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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. More »
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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. More »
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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. More »
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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. More »
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"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. More »
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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. More »
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