#70s computing

[el-ffej]

That last line is brilliant -- particularly in this age of AI hype and bullshit.

In perspective, an incredibly small percentage of the population had ever seen a computer in 1975.

Until recently -- the days of Big Iron (IBM mainframes) -- the computer was locked away in a room and (until recently) programmed by punch cards, so even the programmers rarely saw them. Mini-computers (not mini by our standards) were proliferating, along with teletype terminals and some newer LCD terminals, but even then these tended to be relegated to a "computer room".

My elementary school in 1976 had just gotten a teletype terminal that was connected to a minicomputer at some central school district location. (We lived in a fairly well-to-do suburb outside of Washington DC.) The first generation to confront these things face-to-face.

I went to a library book sale this weekend and I found a very old book called “Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers,” which was published in I think 1975? I’ve been reading it kind of like how I would read a historical document, and it’s lowkey fascinating

[yodaprod]

Kennedy Space Center , FL (1975)

Source: Flickr/Thomas Hawk

[possessedpasm]

"The Best Computer Of The Decade!"

[Vintage Ad Commission]

[scipunk]

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

[technoplanet]

compucolor ii (1977), which may have been the first computer system with color text, color graphics, and a built-in floppy drive for programs and data storage and retrieval

[kply-industries]

[damonscomputer]

Freehand 70s and 80s computers. The inaccuracy is on purpose (I wanted to be loose w it)

[cyberneurotism]

Iskra 1256 (ussr, 1979)

[byruit]

Working in a datacenter in the 70s

[ui-alcoholic]

HP-01 (1977)

Hewlett-Packard

The Hewlett-Packard HP-01 is a calculator watch. It was designed and manufactured by Hewlett-Packard.

The HP-01's digital display used 7 light-emitting diodes (LEDs)/digit in a 7-digit + decimal point arrangement. Introduced in 1977, at the height of the LED watch craze, it had five models: two gold-filled and three stainless.

Prices ranged from $450 & $550 for the low-end steel or gold to $850 (the equivalent of $2200 to $4200 in 2023 dollars).

HP also sold a battery replacement kit that allowed customers to change the batteries themselves. The watch uses two batteries for the display and one for the processor IC. It also comes with a ballpoint pen with a stylus on the rear end. Most of the 28 buttons on the HP-01 are recessed and designed to be depressed with a stylus stored in the band.

The production was stopped by the end of 1979.

more info: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-first-smartwatch-ever-invented-2016-2

[humanoidhistory]

Cyber 70 mainframe computer system by Control Data Corporation, circa 1974.

[cravinganescape]

(1970s) Mod II by AT&T / Bell Labs was the first picture phone to exist on the market. Not only did it connect phone to video, but users were able to share documents with each other !

[yodaprod]

House of the Future built by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Arizona ( 1979)

[possessedpasm]

"You'll be the most co-ordinated cat in the computer room."

[Retro commission for Nyxgoesmeow]

[scipunk]

Absence of Malice (1981)

[technoplanet]

compucolor 8001 (1976), considered to be the first desktop color graphic computer