Photo of the Day | TheaterFire

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DeepDayze@reddit

I didn't know there was an expansion box for adding HDD's to the original IBM PC.

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Im_100percent_human@reddit

I like that she in neither looking at the monitor nor the person in her office. She is just typing while looking into space.

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bingojed@reddit

With the way that keyboard is situated, she isn’t typing either.

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Im_100percent_human@reddit

She looks happy, and that is all that matters.

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vietnamdenethor@reddit

Oh, Charli had Dexatrim for lunch again. Hard to believe I know, but she has a second job as a busy mom and devoted homemaker.

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bingojed@reddit

She’s got $10,000 of computer equipment, a nice office, and a rather fancy chair, so she’s doing something right.

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Negative_Cell9216@reddit

I read that in trumps "they are eating the cats" voice

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new2bay@reddit

Couldn’t be bothered to have a monitor for both computers, though.

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luckierbridgeandrail@reddit

She's about to deck her boss with that Model F. (Don't worry, >!it!<'ll be fine.)

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MrWonderfulPoop@reddit

The glass is always half full, eh?

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"Great, Carol, now bring the keyboard to you. A little more, so that the camera sees the entire computer. Bob, lean in a little more and look at Carol. Carol, turn your face to the right, I can only see the back of your head… perfect!"

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Dense-Vermicelli4535@reddit

She's gaming in the chart, WASD and arrow keys! 😂

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QuantumCakeIsALie@reddit

Fun fact, the field of ergonomics was invented after this photo

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Mr-l33t@reddit

I used to “service” those keyboards in the 80’s as a trainee as they were so expensive. Basically dismantling them and clearing out everything and anything that had fallen into the keyboard. 🤢

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AlsGeekLab@reddit

Acid is powerful man

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Negative_Cell9216@reddit

First thing i noticed shes looking at the printer while typing. Who took that snda thought "gee that looks good use that one"

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Accomplished-Slide52@reddit

She's looking at the printer!

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HomsarWasRight@reddit

“Lynda, we can’t see the keyboard, your body is blocking it!” “Well how the hell am I supposed to look at the screen and type without me blocking it?” “Turn your body more to the right! No, don’t turn your head, look straight!” “I’m not even looking at the screen, Frank! This is stupid!” “Now pull the keyboard toward you, we need to see it clearly!” “Off the table?!” “YES HANG IT OFF THE FUCKING TABLE!”

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ultimatebob@reddit

It looks like she's trying to make a quick escape from her boss. I can respect that!

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LostDefinition4810@reddit

She’s getting ready to throw the keyboard in his face.

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kabekew@reddit

I think she's looking at the printer and wondering why it's not typing letters as she presses the keys

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cjc4096@reddit

She's used to these. Not those PC toys. https://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/la36.html

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NorCalFrances@reddit

Most "secretaries" at that level knew their tools. Her boss would be the one that couldn't type and had no idea how those new fangled computers worked.

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blakespot@reddit

Maybe there's a really large MDA display over on that counter and she's typing data into the spreadsheet while the CGA display graphs it.

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Whatscheiser@reddit

The boss has just asked her what she is doing. She doesn't know what she's doing and has begun to realize that he knows this as well. Now she is just doing anything she can. God bless her.

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NorCalFrances@reddit

Back then nobody needed to look at the keyboard to type. Many of us had our hands slapped with a stick if we did, and/or were taught on typewriters with caps on the keys that covered the letters.

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vietnamdenethor@reddit

Ahhh, the heady days of the microcomputer revolution, when ALL the lines were going up.

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MakerWerks@reddit

The guy leaning on the monitor looks like a young Bruce Campbell.

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CaperGrrl79@reddit

I thought the same thing!

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Necessary-Warthog577@reddit

Pc xt avec FDD DD

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ken_the_boxer@reddit

One of the few things I'm still missing, the 5161 Expansion Unit.

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2raysdiver@reddit

It is a photo shoot. I doubt they connected anything other than the monitor. And I have one of those printer stands, still. In the picture it does appear that there is a small stack of paper in the stand under the printer. And if they took this in a real office, they are going to use a wide angle lens which will distort things a little. Which is why the keyboard appears slightly larger than it should. Her head also appears slightly larger - it seems to be the same size as the monitor. I'm an amateur photographer since the 1970s and the image looks completely legit for one taken with wide angle lens.

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ghostopera@reddit

The keyboard has a cable visible! But yeah, the whole picture does feel very composite to me as well.

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ken_the_boxer@reddit

Ah, I see it, thanks. But yeah, too many things are off. That 5154 is certainly not composite, though :P

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pmodizzle@reddit

Probably a 5153 since that’s a 5150 that they’re showing off - EGA wasn’t around yet

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Kiwi_eng@reddit

It’s most certainly a 5153.

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Kiwi_eng@reddit

Other than the photo being slightly stretched horizontally everything looks correct to me.

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2raysdiver@reddit

A young George W and Nancy Bush and their first PC...

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ksuwildkat@reddit

Hayes modem under the phone

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Professional-While94@reddit

The printer stand with space underneath for fan-fold paper, I had completely forgotten about those. My Apple Imagewriter II swims to memory now.

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

I have a case of fan fold paper. Ya never know lol

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Visual-Sector6642@reddit

You can see the modem under the phone too!

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Professional-While94@reddit

Yes! It's a completely authentic detail that had fallen out of my mind.

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Hjalfi@reddit

_Two_ hard drives, eh? Which loudly whine? At very nearly but not quite the same frequency? Producing a slowly pulsating drone will gradually drills into your skull until it feels like your brains are dribbling out of your ears? Nope, not traumatising at all...

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Olofahere@reddit

Her staring into the distance is actually one of the most realistic things in the photo. She's a touch typist, and she's taking dictation from the guy. She doesn't have to look at anything, just to listen.

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Klutzy_Cat1374@reddit

I think I have 10,000x more storage on my keyring.

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

No, look at the size! That's gotta hold at least 10 megabytes..

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Klutzy_Cat1374@reddit

I had one 5MB drive I used as a doorstop. I think I still have it.

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

Wow, that's gotta be heavy

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JasonHofmann@reddit

My wife figured it out - she’s watching the printer print out her print job and saying something funny about it. 😆 seems plausible 🤔

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yahbluez@reddit

Yah i remember that time when we had hoover keyboards that float mid air.

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zippy@reddit

this appears to be an altered version of the original photo here from the Washington Post, 1983. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/06/washington-post-reporter-email/

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zippy@reddit

Which also appeared in Business Insider, credited to the AP, in 2019 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-computers-evolved-history-2019-9

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zippy@reddit

stock photo service alamy credits this photo to the AP with a creation date of 1983 https://www.alamy.com/file-in-this-undated-file-photo-a-man-tries-out-the-enhanced-version-of-international-business-machines-corps-personal-computer-which-was-unveiled-in-new-york-march-8-1983-the-pc-business-is-faltering-amid-shifting-technology-trends-since-apple-inc-shifted-the-direction-of-computing-with-the-release-of-the-iphone-in-june-2007-hps-market-value-has-plunged-by-60-percent-to-35-billion-while-dells-market-value-has-also-plummeted-by-60-percent-to-about-20-billion-ap-photofile-image521988011.html

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packetmon@reddit

This photo is kind of messed up. What’s with the extra hand on the desk? The way he is standing with the sleeve at his elbow the rest of his arm is likely straight which makes that hand position… weird.

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minigig@reddit

Sleeve is not at his elbow, its just at the wrist. No extra hands here.

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zippy@reddit

look at the baby hand by the middle of her back. it looks like an AI hallucination.

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octahexxer@reddit

Pretty impressive to make it this akward...everything feels wrong.

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NorCalFrances@reddit

Not often you see the entire IBM set-up including the expansion chassis (with dual hard disks!) and printer.

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norty-dc@reddit

I saw an expansion unit once, the connector cable was not flexible, carrying as it would have done all the expansion bus signals.

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jfrorie@reddit

I worked on a few. The pins were notorious for pushing back into the connector if you didn't seat it just right. PITA.

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norty-dc@reddit

It was my take at the time that that cable was not for bending? Was it possible to stack an expansion ob top of a system unit?

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jfrorie@reddit

The cable was partially pre-formed for either side by side or you could stack then if you installed the riser cards at an offset to each other. Side by side gave the most trouble, likely due to table flex or bumping the units. Most people I saw stacked the EU on/under so they could be moved by one person. One of the finance guys system I worked on was called "Cash" Coin. Stellar name. Finance was the only area that could afford these beasts. $6K for the unit without drives, IIRC in 1983-4ish. You could run up to two 10MB drives.

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new2bay@reddit

If it’s not a flexible cable, why even have a cable in the first place? Just plug the damn thing directly into the connector.

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NorCalFrances@reddit

I remember in the 1990's seeing a small stack of the expansion units, cards and backplanes in an electronics surplus store. Very much regretting not grabbing one of course but I suppose I can let it go after 30 years.

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new2bay@reddit

Is that what that thing under the printer is? I thought it was a second computer with no monitor. 😂

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tomxp411@reddit

Wow! There might be a whole 20 megabytes in that computer!! What will we do with all that space??

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blakespot@reddit

Nice place for the printer -- get that expansion enclosure with two early-era Winchester disks jiggling back and forth as it prints...

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rounding_error@reddit

"Jim never has another computer at home."

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

Lol

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Imaneight@reddit

I can hear that keyboard in my head still.

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Icy-Maintenance7041@reddit

The thing that stands out here is her holding the keyboard like that. I mean if someone did that in real life the thing would be dropping to the floor and leaving a dent. Those keyboards where fucking heavy!

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Away-Huckleberry9967@reddit

Photographer: "Please hold the keyboard so that it is well visible but nobody will believe you can type comfortably. Also, look into the shelf and not on the screen. Yes, this is good. Perfect."

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JasonMaggini@reddit

More likely it's more a cut-and-paste collage (with real cutting and pasting).

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National_Clerk_2879@reddit

And then, one day, many years later, a wise sage replaced the woman with a cat and the internets was born.

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Scootztheprgrmmer@reddit

All that tech and she's so focused on that empty shelf lmao

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FlyByPC@reddit

Is that a second case just to hold two HDs? Wow.

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National_Clerk_2879@reddit

Behold the IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis.

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Independent_Shoe3523@reddit

The guy who invented Visicalc will never get enough money. Virtually all computer ads show bar charts or pie charts because the first guys to bring an Apple II in the office with visicalc were GODS.

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CrazyBranzy@reddit

No way it aint ai

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CitySeekerTron@reddit

*"Mary evaluated the newer Hercules, CGA, EGA, and VGA displays, but in the end preferred the good old Teletype terminal at eye level. As for the keyboard..."*

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BidSmall186@reddit

Wow!…even before the age of shit AI advertisements

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Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)

Humans do it best.

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mtest001@reddit

I did not know those expansion units existed ! [https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21352/IBM-5161/](https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21352/IBM-5161/) It looks totally badass !!

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ken_the_boxer@reddit

Chassis is the same, but the connector cards are notoriously hard to find.

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OkGene2@reddit

Back when everything was cordless

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indicava@reddit

Yeah she ain’t holding a 6lb keyboard like that for long…

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