COMMENTS

18 responses to “Open Thread Update: What’s Your Old School Tech?”

1. I just gave my 200lb, twin 8-inch diskette floppy drives, S100 bus computer to an antique computer club to show at a festival before passing it on to computer museum. I built it from board kits beginning in 1977 through 1980 when it first booted successfully. It booted the MROS operating system, a DOS work-alike that included some improvements and a nice programming environment for assembly and a couple of other early programming languages. It displayed text visual output to a CRT terminal.

   Reply to Bill Herbert

   1. wow! You are a real pioneer! where is the computer museum?

      Reply to Virge

2. Where to buy vintage typewriter (for my own us e, I miss this)

   Reply to B

3. I still have my father’s c.1950 Victrola, c.1950 Royal portable typewriter, and c1950 Keystone 16mm film projector. I have my mother’s c1950 Sunbeam Mixmaster and the family’s 1953 17″ Emerson b&w tube TV. I still have my
   c1963 Kodak Hawkeye Flashfun roll film camera, c1965 Zenith transistor radio, c1970 Rival Crockpot, c1970 Hitachi portable b&w TV, c1972 Super 8 movie camera and Dual 8 film projector (forgot brands), c1985 RCA VHS camcorder, c1985 Sharp VCR, c1990 computer, c1995 CD player.

   Reply to Rose Marie Wilson

   1. WOW! You win!!! And they all still work, and you don’t need a smartphone, right? who needs as fridge that tells you the time!

      Reply to Virge

4. I have a beautiful 1940’s Royal manual typewriter that I used for almost 20 years working at a university library. Other people got fancier electric typewriters, but I was the only one who could type along the very top edge of a card catalog card. :-) I keep it because it is an engineering marvel and works great, I still use it occasionally. Kids love to see it working, “Wow!!! It prints as soon as you type! That is so cool, we should have one too.”

   Reply to Sharon H

5. My rotary corded vintage gold phone is the only one that works if the power goes out for any length of time. Besides, it is fun to show youngsters and ask them to try to make a call. They have no idea what to do. However, it is not used on a regular basis and is stored away in an obscure corner.

   Reply to Beth Weinstein

6. My rotary corded vintage gold phone is the only one that works if the power goes out for any length of time. Besides, it is fun to show youngsters and ask them to try to make a call. They have no idea what to do.

   Reply to Beth Weinstein

7. I have an old camera that uses film. I’ve kept it because I have a collection of cameras like a Brownie , Instamatic and several other

   Reply to Dorothy Haskins

8. We just recycled a RCA VHS camcorder purchased in 1988
   We have another camcorder from the 1990’s in the house somewhere

   Reply to PR

9. I have a Farberware UltraChef machine from the late 70s….food cooks in a closed glass cylinder that rotates. Everything I’ve made in it is delicious. I also have my 1975 IBM Selectric – non-correcting, with fabric ribbon. It is nearly impossible to get replacement ribbons. My mother used it for years, even after she got her first (& only) desktop computer. I don’t think she ever typed a letter on it — always the Selectric!

   Reply to Nancy C

   1. Nancy, check out http://www.ribbonsunlimited.com for a replacement ribbon!

      They have ribbons for every imaginable machine, in all sorts of colors and combinations.

      Reply to Francis

      1. Thank you! I haven’t typed anything on it in a few years because the ribbon was nearly dried out. Good to know!!

   2. can you send a picture of the Farberware UltraChef?

      Reply to Virge

10. Wow, Virge, I can’t top what you have.
    However, I still have Smith Corona electric typewriter I used in grad school decades ago, made of metal. And it works.
    My land line trimline phone still works, attached to an answering machine.
    My flat screen TV has VHS and DVD players attached. Of course I turned off the TV in November 2016, but stuff still works.
    Brokenhearted when my bygone standalone had bootleg Windows installed, and I no longer could use DOS screensaver or WordPerfect.

    Reply to dr jeanne powell

11. I have a manual typewriter that was my mothers. I am 78 years old so this typewriter is old old old. I keep it because it was my mothers. My mother came from rural VA but her parents sent her to DC for more opportunity. She went to Cortez Peters Business School where she became an expert typist and qualified for a federal government job as a clerk typist. Over the next 30 years she rose through the ranks and retired as a contract specialist. I used this typewriter in college.

    Reply to Bren Boykins

12. I still have a stereo component system (amplifier, turntable, speakers) set up in my den that dates back to 1970. It still works, perhaps because I haven’t used it regularly over the last couple of decades. But I need it to play any of my 100 or so vinyl albums I still have from the 1960s/70s.

    Reply to Cary

    1. dude! A fellow audiophile! My set up is from 1972…a Linn Sondek LP-12 and a pre-amp my late husband built from a dynakit. we’re dinosaurs!

       Reply to Virge