Shit that reminds me I'm old.

[Bright_Star]

I read recently that NASA couldn't mount a moon-landing mission today without a significant lead time. The hardware used in the early Apollo missions is all hideously obsolete and many of the suppliers and manufacturers are long gone. They'd have to engineer all new systems, practically from scratch, even assuming they DID use a Saturn launch vehicle.

It's also sobering to think that there's more data-processing capability on your desk today than was used to fly that mission.

Those astronauts had balls, yes they did.

I read a while back that a modern computer is far more powerful than the computer on-board Apollo 11. Even a simple calculator has more processing power than the Apollo 11 system did!!

[Jester]

Bright Star, it's more insane than that. The average current smart phone doesn't just have more technology, computational power, and data processing power than the Apollo 11 capsule and rocket. It has more technology, computational power, and data processing power the the Apollo 11 capsule, rocket, AND Mission Control combined!

Or so say the folks at NASA.....

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Bright Star, it's more insane than that. The average current smart phone doesn't just have more technology, computational power, and data processing power than the Apollo 11 capsule and rocket. It has more technology, computational power, and data processing power the the Apollo 11 capsule, rocket, AND Mission Control combined!

Or so say the folks at NASA.....

And we can have all that power in a much smaller space now as compared to back then thanks to the development of microtechnology.

Speaking of computational powers, anyone remember the movie Superman III? That huge supercomputer that took up space inside a mountain had quite a bit of power for its time.

Could you imagine using today's technology how much more souped up that thing could be?

[dalesys]

A...Could you imagine using today's technology how much more souped up that thing could be?

Probably not. The raw horsepowders, sure, but with software bloat, XML, ... it'd probably be slower on actual response.

[/BDOS ERROR ON A:]

[Racket_Man]

And we can have all that power in a much smaller space now as compared to back then thanks to the development of microtechnology.

Speaking of computational powers, anyone remember the movie Superman III? That huge supercomputer that took up space inside a mountain had quite a bit of power for its time.

Could you imagine using today's technology how much more souped up that thing could be?

how about something a little earlier that that such as
Colossus the novel 1966

and the movie
Colossus: The Forbin Project movie 1970

that scene would be VERY plauseable these days with all of the internet connectivity.

[wolfie]

And we can have all that power in a much smaller space now as compared to back then thanks to the development of microtechnology.

Speaking of computational powers, anyone remember the movie Superman III? That huge supercomputer that took up space inside a mountain had quite a bit of power for its time.

Anyone remember the series "Star Trek: Enterprise" from a few years back? When it came out, one article said that one of the most difficult tasks they faced was interpolating the technology (it's set in a time between the present and TOS). Why was it so difficult to interpolate the technology? Because in some areas, technology has surpassed the "far future" tech from TOS, so it's not possible to have something more advanced than actual tech but less advanced than in TOS.

[protege]

- Computers that ran on 5 1/4" floppy disks, and yes, the OS was loaded on that floppy disk!

First computer (a Xerox terminal) I remember seeing at my dad's ad agency took 8-inch floppies. That thing, including the printer, cost more than a new car! To load it, you'd put the DOS disk into drive A, and whatever program you wanted to run in B. As you worked, the drives would switch back and forth, making an annoying beep or tone as things were loaded or saved.

- BASIC (remember GO TO 10?)

Most of my early programs were in Basic. Nearly every magazine had some program to play with. Even though it was the early 1980s, many games were still text-only, and graphics were expensive.

- Standard-definition TVs without remotes. Some were black-and-white and most had the dial instead of buttons on the set!

Yep. Two dials, one went from U to 13, the other...everything else. TV still required an antenna on the roof, complete with the motor to change its direction. Cable was still in its infancy, and very few people in my neighborhood had it.

- Saturday morning cartoons that almost all networks broadcast, because we didn't have specialty channels or the Internet then.

I remember many Saturday mornings watching cartoons! Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and others.

[Moirae]

I have to say... I'm getting kind of tired of the nostalgia things that keep coming out recently. I really don't need a reminder that walkmans are 30 years old or that the lion king came out in 1984. I already know those things but having it constantly thrown in my face how old these things are is getting annoying.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

This is more of a rant... but I remember a time when if you had a laptop computer, it meant that you were smart enough to use a laptop computer. The same with a cell phone. Over the last week I've had to show three people how to forward an email from their phone, find where a downloaded file is saved, and use a USB "thumb" drive.

[ADeMartino]

Most of my early programs were in Basic. Nearly every magazine had some program to play with. Even though it was the early 1980s, many games were still text-only, and graphics were expensive.

ZORK!

Yep. Two dials, one went from U to 13, the other...everything else. TV still required an antenna on the roof, complete with the motor to change its direction. Cable was still in its infancy, and very few people in my neighborhood had it.

2 to 13, with one more position (U) to switch in the other tuner knob. And it SUCKED in my city, because we had channel 19, and then another channel on 64, and you had to crank that thing around like five times. Oh, sure, there was channel 48, too, but that was PBS and no one in my family ever watched it (except me, to watch the most awesomest science show ever made, Carl Sagan's COSMOS)

I remember many Saturday mornings watching cartoons! Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and others.

I miss Saturday morning cartoons - sitting, with my box of sugar-frosted chocolate bombs in front of the set from 7am until around noon, awash in the mindless animated drivel of the day. The Wacky Races. Hong Kong Fooey. Scooby Doo. Goober and the Ghost Chasers. Speed Buggy. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Far Out Space Nuts. Mighty Isis. MIGHTY MOUSE. Super Friends. Even as an adult in the 1990s, Saturday morning was awesome with Spider-Man, Batman and Robin, Eek! the Cat (with the Terrible Thunderlizards!), etc.

I also remember the disappointment when, inevitably, SOUL TRAIN came on to signal the end of the toonfest.

Oh, sure, now we have Cartoon Network now, but they tend to play blocks of the same show, and there's only so much SPONGE BOB I can stomach in one sitting.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I also remember the disappointment when, inevitably, SOUL TRAIN came on to signal the end of the toonfest.

Oh, sure, now we have Cartoon Network now, but they tend to play blocks of the same show, and there's only so much SPONGE BOB I can stomach in one sitting.

I cannot stand SpongeBob!

And YES to Soul Train . . . some of the BEST music evah!!!

Donna Summer, The Commodores, Michael Jackson (before he went weird), Sister Sledge . . . yeah, Baby.

That's when you knew the cartoons were done for the day for sure.

At least I still have my vintage Fisher stereo . . . and right now I'm listening to some vintage Jr. Walker and the All Stars. Hard to believe the 60's R&B stuff is now 50 some years old now.

[Racket_Man]

ZORK!

The heck with Zork (yes I had that on my Apple ][+) but the original ADVENT game in BASIC (yes I had the source code and response file that I reverse engineered)

I miss Saturday morning cartoons - sitting, with my box of sugar-frosted chocolate bombs in front of the set from 7am until around noon, awash in the mindless animated drivel of the day. The Wacky Races. Hong Kong Fooey. Scooby Doo. Goober and the Ghost Chasers. Speed Buggy. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Far Out Space Nuts. Mighty Isis. MIGHTY MOUSE. Super Friends. Even as an adult in the 1990s, Saturday morning was awesome with Spider-Man, Batman and Robin, Eek! the Cat (with the Terrible Thunderlizards!), etc.

I also remember the disappointment when, inevitably, SOUL TRAIN came on to signal the end of the toonfest.

,
BUT do NOT FORGET when Hanna-Barbera RULED on Saturday mornings in the early to late 1960's with the ORIGINAL Space Ghost, Mightor, The Heculoids, Josie and the Pussycats and the BEST program ever Jonny Quest (lots of gore and BOOOMMMMMSSS and guns and blood and death most of which would NOT get on the air today). The Buggs Bunny/Road Runner 2 HOUR show RULED. Then came the Scooby Doo movies with guest stars. Then it went downhill.

The original Scooby-Doo Where Are You started in 1969 and came on at either 7am or 7:30 am and I would drag myself outta bed to watch. When I had to serve a Mass at 8am on a Saturday I would watch until the VERY LAST MINUTE (I only lived like 2 blocks from the church) and then run out the door to make it to church about 5 minutes berfore 8am.

Oh, sure, now we have Cartoon Network now, but they tend to play blocks of the same show, and there's only so much SPONGE BOB I can stomach in one sitting.[/QUOTE]

[ADeMartino]

The heck with Zork (yes I had that on my Apple ][+) but the original ADVENT game in BASIC (yes I had the source code and response file that I reverse engineered)




,
BUT do NOT FORGET when Hanna-Barbera RULED on Saturday mornings in the early to late 1960's with the ORIGINAL Space Ghost, Mightor, The Heculoids, Josie and the Pussycats and the BEST program ever Jonny Quest (lots of gore and BOOOMMMMMSSS and guns and blood and death most of which would NOT get on the air today). The Buggs Bunny/Road Runner 2 HOUR show RULED. Then came the Scooby Doo movies with guest stars. Then it went downhill.

The original Scooby-Doo Where Are You started in 1969 and came on at either 7am or 7:30 am and I would drag myself outta bed to watch. When I had to serve a Mass at 8am on a Saturday I would watch until the VERY LAST MINUTE (I only lived like 2 blocks from the church) and then run out the door to make it to church about 5 minutes berfore 8am.

Oh, of COURSE I remember the H-B stuff - Snaggletooth, Yogi Bear, Quickdraw Mcgraw, Top Cat, etc. But to this very day, one of my favorite 'toons of all time is ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, which included Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, Fractured Fairy Tales, etc. Boris and Natasha FOREVER!

[smileyeagle1021]

I know that I'm not that old... but things that make me feel old, in the state of Nevada, I could have adopted someone who will be old enough to buy cigarettes in a little over a month.

[Racket_Man]

Oh, of COURSE I remember the H-B stuff - Snaggletooth, Yogi Bear, Quickdraw Mcgraw, Top Cat, etc. But to this very day, one of my favorite 'toons of all time is ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, which included Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, Fractured Fairy Tales, etc. Boris and Natasha FOREVER!

Yes yes yes BUT I hate to say this but most of that was so dumb it was funny. The jokes/puns/stories were really groan worthy but back then who cared at that age.

SUPER CHICKEN (GO Fred) Tom Slick, George of the Jungle, Tooter the Turtle

I know just as bad.