Transistor Radio Reminds me...

how far technology has progressed in my lifetime.

Today I found a pocket transistor radio at the flea market just like the one I had when I was a kid.

It's black plastic (cellulose I think) and boxy...about three by four by two with a stainless steel face.
It reminded me how amazed I was at the time to be able to carry battery powered music around with me everywhere I went. It was nothing short of a modern marvel...the beginning of a new age.

And today, thirty plus years later I have a Blackberry phone/mini-computer/mp3 player/GPS/calculator/Ebook reader/address book/Enewspaper/notebook/camera/camcorder/video player that I totally took for granted...until I was reminded how far we've come by a pocket transistor radio.

 

LMAO! I used to sleep with one under my pillow, because I liked falling asleep to music.. Batteries only lasted about 3 nights...

 

Remember those things. They were the ultimate in cool

I also remember when Motorola advertised the first "tubeless" TVs. The picture tube was still there, but all the rest of the electronics were on cards. We didn't get one for quite a while. In those days we kept the clocks five minutes ahead, because when it came time for Hogans Heros or I dream of Jeanie, it took 5 minutes for the TV to warm up enough that we would get a picture.

 

That goes way back. During that time, Michael Jackson was black and Barack Obama was Kenyan.

 

Who here remembers IBM cards?

Social security checks were printed on them.

The gas company and electric company here printed their bills on them

All of the sudden, they vanished like snow from the desert

 

Transistor radios smell good.

Yeah those IBM punch cards. I used to do computer programming with those in college LOL.

 

Ok, at least I'm not THAT old.

At least, I don't remember them...

 

I missed the punch cards because I had my own terminal connected to the mainframe in the Physics department. It was 900 baud. When the words scrolled down the page, you almost couldn't read them because they moved so fast.

 

Crap. I had a little white toggle switch hooked up to a computer, and phone line, and it was 300 baud. Maybe I am old.

 

I remember when we moved up to 300 baud.

Man it was FAST!