Sammy J is a comedian and hosts ABC Melbourne's radio breakfast programme. Yesterday as I write he asked the question of his audience along the lines of what technology of the 1980s did you know and would you have to explain to your now adult children.
One was mentioned that really sent the sparks flying in what remains of my brain, teletext. I am not looking it up but I remember it being a ticker tape like thing scrolling across the bottom of your tv screen. There was a button on your tv remote control to turn it on or off (yes Virginia, we did have remote controls in the 1980s). It showed share market prices, news, weather and I am not sure what else.
I ask you for your memory of 80s tech that you would now have to explain to younger people?
I'll throw this into the yet to be mix. Now we hang up after making a phone call, landline or mobile. Maybe at times end a call.
Well into the 1970s in Australia we would say 'ring off'. Why? I can tell you why.
C'mon. Talk to me. Go off topic with 'early tech memories' if you want.
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I do remember the excitement of using a word processor for the first time... sigh...
ReplyDeleteJay Cee in the 80s I asked someone what word processing was and in the 80s we bought one. You could edit on the machine before printing. No more white out or typewriter correction tape. Marvellous.
DeleteI remember I was excited to be the first person learning "word perfect" to type school assignment lol
ReplyDeleteI have a memory of Word Perfect Roentare. Who was behind it? Microsoft before Word?
DeleteI don't remember on/off ticker tape, but I love it!
ReplyDeleteSandra, no doubt you were busy writing and child rearing at the time. You are forgiven.
DeletePS I can remember when remotes first came out and I thought you've got to be really lazy to use those. ROFL. I certainly changed my tune;)
ReplyDeleteI remember the same Sandra. How lazy can people be? That was until I discovered the volume button to turn things down that I did not like.
DeleteOne of my son and his cousin. But a skull as wall paper and the screen and we thought we had virus.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
I can imagine, Dora.
DeleteApparently Sony first demonstrated a wideband analogue high-definition tv system HDTV-capable video camera, monitor and video tape recorder in the early 1980s. I was a technical moron back then (and still), but I could certain use the video recorder.
ReplyDeleteHels, Sony was so up front back then with new tech, even if the video players went out of fashion for VCR. Video recorders were just amazing at the time. I transferred all we had on VCR tapes to dvds, and now my computer doesn't have a dvd player
DeleteYou can buy an external player and plug it in with the usb cord. Or just use a regular dvd player plugged in to your TV.
DeleteRiver, we do have a dvd player, used about twice in a couple of years since we bought it. They are so cheap now.
DeleteAll I can think of is camera films - the business of loading them and carefully removing them and either posting them for processing or taking them to a chemist's shop to be sent off. Looking back through the lens of digital photography, it all seems so primitive.
ReplyDeleteYP, when we visited the Great Barrier Reef we took many photos. The film camera number of photos advanced on which it should not have done as there wasn't a roll of film in the camera. We too took camera photos to a chemist for development. Why was that?
DeleteMaybe all chemist shops were connected with the Sicilian mafia.
DeleteFloppy disks! And wasn’t teletext associated with channel seven somehow
ReplyDeleteCathy, yes the floppies. Was it 3.4 mb they could store. A high definition adult movie might be now be 500 gb, I guess 50,000 mb.
DeleteThat's interesting about Channel 7 and I think you are correct. We switched it on once and thought that was interesting and then turned if off and never looked at again.
500gb? No No No. Not for a single movie. An entire 12 season series of the TV show Blue Bloods is only 83GB. I wonder if you meant 500kb.
DeleteRoneo and photostat machines. Remote controls with cords. Fax machines. Cafe bars. Minidisc players. I might be going a bit further back than the '80s!
ReplyDeleteCaro, I love the smell of metho in the morning.
DeleteStep Mother had a tv with a corded remote control. It was marvellous. But unlike in summer when channels changed quickly, in winter it was very slow as the mechanism changed stations.
Cafe bars is a good one, that I had forgotten about.
A black rotary dial phone hanging on the wall in the hallway....
ReplyDeleteJan, with a cord less than half a metre. You were lucky if you could sit down on a stool if you didn't have a telephone table.
Delete80s tech? answering machines and VHS players. It's all I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard "ring off".
River, we still have an answering machine but weren't they so great in early days. Yep, VHS players. Terrific at the time. Do you still have VHS tapes?
DeleteNo, they are mostly all transferred to DVD and over time replaced with bought dvd copies that don't have the breaks where I edited out the TV advertisements. I still have some of the home recorded dvds because I simply can't find those old movies on bought DVDs. When I look back now on how much money I spent, I'm glad I was working at the time.
DeleteI remember teletext. Walkman though I believe it's still about today.
ReplyDeleteFaxes, answering machines, vhs tapes, polaroid cameras, floppy disk, pagers to name a few Andrew.
Margaret, yes to all but pagers. They really made you someone important. They were used in hospitals well after their time. Like hospitals still now use fax.
DeleteDial-up for the internet.
ReplyDeleteGood one Rachel. I've written about that in the past. The sense of anticipation as you heard the tone, and will your computer connect. In our early internet days, often not and the isp was overloaded.
DeleteKids today don't know how to use a telephone with a dial. They also think peas come frozen in plastic bags, they have no idea that they come from a pod.
ReplyDeleteDiane, the worst thing being no redial button. You just had to dial again. I am sure I have very tough skin on my forefinger from dial phones. Next time you see the grands, make them a nice roast meal but they have shell the peas.
DeleteThis is a little older, the 70's. I became excellent in high school on a verityper, both operation and repair. I was told I could write my own ticket, job wise. Ha! Veritypers went quickly out of usefulness. Next up, in college, I became excellent on key punch operation, and repair and again was told I was set for life, as for job offers. Ha! Another big joke. I hadn't even quit college (my college career was brief) before they were a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, I have no idea what verityper is. Word processing?
DeleteR learnt key punch computer operation at an Adult Education class. What a waste of time that turned out to be. Digital camera salesman said 2 mega pixles with furure proof you. I think we are now at 20 mega pixels plus.
My first job was a keypunch operator! You've taken my contribution to the discussion, Strayer. Who remembers dial-up internet access? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0. This happened along much later though.
DeleteDebby, I don't want to remember the frustrations of dial up internet.
DeleteHere's a page on varitypers.
DeleteThey were temperamental machines and broke down frequently.
I learned how to repair them
and type on them
and did all the school year books and other publications on them. In demand!
https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/varityper.html
Ok. I thought it might have been like a stenograph machine but it seems not. Thanks.
DeleteStrayer never fails to surprise and fascinate me. ~grin~ And she is how I found you, Andrew, another win. I never heard of teletext before. Now we're often forced to see things scrolling on devices, whether top or bottom of the screen. As for the eighties, I remember roaming around town and/or stopping at payphones to meet friends. That's a lack of technology, of course (Heh...), more remarkable memories to me than innovation. Be well!
DeleteDarla, I don't like scrolling on top of the screen. I bothers me less at the bottom. Yes, we were so reliant on public phones. I don't know how we managed.
DeleteMicro cassette recorder - I may still have one around here someplace.
ReplyDeleteTP, like media reporters might use?
DeleteOh this is a great topic! I learned to program Fortran in the early 80s. I was so excited to get a computer at work, also early 80s, Then I learned Lotus 123, became an expert at it, learned to write macros and automated all my monthly financial reporting.
ReplyDeleteI am now off to look for John's retirement farewell speech which covered this topic!
I used keypunch cards learning Fortran!
DeleteJackie, was Fortran like the game Fortnite? I can't remember the name. Lotus 123 I certainly remember. We may have had it on our first computer. Make a post out of John's speech.
DeleteNo, it was a programming language (WAY before Cobol etc), FORTRAN, in full Formula Translation, computer programming language created in 1957 by John Backus that shortened the process of programming and made computer programming more accessible.
DeleteStill looking for his speech. I did find a post I wrote in 2010 that is even out of date now.
As soon as you mentioned Cobol, I remembered Fortran, but I only know the names, not the programming methods.
DeleteBanda machines fuelled by metho and then your hand to roll copies out. In PNG there was purple dye in the metho so people would not be tempted to drink the fluid . You wrote on a double piece of paper the top sheet was white the bottom purple. You used them as work sheets , I even drew maps and other illustrations for the kids . I initially hand wrote them but as typewriters appeared in the staff room typed them Gesteners(spelling?) and in the 1980 s a word processor
ReplyDeleteWe don’t have a landline now or a cd player.. we love and use technology …
handwritten but a# more typewriters we’re purchased the
I don't know the word Banda but it seems like a spirit duplicator that we all knew. That's funny about the dye in the metho. We still have both a landline and cd player, but they are no longer used.
ReplyDeleteOur first remote control was wired to the VCR. None of this wireless stuff!
ReplyDeleteJames that must been in the very very early days of VCRs. I don't remember machines like that. I bet the unit cost a fortune.
DeleteWe bought our first VCR very very early 80s, and it was expensive! Around $1,000. But that was us, we always had to have the latest technology first. Funny, I came across VCR tapes in my trunk the other day. But we have nothing to watch them on. I know that are copied from our video camera we had at the time and are very shaky, bad videos of trips. Nothing worth watching. I just have to throw them out, but it makes me nervous that I can't check them first.
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