io9: vintage computers

John Cleese Explains Why The Compaq II Is Better Than A Dead Fish

Lynn Peril — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:46:44 PST

Let's see, to begin with, the fish weighed 22 pounds. So did the Compaq Portable II computer (in retrospect, perhaps "luggable" is more accurate). Here, in a British commercial from 1986 or so, former Python John Cleese lays out the rest of the argument for the computer's superiority - including its big 4.2 megabytes of memory.

Lonely Computer Begs Uninterested Public to "Touch Me" in 1983

Lynn Peril — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:00 PDT

I had no idea that there was a personal computer with a touchscreen on the market twenty-five years ago, but indeed there was: the HP-150 from Hewlett Packard (also the first computer to use the rigid 3.5” diskette). While not a "true" touchscreen (it uses infra-red transmitters and receivers), it's still jarring to see a feature that seems so modern set in a tiny black screen with glowing green type (those I remember). Alas, like many things ahead of their time, the HP-150 was not a big seller. P.S. If, like me, you think the caterpillar-into-butterfly metaphor is rather twee, take heart: According to John Barry’s Technobabble (1993), HP allegedly spent $30,000 trying to get the butterfly to land in the perfect spot on the computer screen in another ad from this campaign. Oh, the travails of advertising in a pre-CGI era.

IBM Slides Sold The Concept of "Online" in 1975

Lynn Peril — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:08:00 PDT

Square America is a web site devoted to American vernacular photography, found photos, and snapshots. In addition to a ton of great pix from the 1940s to the 70s, they are currently showing selections from a 56-image "pre-powerpoint IBM slide presentation with one foot in the future and the other stuck solidly in the 70s." There's no sound, so you'll have to imagine the tone telling you to move to the next slide, but the word "online" figures prominently. Click through for another couple of examples.

It's 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future [Square America]

Training for the Automated Office of Tomorrow—Today! 1984

Lynn Peril — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:22:31 PDT

Learn how in a mere 24 weeks you can become a word-processing secretary using all the latest computer technology in this 1984 ad for MBTI (Manpower Business Training Institute) featuring Voice of the Milwaukee Bucks, Eddie Doucette. I left Milwaukee a year later—and with no training at all was soon using a computer with a black screen and screaming neon green type just like these. Also note that, despite the fact that MBTI is selling its up-to-the-minute technology training, the woman to the left of spokesman Doucette is using an electric typewriter.

Gigantic Computers, Huge Reels of Tape - Remember the 80s?

Lynn Peril — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:22:46 PDT

At my first office job in the mid-80s, we backed up the computer every night on reels of magnetic tape. Here, in a scene from a slide show of 1980s IBM mainframe computer ops (all set to a snappy Sousa-esque march), tape librarians and console operators show how they did it at a large data center - which makes the amount of complaining we did about having to do two measly cartridges pale in comparison.

Univac Predicts Data Drives Smaller Than Cold Capsules, 1969

Lynn Peril — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:33:47 PDT

"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.

The World's Biggest Computer Kept Us Safe from Cold War Commies

Lynn Peril — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:40:16 PST

Listen to the heartbeat of SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), IBM's giant air defense computer, in this propaganda ... I mean, educational ... film from approximately 1956. Weighing in 250 tons and using 60,000 vacuum tubes, SAGE "was the largest computer ever built." It required an acre of floor space.

When the full system of 27 SAGE computers was deployed in 1963 (each site actually consisted of two of the behemoths, one running and the other serving as a backup), long-distance telephone lines connected them with over 100 radar defense sites across the country. Perhaps not surprisingly, J.C.R. Licklider, the man who initiated research that ultimately led to the ARPANET (the granddaddy of the internet), worked on SAGE. According to another former worker, today "a seven dollar throw-away hand calculator will easily out perform the SAGE computer; and use watch batteries to do it."