Aug 1st 2012 07:49 am Tale of the tape
This old A&J cartoon and the one I showed you Monday are reminders of how ubiquitous the old video-rental stores were in 1996. That seems like yesterday, but it’s been more than 15 years, a not insignificant chunk of time in human terms and a millenium in technological terms. When I was a boy, school children did not have the option of cribbing from a video library. We had to go to the drugstore and buy a copy of “Classics Illustrated” and actually read the darn thing!
On a related topic, I purchased a doodad yesterday for not much money that plugs into my TV set. It receives a signal from my wireless router and allows me to access Netflix movies without getting third-degree burns on my stomach from watching them on my laptop. I know this isn’t exactly breaking news to the geeks among you, but it was a major step for me, and I must say I’m liking it.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
85 Responses to “Tale of the tape”
Brenty on 01 Aug 2012 at 7:52 am #
Was that the Roku? I’ve thought about that, but we just watch our Netflix thru either our Wii or XBox, so we didn’t need it. Had co-worker that got one a year ago and loved it.
Mindy on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:02 am #
Laptop? I thought that was when I sat on John’s lap. Then there’s lapdancing, which I’m still trying to figure out. Whatever, Jimmy, as long as it circumvents tummy burns it’s good!
Dave in MA on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:08 am #
Mindy, I’m personally opposed to lap dances if the woman is wearing stilettos as the chance of injury to the lap is quite high and….. what’s that? Oh, never mind…..
Dave in MA on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:10 am #
We didn’t buy the book when I was a kid, we bought the Cliff Notes.
John in Richmond Texas on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:45 am #
My wife wanted to get rid of the 250 pound TV we had (scared it would fall on grandkids) so she got us a nice flat screen that we can get Pandora, Netflix and Amazon Video on. Check this out ! Only the first three seasons of Green Acres are on DVD but the final three seasons are on Amazon Video on Demand. My wife loves Netflix because she just likes to find a movie to watch, but I’m always looking for specific things – If you pay the Amazon Prime fee for free shipping, it includes lots of free TV shows and movies. Also History Channel stuff is on there for a couple bucks, which is great when you want to see something without junk over the bottom right corner of the screen and no commercial breaks
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:55 am #
I agree that things are changing quickly. From WW2 until the late 1970′s things were getting smaller due to transistors, but there really weren’t major changes until the microwave came out. Then came cable TV, video games, video cameras and computers.
But it was the explosion of cell phones and the internet that have really changed our world. Just looking at the movie “Back to the Future”. we really did not expect things in 30 years to be that much different, but in many ways they have. We do not have flying cars like the Jetsons, but things are changing at a fast pace. We even have a forum where a wife can talk about giving her hubby a lap dance. I won’t go there!
Craig T on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:43 am #
We had cable TV in the late ’60s, but that was just to get regular channels from both Atlanta and Columbus. The only channel that wasn’t a broadcast one was a camera that rotated to show analog weather meters.
If Turner Classic Movies was available other than by cable or satellite I’d cut the cord today. Its content is not available yet on Netflix or Amazon.com or Hulu.
Bryan on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:43 am #
Jimmy, are you sure that was a doodad? I thought it was a thingamabob? Well, my wife calls me a Luddite for my refusal to embrace technology so what do I know about high-tech terminology!
John on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:57 am #
John in MA, Mindy really loves the stilettos, but not nearly as much as the whips, chains and leathers and…Mindy! Stop that! Ouch! No! It hurts! Stop!
Dan in SWMo on 01 Aug 2012 at 10:34 am #
The biggest issue of using videos for “book reports” is the increasingly common practice of reinventing or reinterpreting the story for the movie. I could come up with many examples, but one will suffice very well to make my point. In the 2002 version of the Count of Monte Cristo, starring Jim Caviezel, Edmond and Mercedes are intimate before his imprisonment which forestalls their marriage. The big reveal at the end is that Albert Mondego is Edmond Dantes’ natural son. Anyone who knows the story only from this movie would therefore think this was a very important part of the Count’s decision to bring his pursuit of vengeance to an end, but this is totally foreign to the book.
The (theoretical) big advantage to this, from an educational standpoint, is that an alert teacher has some very obvious clues to the fact that the student has cheated and not read the book. I am just not sure that all teachers are that perceptive.
Jack in Minnesota on 01 Aug 2012 at 10:37 am #
We tried streaming here, even bought a Blu-ray player with an ethernet connection. The ol’ internet we have here just won’t do it though. It’s worse than watching commercial TV with all the breaks for ads. We had hoped to just let it buffer the whole thing before trying to watch it, but it turns out that none of the services we tried will let you do that. They time out and then you have to start over.
We were amazed to see a brand new video store open in town. We were skeptical, but they are still in business.
LVJeff on 01 Aug 2012 at 10:57 am #
I’ve only heard it pronounced “ROH-koo.”
Dave in MA on 01 Aug 2012 at 11:24 am #
Jack in Minnesota, a business with little or no customers that stays in business around this part of the country would be called a “front”.
Wonder what their REAL source of income is.
I’d go for the streaming services, but our cable company, which is also our internet provider, limits monthly download amounts to a very small 4 GB, so we’d quickly be out of luck.
Lost in A**2 on 01 Aug 2012 at 12:49 pm #
“4 GB” and “very small” in the same sentence stirs up too many memories, not necessarily of personal experience. Still, Wang’s ten megabyte disk made a nice place to set up the dual-floppy drive.
Ghost Rider 6 on 01 Aug 2012 at 12:58 pm #
You can get Netflix on the Internet?
Can you tell I don’t watch movies too often anymore?
Mindy: I can explain lap dances to you, if you’d like. Or at least refer you to a movie I DID watch…“Showgirls.”
John: Stilettos, whips, chains and leathers? GR6 is blushing.
Dave in MA on 01 Aug 2012 at 1:01 pm #
Lost in A**2, I know. I know.
I recall full height 5 MB Hard Disk Drives, and 360 KB 5 1/4″ floppies. I also remember 8″ floppies on an old Wang system, but don’t recall what they had for capacity.
My first computer had no floppy drive, and no hard drive. It had a tape drive and contained 16 KB of memory. 8 K went to the OS and 8K was available to program in. Oh yeah, and the tape was a serial transfer at 300 baud, talk about slow!
My first PC compatible had a 20 MB half height drive in it, 512 KB of memory, and a whopping 16 color EGA display!
My how the times have changed.
I still use dos for scripting repetitive processes, just in the command prompt simulation that Windows comes with.
I also remember when “Windows” was a DOS program.
Sam in Alabam(a) on 01 Aug 2012 at 1:30 pm #
Dave in MA: I believe the 8″ floppies were about 160K. However, I think the double-sided ones eventually went as high as 800K or more. That was back in the days when we hired people to do data entry.
Norm in Utah on 01 Aug 2012 at 1:34 pm #
Ah, yes. Classics Illustrated were my favorites. I had about 120 of the 160-odd that were published carefully preserved. Then one rainy day the kids found Dad’s “funny book stash,” and that was the end of that. Somehow the kids survived, even if the Classics Illustrated did not. And all these years later, I am still trying to live by the tag line “If you enjoyed this, get the entire book at your local library.” Not that my local library has a lot of the books on the shelves anymore, but tracking the books down is part of the fun. The game’s afoot!
Bob, near Mark on 01 Aug 2012 at 1:37 pm #
My first computer came with two 5¼” floppy drives and no hard drive. I replaced one of the floppy drives with a 20meg hard drive that cost a little over $200 I think.
I just bought another 8gb thumb drive for $10!
Dennis Ewing on 01 Aug 2012 at 1:39 pm #
I;m wanting the think the 8 inch floppies were 160K. We used them on a Compugraphic system. It went from being worth $19,000 to scrap metal in about a year. Progress in the printing industry. The changes i saw in my 37 years.
Mindy on 01 Aug 2012 at 2:25 pm #
Silly John. He thinks that because I’m away from the house for awhile shopping that when I come back I won’t read all the posts…including his senaky whips and chains thing. I can picture him screaming. I can’t, however, picture GR6 blushing. And, speaking of GR6, I saw “Show Girls.” Went to see it when the theater was being picketed by a certain vocal group protesting the film. To be quite honest, I can’t see what all the fuss was over. And I can’t truly appreciate what you guys see in lap dancing or stip shows. To me, that’s like taking your brownbag lunch to an 8-course dinner, or a DC comin book to the Museum of Art. But what do I know? Women aren’t testosterone-driven carbon based life forms as me are. Women are more cerebral. Right, ladies?
Ursen on 01 Aug 2012 at 2:28 pm #
We have been using a Roku player for a little over a year now, love the thing. That with Netflix means we don’t need cable TV at all. Look for the series on Punkin Chunkin in Netflix, lots of goofy fun.
debbie on 01 Aug 2012 at 2:47 pm #
ah, my friends; always something new with you
Tom from the Front Range on 01 Aug 2012 at 3:01 pm #
@Dennis Ewing
Glad to see a Compugraphic user on this blog. I was a CG service engineer for years.
The 8 inch floppy was first used in the Unified Composer, then the EditWriter and lastly in the UTS (Unified Terminal System). The capacity of the 8 inch floppy diskette was 128K.
To avoid driving across half the southern USA to fix a simple problem, I always called the customer first to get an idea of the issue with the possibility of fixing the problem over the phone. One of the first Unified Composer calls I dealt with was a user that complained that the floppy disk didn’t work. When the user told me it was extremely difficult to get the diskette out of the envelope, I pretty much knew what the problem was.
phil in Missoula, MT on 01 Aug 2012 at 3:41 pm #
LATE BREAKING NEWS!
By the end of the 21st century, Polaris will have drifted away from its position as the North Pole Star and we will be without a pole star for 20 centuries!
CALL THE EPA! CALL THE FBI! CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN!
How will Boy Scouts navigate? We’ve got to put a stop to this NOW.
Join the Society for the Prevention of Interstellar Drift today!
phil in Missoula, MT on 01 Aug 2012 at 3:53 pm #
So whaddya think? Can I get a job with Reader’s Digest? the National Enquirer?
Ghost Rider 6 on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:08 pm #
debbie, darlin’, are you gonna come back and play with us?
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:09 pm #
Phil:
Maybe the Polar Express?
Robin in Fl on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:29 pm #
Mindy
You are correct!
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:43 pm #
John/Richmond: I discovered that I can get channel H2 – an offshoot of History Channel, methinks – from my cable supplier at no additional cost. All I had to do was happen upon it while flipping through the channels with high numbers. It has a lot of good stuff of the type History Channel would often have, but with no crap in the LR corner and no “picker” shows. I guess one could say it does more documentary stuff from information on old Chinese emperors to the production/uses of aluminum. Suits me fine.
Mindy, maybe there’s more than one version of that movie. I think I saw it – but cannot fathom how, as I don’t go to movie houses – and those actresses were obviously cerebral, as you said. Suuuure. Right. You betcha. Um-HUM!
Mark in Boston on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:45 pm #
@Tom f.t.F.R.
Did you ever work on a CompuWriter? I used one in 1973 when I was the typesetter for our college newspaper. Wonderful little machine; no limit on how fast you could type.
Sometimes reporters waiting for something to happen would sit behind me reading the stories as they scrolled by on the little 16-character plasma display as I typed them.
My only real issue was that we were constantly cleaning the font films. People smoked in newsrooms in those days.
I seem to remember that Frank Herbert wrote the book “Without Me You’re Nothing” entirely on the CompuWriter.
Mary in Ohio on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:46 pm #
The comic book/graphic novel racks at the store where I work include Northanger Abbey. Since it didn’t say “and zombies” I assume Classics Illustrated still exists!
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:46 pm #
“So whaddya think? Can I get a job with Reader’s Digest? the National Enquirer?” No, but there are politicians who deny one scientific finding or more who maybe could use you. Some of their rants are much like your examples. The N.C. legislature had a bill that would have essentially outlawed scientists who were public employees, or maybe working at state universities, from reporting changes in sea level. I don’t remember if it passed and the governor signed it.
Mary in Ohio on 01 Aug 2012 at 4:48 pm #
Phil – when the pyramids were built, Polaris wasn’t the Pole Star either: it was Thuban.
Ghost Rider 6 on 01 Aug 2012 at 5:00 pm #
Mindy, never experienced a lap dance (in public, anyway). I’ve attended very few professional strip shows, probably because I have a vivid imagination. (So, ladies, if you notice me looking at you a lot…well, you’ve been warned.) Oh, and I did once have a birthday tie presented to me the way Julia Roberts gave the one to Richard Gere in “Pretty Woman.” How’s that for cerebral? (Does anyone detect a pattern in the movies I do watch?)
Amazing, isn’t it, how topics here can go from, say, B&D accoutrements to computer media nostalgia to who knows what next?
Mindy on 01 Aug 2012 at 6:19 pm #
Robin in Fl, ironic, isn’t it? Males…you can semi-tame them but they always fail to stay housebroken and need to be retrained.
I read somewhere, since this has touched on puters, that the entire computer system[s] on Apollo 13 had less capacity that a Commodore 64 [Remember those?]. Don’t know it that’s true but it IS true that most digital wristwatches now can claim that honor. I read that somewhere, also. And it wasn’t in the Inquirer.
Speaking of Inquiring minds, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for John’s evening Inquisition.
Ken of Framingham on 01 Aug 2012 at 7:29 pm #
Jimmy,
If you need a particular Classics Illustrated, let me know. I probably can get it for you.
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 01 Aug 2012 at 7:50 pm #
Somehow – I don’t know how – Blockbuster is still in business in this little town.
Mindy on 01 Aug 2012 at 8:50 pm #
Just noticed an entry. Professor, I may not be a professor, but that doesn’t mean I’m not cerebral. Personally, I think far too many males instinctively, automatically and incorrectly classify females as weaker physically, intellectually and emotionally. Perception, I reckon…As for the actresses, they weren’t being paid to be cerebral. They received their paychecks to cater to the, ah, shall we say, the LESS cerebral aspects of the males in the audience?
Tom from the Front Range on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:04 pm #
@Mark in Boston.
Those Compuwriters were built just up the street from you in Wilmington. I installed and fixed many of them as well as 7200 headliners, ACM 9000′s, Unisetters, Videosetters, 8600′s, the list goes on and on.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:12 pm #
I suspect that any male professor who has taught biology or English at our university has learned not to classify females as weaker one way and another. I think in particular of a woman alum now at a major eastern state university and also my favorite double major in those two subjects. On the first class day, when the latter was registered for one of my advanced courses, I would say to the class, “This is my wife, [name]. Her scores will not be counted in the curve.” She had a rep, and the other students would breathe a sigh of relief. Various male “A” students who thought, and apparently let it be known, that they were going to outscore her in other courses [e.g., comparative vertebrate anatomy, general ecology], always came up short. She was ’52 valedictorian in her high school well before grade inflation. Our current biology faculty includes several females and they are sharp.
Mindy on 01 Aug 2012 at 9:29 pm #
I was just sayin’…as the saying goes. Sorry, that’s a police family response.
applekrite on 01 Aug 2012 at 11:14 pm #
As a former teacher, I have to say that Cliff Notes and movie videos are dirty words to us. I learned quickly how to use Plagiarism web sites to check students’ papers. I had a college student once cut and paste an entire essay. How crazy is that!!!
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 02 Aug 2012 at 4:56 am #
applekrite:
During my second year of teaching, I caught the son of a minister cheating on a research paper. His father maintained that his son had not cheated because, although he didn’t complete any of the research and didn’t write any of the note cards, he still wrote the actual paper. Things did not end well for the boy, the father, or the girl (she gave the cards to the boy in hopes of becoming his girlfriend).
During the process, the principal commented that this sort of thing happened all the time and went to say that the other administrators in the building had essays that he could borrow whenever he needed to submit a paper for a grad class.
Jerry in Fl on 02 Aug 2012 at 5:58 am #
Had to back to Gainesville for a little fine tuning on the neural stimulator. On my last comment on singers that I have seen I left out two that I almost walked out on, Elton John and Clay Akin. Elton was so loud that it was impossible to enjoy and Clay was just plain boring. After intermission a good part of the audience didn’t return. Two more that I really enjoyed from an extremely close viewpoint was Jerry Lee Lewis at Gilley’s and Neil Diamond from the front row. Speaking of Jerry Lee that reminds me, what is the oldest thing in your home? For me it would be coins with the oldest being a Roman coin that my grandfather dug up himself and gave to me back in the 60′s.
Galliglo in Ohio on 02 Aug 2012 at 6:42 am #
Welcome applecrite! Be nice to her everyone! I have been telling her what a great group this is.
Speaking of technological advances… in 1966 or ’67 I worked in a county auditor’s office in Ohio, calculating collected real estate and personal property tax distributions. When I started, calculations were done on an old Monroe calulator and written into the roll books by hand. But then – we got a BOOKKEEPING machine that would do the calculations automatically! Oh the joy!
It was an NCR bookkeeping machine. I don’t know if anyone is familiar with it, but it had program boards that had to be physically changed in the machine for the various functions. For example, there was one to do payroll, another to write vendor checks, another for general ledger work, and of course, another for distribution of taxes collected. We thought we were in financial record heaven!
Dave in MA on 02 Aug 2012 at 6:50 am #
Minday said, “Women are more cerebral. Right, ladies?”
I only have two words to say in response to that, “David Beckham”.
phil in Missoula, MT, I’m sure some politician will find a way to blame that on another politician.
Welcome back debbie!
Cindy bear on 02 Aug 2012 at 8:17 am #
Roku (Roh-koo; you ate correct) is great! Check out Hulu plus – lots more choices than Netflix.
Also pandora is fabulous for music buffs. And if you have amazon prime you can stream some of their video.
sandcastler on 02 Aug 2012 at 8:30 am #
JJ, was the Thursday comic inspired by our very own Mindy? Tell us John is that Mindy?
John in Richmond Texas on 02 Aug 2012 at 9:35 am #
Jerry/FL my oldest thing is an 1820′s Connecticutt newspaper, then a Civil War (old) Farmer’s Almanac, then an 1882 Life magazine (the original, of course, that Luce bought for the name)
c-ex-p oh yeah, I have H2 on Dish, it was recently called History International, they changed the name for some reason
and what Mindy said about men’s entertainment – that’s something I never got into, and I do like looking at attractive women, but the whole in your face thing doesn’t appeal to me, I’ll just stick to looking around the grocery store.
about video stores – the big thing around here is the Red Box DVD vending machines outside Walgreens and CVS, sometimes it’s several people deep
Mindy on 02 Aug 2012 at 10:10 am #
Dear Guys: I know that all males do not frequent strip joints nor do that fanticize about lap dances. BUT! In all fairness, are most not driven by rivers of testosterone, at least until a certain age plateau? John readily admits to enjoying looking and, like John in Richmond Texas, he does a lot of his surveilling at the grocery store [Wally World does offer visual treats of all kinds, from other-worldly to don't-look-too-hard-of-long-John], with the careat that a lot of years as a cop does make him more observant than most people. Once I got accustomed to the reality of the situation, comfortable with the fact that he wasn’t looking for a new playmate and that he wasn’t going to drag that [bottle] blonde off into the lingerie section for close order drills, I realized that I had nothing to be jealous of or worried about. He tried teasing me and several times when we’d pass a woman who even I had to admit was just mildly attractive in a common sort of way, he’d say, “no bra” or “no panties.” He did that about twice, enjoying the fact that I couldn’t come up with a snappy comeback…until I replied, “Me neither.” It’s become a sort of game, him looking, but he never strays and is always home in time for lunch or whatever…
I have a feeling I explained inadequately.
Now, Dave, what about David Beckham? [The soccer player?] And, sandcastler, whatever makes you think that I would send John off on errands like that?
Welcome, Applekrite. We’re all quite mad, you know.
sandcastler on 02 Aug 2012 at 10:20 am #
Mindy, yes we may all be quite mad, however, I have the papers from the VA to prove it. Something to the effect of: homicidal, depressed, and maniacal. With proper drug therapy I am quite sane and cuddly.
Dave in MA on 02 Aug 2012 at 10:42 am #
Mindy, Pink Floyd addressed that realm in 1972 on Dark Side Of The Moon. “I’ve always been mad. I know I’ve been mad…. like most of us are.”
John on 02 Aug 2012 at 10:43 am #
Mad is good, sandcastler. Unless they’re mad at you.
John on 02 Aug 2012 at 11:13 am #
Dave in MA, Mindy keeps bursting out in a maniacal chant, “Ther’re coming to take me away, hah ha, hah ha! They’re coming to take me away.” And then she’ll look in the papers for some sale or another, don the shoulder pads and spiked elbow pads and head out shopping. Somehow or another she never gets arrested, perhaps because all the local police know her and think that she is mad…
Neil Tarvin on 02 Aug 2012 at 11:57 am #
It’s nice to see several people here who are familiar with the old typesetting machines. I thought i was the only one who remembered them!
The typesetting machine comments have brought up some insights for me… Let me tell you how i became a “dinosaur” over and over and over…
First, in the 60′ and early 70′s I was a silkscreener – I was an artist hand-cutting designs for t-shirts and caps, etc. That went the way of the dinosaurs when photoscreening came into play.
Then in the mid-70′s to late 80′s, I owned a typesetting/pasteup & layout shop. Used Compugraphic and Varityper machines and created camera-ready art for printers. More “dinosauring” – computers came into play, and rather than convert my equipment to computers at a high cost, I changed course a bit, and created a new business helping self-publishers publish soft and hard cover books, using my typesetting equipment and sourcing out the printing to local printers.
Then, in the early 90′s, here comes the Internet. I decided to get out of the publishing business completely, and I went to chiropractic school as a career changer. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis just before graduation, and I was never able to practice.
Using the Internet to try to find a job (keep in mind, this was the late 90′s) I came upon pdf’s and, in using pdf’s to create a resume, I tried various ways of adding designs to the base pdf.
It worked very well, and I started designing and creating ebooks for people and companies. About a year ago, dinosaurism raised it’s head AGAIN – are you sensing a pattern here??
PDF’s were in decline and ereader (Kindle, Nook, etc) ebooks were on the rise…
Today I design, format and create all kinds of ebooks for online businesses and individuals.
In addition, I’m also a cord-cutter. I have a Roku, a Tivo and antenna for OTA and recording, a dedicated computer for online shows (and Windows Media Center and XBMC)… and, it’s so much better than being force-fed cable. But, these gadgets will also soon go the way of the dinosaurs – technology changes on a daily basis.
Now I’m in my 60′s – and I really am a dinosaur (been practicing for it all my life!), but the point is – whether your business becomes obsolete or your skills atrophy or your tech becomes outdated, we learn how to adapt.
Change. Experiment. Adapt.
(Which, btw, is something that the cable/satellite are never going to do – and *they* will become the next dinosaurs…)
Neil
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Aug 2012 at 12:32 pm #
All God’s chillun got testosterone (normally). Although if men have “rivers” of it, women have just a rivulet, produced by their ovaries and adrenal glands. Normal serum testosterone levels for women are 3 – 41 ng/dL, while for men it is 348 – 1197 ng/dL.
Females can suffer many of the same symptoms of low testosterone levels as men, including fatigue, depression and, yes, decreased libido. I personally know four women who have had hormone replacement therapy for low testosterone, and all have told me stories of rather, ah, remarkable responses to having their T-levels increased to normal.
Bob, near Mark on 02 Aug 2012 at 12:47 pm #
@Neil Tarvin,
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, while working for GTE Sylvania, I used to make the occasional stainless steel “silkscreen”. Layout with Rubylith, photo-reduction of the Rubylith layout, then photoresist on the screen, and exposure with a carbon-arc lamp. We used them to screen electrically-resistive inks onto circuit boards.
My “camera” for doing the photo-reduction work consisted a military-surplus lathe bed that had been used for turning naval gun barrels, a large light box mounted on the lathe bed, and a room with the camera lens mounted in the wall of the room. I’d focus by sliding the light box along the lathe bed, and sit inside the “camera” to take the photo of the Rubylith layout.
A lot of our screening machines came from the Autoroll Machine Co. which was located in Salem, MA. at the time. Once, while doing some development work for GTE at the Autoroll factory, I saw them doing some prototype work for the old Parker Bros. game company which was also located in Salem. They were screening onto plastic eggs that Parker Bros was trying to develop as a toy called the Oobie Egg. The idea of the Oobie Egg was to use it to send messages (similar to a note in a bottle) to someone. You’d put the note into the egg and write the recipient’s address on the outside. Then you’d leave the Oobie somewhere airpot, train station, etc) and hope someone would pick it up and take it to a location closer to the recipient and leave it in another airport, etc. Eventually, it would get to the recipient. The Oobie Egg was never released by Parker Bros. … but I know where one is…
Bob, near Mark on 02 Aug 2012 at 12:53 pm #
Correction: I though that Parker Bros. never released the Oobi (correct spelling), but it turns out that they did. My mistake.
I guess a few other people know where one is, too. But I have one of the prototype rejects. 
http://www.deuceofclubs.com/oobi/
Dave in MA on 02 Aug 2012 at 1:31 pm #
Neil Tarvin, I worked in the college print shop way back when and they had a Compugraphic setup. We generated “columns” on a white film like material that was about the width of a newspaper column in a regular paper (not the thin columns of the WSJ). Then I’d take those and make negatives with darkroom equipment I no longer recall, and then take the negatives to the drafter’s table when he wasn’t using it, and tab a brownish/redish liquid onto defects in the negatives to cover “spots”. Then I’d take those back to the darkroom and use this huge room filling, vacuum using device to expose metal plates for the printing press from those negatives. Then I’d take a solution that (to me) smelled like bananas and a cotton square and I’d “develop” the large metal plates, removing all the non-exposed light sensitive material. Then I’d bring the finished plate over to the print room and the printer would put them on the drum of the large offset press and print the flyers, artwork, whatever was on the plates.
As for cable, they DO adapt. I recall when you got cable and still used the dial on the TV to change channels, meaning you got “up to” 12 channels depending on where in the country you were.
Then they had a device with a dial and you would switch between position 1 where all 12 channels had something on them and position 2 where 1 channel had HBO on it.
Then they had a device that attached at the TV and had a long cable to it and a remote box with push buttons on it, one for each channel you could tune in. Your TV stayed on one channel and you selected the program with the box at the end of the long cable.
Then they had boxes that did all the selecting with up and down arrows and you had up to 30 or 40 channels.
Then they went to high bandwidth cables and you could get 100 or more channels.
Now it’s all digital and you can have several hundred channels.
It’s not the cable provider that isn’t changing. It’s the stations. No matter how many they give us, there’s still nothing on but garbage.
Mindy from Indy on 02 Aug 2012 at 1:57 pm #
The oldest objects in my personal possession are some coins and a couple books from the 1890s (possibly 1880s). However, my favorite “old” things aren’t that old – currency from WWII-era Phillipines. My grandpa was stationed there during the war and he has currency from the US occuption, rebel-printed notes, and Japanese occupation. To see a note that says Five Pesos, The Japanese Government – in English, just amazes me. I also have some beautiful old post cards, and some of my great, great uncle’s textbooks.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 02 Aug 2012 at 2:31 pm #
I have a secretariat (bookcase, not the horse) that was given to my parents about the time that I was born. Since it was about 100 years old when they got it, that makes it about 150-160 years old.
Galliglo in Ohio on 02 Aug 2012 at 2:52 pm #
Some females may go ga-ga over David Beckham, but I just don’t get it. Now Sean Connery? That’s another story! (for anothe day?)
Mindy on 02 Aug 2012 at 4:15 pm #
I have a single page from the Bible, printed somewhere in the neighborhood of 1750-1790 and I’d have to go back to check exactly where in the Bible it came from, but it was a anniversary present, salvaged from a damaged Bible that was rather cavalierly being sold at $50 a page. A rip off? Perhaps, but the verse in question was…My wife, My lover, My friend…and I had to cry over that one. I wouldn’t let it go for ten thousand dollars!
Sean Connery? O Wicked Fates that allowed him to retire! I could listen to that man recite the Manhattan Yellow Pages and never get tired of his voice!
Mindy from Indy on 02 Aug 2012 at 4:18 pm #
@Galliglo in Ohio – Sean Connery? Yes, PLEASE! (fans self) But I am *quite* capable of behaving in a respectable manner. (Only when necessary of course, life’s too short to not have ANY fun.)
nick chik on 02 Aug 2012 at 4:35 pm #
I agree Galliglo about Sean, but there was also something about Pernell Roberts too! Pierce Brosnan came close in Remington Steele, but blew it in Mama Mia when he tried to sing! Big mistake!
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Aug 2012 at 5:15 pm #
Hum. It seems to have turned out to be remarkably easy to tell that some of our posters of the female persuasion are definitely not suffering from low testosterone levels, and without having to resort to blood tests.
My point, if I indeed had one, is that testosterone is not really a toxic chemical, but rather, like most things with which your body comes equipped, is actually necessary for a healthy, happy life. That being said, your point is still well taken, Mindy.
Welcome to the fold, applekrite. I’ll have to give that name some thought. Oh, and watch out for sandcastler.
Lost in A**2 on 02 Aug 2012 at 6:07 pm #
I’ve heard Mr. Burton read from the New York City telephone book. I wonder whether that clip has been bootlegged onto YouTube?
sandcastler on 02 Aug 2012 at 6:25 pm #
GR6, glad you warned the Newbee that I am a person of interest in certain unsolved mysterious events. Still allow me to say a Texas howdy to applekrite, Howdy applekrite. Krite has several possible meanings depending on the part of world we might inhabit, will not hazard a guess; though I shall smile when saying applekrite
Mindy, was not aware they still published the Yellow pages.
AAA Auto recovery service
AAA bail bond service
AAA bar & grill
….
Zemick septic service
Zlotokic dinner
Very sexy reading, not. Even with a Welsh accent.
Mindy on 02 Aug 2012 at 6:26 pm #
Actually, Ghost, I suspect you have read me, at least, incorrectly. I’m definitely not at a loss, so to speak. John is far too much of a gentleman to confirm or deny that statement, not to mention far to wise, but he seems to have absolutely no complaints and that [she blushes modestly] is a major accomplishment.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Aug 2012 at 7:27 pm #
Actually, Mindy, I never imagined you to be the source of any complaints, so to speak, and in fact suspect you to be quite capable of major accomplishments of your own, so to speak.
Lost in A**2 on 02 Aug 2012 at 7:59 pm #
I couldn’t find the clip of Mr. Burton reading the telephone book, which was apparently on the Tonight Show, but I did find this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjDZgdNbKk I think this is the clip I saw on AMC while running an overnight program in the late ’90′s. (The program updated an X.500 directory; since the directory had to be offline during the operation, we ran it on Friday or Saturday nights. It was mostly self-sufficeint, so I’d watch television while monitoring it.)
Mindy on 02 Aug 2012 at 8:56 pm #
Ghost, John sometimes complains…when I forget to remove the spurs after riding. Riding horses, before you snicker.
Mindy on 02 Aug 2012 at 8:59 pm #
Amazing how you get to know the personalities in here, no?
Applecrite, you see what you’re getting into? Actually, it’s a great group. And insanity is not contageous. And I can’t remember anyone ever saying anything to he deliberately hurtful.
I’m trying to figure that name out, too…I love apples, strawberries and raspberries. And watermelon. and Cantelope. And…good night.
Jerry in Fl on 02 Aug 2012 at 9:02 pm #
I have my gma’s restored upright on the top of which the kitties are in the process of leaving their autographs, but I stopped worryin about things that I can’t do anyhing about and ,as the article pointed out, in spite of being a hundred years old and having been restored, it only has sentimental value and my cats have more value to me than the piano. Computers-remember the scenes where James Bond was in Dr. No’s headquarters and the computer took up a large room and was covered with reels of tape. That was high tech back in the day. I wish that I still had my Sony reel to reel. I had some great music on that thing. I wonder if my first ex still has it. Congratulations to a couple of our members. I believe that you have set some new Olympic records. To those suffering from lack of rain, take some of ours, please!
Mark in Boston on 02 Aug 2012 at 9:41 pm #
Why is there so much interest in tap dancing here? Tap dancing was popular in the ’30s and ’40s because it’s the only kind of dancing you can hear over the radio, but why now? Have you seen a tap dancer? It’s sort of entertaining to see once, but not the kind of thing that’s fun every week. It’s so …
Oh.
That’s very different.
Never mind.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Aug 2012 at 9:55 pm #
Too late…I already snickered.
Good night, Dear Mindy. And Lady Mindy, and Gal, and nick chik, and Mary, and all our other friends of the female persuasion out there. And you, too, applekrite. (I’ll figure it out sooner or later.)
Good night, debbie. Come back to see us.
Bob, near Mark on 02 Aug 2012 at 10:27 pm #
Well, a Krite was a malevolent, carnivorous alien creature in the “Critters” series of films.
I can do without the “malevolent” part.
applekrite on 02 Aug 2012 at 11:50 pm #
To All of You:
Oh my, I can see some eccentric, bizarre and erratic behavior here. Hmm, but I’m sure you are all perfectly harmless. Such a warm welcome for this “old retired teacher.” Ghost Rider 6 is also an interesting pseudonym to hide behind. Could be lots of underlying meanings there. And Miss Mindy, what a fun-loving gal you appear to be. I suspect you are a Sanguine like me!
And it’s humbling to be in the presence of Mr. Emeritus, since the “Sciences” was never my strong point. As for “Dinosaur Neil,” it is evident from your short epistle that you are the innovative one, always moving on to the next technological development. Through type-setting, silkscreening, photo developing, pdf’s and more, you continued to develope your own talents to fit the era. Good man!
I think I will enjoy this group. Oh, and Mindy; there is nothing, that I could find, in the Bible regarding “My wife, My lover, My friend.” Souns like something out of Shakespeare. You sure that was a Bible?
Mindy on 03 Aug 2012 at 1:16 am #
applekrite, it was definitely the Bible. I have it in storage since I’m still searching for the approptiate frame but I’ll retrieve it and cite the proper scripture.
Mindy never sleeps!
Going to bed now.
sideburns on 03 Aug 2012 at 2:51 am #
I have a wizard’s staff with various things on it that I use as part of my costume at conventions. One of the decorations, and the oldest thing I personally have is a Chinese arrow head that’s well over 2,000 years old. One of our (My sister and I share what used to be our parents’ condo.) most prized possessions, however, is a milk-glass candy dish shaped like the battleship Maine, that our grandmother bought from a push-cart for a dime. You can see a picture of it at http://www.zeff.us/Maine.jpg if you’re interested.
John in Richmond Texas on 03 Aug 2012 at 8:05 am #
nick chik – Adam Cartwright or Trapper John MD Pernell Roberts?
Mark/Boston – yeah but how about Edgar Bergen a ventriliquist on the radio ??
Dave in MA on 03 Aug 2012 at 8:43 am #
John in Richmond Texas, that’s the only place he COULD be a ventriloquist. When you watch him attempt it in person or on TV, you always saw his mouth moving.
Mark in Boston on 04 Aug 2012 at 10:36 pm #
Edgar Bergen is helping Charlie McCarthy with his income tax form.
Bergen: Now let’s see here, Single, Married, Married Not Living With Husband — that’s not you, Charlie.
McCarthy: No, I’m not living with my husband.
Bergen: No, …
McCarthy: He was a horrible brute. He beat me.
Meryl A on 07 Aug 2012 at 12:35 am #
We never rented videos. We bought them. We had a collection of movies on Beta. (Husband go the Beta as an engagement gift from me – we could both watch it, better for a couple than the ring he gave me.) We then got a collection of movies on VHS. Some of the Beta movies/ shows were one time and never repeated. The we got our DVD collection. (Him – I just want to get a few that I don’t have on tape. Yeah, hundreds and replaced them too, which was good because…) Well most of the Betas and VHS are gone unless they were unique because when one has their house heat treated one has to move tapes (but not DVD’s and CDs) out so they don’t melt. No place to store all of them, so duplicates (other than James Bond movies) went.
Now, why did we never rent them? We never wanted a tape that was in another player in ours. It might damage the heads where another player had but cuts in the tape.
Now we are having a problem with the DVD recorder. The cable company dropped the ability to schedule the @$!! cable box to turn on and off by itself. We still have one cable box that allows it to go on and off and can only record on that one.