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Modern Tech

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Were these around all your life?

Hand-held calculator

20%

[ 2 ]

Cordless phone

20%

[ 2 ]

Microwave oven

[ 0 ]

Self-cleaning oven

10%

[ 1 ]

personal computer

[ 0 ]

VCR and videotape

10%

[ 1 ]

Fax machine

[ 0 ]

Blow-dryer

20%

[ 2 ]

Electric typewriter

10%

[ 1 ]

Color TV

10%

[ 1 ]

Total Votes : 10

chen ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 12:49 pm

How many of these things did not exist or were not available to consumers in your lifetime? (You need not reveal how old you were when they came on the market)

Mommy912

Tue, May 16 2006, 1:25 pm

chen wrote:

How many of these things did not exist or were not available to consumers in your lifetime? (You need not reveal how old you were when they came on the market)

Chen, are you sure you mean to say lifetime? We are not dead (or nistalek Smile

) yet!

↑ chen ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 1:33 pm

well, if you can remember a time when consumers could not buy these, then they were not available at some point in your lifetime. Not making predictions about how much longer these things--or you-- will be around. I have a friend who still swears by Beta-format video.

DefyGravity

Tue, May 16 2006, 1:36 pm

I think that all the items found above have been around throughout my lifetime, oh, except for cordless phones.

didan

Tue, May 16 2006, 2:28 pm

B"H

I've always used a hand-held calculator. We didn't have a TV at home, but color was around when I was little, as was electric typewriter and blow-dryer.

I distinctly remember when fax machines came on the market. My father used to have one employee whose job it was to drive around town delivering documents. He bought the fax machine and did not need that anymore.

Cordless phones, self-cleaning ovens, personal computers, and VCR's are also things that I remember not existing.

My parents used to have a (I'm not sure what they're called) Movie Reel with no sound, although there was color. We used to watch it on the wall.

These questions are making me feel really old when I'm really not!!!

imanut

Tue, May 16 2006, 2:56 pm

how do you vote for more than one thing?

youngmom

Tue, May 16 2006, 3:00 pm

My father remembers when big companies had computers the size of a room.

seniormom ↓

Tue, May 16 2006, 4:18 pm

youngmom...so do I!!! shock

613

Tue, May 16 2006, 4:51 pm

Big companies still have computers the size of a room LOL

↑ seniormom

Wed, May 17 2006, 1:49 am

The room size computers that big companies have today are very powerful multitaskers. They can perform millions of functions simultaneously and can store a gazillion gigabytes on their hard drive...hence the large size.

The ones I was referring to (and I believe youngmom, too) were the original computers that although they were room size, could perform fewer functions than the average small desktop/laptop today...and much slower, too. There were no chips then. I learned to draw flow charts of the programs I wrote. Then someone had to punch little holes in specific places on hundreds of rectangular cards. Then the cards were fed into the computer so it could "read" the holes. If even one hole was mis-punched, we had to go over the entire program and start all over again. It often took several days to completely process the average program. Oy! It makes me tired just thinking about it!

↑ chen ↓

Wed, May 17 2006, 9:04 am

That's right--another job that has gone the way of the dodo bird: keypunch operator!

sarahd

Wed, May 17 2006, 3:07 pm

I think none of these except the electric typewriter were on the market when I was born, but I could be wrong. I remember when we got each of the items on the list, but they certainly could have existed and we just didn't have them. My parents are not what you'd call gadget freaks.

I do remember:
- the first fax machine I ever saw. I was 18 and working a summer job. The fax machine was the size of a printing press, just about, with a little slot on top where the fax message came out. I could spend hours watching it work.
- we had a kids' encyclopedia, one volume of which spoke about inventions that might happen one day, including an oven in which invisible rays would cook your food!! How exotic and science-fictiony!

↑ chen

Wed, May 17 2006, 8:05 pm

imanut wrote:

how do you vote for more than one thing?

alas, it doesn't seem to be possible on this program, unless one of the technogeekettes knows how? I guess you could vote multiple times!

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