Dangers of protheletizing

I’m only 58. :slight_smile:

I was in the Coast Guard on an Oceanographic ship and we used the DDP-516 as part of our precise navigation system (pre GPS). Instead of GPS we had NAVSAT (doppler technology). Also had our own cesium beam atomic clock. I’m sure it was expensive in the '70s but now it could be replaced by a $50 handheld GPS receiver.

Thanks,
Tom

Commodore Vic 20 was my first computer I owned… but the first one I “used” was a neighbors TRS 80 Model I … 

Just for fun…


This is the first computer I remember using. http://www.poprewind.com/it-came-from-canada-unisys-icon-computer/

Check out that sexy trackball.


Anyone recall using a set of switches to put commands in? 


TRS80?
Commodore? 
Sinclair?
I used to live near Unisys. 

Somewhere I also have a few feet of punched paper tape.

Many of you thus recall SSSD, DSSD, DSDD and so on. 

Nixie (sp) tubes?  (pre-LED and LCD)

Fool on the Hill

My first computer…



We used switches to boot pdp-11s. First modem was a 300 baud acoustic coupler, which was a cradle that you set a phone handswt inyo. BTW, I’m 59 years young.

I ran the Mustang BBS software on a Commodore 64 with a 300 baud rate modem with 2 3.5 inch floppy drives. I thought I was in high cotton… I am 56 years old.

I am 39 and my first computer was a commodore vic 20, when I was learning how to program (very basic stuff) I would save it on an audio cassette. Looking back that computer didn't really do much but that was the start of it all. I fell in love with technology and learned everything from networks, to servers, to VoIP from playing with it. Everything I know was self taught never went to school for IT or anything like that, hell I never went to college at all (as you can probably tell by my lack of writing skills). ;-) Ended up starting and running several of my own companies, most based in tech. Once the economy crashed I took a break from it all and ended up just tinkering with small side projects since then for the last 5 years or so. I have always been one who likes to build stuff and fix stuff. That is me part business guy, part engineer, part tech guy, maybe even a little bit of an inventor or a creator.

For years I have been the one people call on for any tech help and after doing IT for years I got burnt out on it. I still love technology and I am always an early adopter but my days of doing IT repair are over. At this point after what I have been through with Tablo I can't recommend it to anyone because I don't want to be their repair guy. Basically I already have enough crap of my own to tweak, play with and fix. As time has passed I have learned to bite my tongue and instead of answering peoples tech questions just play stupid even though I usually know the answer it just doesn't pay to help anyone other than a very few very close people I have to help (mom, wife, etc).

I will always love tech and always deal with its headaches because I love the cutting edge, but I am done with tech support.

I’m 67 and bought my first PC the week they came out.  Still have it, a PC-64.  Added in a 256K RAM card and everyone wanted to know what in the world I would do with that.  The next year IBM added the 10MB “Winchester” drive and it was amazing.  I have two engineering degrees and my kids grew up in Silicon Valley, so now the older one has 85 software patents and the younger one and I have a patent data mining web site. And we all live within four blocks.  So the ladies give us crap because stuff like this is all we talk about.

My first computer was a cammodore 64… ah the memories.

Streaming was watching a sentence display on a terminal.  One letter at a time.

Ah 300 baud, the natural reading speed.

What’s a PC and a terminal. Every manufacturer use to write their own OS. We use to generate the the OS/program load together and boot them from paper tape. Everyone would write their own boot loader in binary and use the IBM 29 card punch in binary mode. In the old days you couldn’t even patent software.

I still have my first home computer. Heathkit H89 with 4 Mhz Z80 and 32K ram. It came with 16K but I soldered the pins on the extra dip memory on top of the existing ram minus the chip select pin which I raised and used a piece of wire wrap to solder it to the upper address bit. Modified an audio cassette player for tape storage. I saved up for months to buy a 100K hard sector 5 1/4" floppy drive. That was around 1980. It could run either HDOS or CP/M. I have not booted it up in over 30 years. The electrolytic/tantalum caps are probably dried out by now. Now I complain because I run out of drive space on my Tablo because I record 50 GB/day. :slight_smile:

In the mid seventies I was a SAC tanker pilot, sitting alert for a week at a time, about five weeks out of two months.  So lots of pool, poker, etc.  Except for the small group of guys that had little boards with things called “processors” and “RAM.”  They would turn lights on and off, I think some drove a seven segment display.  I asked them what it was good for, and the answers were mostly that it was fun, cool, etc.  One guy got far enough to make sort of an integer calculator.  As an aeronautical engineer, I did not see anything valuable in it.  Then when I got out and went to Texas Instruments I met a chap, no degree, who was a maintenance guy for a computer based system for moving wafers down a track. It had a monitor.  So one night he showed me how he had programmed a poke game, with graphics, etc, into the computer using nothing but DIP switches; toggle the switches, write the word, go to the next word.  In the begging many of the guys that because experts, important, sometimes wealthy were either kids or just guys who fiddled with software and computers out of love.  Now my older son is a thesis shy of a PhD from UCLA, chief software architect of a startup, and he tells me his biggest challenge is finding anyone to hire that is good enough. 

Any of the top 5 universities turn out well educated CS majors. But there is part of  programing that is an art and not a science. Some are good at WEB and UI apps but not middleware. Some people are good at middleware but not kernel work. Some can code but not design. Many can not debug a simple problem. And when you find a good fit someone makes them a good offer and they move on.

Any time that the subject of cord-cutting comes up, I find myself holding back. People over 35 are very interested in how to go about it, but often get lost when I try to explain what I have done (Antenna, Oooma, Tablo, etc). I'm a techie, so this all comes naturally, but even my wife hasn't a clue how this all works. She is happy to save money, though.

The reasons I am cautious are twofold. First, some people just won’t be happy with the outcome (for a variety of reasons). I don’t want to be blamed for that. Second, I fear being sucked into the role of tech support for anyone who follows my advice.

Just wondering how you all approach the subject.

To get back to the original topic…:slight_smile:

I too, am somewhat hesitant to volunteer info on cord-cutting. Tablo is probably the first time I’ve been freely offering up opinions/advice…because it’s a commercial product with it’s own customer service.

When it comes to Plex/Handbrake, however, I almost never talk about it any more. There are simply too many variables and too much complexity to recommend without the inevitable trouble-shooting phonecalls and complaints.,which on more than one occasion has to turned to the “I have 300 DVDs…could you transcode them for me?” questions. No. Just…no.

Try talking about antennas. There are a lot of folks who have no idea that digital OTA TV exists. The look of amazement and bafflement is priceless.

The OP makes a valid point. But the thing is, Tablo TV needs to become bigger and sell more for it to be a viable product and a successful company. They need to find a way for Tablo to be accessible, usable, and easy for the every-man and for the average 50-year-old man and woman. I think it’s headed in the right direction, but I believe they still need to find a way to communicate exactly what it is and how it works to the Tablo uninitiated.