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When computers were sexy: Hilarious vintage ads from the early days of the PC (LOTS of graphics)
The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | April 1, 2012

Posted on 04/01/2012 6:21:36 AM PDT by Stoat

'Maybe even sexy': This glamorous 1971 advert is trying to sell a modem, of all things

 

Girl power: Technico Inc also used sex appeal to sell their 'microcomputer' in 1978

 

Sex sells: Film character Elvira was recruited to depict a desktop as a chainsaw tearing apart the old ways of doing things in this bizarre 1991 advert

 

What indeed? Three decades on, scenes like this are a thing of the past as email has become ubiquitous

 

Hot shot: Bill Gates teamed up with Radio Shack in 1985 to promote computers carrying Microsoft Windows

 

Star power: Sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov was another well-known spokesman for Radio Shack in the 1980s

 

Handy? In 1976, this chunky briefcase was the equivalent of the modern laptop, complete with tiny screen

 

Giant? This RAM card from 1977 was fast for its time, but had 30,000 times less power than the latest iPhone

 

Mail order memory: System Industries charged an annual salary for enough storage space to hold half a film

 




(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; History; Science
KEYWORDS: computers; computing; history; tech
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To: roscommon

Lol... same here.. I got my TRaSh 80 in 1980 as well :p along with that darn cassette recorder.. and a whopping 300Bd modem (cradle) :/


81 posted on 04/01/2012 9:33:29 AM PDT by Bikkuri
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To: Daffynition
3D-printing technology

Try the open-source version: RepRap.

The Prusa Mendel is fairly simple to build and if you're creative you can get the cost down under $350.

82 posted on 04/01/2012 9:35:32 AM PDT by superloser
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To: ken in texas

Oh yes, I had to have several boot disks in order to configure expanded and extended memory in just the right way to satisfy certain programs. I liked DOS, actually. You could configure your own settings, but it took a little effort. Then along came windows, which did everything for you instead. It’s like being replaced by a computer or something.


83 posted on 04/01/2012 9:36:29 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: martin_fierro

That is VERY interesting.


84 posted on 04/01/2012 9:37:27 AM PDT by rdl6989 (January 20, 2013 The end of an error.)
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To: JoeProBono

85 posted on 04/01/2012 9:45:35 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Stoat

I still say the absolute funniest computer ad EVER was Hal Pawluk’s “dBASE vs. the Bilge Pumps” that came out in the 80’s. Wish I had a JPG of it to publish here, but if you follow the link below, you can see it from InfoWorld in 1981.

http://books.google.com/books?id=wD0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=dbase+bilge+pumps&source=bl&ots=3KSdAj41Zq&sig=Nsicqkcxgi01_lPveZ-9w2utvgw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lYR4T9jzN_PJiQKwndmnDg&ved=0CF4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=dbase%20bilge%20pumps&f=false


86 posted on 04/01/2012 9:45:56 AM PDT by ssaftler (Obama 2008: "Hope and Change" Obama 2012: "Excuses and Blame")
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To: Erasmus
The 6502 was MOS Technology. But the architecture was similar to the Motorola 6800

The IIc used a 65C02 Motorola chip. The Apple II used the 6502. And the Mac used a 68000 Motorola. I used to have the microprogramming specs for the 68000, although I never had a Mac. And I still have the machine language book for the 65C02. Even wrote a few ML programs for that IIc.

87 posted on 04/01/2012 9:45:56 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: Stoat

My Dad did the Cromemco ad. I got my feet wet in hi-tech by writing/editing copy for Cromemco, Wiltron, etc. way back when.


88 posted on 04/01/2012 9:48:03 AM PDT by whinecountry (Semper Ubi Sub Ubi)
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To: martin_fierro

Good old DAK (he’s still around). Loved his ads, which were loaded with hyperbole. The one that sticks in my mind was an one for a computer that ran with “a BLAZING 12 Megahertz!!!”


89 posted on 04/01/2012 9:48:59 AM PDT by Oatka (This is America. Assimilate or evaporate.)
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To: Stoat

Thanks for starting this thread! The first computer I used was a company machine that my mom’s company issued to her. The machine had a giant tape drive (about the size of a video cassette). After that, my school introduced some Tandy machines in the library. Gads, I remember making ASCII drawings of fighter jets and helicopters on a Commodore 64.


90 posted on 04/01/2012 9:54:39 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Stoat; KevinDavis; SunkenCiv

Awesome stuff.

Isaac Asimov!??

“What the heck is electronic mail?” - lol

That was one BIG modem on the first ad. What speed was it, 1200 baud?


91 posted on 04/01/2012 9:58:37 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: GeronL

I remember seeing those early E-mail adverts in business magazines like Forbes and Fortune.


92 posted on 04/01/2012 10:01:31 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: reagan_fanatic
Mine too !

(and we're still da bomb ;-)lol

93 posted on 04/01/2012 10:02:03 AM PDT by tomkat
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To: reagan_fanatic

They beat the IPAD to the market by a long shot. lol.


94 posted on 04/01/2012 10:03:54 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: bert

Babbage's "Difference Engine"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage

95 posted on 04/01/2012 10:11:34 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: Army Air Corps

I was very late to the party.

My FIRST computer, bought on layaway at a pawn shop, was a TANDY 386 with Windows 3.11. I was so excited it had a CD-ROM, lol. Of course, everyone else was upgrading 486’s to pentiums around that time. This thing had a 25 mhz processor and about 100 MG harddrive. (kept getting bad sectors all the time though)

That thing wouldn’t do anything until I added more ram (to 28MB?), a new modem (33.6 kpbs) and a new sound card. I remember signing up for a $100 a year internet service, they had to mail me a floppy with a browser (I had none), it was Netscape (1.12?), one of the first ones I think, lol)

I knew I was behind but I didn’t care.

I loved games. I had to delete a game to play another one, lol. Tank! and Gunship 2000 (off of 2 floppies) were my favorite, they were 3-d... of a sort.


96 posted on 04/01/2012 10:26:37 AM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: RightOnline
Those aren't as useless as you might think. For example,

these were used by the ancient Egyptians, around the time of the Pharaohs. But the red led numbers would get dim and burn out over time. And you only got about a half hour of use after every recharging. So they invented the abacus instead, which lasted longer.
97 posted on 04/01/2012 10:27:04 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The right thing is not always the popular thing)
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To: prisoner6; martin_fierro
In any case in the spirit of the thread there used to be a website that brought back real memories especially from the UofP and the PDP-10... www.asciigirls.com or.net or .org. It seems to be gone now, it's not even on the Wayback site.

Here's one I just made, in a few seconds, from a photo of a high-school basketball star that appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, 1984:

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http://www.glassgiant.com/ascii/
98 posted on 04/01/2012 10:38:55 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: GeronL

I recall a friend of mine from junior high who had an Amiga and my other geek friends marveled at his graphics! I recall the times when another friend and I would spend time on our local BBS. There was a guy in my junior high school who was proud of the fact that he could gain access to nudie pics via modem; he was thrilled that it took only half an hour receive and print a centerfold on his B&W dot matrix printer.


99 posted on 04/01/2012 10:39:04 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: cynwoody

TEH HAWT


100 posted on 04/01/2012 10:41:29 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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