The caption reads:
Scientist from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “Home Computer” could look like in the year 2004. However, the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
12 comments:
that is really funny.. I really wish that was my home computer though
Boy were they off with that prediction!!
I'm still waiting for the flying cars we thought would be around by the year 2000... I guess corn fueled cars is as close as that will come.
totalvo -
you're into language, right?
what's the Fortran language?
Sounds stupid, like french.....
` If MAL were here, he'd think that was so hilarious!
` ...I MISS MY COMPUTER!!!
It would be kind of neat to make that thing in your closet. You could hang out in there and you would be like the wizard from wizard of oz. You would need to add some sort of pulley though. I distinctly remember him pulling on a pulley of some kind.
fortran is an old computer langauge.. it is really not used anylonger,,, everyonce and awhile you will meet someone who used to program in fortran.,,# ORTRAN:
FORmula TRANslator. Developed in 1954 by IBM, it is a high-level programming language, most widely used for scientific and engineering applications because it has excellent mathematical functions. Many programmers consider it to sacrifice "elegance" for speed of numerical manipulations.
They don't even teach Fortran anymore. In fact, Fortran was a precursor to COBOL, and you'd have a hard time finding somewhere to learn COBOL today. The teletype interface went the way of the DOS prompt.
What do we have to replace these now?
We have Basic, C/C++, and Java languages, and of course, the ubiquitous GUI (graphical user interface) which Bill Gates made so popular.
That computer pictured would've cost upwards of $100,000, would've weighed over a ton, and would've needed it's own A/C unit to keep it from melting down. Nevermind trying to fit it through your door.
That 'computer' didn't even have a microprocessor or an integrated circuit.
Who pasted that TV in there? That absolutely could not have been part of the original 'computer'.
Looks like somebody's playing a trick.
Do you know what happened in 1954? That's the year I was born and then technology REALLY took off!
HOLY SCHNIKEYS!!! One of my parents actually posted on my blog! YIPPPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!
i am so proud!!!
and dad - didn't you used to have a computer like this? i seem to remember something like this in one of your old pictures with all the aunts and uncles in it. or was that just the chest of drawers you guys used as beds?
;D
an i always wondered how you spelled GUI interface! i knew it wasn't right, but i kept thingking Gooey - due to the screen or something......
I was just looking over my transcripts & saw that I was sceduled to take a Fortran Programming class in the Spring '97 semester. Now I remember why I changed my major from Computer Science!!
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