For us over 50 - Favourite Technology
Discussion
dfen5 said:
Seriously though, online banking. Had to go to an actual bank to pay a cheque in, awful.
Banking and cash availability in general. And you had to work around ridiculous bank opening hours which back in the day were closing times of about 3.30pm.What happened if you wanted to go to the pub on a Sunday, and you had no cash and the pub didn't let you run up a tab? You'd be stuffed. Actually - it gets worse because the pub would be shut most of the day and last orders was at 10.
But in general what's made the difference is information - hugely rapid access to humungous amounts of data. No science fiction writer from my youth saw this coming at all; Arthur C Clarke got a vague idea of a PDA with the "minisec" but that was totally lame compared with what actually happened.
2 things for me (I'm 53):
Google Earth/Streetview. When I was a kid I used to dream of being able to use a computer to look around somewhere I couldn't practically visit, although I assumed it would be digitally generated rather than actual photographs.
Softsynths. Was obsessed by analogue synthesisers when I was young, but they were expensive and I could only afford a couple of simple ones. A little laptop powerful enough to generate not only analogue sounds on-the-fly, but with ridiculous amounts of polyphony was something I never even conceived would be possible.
Google Earth/Streetview. When I was a kid I used to dream of being able to use a computer to look around somewhere I couldn't practically visit, although I assumed it would be digitally generated rather than actual photographs.
Softsynths. Was obsessed by analogue synthesisers when I was young, but they were expensive and I could only afford a couple of simple ones. A little laptop powerful enough to generate not only analogue sounds on-the-fly, but with ridiculous amounts of polyphony was something I never even conceived would be possible.
Dog Star said:
But in general what's made the difference is information - hugely rapid access to humungous amounts of data. No science fiction writer from my youth saw this coming at all; Arthur C Clarke got a vague idea of a PDA with the "minisec" but that was totally lame compared with what actually happened.
I think Douglas Adams got pretty close. Case with "Don't Panic" aside, the iPhone bears an absolutely uncanny resemblance to what I'd always imagined the Hitchhikers Guide to be.I'm 36 but my dad would have been late 60s now (passed away in 2005).
He had MS so movement wasn't good. He was a huge music fan and thinking about how well he'd have benefited from the likes of streaming music, even MP3s weren't as commonly used then. Even the ability to have a 55" screen which takes up no more room than the width and height is somethingt that still impresses me.
He had MS so movement wasn't good. He was a huge music fan and thinking about how well he'd have benefited from the likes of streaming music, even MP3s weren't as commonly used then. Even the ability to have a 55" screen which takes up no more room than the width and height is somethingt that still impresses me.
I'm a millenial (30yo, so not exactly wet behind the ears...) but what I find brilliant about my growing up is the accelerating rate of progress. I remember as a kid having VHS and audio cassettes and it in general being more difficult to be up to date on this stuff...well, I was 10yo afterall...
But now, even I struggle to keep up with the latest.
To the oldies: have you noticed an acceleration of the acceleration?
With machine learning, things are only going to get even faster going forward. At an even more accelerated rate - completely exponential! Amazing.
But now, even I struggle to keep up with the latest.
To the oldies: have you noticed an acceleration of the acceleration?
With machine learning, things are only going to get even faster going forward. At an even more accelerated rate - completely exponential! Amazing.
GroundEffect said:
To the oldies: have you noticed an acceleration of the acceleration?
With machine learning, things are only going to get even faster going forward. At an even more accelerated rate - completely exponential! Amazing.
Yep. With machine learning, things are only going to get even faster going forward. At an even more accelerated rate - completely exponential! Amazing.
Somebody earlier mentioned the Sega Mega Drive and I remember seeing Sonic for the first time on my mate's one. Had to go out the next day and get one, it blew me away.
We'll soon be at Skynet.
GroundEffect said:
To the oldies: have you noticed an acceleration of the acceleration?
Oldie here.You bet. From typing code into a ZX80 (and losing all of many hours work every time I switched it off) to now, acceleration has been exponential.
Just upgraded to the Apple Watch 4 (512 mb ram!)... after a swim I can press a soft button and eject the water from inside!
The slightly odd thing is that oldies seemingly understand how/why these things work a bit better than their children. My teenage and 20yo kids use me as tech support: "Dad! This isn't working. Can you fix it?". Laptops. Tablets, Smartphones. WiFi. Spreadsheets. AV systems. Sat Navs.
Having grown up with Acorn and BBC computers, I guess that hands on programming experience gives one a better understanding of why they do the things they do.
Also, I had no mug who I could turn to to fix my problems. They do.
Having grown up with Acorn and BBC computers, I guess that hands on programming experience gives one a better understanding of why they do the things they do.
Also, I had no mug who I could turn to to fix my problems. They do.
AstonZagato said:
The slightly odd thing is that oldies seemingly understand how/why these things work a bit better than their children. My teenage and 20yo kids use me as tech support: "Dad! This isn't working. Can you fix it?". Laptops. Tablets, Smartphones. WiFi. Spreadsheets. AV systems. Sat Navs.
Having grown up with Acorn and BBC computers, I guess that hands on programming experience gives one a better understanding of why they do the things they do.
Also, I had no mug who I could turn to to fix my problems. They do.
Which is weird because aren't we all told regularly that kids these days could run rings around us oldies in the tech stakes. Weirdly though, I've not really found that to be the case in my admittedly limited experience.Having grown up with Acorn and BBC computers, I guess that hands on programming experience gives one a better understanding of why they do the things they do.
Also, I had no mug who I could turn to to fix my problems. They do.
j4ckos mate said:
I had a go of an occulus rift at weekend,
I wasnt expecting a lot from it, but the thing is really impressive,
I was in the Lancaster raid over Germany
fantastic bit of kit
Interesting. I wasnt expecting a lot from it, but the thing is really impressive,
I was in the Lancaster raid over Germany
fantastic bit of kit
What's the range of stuff that you can get for it like/and price?
Worth getting or technology too new?
Will it be outdated quickly?
So many questions!
dfen5 said:
Grindr.
Seriously though, online banking. Had to go to an actual bank to pay a cheque in, awful.
In the US I used to 'pay in' cheques by taking a picture of the cheque in the banking app.Seriously though, online banking. Had to go to an actual bank to pay a cheque in, awful.
Various banks in the UK say that this is coming but it never seems to get any nearer.
nyt said:
dfen5 said:
Grindr.
Seriously though, online banking. Had to go to an actual bank to pay a cheque in, awful.
In the US I used to 'pay in' cheques by taking a picture of the cheque in the banking app.Seriously though, online banking. Had to go to an actual bank to pay a cheque in, awful.
Various banks in the UK say that this is coming but it never seems to get any nearer.
There's a reason BACS / CHAPS merged and the Faster Payments System # value per payment was increased.
I'm not quite over 50, but I have to admit I do like Facetime and iMessages .. saves me walking up 2 flights of stairs to get the attention of teenaged daughters!
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