" the first reply was have made this thread a chore to sift through.

I dont mind the joke itself, but i'm curious to why it got so many replies. The Vita memorycard prices have been a "joke" for a long time, so its not something new. But humor is subjective after all


I'm still curious regarding what the storage was mainly used for back in the days. Did they hold a large program or so?

 

[Zeta Oni]

Love learning about stuff like this, the advancement of technology is such a fascinating thing to study.

Worth pointing out though, out of 238 comments, 85 of them have nothing to do with the OP. Thats interesting itself, just to see how much influence a single post can have on an entire discussion.

 

[M3d10n]

Pretty sure that's 5 KBs actually.

The bits would be so large you could probably see them with the naked eye then.

 

[Kthulhu]

Seeing all this old hardware is great. Thanks Lighthouse.

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

https://youtu.be/6_G-bqkb-Xw

 

[The Real Abed]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the biggest consumer hard drive be 8TB? I think I saw that on the Apple Store website, unless it's two 4TB drives duct taped together and put in the same enclosure.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XS423SC/?tag=neogaf0e-20 seagate sells an 8TB archive HDD. 223$ lol..I wish I could go back in time and show these guys how cheap it is.

Yeah, that's the one I have now because I couldn't get a Western Digital 8TB MyBook in the single-drive form factor. It's one drive. I got mine for $200 during the holiday sales.

 

[BONDO]

Loading it backwards?

 

[Dunlop]

I think what the OP can take away from this thread is trying to show cool historic information on the gaming side with the intention of having serious discussion is a BAD idea lol

(was a good first post)

 

[Rolodzeo]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

Boom.

 

[p_xavier]

Amazing how far we have come...

I think that my future grandkids will have a laugh when I talk about my 4Tb WD Red HD.

Well I had 1TB drive more than a decade ago, if anything I'm amazed that technology hasn't kept up.

 

[ZeroMaverick]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

"FATALITY"

 

[Azull]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

Oh my lord.

 

[Gattsu25]

The image is awesome a great reminder of how things once where but..

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

JESUS CHRIST

hahahahahahaha

This is one of the best 1st post responses I've seen. Hahaha

 

[Hugstable]

Probably still cheaper than a VITA memory card.

HOOOOOLEEEEY SHIT LMAO

 

[DiscoJer]

keypunch operators

There was a great demand for keypunch operators, usually women, who worked full-time on keypunch and verifier machines, often in large keypunch departments with dozens or hundreds of other operators, all performing data input.

That picture has to be from the 1920s, based on the hair and the clothing. Maybe early 1930s.