WEBVTT - Giving Thanks to Obsolete Tech 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.559 Get in Touch with Technology was tex Stuff from dot com. 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.239 Hey there, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.600 and I as actar, is joining us once again so 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.439 that we can continue our discussion about obsolete technology. The 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.480 list of obsolete tech that showed up on an article 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:31.480 that was that Web Designer depot. This was a listener request. 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.319 I asked, how are you doing? I'm doing very well. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.879 How are you very well? It's almost as if we 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.120 didn't just stop recording a previous episode seconds ago and 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:42.479 started it up again, as it's almost just like that. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.200 It's just yeah, I'm having a weird sense of deja vu. Yeah, 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:50.320 me too. Something. Maybe it's just the continuous voo since 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.800 it's not really deja At any rate. It is a 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:54.240 great band. I listened to them all the time. I 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.960 think they cover in excess. They are pretty good. Yeah, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.560 I saw them on the voo. At any rate, we're 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.080 gonna be talking more about more obsolete technology. We had 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.360 a previous discussion where we went through list the list 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.880 item by item, and we started debating and discussing whether 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.240 or not the the things that were on there in 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.600 fact belong on a list of obsolete tech. Some of 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.440 them we certainly think do belong there, and some of 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.160 them we were a little you know, we questioned whether 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.520 or not they belonged on that list. So let's continue. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.600 The first one for this episode is the idea of 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:32.759 a huge mainframe computer, which I think we can say 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.800 is pretty obsolete. Yeah, I'm just thinking like the idea 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.040 of one computer that's that large. Today you'd be thinking 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.080 of just server racks, lots and lots of servers and 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.360 they're acting as one computer. So if you want to 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.960 get technical, is it a well know, it is that 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:49.800 really a main frame? But it's a giant cluster of 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.520 a machine. Yeah, exactly like IBM S Watson is a 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.880 good example. It's got thousands of processors, and if you 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:00.920 ever look at the actual physical um compute, it's really 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.800 a collection of of server like computers that are all 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.760 network together that act as a single entity, like you 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.680 were saying, I asked, But it's not just one gigantic 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.480 machine that takes up the entire floor of a building. 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.640 You know, Back in those days, mainframes had components like 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:22.400 vacuum tubes that were necessary because the transistor hadn't been 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.079 invented or miniaturized yet, and today, in the era of miniaturization, 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:32.320 we no longer have to rely on those antiquated huge systems. Also, 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.200 like the old mainframe days, a lot of those machines 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.640 used a time sharing function, which, for the listeners out 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.160 there who aren't familiar with this type of computing, time 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.520 sharing essentially meant that there might be multiple terminals all 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.120 hooked up to the same computer, but at any given moment, 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.360 the computer would only be working on one set of 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.280 calculations for from one terminal, and everyone else would be waiting. However, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.120 most computer as we're moving at such an incredible speed 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.120 that it almost felt like you were having you know, continuous, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.440 a continuous experience as you worked on the the computer. 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.400 It didn't feel like you were actually only getting us 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.600 a segment of time each time, at least if it 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.000 was a significantly fast computer. So both of those things 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.360 are no longer really the case these days, so I 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:27.120 agree that it should be considered obsolete. Although we still 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.240 have huge computers like supercomputers are still obviously a thing, 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.000 and there's still a real drive for computer scientists to 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:42.080 make the next fastest computer. Yeah, but they're not typically 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:47.480 this one giant monolith, these clusters of machines that work together. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.320 I do wish kind of that there could be one 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.560 that's just a giant monolithic computer. That's how they built it, 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.440 Like it was just this incredibly fast computer that's in 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.360 a single form factor, sort of like deep Lot in 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.920 the Hitchracker's Guide to the Galaxy. But wishing does not 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.240 make it so, So you're right, you should just buy 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.600 like thirty or forty servers and then put their parts 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.520 inside of a refrigerator and make your own main frame. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.960 Just call it a mainframe. I might have to figure 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.719 out a really good cooling system. Perhaps I'll keep the 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.640 refrigerator working as a refrigerator in order to make sure 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.400 that the servers don't overheat. How's that not a thing yet? 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.000 If that's not a thing, that should be a thing, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.720 A refrigerator that doubles as a server rack. Heck, yeah, 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:36.839 patent pending Strickland Actor Enterprises. You heard it from us first. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.640 All right, Well, then we have typewriters. I as, do 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.160 you know what a typewriter is? I do know what 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.599 a typewriter is. It's that thing you'd use before you 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.960 had a word processor, And uh my dad would type 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:50.760 all the time. So I remember hearing that little flax 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.400 wax wax wax noise, which sounded more like a metal 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.080 key smacking a piece of rubber, that rubber roller. And 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.240 then when do you have the more automated version where 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.040 you can hit backspace And he would like remove the 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.040 whole word. That sound echoes in my mind. But yeah, 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.640 back back in the old days, the typewriter, that's the noise. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.960 If you have an iPhone when you start typing on it, 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.080 that's the noise it's emulating. Yeah, you have no idea 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.080 what I'm talking to. Skewomorphism is what that's called, where 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.360 we take something that has been obsolete and apply it 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:25.040 to new technology just for really aesthetic purposes. Uh. Yeah. 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.240 The typewriter chases its roots all the way back to 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.520 the eighteenth century, all the way back to the seventeen hundreds. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.640 But really you're talking about the eighteen hundreds before standardization 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.080 came in, and the early twentieth century before it really 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.239 became popular. So while there were predecessors to the modern 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.679 typewriter all the way back in the late seventeen hundreds, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.840 it wasn't until the nineteen hundreds that we really selled 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.560 on a foreign factor that that was popular rised throughout 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.960 the world. And those early models were purely mechanical. UH 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.040 they worked. You know, you had a system of levers 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:03.359 and and uh a little pivot systems where you pressed 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.400 down a key and it would cause a a arm 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.719 holding a letter to come up strike a ribbon that 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.279 had ink on it against a piece of paper and 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.040 that would be what would leave the letter there. You 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.919 would also usually have a system where the ribbon itself 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.479 would get pulled by just a tiny amount, so that 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.880 way you wouldn't consistently be hitting the same part of 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.560 the ribbon. Obviously, if you did that, you would very 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.920 quickly run out of ink on that spot. Although there 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.960 were some typewriters where you had to actually physically reapply 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.960 ink to the ribbon. Um Also you had to worry 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.839 about those little typing arms getting tangled up with each 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.320 other and some of the older ones. I had a 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.640 an antique typewriter where that would happen. If you typed 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.000 faster than a certain speed, it would start to get 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.560 locked up, which was frustrating. Uh IBM would introduce sort 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.520 of the golf ball style typewriter. The and had all 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:05.040 the letters on a round structure, and that was the 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.000 one that had a very distinct sound when you were 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.440 type it just kind of um uh you know, the 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.160 clackty clack was replaced by a sort of sound as 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.080 you were typing with those. And word processors came along 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.200 a lot of typewriters and word processors were sort of 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.080 combo things. But word processors allowed you to, uh to 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.440 to create your documents uh in an electronic format before 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.720 converting it to a physical format. Um. I actually had 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.880 to use typewriters quite a bit in my early career 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:42.160 with a consulting firm because we had all these different 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.200 forms that we didn't have electronic versions for. We just 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.760 had physical forms and you had to put it through 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.400 into a typewriter and type things out on it. Uh. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.600 Now you went to law school, right, I as, did 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.560 you ever have to use a typewriter in that respect? No? 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.000 But when in law schools like the let's see the 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.520 two thousands, so we had computers and printers and things 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.560 and the PDF. Uh we could always use a PDF 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:12.280 to fill out things. But yeah, I didn't have to 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.480 use it in school very often, but I do. You 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.360 just reminded me how if you wanted to spy on somebody, 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.160 you could just take the ribbon that was used and 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.000 you can read the words because it was it's clearly 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.200 printed on there. Because there's this ribbon of text, and 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.559 you can basically find anything you wanted to. I always 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.880 said that was really fascinating when he came to like 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.000 this evidence as being left behind constantly. Oh yeah, yeah. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.080 If you were using a typewriter, then you were leaving 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.400 a record of exactly what you were typing. It would 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.040 also allow people to see what a terrible typist you were, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.280 true and see all these mistakes that they they totally 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.600 hit that backspace button for this one. Uh yeah. The 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.720 backspace button often would use some sort of liquid paper 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.560 type substance in order to cover up whatever it was 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.480 you just type. Since you could type a new word 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:01.800 in its place, it wasn't exactly undetectable. You could always 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:03.920 tell when you would get a sheet of type paper 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:05.880 where someone had to hit the backspace quite a bit. 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:07.760 You can just peel it off if you wanted to 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.000 see the original letter. And the other thing was if 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:14.040 I remember right effectively the the type, I would remember 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.880 what you had just typed. So if you're going to, like, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.839 let's say, do type to T by accident, just the 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.959 white ribbon would come up and the tea would hit again. 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.360 So you just had this perfect space T, the white 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.320 one over the black one. So it's pretty visible if 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.400 you knew what you're looking at. Yeah, So so not 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:38.280 not flawless. And eventually printers became inexpensive enough and computers 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:43.360 became popular enough that the typewriter largely disappeared. You can 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.800 still find it in some offices. I know that there are, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.080 you know, medical facilities that still have typewriters. There's still 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.800 some companies like consulting firms or whatever. Any any company 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.480 that's using documentation where they don't necessarily keep an electronic 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.600 version on hand, they still have a typewriter, but they 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.120 tend to be the oddity these days, not something that 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:09.000 is commonly a you know, necessary piece of equipment in 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.160 your average office. So I agree that it belongs on 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.520 the obsolete list, at least here in the United States. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:16.320 There are probably some other parts of the world where 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.600 typewriters are still a very important piece of technology, but 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.000 not so much. Here there's definitely obsolete. But again, one 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.720 of those another one of those fascinating pieces of machinery. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.079 When you when you were talking about them being purely mechanical, 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:29.840 when you see the leavers moving, when you see the 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.760 arms hitting the ribbon, it's actually quite a feat of 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.400 engineering considering what it was. It's like this movable type setup. 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.040 It's like, so we're gonna have this easy way to 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.160 print if I just punch these keys. Just a cool 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.560 little bit of history. Yeah, I think it's It's one 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.280 of those things that kind of hearkens back to the 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.360 aesthetics of steam punk in a way. It's this idea 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:57.199 of intricate, purely mechanical technology where it doesn't have the 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.400 kind of sterile electronic approach. I think that's what a 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.720 lot of people, you know, why a lot of people 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.240 find steampunks so appealing is that it has this kind 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.000 of you know, the hall, the working moving pieces. It 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:14.400 gives it a character that that electronics tend to lack. So, uh, yeah, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.720 I definitely agree with you there. How about the next one. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:23.360 Dial up modems? Oh man, uh, definitely obsolete. And if 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.559 you're using a dial up modem, you probably want to upgrade, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.839 is I hope you would? Because they are it can 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:34.679 be finicky I had I remember my bad modem. Yeah, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.800 I had one of those, and I was I was 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.480 dialing into a o L back then was actually was 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.040 AOL because I remember they had like five phone numbers 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.160 for their servers. And then you dial in and hear 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.200 that noise, you connect, and then you're like, mom, no, 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.680 don't touch the phone. Don't know, mom, and then you'd 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.560 be disconnected. Right, those are the old days, And the 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:55.440 same thing happened to me whenever I would try and 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.880 call into BBS. Is to the point where I think 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.000 we finally got a separate phone line just for the computer, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.240 so that way we didn't have to worry about it anymore. 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:09.600 But yeah, the dial up modems much slower data transfer 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.840 rates than any other format. Uh. And also that is 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.280 where that distinctive sound comes in, that weird statick e 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:24.520 uh pinging, buzzing noise that whenever I see it on 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:29.440 a movie or television show, I think, where when is 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.360 this supposed to be set? There was actually we talked 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.920 about in our last episode. UH. An episode of the 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:40.119 popular series Sleepy Hollow recently had characters access the Internet 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.680 through a dial up modem, and I thought, really, Sleepy 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.000 Hollow is I mean I realized they've got a an 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:53.280 eighteenth century, uh, former British Revolution soldier walking around, But 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:55.880 are they really that far behind the times where people 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.440 still have dial up? Um? But it does have that 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.040 distinctive sound. It's one of those that you can kind 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.520 of tell the generation someone belongs to, because if they 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.559 don't know what that sound is, then you know, all right, 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.000 So I can subtract ten years from the age I 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:15.200 thought you were because you never encountered this noise, whereas 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.200 those of us at a certain age are very familiar 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.959 with it. And it just hearkens back that time where 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.240 you know, you could connect to the to some sort 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.600 of network service and you would try and download things 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.560 and even a basic text document would take time to 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:38.200 access because the data transfer speeds were so slow. Yeah, 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.800 and you basically back then, I mean you think animated 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:45.000 gifts were annoying. Now, back then it was forever for 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:46.720 them to load, and you would see like, you know, 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.640 Felix the cat going back and forth, and you knew, uh, 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.760 like the sites would be done by college students or 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.760 something because they have like the team one lines in 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.160 their dorms and you'd sign in to get to this 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.600 page because you want to really know everything about the Beatles, 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:01.160 because you know know anything about him yet, so you 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.160 want to read about him. And then you hear the 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.360 MIDI playing after about like what maybe my I'd say, 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.640 a good minute of loading and then this music scares 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.040 the heck out of you because you do not expect 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.440 it back then. Uh So, yeah, it was. It was 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.480 definitely a different world with dial up modems incredibly slow. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.400 That one was fifty six k that was like the 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.120 fastest you could go on dial up, and it was like, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.840 this is amazing that water than this. Yeah, that reminds 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.520 me of when everything back in those days where you 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.440 would look at the specs of a computer and you 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.520 would just say, man, this is way more than I need. 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.160 I will never require all the horsepower, slash, storage, slash 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.680 whatever that this machine has. It just kind of quate 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:51.560 because now my my my phone dwarfs all of those specs. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.000 And speaking of storage, speaking of you know, data storage, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.760 ZIP drives are on the list, which was a product 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:06.240 from a company called i Omega and zip drives, well, 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:07.680 first of all, I think we have to cover the 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.960 idea of floppy drives in the first place. Floppy drives 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.920 are different from hard drives, and that these were portable 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:19.880 storage media that used a magnetic storage to to save 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.240 your work on a computer, and you would end up 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.720 putting it into a drive and save your work, and 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:27.720 then you could take the disc out and go to 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.680 a different computer that had the exact same programs as 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.280 the first one and pull that work back up. Obviously, 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.560 if it didn't have the exact same programs as the 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.480 computer that you used in the first place, it didn't 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.680 do you any good to have the storage because there 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:44.800 wasn't an Internet yet for you to go and get 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.160 that program um. But zip drives were supposed to be 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:53.040 a solution because floppy drives had a limitation on how 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.080 much data they can hold. So for example, the three 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.560 and a half inch disc, which although it was a 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:04.720 floppy disc was uh in hard plastic five and it 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.120 was a five and a quarter that was the one 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:11.360 that was physically very floppy. Yes, uh this the floppy. 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.480 The term floppy really confused people. I remember my dad 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.880 coming home one day. He was teaching a word processing 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.240 course at college. He was he's a professor, and he 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.840 taught this word processing course and it was like an 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.320 adult education course, and he says, yeah, people just don't 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.640 get it. I was explained to everyone that the five 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.440 and a quarter inch discs were called floppy disks, and 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.160 one of my students immediately folded his in half and 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:41.320 put it into his pocket. Uh. Yeah, don't do that 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.000 is the moral of that story. But yeah, even the 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:45.680 three and a half inch disk, despite the fact that 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.400 was rigid, was in fact a floppy disk. It could 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.160 only hold one point four four megabytes. Later on you 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.000 could get some that could hold two point eight eight 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.960 megabytes megabytes. That's that was considered a lot of storage 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.800 back in the day. So it's like for for some 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.000 kind of framework reference, like I think an MP three 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:07.240 like two and a half minute song is at least 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.359 i'd say could be three to four megabytes. That's on 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.920 the small side. So that's one song could maybe fit, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.879 or like maybe like thirty pictures if you were getting 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.600 JPEGs back then. Well, I recorded an hour long podcast 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.879 with a friend of mine last night, and it was 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.600 it was about a megabyte per minute, So that's about 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.160 a sixty megabyte UM file that came out of it. 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.600 So that would mean I would need somewhere around between 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:38.959 fifty and sixty three and a half inch discs. If 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.840 I were able to somehow divide that file up into 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.960 into equal chunks and be able to save it in 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.439 a meaningful way, it would take fifty to sixty of 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.960 these disks to do it. Now, zip discs were supposed 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.840 to be the next step. It was. It was a 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:00.520 a high storage medium compared to the three and a 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:02.200 half or five and a quarter five and a cord 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:03.920 could hold even less than a three and a half 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:08.000 could the zip discs could hold. Depending upon the type, 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:13.680 you had one fifty or seven hundred fifty megabytes, so 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:18.560 significantly more than what these other discs could have. But 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.280 it came out pretty late in the game, and there 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.960 was something else right on the horizon as the zip 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.560 drive came out that completely negated it, and that was 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:34.159 the rewriteable c D, the rewriteable compact disc. When combat 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.240 disks first came out, they were read only. I mean, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.920 that was that. And there were a lot of reasons 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.879 for that, pretty much the same reasons you encounter for 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.800 any kind of medium when it first come out. The 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.880 established powers that be don't want you to be able 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.320 to write to that medium because they're afraid it means 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:57.359 you're gonna steal all their stuff, right, So same things 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.480 true with DVD s, same things true with Blu ray 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.040 samething's true with the even VCRs and the vhs. They 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.840 didn't want to allow that to be a writeable technology 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:12.160 for a really long time. So CDs when they did 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.520 come out, they were able to hold a lot more data. 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:19.640 They were actually eventually priced lower on a cost per 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:23.280 megabyte basis, and once you could have more data on 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:26.840 a CD at a lower cost than it would be 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:31.200 for a comparable number of ZIP discs, it was game over. Uh. 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.639 And what I thought was really funny is that PC 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.800 world named the zip disc the fifteen worst product of 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.479 all time in two thousand and six, but then in 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.199 two thousand seven, PC world said it was the twenty 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.560 third best tech product of all time. So what what 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.439 is it, I as, is the best or the worst? 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.360 It was one of the best things that ever came 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.440 out for computing. And here's why. Right, Like you were saying, 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.440 we had these one point four four megabyte discs. When 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.520 I it in line to get Windows ninety five upgrade, 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:07.080 I had thirteen floppy disks given to me in this box, right, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:09.600 and I was like, okay, I wish one day there 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.600 was the ability to have a lot of data on 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.600 a small disc, and the ZIF discs were about the 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.600 same size as the three and a half inch disc, 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.960 a little thicker when it came to the the I 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.480 guess the height dimension. I don't know. I want to 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.879 say that. So it was in a very familiar format. Uh, 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:30.000 there was. It was so popular to the point where 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:35.879 a number of computer manufacturers were including internal zipped drives 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.919 in their computers. There was this click of death that 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.080 would happen after a while. You just say this this click, 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.400 and you knew your disc was fried. It's over. You're 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.639 not getting anything out of this. One of the bigger 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.679 problems with CDs being writable and rewriteable was there was 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:56.080 this giant nightmare of C D R C D plus 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.879 are minus are like, there's like this plus and minus 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:03.239 r W. There wasn't enough of this bizarre incompatibility with 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:07.399 rewritable discs because you'd have a proper drive that matched 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:11.480 a proper disc, and unlike a ZIP disc, which only 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:13.760 fit in a ZIP drive, you could get the wrong 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.639 kind of optical media in the CD burners. So I 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.560 think that prolonged the life of the zip disc to 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.200 the point where two D fifty megabyte version and then 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.159 a seven D fifty megabyte version showed up. But in 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.119 the interim these things were pretty much everywhere. I remember, 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.200 like there was an actual use for the parallel port 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.800 that wasn't a printer. That was so excited about that, 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.439 Um it was. I thought it was a really great 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:42.200 way to have portable programs. I used to have. I 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.080 used to run like Claire's Office on it. Where's Clara's works? 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:51.040 Remember this program? I know of it. I never used it. Actually, 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.119 it was the zip disc was fast enough to run programs, 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:56.919 so in my limited hard drive space I would just 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:01.120 be swapping out disks zip discs with different programs way 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.399 back in the day before hard drive media, Like, I mean, 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:06.639 hard drives were really expensive back then, So this was 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.680 I think it was. It was pretty freaking awesome. Uh 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:14.160 I Omega probably wishes it had one, but CDR CDs 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.960 had to win because they were just so cheap. Technology 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:21.000 became so low cost. Well. I also one other thing 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:24.200 that I didn't think to mention when you were talking 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.480 about how the CD did have some drawbacks. The other one, 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.640 of course, was just the right speed. The early writeable 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.320 c D s, the right speed was pretty slow, and 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.520 so it would take a really long time to burn 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.000