topic Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :) in Community Chat

A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:02:21 GMT

Ok this article from Buzzfeed made me smile more than a few times. For those of us that were around for the beginnings of the technology explosion there are some priceless moments:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/not-hyperbole-at-all?utm_term=.ujEOoKYDx#.me6OWm7aE

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:16:31 GMT

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:21:37 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:

Oh goodness @sidsmom my friend had that very first phone when they were introduced and my ex had that second phone when the "flip phones" were first introduced . . . tee hee!

eta: I had that snappy little model (fifth from the right) . . .

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:33:36 GMT

@momtochloe

I love talking old technology! (Thanks for posting)

I was riiiiiiiiight on the cutting edge of all this back in the early 80's.

So many stories.

I went to college, but I knew a 4yr degree wasn't my style, so I

graduated with an Associate's Degree in...get this...Word Processing.

IBM Displaywriters were everywhere. When I moved to Dallas ('83), my goal was to manage a Word Processing Center...which was a floor of 20-30 typists transcribing call-in dictation. Big huge 8" floppy disks! Funny to think of it. I didn't go that route, but just shows how the 'pool of girls' typing all day was...normal back then!! Everything was changing so fast. Of course, the idea of a WP center was quickly outdated only after 3-5 yrs. It's amazing how the World kept up with all the innovative ideas, but we did.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

Marp — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:36:05 GMT

LOL, my first "portable car phone" resembled this:

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:41:00 GMT

By the time the 90's rolled around, all my Banking officers

had Palm Pilots...standard issue....along with pagers. Edgy.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:42:35 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
@momtochloe
I love talking old technology! (Thanks for posting)

I was riiiiiiiiight on the cutting edge of all this back in the early 80's.
So many stories.
I went to college, but I knew a 4yr degree wasn't my style, so I
graduated with an Associate's Degree in...get this...Word Processing.
IBM Displaywriters were everywhere. When I moved to Dallas ('83), my goal was to manage a Word Processing Center...which was a floor of 20-30 typists transcribing call-in dictation. Big huge 8" floppy disks! Funny to think of it. I didn't go that route, but just shows how the 'pool of girls' typing all day was...normal back then!! Everything was changing so fast. Of course, the idea of a WP center was quickly outdated only after 3-5 yrs. It's amazing how the World kept up with all the innovative ideas, but we did.

Oh goodness @sidsmom I remember when one of the Executive Secretaries was given a typewriter that had a tiny memory chip in it so you could correct your typing within a sentence or two . . . I still remember standing over that poor woman just marveling over that . . . time flies to the fabulous Wang Word Processor . . holy cats what a marvel (and took up some serious real estate)! . . . fast forward again to terminals that were connected via cable so you could "chat" overseas . . . and then finally the arrival of the stand alone PC's . . . no one would touch it with a 10 foot pole but I was all over it before the appearance of the internet . . . good times my friend!

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

Zhills — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:47:08 GMT

My first portable phone. Plugged into cigarette lighter 'hole' to work.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:47:54 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
By the time the 90's rolled around, all my Banking officers
had Palm Pilots...standard issue....along with pagers. Edgy.

Oh man @sidsmom this was a part of one of the first projects I ever managed . . . I took it over from another PM and within a couple of weeks of my arrival they realized the Palm Pilot didn't hold enough memory for the application they had developed (sigh) . . . the business owner and the development manager were going at each other and I stepped in between them and said whatever is wrong here is my problem so let's step back a bit and see what we can do . . . all the tension immediately drained out of the room and we figured it out . . . it wasn't pretty but eventually it was successful . . .

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:53:19 GMT

@momtochloe

OMG! That was me (figuratively)! I eventually moved into a personal secretary role...and we had all the cutting edge stuff! WANGs...yes! And if you didn't type the Document ID at the bottom of the page, you were looking at 20-30 minutes trying to find your saved document!!

Kick back a little further, did you ever use a Mag card typewriter? Or IBM Selectric Typewriters? I remember one with a little screen...I would program a document, throw in a piece of stationery, hit start & go get my boss a cup of coffee while it was clacking away. Multi-tasker much? Ha

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 15:59:07 GMT

Thermal Fax Paper?

All those rolled sheets.

Whatta mess.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:02:25 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
@momtochloe
OMG! That was me (figuratively)! I eventually moved into a personal secretary role...and we had all the cutting edge stuff! WANGs...yes! And if you didn't type the Document ID at the bottom of the page, you were looking at 20-30 minutes trying to find your saved document!!

Kick back a little further, did you ever use a Mag card typewriter? Or IBM Selectric Typewriters? I remember one with a little screen...I would program a document, throw in a piece of stationery, hit start & go get my boss a cup of coffee while it was clacking away. Multi-tasker much? Ha

@sidsmom I don't think I remember the Mag card typewriter (or maybe that was the typewriter given to the Executive Secretary?) as at that point I was a basic researcher but IBM Selectrics? . . . oh yes I remember those very well . . .

I also worked with the guy who developed the ehancement to the floppy disk that you could not only read/write but if there was some kind of error you could correct said disk instead of just tossing it and starting over again . . . he was a great, unassuming guy who was our IBM support and he worked it on this during his free time . . . as IBM has a policy that if one of your good ideas makes money for the company you get a cut of the profit . . . needless to say I never saw him again as he made a bundle off of it (and again God bless as he was a great guy) and I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for IBM . . .

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:03:44 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
Thermal Fax Paper?
All those rolled sheets.
Whatta mess.

Oh goodness do not touch them until they dried a bit . . . tee hee!

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

Buck-i-Nana — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:18:21 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
Thermal Fax Paper?
All those rolled sheets.
Whatta mess.

Hated the smell that came off those thermal faxes as they appeared. Used to LOVE the smell of mimeographs though and they kept that scent for a long time!

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 18:40:40 GMT

Not sure if THIS technology has gotten better but I DO know

if you cut me open, right now this very nano-second, there would

be a "poof" of toner!

I probably inhaled so much of that over the years. Ha.

And walking in on a Monday morning to this sight

kinda set the tone(r!) for the week! Grrrrrr!

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

momtochloe — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 16:43:17 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
Not sure if THIS technology has gotten better but I DO know
if you cut me open, right now this very nano-second, there would
be a "poof" of toner!

I probably exhaled so much of that over the years. Ha.

And walking in on a Monday morning to this sight
kinda set the tone(r!) for the week! Grrrrrr!

Oh geez nothing like wrestling with one of those printers when you are in a suit, heels and some stupid bow tie . . . egad!

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

Noel7 — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:58:48 GMT

WALKIE TALKIES!

That goes way back. I bought a set for DH and I and we used them all the time.

Especially when we went shopping for a Christmas tree. If we found a good one, he stayed with it while I searched the lot for an even better one. We used the walkies to let each other know

I still have them. Just in case...

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

Moonchilde — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 20:56:59 GMT

@sidsmom wrote:
@momtochloe
OMG! That was me (figuratively)! I eventually moved into a personal secretary role...and we had all the cutting edge stuff! WANGs...yes! And if you didn't type the Document ID at the bottom of the page, you were looking at 20-30 minutes trying to find your saved document!!

Kick back a little further, did you ever use a Mag card typewriter? Or IBM Selectric Typewriters? I remember one with a little screen...I would program a document, throw in a piece of stationery, hit start & go get my boss a cup of coffee while it was clacking away. Multi-tasker much? Ha

I used both Mag Cards I and II and their successors; didn't everyone who typed use a Selectric? Those balls! Medical transcription has always been on the cutting edge of word processing technology.

My first medical transcription job, however, was on a regular IBM electric with 5 sheets of carbon paper! The rule was, 5+ errors and you had to START OVER. Not that we always did.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

sidsmom — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 21:30:46 GMT

@Moonchilde

This is what I was thinking about....Xerox w/ that little screen. They had those weird pinwheels instead of the metal ball.

Medical transcription? That's crazy difficult. I could never get the hang of transcribing quickly.

Cute thread.

Re: A little technology nostalgia . . . :)

bri20 — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 21:29:48 GMT

I was a court reporter. When I first started transcribing depositions and trials, we used carbon paper and IBM Selectrics. We were not allowed to use White Out. Erasures had to be nearly done with no smudges.

When we got backed up or wanted to get things done quickly, we would dictate our steno notes into a tape recorder and the transcribing service would type from our cassette.

When we switched to computers, it was so nice - no more carbon paper, erasures, and Spell Check.