The caption is a bit small to read on this photo from the early 1950's. But it says that "Scientists from the RAND corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" will look like in the year 2004. However, the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also, the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use."
It's so cute, you just want to pinch it....
16 comments:
What's the steering wheel for?
Fortran language... lol
ah, the days before ASCII...
Tyrant Sin
web_geek said...
What's the steering wheel for?
You've never seen an iPod?
You'd need to build an addition onto your house just to have room for a home computer!
Good heavens! Are those gauges for measuring the steam pressure?
I actually had a class in Fortran my freshman year in college. Sheesh. Talk about a waste of money.
Wouldn’t you feel a little like Dr. Doom operating that ridiculous contraption in your home?
Another thing… as absurd as it looks in that picture, just imagine the enormous size of the operating box, cooling fans, ventilation equipment, etc. behind that façade! Cripes.
Let's see now... it appears to have a lot of redundant features ( the dials) a steering wheel (for gaming) a subwoofer ( under the 20-inch monitor) and a printer ( that current DIebold voting machines lack). Also it takes up shit-loads more space than you'd think. So I'd say they got things half-right at least.
Some random jottings on the fascinating history of computers:
The first computer program was ADA invented by and named after the daughter of Anna Isabella Byron and Lord Byron ( the poet). Ada was born in 1815 and died in 1852. The ada program was specific to Babbage's analytical engine designs which were intended for purely mathemetical calculations but Ada herself, having also worked with George Boole, understood the connection between logical symbology and mathematical calculation as being a language that could be used not just for solving problems more quickly, but for analyzing problems and revealing new information.
100 years before the electronic computer was invented!
In the early 1950's the biggest seller of computers was actually the Lyon's Cake Company in England. Lyon's was Rand's first commercial client--the computer was used to manage inventory. Rand sent almost it's entire company to train Lyon's staff on the use and maintenance of the machine whilst Rand struggled to get Americans interested.
Other European companies took note and I gather six more Rand machines were sold in Europe with Lyon's then serving as installation and technical support. When Rand finally secured a government contract in the US, Lyon's returned to simply making yummy cakes and running tea-houses. IBM was still manufacturing typewriters at this time.
Grace Murray Hopper who eventually became a Rear Admiral inventend the "compiler" that allowed programmers to write code in something resembling english rather ( assembly language" rather than machine language ( binary) thus speeding up programming. She also helped develop FLOWTROL and COBOL (still used today).
She also coined the term "bug" after discovering a moth caught in the comuter wiring that created a short circuit and thus errors.
IBM tried to copyright the term "computer" as that was what they called people trained in the use of theire "tabulators"--those adding machines/one-armed bandits featured in so many 50's movies when smart young secretaries had to add things up for whoever was playing the modern ad-executive/architect/businessmen in romantic comedies at the time.
IBM lost that case and tried again later with the PC---and lost again because by then the operating system was recongnized as integral to the computer and DOS was not IBM's product.
The "IBM PC" beamce just the "PC" and the original ( the 5150) was made out of spare parts cobbled together, thus explaining both its ubiquity and its faults.
Happy B-Day Eyedoc!
Fascinating commentary, Britisher!
And thanks, Red Tory--
I'm enjoying my birfday very much!
Ooops, the anonymous post above is from me (as if you couldn't guess)
At one point in my life, another incarnation really, I was connected to the sale of IBM product.
Back then IBM had gotten into the PC game late, 'cause they believed main frames were the wave of the future, with terminals in individual homes. That missed target corrected and as they entered the 'stand alone' PC market, the guy who ran the program predicted the sale of 250K units. After 4,000K units, they fired him for underestimating sales so badly ...
I sorta see IBM main frame guyz and the original IBM PC guy 'RANdomly' intersperced in that home computer 'pincher' perfect picture ...
Snerd
That's 'RANDomly' ... Geesh another 'random error'
Snerd
This is one example where "bigger isn't always better" is correct.
How would I have transported that from NY to Halifax to be able to write this?
it's not the size that matters, it's how you use it?
KEvron
How would I have transported that from NY to Halifax to be able to write this?
You probably could have driven it.
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