Photo of the Day
Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 34 comments
Posted by Current_Yellow7722@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 34 comments
tyttuutface@reddit
People really used to set their monitors 4 feet away from the keyboard at a 90° angle, huh?
Js987@reddit
Typewriter quirk that hadn’t quite died, you couldn’t put stuff on top because the paper came out on top, so typists learned to type with the thing they were copying or whatever off to the side, and of course they typed by touch so the keyboard didn’t need to be in line of sight anyway. I swear, this looked less weird in the 80s.
stromm@reddit
Lots more of us were able to “touch-type” back then.
Still to this day, it’s very rare for me to look at the screen while my fingers are typing.
Still, I had/have to have my screen behind my keyboard. My neck would give out on my even at 20 degrees for too long.
Current_Yellow7722@reddit (OP)
Actually,, quite a few of us did. My computer was built to have a monitor on top, so off to the side it went.
zydeco100@reddit
There was this charming period at the dawn of personal computers, before VisiCalc or WordPerfect, where we didn't quite know how to explain why you would need a computer in your house. So all the ads of the era were "balance your checkbook!" or "keep household recipes!".
Kurgan_IT@reddit
I remember that. At the time of the Commodore Vic20 here in Italy (1984?) I had someone ask if they could use the computer to keep track of their socks. Yes, really.
ksuwildkat@reddit
It was always "anything besides games" and it was so stupid. First, games are fun. Second, computers were good at games long before they were good at anything else. Even Atari - a game company - was reluctant to market their computers as game machines.
zydeco100@reddit
A system like the one in the ad above - let's say it's a 48K ][ with one disk drive and monitor - was nearly $2,400 in those days, or $12,000 now.
No kid can go to their parents and say they want a $12,000 system that plays video games. You got an Atari 2600 instead.
Apple and the other manufacturers had to find a way to market it to the whole family. The mom and dad controlled the purchase.
ksuwildkat@reddit
Oh I know. I was there. But the thing is computers SUCKED at those other things.
The checkbook thing was ultra stupid in the days before online banking because you were adding an extra step - hand jamming everything into the computer - that exponentially increased the chances of an error.
Cookbook was somehow stupider because not only did you have an extreme likelihood of making a transcription mistake, there were roughly zero computers in the kitchen so you were going back and forth to a screen in another room instead of just using the book/card that was portable and water resistant.
From invention to 1984 computers did three things well - spreadsheets, word processing and games.
In 1984 the Mac added desktop publishing and computer graphics (MacDraw).
Somewhere around 1980 data base work got good but it was pretty niche.
Unless you had a printer, pre internet computers were game machines.
It wasnt until roughly 1995 that computers became truly useful for anything besides games in most homes.
I submit that the companies would have sold MORE computers if they had leaned into games from day one because thats how they got used anyway. Here is a 1980 Byte Magazine. Atari desperately wants to say games but wont. Compare that to how cars were marketed at the same time. The Big 3 car makers were heavily involved in NASCAR with "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" their moto. Never mind that NO ONE who bought a Ford Thunderbird, Chevy Monte Carlo, or Dodge Magnum was going to race their cars, companies still marketed cars as fast/sporty/racy. They still do TODAY!
Sex sells
Fun sells
Games would have sold
Thirsty_Fox@reddit
That was how the first generation of iPad was for me. Got one -- "now what?" Never did find a use for it beyond novelty. All these years later I still have zero interest in iPads.
PunyParker826@reddit
Too big for a smartphone, too small for a laptop - I'm not an artist, so I don't need a large touch display, and for books I'd rather have a dedicated e-ink reader that won't kill my eyes.
The only thing I'd personally use it for was digital comics, but screw it, physical trumps digital anyway.
MacAddict81@reddit
Yeah, I have a printer and laminator for my recipes thank you very much.
Nigel_melish01@reddit
Where’s the screen?
Sad-Working-9937@reddit
its the TV.
Because I always want me monitor to be at a 90 degree angle from my keyboard
LowExpectations3750@reddit
But a suspicious lack of wiring (or rf module) between the computer and the Tv.
SiliconSam@reddit
There’s a cable coming out the back right below the lid. Probably using an RF Modulator that’s inside the case. Saw plenty of those, lots of space on that side inside the case next to the motherboard.
Kaldor-Silverwand@reddit
An RF modulator wouldn’t have fit inside the Apple II case. The cable coming out under the lid is too high to be the composite out jack.
SiliconSam@reddit
The Sup R Mod fits just fine. Saw so many of them.. Pigtail plugs into the 4 pin connector in the back corner of the motherboard, cable goes to TV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sup%27R%27Mod
Kaldor-Silverwand@reddit
Ok. Our RF Modulator was a Radio Shack purchase and certainly would not have fit in the Apple II+ without removing printer card, modem card, clock card, and possibly disk drive card. The only mods we had were the uppercase mod and the joystick/paddle mod to make the port external.
MacAddict81@reddit
Well, if she's a touch typist with 100% accuracy, she doesn't need to look at the monitor, especially if she knows all of the keyboard shortcuts for the word processing program she's using.
abd1tus@reddit
Something like that, sure and it’s a marketing shoot, but it still bothers me that she didn’t at least bother putting the book up on top of the computer.
KelFromAust@reddit
Which, given the time, she almost certainly did.
agent_flounder@reddit
Nobody had invented ergonomics back then.
Fuckin spines, how do they work?
fnordius@reddit
Removed because the photographer thought it imbalanced the shot. Then placed to the right when someone complained that a computer without a monitor was worthless.
Blah-Blah-Blah-2023@reddit
Behind the cookery book ... of course ;)
Nigel_melish01@reddit
Your fkin right bro. It is a cookery book!
joeguy55@reddit
Shit, that's multi-tasking.
ZappaLlamaGamma@reddit
This picture makes my neck hurt
PunyParker826@reddit
It's always a kitchen...
oldmagicstudios@reddit
early intellectual property theft presaging AI
healeyd@reddit
Programming with the monitor at a 90 degree angle. Mmmm.
agent_flounder@reddit
Why my neck so sore after 5 hours playin choplifter ??
lonelygayPhD@reddit
I find the kitchen pretty cozy. I would not want my computer around liquids, though...damaged a vintage ThinkPad keyboard with a splash of wine.
FiddleheadII@reddit
She learned to touch-type in steno school.