Computer Room, circa 1959
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Where I work we are about to start equipping new starters with mini pcs. When I saw one of the HP mini pcs I was really impressed by how we will be able to cram what we currently have in some towers into such a small box. Seeing the mini pcs I would not be surprised if in 10 years a desktop computer was the size of my Samsung Galaxy S4.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Allow me to present you the Nokia 950 Display dock[^]
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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Allow me to present you the Nokia 950 Display dock[^]
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Thanks! Seems like I am 10 years behind :)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Thanks! Seems like I am 10 years behind :)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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On the website gizmoto.com today, there is a posting of a very dated picture of a computer room from 1959: This Woman Was a Bored Button-Pusher Before Jane Jetson Was Even Born[^]
Aside from the sheer size of the beast and the fact that all of the personnel are wearing suits, the thing that really hits me is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room! And the cell phone runs on a small battery, instead of a specially installed, conditioned power system!
Yes, ladies, I know. The picture also shows the men standing around while the lone woman is doing all of the work. :-D
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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Why is it my first thought was that she seemed to be reaching over to complete the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence?
The origin of Ctrl-Alt-Del and a rather uncomfortable moment with Bill Gates[^]. My understanding is that the conversation after the clip went along the lines of "I'm funny how? I mean funny like a clown, I amuse you?".
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
-
Allow me to present you the Nokia 950 Display dock[^]
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I'm really looking forward to this becoming a reality. I know that the tech currently exists, but it is still version 0.9. Won't be long, though.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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I'm really looking forward to this becoming a reality. I know that the tech currently exists, but it is still version 0.9. Won't be long, though.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
What do you mean? You can already buy them[^].
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
-
On the website gizmoto.com today, there is a posting of a very dated picture of a computer room from 1959: This Woman Was a Bored Button-Pusher Before Jane Jetson Was Even Born[^]
Aside from the sheer size of the beast and the fact that all of the personnel are wearing suits, the thing that really hits me is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room! And the cell phone runs on a small battery, instead of a specially installed, conditioned power system!
Yes, ladies, I know. The picture also shows the men standing around while the lone woman is doing all of the work. :-D
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
Some of us actually worked in places like that, and yes my phone now has more capability than the mainframes I worked on, and no I don't long to return to those days. However, too many people think the computer age began in 1981 when IBM announced the first PC. Commercial processing had been in existence for 30 years by that time.
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What do you mean? You can already buy them[^].
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
I would love to replace my laptop with just a phone. But without paying a great deal of cash, buying a phone powerful enough to work as my primary computer is just not a reality. Sure, I can have my phone screen presented presented on a larger monitor, but right now, most apps won't scale up nicely nor will the phone be powerful enough to handle the more intensive apps. There is a "cool factor" in being able to plug your phone into a large monitor, but I don't think the ecosystem is mature enough to be fully useful across most phones and apps. I think it is coming soon, and I think this is a great first step.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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I would love to replace my laptop with just a phone. But without paying a great deal of cash, buying a phone powerful enough to work as my primary computer is just not a reality. Sure, I can have my phone screen presented presented on a larger monitor, but right now, most apps won't scale up nicely nor will the phone be powerful enough to handle the more intensive apps. There is a "cool factor" in being able to plug your phone into a large monitor, but I don't think the ecosystem is mature enough to be fully useful across most phones and apps. I think it is coming soon, and I think this is a great first step.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
The biggest problem isn't that they aren't powerful enough, it's rather that they're using an ARM processor, so most applications made for a PC you can't use yet.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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The biggest problem isn't that they aren't powerful enough, it's rather that they're using an ARM processor, so most applications made for a PC you can't use yet.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
True enough.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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Some of us actually worked in places like that, and yes my phone now has more capability than the mainframes I worked on, and no I don't long to return to those days. However, too many people think the computer age began in 1981 when IBM announced the first PC. Commercial processing had been in existence for 30 years by that time.
I started working as a programmer in 1971 and spent a lot of time in the "computer room" pushing buttons on consoles slightly smaller than the one in the pic. As underpowered as those computers were compared to my iPhone, I have a strange bit of nostalgia about those days. Blinking lights, tape drives, assembly language...memories. And you're totally right about many people thinking the computer age began with the introduction of the PC. They have no knowledge of computer history. Edward
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On the website gizmoto.com today, there is a posting of a very dated picture of a computer room from 1959: This Woman Was a Bored Button-Pusher Before Jane Jetson Was Even Born[^]
Aside from the sheer size of the beast and the fact that all of the personnel are wearing suits, the thing that really hits me is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room! And the cell phone runs on a small battery, instead of a specially installed, conditioned power system!
Yes, ladies, I know. The picture also shows the men standing around while the lone woman is doing all of the work. :-D
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
Jalapeno Bob wrote:
is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room!
I could not find any direct comparables but I am rather certain that several benchmarks are going to be quite a bit more than "several".
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I started working as a programmer in 1971 and spent a lot of time in the "computer room" pushing buttons on consoles slightly smaller than the one in the pic. As underpowered as those computers were compared to my iPhone, I have a strange bit of nostalgia about those days. Blinking lights, tape drives, assembly language...memories. And you're totally right about many people thinking the computer age began with the introduction of the PC. They have no knowledge of computer history. Edward
It is not just computer history that they do not know. While they know who the "first tier" characters of American history, such as Washington, Lincoln, and such, they draw a blank when it comes to the second tier. Just ask them who John Jay was, or try Martin van Buren or James Garfield or ... Well, you get the idea.
Our nation was build by a strange bunch with radical ideas. Just read the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence[^]. This is stuff we should have learned in elementary school and high school. :sigh:
Enough with the soap box, already....
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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On the website gizmoto.com today, there is a posting of a very dated picture of a computer room from 1959: This Woman Was a Bored Button-Pusher Before Jane Jetson Was Even Born[^]
Aside from the sheer size of the beast and the fact that all of the personnel are wearing suits, the thing that really hits me is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room! And the cell phone runs on a small battery, instead of a specially installed, conditioned power system!
Yes, ladies, I know. The picture also shows the men standing around while the lone woman is doing all of the work. :-D
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
I'm just an anonymous poster, but I notice that several of you are intrigued by the fact of "my smartphone has many times more power than this room sized machine". While not incorrect, it is woefully inadequate as a comparison. As best as I can tell, the machine depicted in these photos is the circa 1959 RCA 501 Data Processing System: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/RCA/RCA.501.1958.102646273.pdf[^] http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1958/5052/00/50520066.pdf[^] Since word sizes and other concepts weren't entirely "standardized" to our current ideas and words relating to speeds, memory, and disk capacities - it isn't easy to compare that system to today's machines exactly, but one can get close enough. For instance - the basic specs (at least, according to the above brochures and such) of the 501 indicate that, had you purchased the biggest machine they sold (and there's a good chance that these machines were lease-only) - it would have been a machine with a whopping 260K-characters of RAM (characters may have been anything from 7 bits on up in width; probably to a maximum of 36 bits or so). Even if we say each character was a 32 bit word, that only equates to about 1 Megabyte of memory. Near-line random access (think "disk" drive) storage, and of course tape storage and punch-card storage, could all be expanded much further - but due to the size of the "drives" and the need to storage of those larger formats, buildings would have been needed to keep anything greater than a few hundred megabytes of data close at hand (and some customers probably did set things up this way). Speed? Difficult to say. But we can probably safely put it as somewhere around 1 MHz - maybe 2 if we're being generous. This isn't really an accurate or fair way to rate such a system, though - it really isn't a comparable thing. But you can bet that compared to today's systems, it was dog slow. That doesn't even take into account the size of the air conditioning systems needed to cool the thing (multiple 12-ton a/c units, if I read correctly). Oh - did I say tod
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On the website gizmoto.com today, there is a posting of a very dated picture of a computer room from 1959: This Woman Was a Bored Button-Pusher Before Jane Jetson Was Even Born[^]
Aside from the sheer size of the beast and the fact that all of the personnel are wearing suits, the thing that really hits me is the fact that the modern smart phone has several times more computing power and more storage than you see in that entire room! And the cell phone runs on a small battery, instead of a specially installed, conditioned power system!
Yes, ladies, I know. The picture also shows the men standing around while the lone woman is doing all of the work. :-D
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
I worked in a data center similar to the one in the photo. The person sitting at the console had the "easier" job. Continually mounting and dismounting magnetic tapes on the tape drives was a bit more work.