Posted on 06/07/2012 10:43:43 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
As we move toward an age of quiet gadgets that do everything possible not to get in our way, we’re losing our appreciation for all the magic under the hood. Not long ago, the sounds our devices made reminded us that they were doing something truly important, whether that task was connecting us to the Internet or bringing us back to the beginning of our favorite VHS movies.
A child born today has a greater chance of hearing a real cloned dinosaur roar than a busy signal. But for those of us who lived through the beginning of the PC revolution, these 13 tech sounds will always be hardcoded into our memories.
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Ooooooooooooo boy, do I remember that one! I had 3 Zip drives with it, and Iomega repaired them free. Still have ‘em in The Computer Museum, in my basement, with my first 1982 IBM PS2/50 and much, much more. Ahhh, the good ol’ days!
When I was a teenager I'd listen to my 8 track using my headphones. I'd fall asleep and the thing would play all night. The all night clicking drove my parents nuts. :-)
My first was the SYM-1. a 6502, 1 MHZ, 4k memory, led display, hex keypad. It was 8-1/2 x 11 and even had the holes so you could put in a ring binder. you used a audio cassette recorder for storage. I later got a vt100 monitor and keyboard for it.
I hear the CRT TV sound every day. When I turn it on I get that loud hum as it degausses itself and the small pop when I shut it off. Bought mine in 1999, a 36” Sony XBR. It works just fine and is still outstanding for a stsndard-def tube, no sense in throwing it out.
What is a “Step Office”?
That ol’ Microchannel PS2/50 has 2 40k 4.5” floppy drives, 256k mem, and a black/orange screen for DOS2. Dad gave it to me for a BD gift; cost $4,500 back then!
That Sym-1 was the only machine I have ever bought new. That was in 1980, I think. Everything since I pieced together.
My computer still makes a “beep” every time it starts up to let me know that it is “good to go”. Then again, my computer is custom-built and I know every part down to the last wire in it.
I just put a VAX 4000/300 out for heavy trash pickup.
list price new around $90,000.
I’ve also built all my own super-fast machines, until 5-6yrs ago, when it became 5x cheaper to buy better HPs than to build them myself.
Gads, I recall when my university bought some of those when they were brand spanking new.
You’re right about that. I bought my son a HP laptop for HS graduation. It blows the doors off all the rest of our machines.
Things are changing way too fast.
I had the joy of watching a Telex tape drive go into a runaway spin without a tape being mountedon it, the sight of several men running and ducking for cover, the sight of the hub exploding and the SOUND of shrapnel flying all around the computer room.
I remember an old 1401 progrm that when running would cause a small transistor radio placed on top of the computer to play a ‘tune’ of the varying electrical pulses generated by the computer.
Only a computer running a single simple program could do that. If the program was run on a computer capable of doing more than one thing at a time, the effect was no longer possible.
Each hub was driven by a one-horsepower motor and servo electronics that was truely bewildered. The unit was a Kennedy 8102.
Danger does lurk in innocent looking places.
We did the same thing with our IBM 1130! Ah, the good old days.
Can you hear the squeal of the horizontal oscillator? That’s one sound I don’t miss much.
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