[extropy-chat] Yesterday's home computer

[Dirk Bruere]

On 2/16/06, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/16/06, Damien Broderick wrote:
> > But *all* the people from the dying world of Metaluna look like that!
> > This is not really a home computer, though, it's an interociter. You
> > can tell by the big steering wheel.
> >
>
> Dirk did say it was a joke.  :)
>
> <http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/computer.asp>
>
> Although the photograph displayed could represent what some people in
> the early 1950s contemplated a "home computer" might look like (based
> on the technology of the day), it isn't, as the accompanying text
> claims, a RAND Corporation illustration from 1954 of a prototype "home
> computer." The picture is actually an entry submitted to a Fark.com
> image modification competition, taken from an original photo of a
> submarine maneuvering room console found on U.S. Navy web site,
> converted to grayscale, and modified to replace a modern display panel
> and TV screen with pictures of a decades-old teletype/printer and
> television (as well as to add the gray-suited man to the left-hand
> side of the photo).


Now you've gone and spoiled it!
Anyway, IMO the giveaway was the dot matrix printer which while not 2004 was
around . 1984, some 30yrs after  the alleged photo was taken.

Dirk
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