From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG





Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes

Hope this doesn't spoil the fun...
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

G




Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes

Gunner wrote:


From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


I particularly like the steering wheel -- they even anticipated the game
controller!

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Gunner wrote:

From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG






Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes

This thread reminds me that about that time the instructor of the
college "computer course" I was taking said he thought that in the
future the "real money" would me made by the people who "wrote programs"
for computers. I don't think any of us were impressed by what he said at
the time.

Bill Gates sure proved him correct....

I had a student job working nights then in the lab which housed a
humongous digital computer called Whirlwind. It used all vacuum tube
logic and magnetic core memory.

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/whirlwind-computer.html

Except for the steering wheel it doesn't look too different from
Gunner's offering. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

Gunner wrote:
Hope this doesn't spoil the fun...
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp


Yup, didn't fool me for more than a second. Those steering
wheels were a big giveaway. What computer needs steering wheels?
Also, the "teletype" (actually a DECwriter, I think, stretched
out to fit the display stand in front) wasn't made until the late
1970's. Also, many vacuum tube computers had a large meter or two
to read power supply voltages, but none of them had a WALL of
meters like this.

Some great stuff is at the computer museum at Moffet Field in
Mountain View, CA.

Jon

Not exactly a 'Home computer' as such...

But...

Humanoid Cyber Dancers
http://www12.mainichi.co.jp/news/mdn...robot-0-4.html

Real Life 'Robocop' already on patrol...
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archi...8p2a00m0dm0060
01c.html

Real Life 'Carer Robot' for the elderly...
http://www12.mainichi.co.jp/news/mdn...robot-0-8.html

Robotic 'Home Helper' for the disabled...
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archi...6p2a00m0dm0050
01c.html

Question - Is 'I Robot' any closer with this processing breakthrough?
http://www12.mainichi.co.jp/news/mdn...robot-0-9.html

And of course, knowing the Geeks...
http://eserver.org/bs/35/hamilton.html

....How long before the 'Home Computer' is a 'PersoCom' like the
Humanoid 'Chi' from the Manga/Anime 'Chobits'?
http://www.tokidokijournal.com/anime/chobits/

--
Yours, DBM -
From Somewhere in Australia, the Land of Tree-Hugging Funnelwebs...

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:45:01 GMT, Gunner
wrote:



From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


I don't know which is more bizar The computer itself or the notion
that FORTRAN will make it easy to use.

(And what the hell is that steering wheel thingie for?)

--RC


Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

It's a fake. This is a photoshop cobbled pic of a projected computer melded
with the control room of a nuke sub.

--
Tiny
=================================================
Get the U.S out of the U.N
and the U.N out of the U.S
http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/unframes.htm
Si vis Pacem, Para Bellum (to maintain peace, prepare for war)
=================================================
wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:45:01 GMT, Gunner
wrote:



From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


I don't know which is more bizar The computer itself or the notion
that FORTRAN will make it easy to use.

(And what the hell is that steering wheel thingie for?)

--RC


Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

wrote:

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:45:01 GMT, Gunner
wrote:
From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG

I don't know which is more bizar The computer itself or the notion
that FORTRAN will make it easy to use.

Easier than machine code in binary or hex (which I was once rather good at).

(And what the hell is that steering wheel thingie for?)

Playing nuke sub and aircraft games on the big monitor.

... which apparently only has a mono speaker - I guess they missed out on
6-channel Dolby. And kids who absolutely _need_ to have a computer for
schoolwork (which also has to be better than Fran's). And sheet fed
printers. And microchips.

And dials have gone the way of blinkenlights.

Otherwise, not too shabby.


--
Peter Fairbrother

wrote:


I don't know which is more bizar The computer itself or the notion
that FORTRAN will make it easy to use.

FORTRAN is easy, at least if you're trying to produce useful scientific
or industrial programs rather then surfing the web or playing space games.

"Gunner" wrote in message
...


From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


Sorry Gunner, its just an urban legend, see:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

And I quote snopes.com
" Although the photograph displayed could represent what some people in
the early 1950s contemplated a "home computer" might look like (based on the
technology of the day), it isn't, as the accompanying text claims, a RAND
Corporation illustration from 1954 of a prototype "home computer." The
picture is actually an entry submitted to an image modification competition,
taken from an original photo of a submarine maneuvering room console found
on U.S. Navy web site, converted to grayscale, and modified to replace a
modern display panel and TV screen with pictures of a decades-old
teletype/printer and television (as well as to add the gray-suited man to
the left-hand side of the photo): "

In article , spamtrap@
1stconnect.com says...
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:45:01 GMT, Gunner
wrote:



From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG

Real or not it's my new wallpaper. Looks real nice on my LCD
connected to my shoebox computer.

--

Now, *that* made my day!

HB

Dan wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
...


From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


Sorry Gunner, its just an urban legend, see:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

And I quote snopes.com
" Although the photograph displayed could represent what some people in
the early 1950s contemplated a "home computer" might look like (based on the
technology of the day), it isn't, as the accompanying text claims, a RAND
Corporation illustration from 1954 of a prototype "home computer." The
picture is actually an entry submitted to an image modification competition,
taken from an original photo of a submarine maneuvering room console found
on U.S. Navy web site, converted to grayscale, and modified to replace a
modern display panel and TV screen with pictures of a decades-old
teletype/printer and television (as well as to add the gray-suited man to
the left-hand side of the photo): "

Yup, this was a Fark.com photoshop contest entry.
See mo
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comm...IDLink=1115586

--
Shawn Wilson

http://www.glassgiant.com

Dan wrote:

"Gunner" wrote in message
...


From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


Sorry Gunner, its just an urban legend, see:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp

And I quote snopes.com
" Although the photograph displayed could represent what some people in
the early 1950s contemplated a "home computer" might look like (based on
the
technology of the day), it isn't, as the accompanying text claims, a RAND
Corporation illustration from 1954 of a prototype "home computer." The
picture is actually an entry submitted to an image modification
competition,
taken from an original photo of a submarine maneuvering room console found
on U.S. Navy web site, converted to grayscale, and modified to replace a
modern display panel and TV screen with pictures of a decades-old
teletype/printer and television (as well as to add the gray-suited man to
the left-hand side of the photo): "

Yup, this was a Fark.com photoshop contest entry.
See mo
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comm...IDLink=1115586

--
Shawn Wilson

Indeed and the original source pic is at:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/0864504.jpg
Some of those "farkers" do amazing things in Photoshop competitions and can be
quite humorous.
Health & Peace!
Lance

I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show
wrote back on Sat, 20 Nov 2004 19:40:58 GMT in
misc.survivalism :
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:45:01 GMT, Gunner
wrote:



From 1954 popular mechanics magazine

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model
to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year
2004.

http://home.centurytel.net/cty90143/...tos/PC1954.JPG


I don't know which is more bizar The computer itself or the notion
that FORTRAN will make it easy to use.

"We don't know what the computer language of the future will look like,
but it will be called FORTRAN." "Words of Wisdom" I heard back in the
early 80s.

(And what the hell is that steering wheel thingie for?)

It is a graphic interface device, a proto trackball, so to speak.

tschus
pyotr


--RC


Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?


--
pyotr filipivich
Denial is not a river in Egypt, "Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme,
a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the
denying person knows the truth on some level." LTC Grossman.