On Sun, 27 Apr 2014 20:31:27 +0100, Bill Wright
wrote:

Katie, who is 11, was helping me in the workshop today. She told me how
some of her class been in trouble for filming the teachers covertly. Of
course I told her how, in 1965, I'd made a sound recording of our maths
teacher, with the class deliberately winding him up just to make it more
fun. I then found myself trying to explain about reel-to-reel tape
recorders. I could see that Katie just couldn't grasp the concept.
Finally she asked, "But how much memory did it have?"

Bill

Yup, but I bet that in 10 minutes you could have taught her how a
reel-to-reel worked and she would have pretty much understood. No
chance of that with modern mp3 digital equipment.

Thats the biggest difference between the tech of my youth and now -
old stuff was understabndable to the average person.

On a related note, I looked inside a TV that we were binning last
week. Just 2 small circuit boards with precious few components. A
triumph[?] of modern design. The TVs of my youth were full of glowing
valves and thick cables. A thing of wonder, but now look like
something from a Jules Verne film.

How many components in a valve TV?

Incidentally, check out 'photonics' for some amazing old
electronics... eg:

Mercury Arc Rectifier [100 yrs old]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY6V2syGnZA