Apparently old electronic devices don't age well

[Mike C]

I just came across this video. I haven't watched it yet.

 

[Pete J.]

On 3/25/2023 at 12:02 AM, Dave Ambrose said:

I don't miss the old days at all. I especially don't miss punch cards. They did have one virtue. Folded in half, they fit beautifully in a shirt pocket. I used my remaining supply for grocery lists. Now we have a white board, and I take a picture with my phone. 

I went into computing because I wanted to compute orbits. It was a very interesting time to be in computing. My freshman year and sophomore years at Cal were all done with punched cards. Junior year, we had teletypes connected to a Unix timeshare system. Late that year, we all switched to CRT terminals. Software has proven far more durable than the hardware. I had the interesting challenge of beta testing vi my senior year. I still use that editor. 

David, I took my first course in computers at the University if Wyoming in 1967.  They had a Philco 2000 and punch cards were required.  Hated proofing cards.  The 0 and O were about as similar as they are here.  All programs were run over night.  One morning I went by to pickup my printout and found a brown bag with my name on it, sitting on the shelf.  Inside was a mess of folded and shredded punch cards.  Apparently the card reader had a nervous breakdown.  A months worth of work in the trash!  Later we got punch tape.  I thought that was great because you didn't have to carry around boxes of cards!

[Pete J.]

13 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

This old Greek mechanical object didn't age well....

 

I'd like to see what a modern computer looks like after 2000 years immersed in salt water.  My guess is this looks pretty good my comparison.  Here is a series of a forensic machinist recreating the antikythera using ancient tools and techniques from the time.  Super interesting watch(8 episodes).  If you haven't the time, then it is best if you don't go down that rabbit hole.    

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 3/25/2023 at 3:02 AM, Dave Ambrose said:

...I especially don't miss punch cards. They did have one virtue. Folded in half, they fit beautifully in a shirt pocket...

They made great dart-style paper airplanes, too.  

[Mike C]

Western Electric gearing up for domestic production of guitar amp tubes to fulfil demand

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/western-electric-american-guitar-amp-tubes

[Phirewriter]

That's good and interesting news. Years ago I was able to get a few of my older amps working properly again including a couple of Ampeg flip top amps with Russian tubes widely available in the late 90's/early 2000's. 

[Brian Austin]

Nixie tubes are back in production.

https://www.daliborfarny.com/