Posted on 04/16/2024 7:29:03 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Yikes - width=”600” on images would help readability
I’m sure it’s a good post otherwise
I used the VT-100 and VT-101 in college on both DEC VAX 11-730 and DEC VAX 11-780
Ah the first map you post shows Compton. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the Avoid Ghetto app. Would have helped Reginald Denny back in the day.
Waiting for the time when I can just type in the address, or say it, and the car drives me there and makes breakfast and lunch on the way-
nah! Waiting for a lotto win so I can hire driver who packs a pickanic basket for me.
What an amazing story. I enjoyed it start to finish. I remember the “Etak” name, but did not realize the complexity of the system, the challenges of the first map digitization, and the hardware requirements in the car. Or the fact that they symbol goes back to the “Asteroids” game that I enjoyed decades ago in arcades!
Recalled explaining the ETAK system to an MD buddy of mine back then.
He said it was impossible! Couldn’t work!
Now he uses all the nav apps in his car, phone, etc like everyone else, lost without it all.
Luddites are soooo not fun to talk to.
Paper maps are the best. While google maps et al can show you close ups of small areas, to get the bigger picture doesn’t always happen. Using a map you can more easily see if there’s a feasible alternative route to where you’re going.
And, um, what’s really amazing is seeing a staff pic of a startup that doesn’t feature the genetic spectrum of the entire third world.
Never thought I’d miss the ‘80s. Even Mountain View was semi-affordable then.
$4,049.29 in today’s decrepit cash...................
P
We still carry a National Geographic Road Atlas in the car. It’s spiral bound with a plastic front and back cover, about 11” by 15”.
I like being able to see the big picture on a nice full size map also.
Plus it works great as a lap table for eating on the road!
I just go to the local auto club and pick up some new maps every couple years.
Navigational devices are great, but that good old fashioned paper map still trumps it. We’ve had two of them, and they both made mistakes, such as wrong turns, taking a longer distance and the worst is trying to put us on a road that does not exist.
My favorite story is a trucker that got stranded on a one lane only dirt road in the backwoods of the Black Hills. He relied on his device and got to a point to where he not only could not turn around or back up, but had no cell signal. Personally I’d say he was an idiot for getting off the paved highway onto a narrow dirt road.
For years, The Dragon had an additional danger (besides the road itself)--GPS would put semi trucks onto it because the route was shorter to get from Atlanta to Knoxville.
It was quite entertaining to watch those trucks try to make those curves.
Now, there are HUGE signs at Deal's Gap and at the other end forbidding trucks access, and telling them that their GPS is wrong.
Nice ... a trip down memory lane for some of us.
How may here have played Asteroids on a video-game console in an arcade?
How many here have programmed on a VAX 11/750 (or any other VAX)? What language did you use?
How may here have worked with vector graphics?
Oh, yes ... the VT100.
I miss it. It had the second best keyboard ever. Best keyboard ever was the IBM Selectric typewriter.
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