SAN FRANCISCO, 12:43 AM, MON JUL 7 | 11 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@io9.com |

Tip your editors: tips@io9.com

Editor:
Annalee Newitz | Email

News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email

Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email

Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email

Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email

Interns:
Lauren Davis | Email
Nivair H. Gabriel | Email
Andrew Hudson | Email

Gawker Media Network

Top 10 Connected Commenters

1) josereyes.theroof wishes to perform Tim Harris's sack-dance for you
2) hortense
3) SinisterRouge
4) macpro2007
5) BAngieB
6) J.D.Regent
7) DaiMacculate
8) BettyCrocker
9) Owen Good
10) tscheese

Click on the star next to each commenter to see their Connectedness Index.

« next »

retro futurism, univac, dolls, vintage computers

Univac Predicts Data Drives Smaller Than Cold Capsules, 1969

"The white ones are the men and the yellow ones are the women" is the tag line on this odd ad for Univac's experiemental photochromatic technology. Odd because it was 1969 and drugs were the new social scourge - at least the ones used by hippies. Diet pills, cold capsules, and tranquilizers - those were respectable drugs for moms, dads, and computer engineers! Below, we offer you a look at Univac's accurate predictions for the future of "photochromatic" data storage.

1:33 PM on Thu Apr 10 2008
By Lynn Peril
1,294 views
8 comments

Comments

MrBabyMan at 01:48 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

Anybody know whatever became of this technology? Sounds similar to the tech behind rewritable CDs & DVDs.
beercheck at 01:50 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 133

Momma don't take, Momma don't take, Momma don't take my photochrome away!
Miranda Kali at 01:53 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 150

Univac is not for everyone. Ask your doctor if Univac is right for you. Side effects may include; nausea, blurred vision, embarrassing rash, bleeding from the eyes, and schizophrenia. If Univac leaves your nipples hard for more than six weeks, seek medical attention.
Miranda Kali at 01:54 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 150

Super computer. Small, yellow, different..
BullfightsOnAcid at 02:18 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

...and the pastel blue ones are those who just aren't quite sure yet.
Dillenger69 at 05:55 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

woohoo I cut my teeth on a Sperry-Univac CP-890a UYK.

There was some fun.
Entering the bootstrap code in octal via neon buttons on the front.
good times.
monkity at 07:15 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

Dust. It's not just for sneezing at anymore!
inconstant_reader at 08:42 PM on 04/10/08
Reply by Email
*

My uber-geek husband worked at Lawrence Berkeley Labs the summer of 1978, and he saw some similar technology.

There was a room filled with obsolete (and bizarre) data-storage devices, one of which contained a rack of little plastic boxes. Each box contained a set of plastic rectangles an inch or two on a side, each of which had been inscribed with microscopic 1s and 0s -- rows and rows of patterns of little black dots. It was census data.

An arm picked a box off the rack, and the machine then opened the box, extracted the requested rectangle, and read the data optically. The whole thing looked like a candy vending machine.