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The Handy Uses of a Home Computer (Jan, 1970)

blog.modernmechanix.com — Computers for the home have been envisioned by science fiction writers and engineers ever since a huge, unwieldy prototype was developed 25 years ago. The whole futuristic age they prophesied, with an omnipotent electronic monster named Horace in every living room, is still a long way from realization...

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  • amanilaenvelope, on 04/16/2008, -0/+12* 4th picture
    "woah guys, check us out making a list !!!"
    • nospinhere, on 04/16/2008, -12/+2aaaaaaaaaaaaa whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???
    • doctechnical, on 04/16/2008, -0/+210 PRINT "COMPUTERS RULE!!!!1!"
      20 GOTO 10
      RUN
    • brianara3, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2Sad part is... they are actually playing blackjack, text style... (page 3 bottom right)
  • JMellissa, on 04/16/2008, -1/+2I've used one that was a bit like that.
  • ArtieMilano, on 04/16/2008, -0/+16dugg for the 70's guitar player on 4th page
  • spacecheese, on 04/16/2008, -3/+6The youngest Rodman, Kevin, 11, is a picky eater with tastes limited to tossed salads
  • gravityboard, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3Those three kids look like they were told "OK, now look like you're having fun!"
  • snareguy17, on 04/16/2008, -2/+3There's an ever increasing amount of these on digg the last few days.
  • rnd1, on 04/16/2008, -0/+21From planning dinner menu and doing school homework the great idea of computer has been reduced to viewing pr0n and playing WoW. Sad, but true.
    • LeeSoong, on 04/16/2008, -1/+6Rational Scientists could have never envisioned
      products of the human imagination such as MySpace and 4Chan.
  • coffee200am, on 04/16/2008, -0/+4The Home Computer and Internet predicted in 1969....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOOdbdhOr1w
  • yellowcakewalk, on 04/16/2008, -1/+26I'll bet it took *forever* to boot up Windows '69
  • haxymanz, on 04/16/2008, -2/+8it must have sucked without lolcats
  • Torx, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3What are these people doing now? Still playing blackjack and printing out ASCII wrapping paper??
    • troon, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3Scarily, the youngest kid, 11-year-old Kevin, will be 49 now.
  • LeeSoong, on 04/16/2008, -0/+4Ah, for the days of the computers that you bought as a kit and assembled by yourself at home . . .

    Kid's these days don't know what a soldering iron is used for, they would try to smoke it.
  • ThrstForKnwldge, on 04/16/2008, -4/+2* Porn
    * Porn
    * Porn
    * Porn
    * Porn
    * Porn
  • warpbackspin, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2Ooo - an ASR33! I have one of those. That was the terminal to have in the late 60s.
  • mst3kcrow, on 04/16/2008, -0/+24I've played income taxes, the game sucks and everyone tends to lose.
    • tcpip4lyfe, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3We all win this year! Thanks for giving me my money back so I can save it out of spite.
      • brianara3, on 04/16/2008, -0/+0Invest in yourself... Screw the economy!!!
  • barroni, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3David copies his computerized homework to his notebook. He has 8 ft of paper
  • imbetterthanu, on 04/16/2008, -1/+5When I was a kid, my dad would bring one of those home from work every once in a while. This was probably 1975 or so and it was a portable model. You just connected your phone to it and dialed in to the central number he used for access. The server he connected to had an adventure game on it that I loved. It was very similar to the Infocom games in the 80s. If I remember correctly, I think there was even a program to print out a ramdom maze to solve. Good times, good times.
  • cruzlee, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2FTA: "Since we got it, no one's ever bored around here.".. :-)
  • timtimes, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1I first programmed using punch cards.
    Enjoy.
    • doctechnical, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1I had to use switches and LEDs on a front panel. We used to DREAM of punch cards...
    • brianara3, on 04/16/2008, -0/+0I always wondered if "hanging chads" were an issue with punch card programming also.
  • S3basti3n, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Guitar Hero on page 4.
  • o0joshua0o, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3I'd love to get my hands on one of these old computers and bring it in to the local Starbucks.
    • flashingcurser, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Ya, but the wireless drivers suck.
  • JFitzpatrick, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3"Brother David" in the first picture is concentrating so hard on programing he turned Asian.

    http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/Life/1-19 ...
  • jb2824, on 04/16/2008, -1/+2By the look of the pictures, it seems to be distracting them from inbreeding with their own family
  • barthosch, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3It's so handy typing my homework into our home computer, then to print them out, then to take the 200 meters long printout with me to school to then copy it to my notebook! And my mom wraps my sandwiches in my old printouts.
  • lcarsdeveloper, on 04/16/2008, -1/+3As a PHP programmer, when I saw 'Jan 1970' in the title I assumed that someone had fed a unix timestamp of zero into a date function and it returned the unix Epoch. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_Epoch ).
    I guess it's just the way my brain is wired. I see 'Jan 1970' and I think 'uh-oh, the page is broken!'
  • freedomwv, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2it looks like a big word processor.
  • dupswapdrop, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1My school had a Teletype hooked up to a dedicated phone line to the school districts mainframe computer. Only the math wizards were allowed to use it. In 1972 it cost $75 an hour to connect to it and if you ran programs that used certain computer languages it was $150 an hour.
  • seo7349, on 04/16/2008, -1/+2That last picture of the excited kids is priceless!
  • JK1150, on 04/16/2008, -0/+3are they playing rock band in picture 4?
  • UnSuperSaid, on 04/16/2008, -1/+2I wonder if Vista is compatible with those computers...
  • jp12380, on 04/16/2008, -0/+2You are darn right, it will help keep the budget.

    Well Sarah, it's simple we have no more budget for anything, lets simply pay the computer bill.
  • Tarotsan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Interesting that from having to connect to a central computer things have changed to single units and now there trying to go back to a similar idea to central units with cloud computing. However groovy those computers were I bet they were damned unsightly when you put them in your pocket.
  • stix213, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1They forgot to mention that late at night the kids are even entertained with printouts of hardcore ASCII porn
  • stix213, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1"A real mass home market for computers awaits stored programs of broad practical use to homeowners."

    Interesting that they nailed that one
  •  

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