Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[Steddenm]

Is the teletext service on the Red Button still around? Surely not! I remember having endless fun at my grandad's house reading the travel news and weather with him, usually followed by an episode of "Bananaman". That was the only reason I would ever sit myself in front of the TV, and the teletext was considerably more exciting than the Ancient Cartoon!

BBC Red Button is available still on some devices (mainly those not internet-connected) on the Freeview platform. I think it is still there on older Sky and Virgin Media boxes as well. It is a lot more limited to what it used to be, but travel news is still there, page 432, weather on the 400s and there is even a test card you can access by pressing a (long) sequence of numbers and colours on your remote.

The ITV and Channels 4 and 5 digital text service has disappeared when Teletext closed down.

Sky used to have their own Open platform on old boxes (and you could even get a QWERTY keyboard for it) which had games, a Tesco home delivery service, news and information, banking and Sky account info (which has stayed on all Sky boxes).

Connected TVs red button services on the BBC channels now either takes you to the iPlayer app, restart the programme or watch additional streams to live events.

 

[AM9]

BBC Red Button is available still on some devices (mainly those not internet-connected) on the Freeview platform. I think it is still there on older Sky and Virgin Media boxes as well. It is a lot more limited to what it used to be, but travel news is still there, page 432, weather on the 400s and there is even a test card you can access by pressing a (long) sequence of numbers and colours on your remote.

The ITV and Channels 4 and 5 digital text service has disappeared when Teletext closed down.

Sky used to have their own Open platform on old boxes (and you could even get a QWERTY keyboard for it) which had games, a Tesco home delivery service, news and information, banking and Sky account info (which has stayed on all Sky boxes).

Connected TVs red button services on the BBC channels now either takes you to the iPlayer app, restart the programme or watch additional streams to live events.

They are also there to switch to HLG HDR UHD* versions of programmes, notably Attenborough documentaries and some of the flagship dramas like The Night Manager.

* HLG - Hybrid Log Gamma
* HDR - High Dynamic Range
* UHD - Ultra High Definition

 

[Steddenm]

They are also there to switch to HLG HDR UHD* versions of programmes, notably Attenborough documentaries and some of the flagship dramas like The Night Manager.

* HLG - Hybrid Log Gamma
* HDR - High Dynamic Range
* UHD - Ultra High Definition

It is but it redirects you to the iPlayer version of the programme you are watching.

 

[AM9]

It is but it redirects you to the iPlayer version of the programme you are watching.

So what's wrong with that? It's not possible to deliver UHD in a DVB stream but for most HDR programming that is made possible by iplayer, it's certainly worth it.

 

[JamesT]

So what's wrong with that? It's not possible to deliver UHD in a DVB stream but for most HDR programming that is made possible by iplayer, it's certainly worth it.

It is actually possible. The BBC did trials around sporting events about a decade ago.

Getting UHD Back from Brazil - BBC R&D's 2014 World Cup Trials

www.bbc.co.uk

We look at the technology behind our UHD trials during the 2014 World Cup - the challenge of getting a UHD TV live programme back from the Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, how the signal reaches the receiver, and how we decoded and displayed the UHD content with a range of consumer equipment.

However, the bandwidth required means that a Freeview Multiplex that can carry multiple HD channels, can only manage 1 UHD. Viewing habits have fragmented so much that it’s not worth dedicating space like that, it’s understandable that I don’t think any of the countries that have trialled UHD over DVB-T2 have gone on to put it into service.

 

[david1212]

...
Well that certainly brings back memories!
When I first worked in Australia in 1987, I had a Sinclair QL, as did my brother in the UK.
I would write a 'round robin' style letter on the QL about my adventures, save it onto a microdrive and post it to my brother.
He would open and print it, and pass on to friends and relatives.
It all seemed rather hi-tech at the time

You successfully posted a Microdrive cartridge Australia <> UK .... I am amazed. Maybe they did improve them?
I never had a QL but where I was working at the time had put in an advance order so had one of the first simply to find out the capability. The Microdrive / cartridge combination certainly was not reliable. I can't recall if after a few days it just got put in a cupboard, sent back or maybe resold using the local paper ' For Sale & Wanted section ' or the standalone ' For Sale & Wanted ' newsprint style magazine that covered a larger area. ( I've not searched but recall these have been discussed on Railforms ).

BBC Red Button is available still on some devices (mainly those not internet-connected) on the Freeview platform ..... It is a lot more limited to what it used to be, but travel news is still there, page 432, weather on the 400s and there is even a test card you can access by pressing a (long) sequence of numbers and colours on your remote.

My TV predates Smart TV, just has an integral Freeview decoder. I had presumed all Text services were long dead but indeed still there from the Text button. One Red Button is power and the other does nothing until a full screen text page is loaded.

Floppy and not so floppy disks.

My kids have no idea what they are or for. I've just shown my 8 year old one and asked him what it is and he said "a book mark".

And a wide variety of disk sizes and formats, HD IBM PC formatted 3.5" disks were 1.44Mb but some other systems could bump the capacity up to at least 1.6Mb, my GEM S2 keyboard formats disks to 1.6Mb for example.

.... They also used 3" Quick Disks rather than regular 5.25" or 3.5" disks.
Their first IBM compatibles also used the monitor for power meaning the machine didn't need a fan, one was later added unnecessarily to hard disc models to stop overheating rumors/lies supposedly pedaled by IBM.

ISTR that at least the later versions of BBC computers e.g. Master then the Acorn Archimedes could format to a higher capacity. External drives compatible with BBC computers for 3" Quick Disks were available, were they cheaper than 3.5" drives and discs?

When I attended Polytechnic they had some Compucolor computers that looked like a 14" TV and had integral 5.25" drives using I presume a unique format. I've still got a few disks ! They were less popular so more likely to be available. I used them to write simple Basic ( I presume ) programs to analyse data and calculate the effect of tolerances. If not this model they looked similar.



Since we are discussing Amstrad early this century there was their Em@iler phone



and in the 1980's their ' Hi-Fi* ' with the vertical turntable



* Quotes from the era included
- Amstrad and Hi-Fi can not be put in the same sentence
- Amstrad, the worlds first disposable Hi-Fi ( When you upgraded / updated it was normal to part-exchange, sell or pass to family your existing equipment )

 

[EYFanatic]

You successfully posted a Microdrive cartridge Australia <> UK .... I am amazed. Maybe they did improve them?
I never had a QL but where I was working at the time had put in an advance order so had one of the first simply to find out the capability. The Microdrive / cartridge combination certainly was not reliable. I can't recall if after a few days it just got put in a cupboard, sent back or maybe resold using the local paper ' For Sale & Wanted section ' or the standalone ' For Sale & Wanted ' newsprint style magazine that covered a larger area. ( I've not searched but recall these have been discussed on Railforms ).


My TV predates Smart TV, just has an integral Freeview decoder. I had presumed all Text services were long dead but indeed still there from the Text button. One Red Button is power and the other does nothing until a full screen text page is loaded.





ISTR that at least the later versions of BBC computers e.g. Master then the Acorn Archimedes could format to a higher capacity. External drives compatible with BBC computers for 3" Quick Disks were available, were they cheaper than 3.5" drives and discs?

When I attended Polytechnic they had some Compucolor computers that looked like a 14" TV and had integral 5.25" drives using I presume a unique format. I've still got a few disks ! They were less popular so more likely to be available. I used them to write simple Basic ( I presume ) programs to analyse data and calculate the effect of tolerances. If not this model they looked similar.

View attachment 197178

Since we are discussing Amstrad early this century there was their Em@iler phone

View attachment 197179

and in the 1980's their ' Hi-Fi* ' with the vertical turntable

View attachment 197180

* Quotes from the era included
- Amstrad and Hi-Fi can not be put in the same sentence
- Amstrad, the worlds first disposable Hi-Fi

Oh goodness, the emailer phone - I had to train on how to use it - not once did I ever have call (pardon the pun) to use it

 

[AM9]

It is actually possible. The BBC did trials around sporting events about a decade ago.

Getting UHD Back from Brazil - BBC R&D's 2014 World Cup Trials

www.bbc.co.uk

However, the bandwidth required means that a Freeview Multiplex that can carry multiple HD channels, can only manage 1 UHD. Viewing habits have fragmented so much that it’s not worth dedicating space like that, it’s understandable that I don’t think any of the countries that have trialled UHD over DVB-T2 have gone on to put it into service.

I was referring to transmitting UHD with HLG within the current multiplex arrangements. The 36Mb bandwidth of a T2 UHF multiplex, as you say has effectively been demonstrated to cope with an SDR UHD stream, but that would displace at least 3 HD streams. HLG adds a further load as it would need 10bit video. The elephant in the room would then be the lack of a UHD decoder in all domestic receivers.
But given that the UK national broadcasters are looking for early abandonment of the UHF transmitters and streaming all channels live* through internet connections, iplayer is clearly proving that broadcast networks via internet are capable.

* 'Live' TV via IP has a typical latency of 20-30 seconds, but if there was no real time DVB broadcast, for most purposes, the delay would be undetectable by most viewers.

 

[Trackman]

But given that the UK national broadcasters are looking for early abandonment of the UHF transmitters and streaming all channels live* through internet connections, iplayer is clearly proving that broadcast networks via internet are capable.

It will happen because of the costs they have to pay the provider(s), plus it's costing the suppliers a fortune too. I think the next consultation paper is this September.

Sky have thrown in the towel on satellite TV and so have Virgin Media too via cable. They are just offering streaming boxes at the moment to new customers.

Digit 'AL' will be busy after 2032

 

[Statto]

I had a Commodore 64, i remember the frustration of loading some of the games up only for it to crash at the last minute, i do remember the Commodore Amiga which was more of an early PC, but Commodore apparently had an awful reputation particularly with dealers, ended up going into liquidation in the 90s.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I had a Commodore 64, i remember the frustration of loading some of the games up only for it to crash at the last minute, i do remember the Commodore Amiga which was more of an early PC, but Commodore apparently had an awful reputation particularly with dealers, ended up going into liquidation in the 90s.

The Amiga was more of a UNIX machine in concept (though not actually one). It was well ahead of its time. The slightly cheaper Atari ST (also not a PC, though its user interface was Digital Research GEM which at the time was also used on Amstrad PCs) which mostly competed with it was markedly inferior, though at the time it was an almost tribal thing among schoolchildren.

 

[sor]

It will happen because of the costs they have to pay the provider(s), plus it's costing the suppliers a fortune too. I think the next consultation paper is this September.

Sky have thrown in the towel on satellite TV and so have Virgin Media too via cable. They are just offering streaming boxes at the moment to new customers.

Digit 'AL' will be busy after 2032

Although for different reasons. Sky seem to be aligning with the goals of their "new" parent company - their Stream and Glass are rebadged versions of products that Comcast use in the US for their own streaming service, which is only available to Comcast internet customers. There are mixed reviews for the Sky version but I think it is very telling that Sky haven't even tried to get their most lucrative customers, pubs and hospitality, off of Q or even the old HD boxes yet.

Virgin need to get rid of RF distribution because a) they're replacing their cable network with fibre and b) their parent company is rolling out a separate, open access fibre network in areas not previously cabled. VM is the "anchor tenant" and so far only ISP available.

Freeview will be a different beast. If it goes, so does the business case for maintaining a load of transmission sites that currently carry DAB and FM signals, and that in turn will cause a lot of consternation for those who worry about resilience and communication with the public during an emergency

 

[AM9]

Freeview will be a different beast. If it goes, so does the business case for maintaining a load of transmission sites that currently carry DAB and FM signals, and that in turn will cause a lot of consternation for those who worry about resilience and communication with the public during an emergency

I wonder if an augmented 5G network will become a carrier for essential broadcast communications, particularly where physical fibre connections might be prohibitively expensive. Given that much of the UHF band V has been reallocated from broadcast TV to mobile phone use with 4G LTE channels could be repurposed for longer haul duties in remote areas. In high density areas, those developing 6G have entered the over 200GHz band and there is talk of Terahertz use for short line of sight hops.

 

[OuterDistant]

The Amiga was more of a UNIX machine in concept (though not actually one).

Well, apart from the A3000UX

 

[The exile]

Yeah, Wall Street in the late 50s maybe!

Crossing London Bridge at 5pm on a weekday….

 

[Trackman]

Although for different reasons. Sky seem to be aligning with the goals of their "new" parent company - their Stream and Glass are rebadged versions of products that Comcast use in the US for their own streaming service, which is only available to Comcast internet customers. There are mixed reviews for the Sky version but I think it is very telling that Sky haven't even tried to get their most lucrative customers, pubs and hospitality, off of Q or even the old HD boxes yet.

Virgin need to get rid of RF distribution because a) they're replacing their cable network with fibre and b) their parent company is rolling out a separate, open access fibre network in areas not previously cabled. VM is the "anchor tenant" and so far only ISP available.

Freeview will be a different beast. If it goes, so does the business case for maintaining a load of transmission sites that currently carry DAB and FM signals, and that in turn will cause a lot of consternation for those who worry about resilience and communication with the public during an emergency

I think someone is missing a trick with the actions of Sky and VM, the only nearest thing is now Youview, which BT are in cahoots with.

Crossing London Bridge at 5pm on a weekday….

I'm sure there's a Bond film with this stereotypical view.

 

[david1212]

The Amiga was more of a UNIX machine in concept (though not actually one). It was well ahead of its time. The slightly cheaper Atari ST (also not a PC, though its user interface was Digital Research GEM which at the time was also used on Amstrad PCs) which mostly competed with it was markedly inferior, though at the time it was an almost tribal thing among schoolchildren.

GEM ..... I had forgotten about that. I never owned one but work had an Amstrad 1640 so where briefly I used it, probably at lunchtime as the the intended software ran under DOS.

 

[AM9]

GEM ..... I had forgotten about that. I never owned one but work had an Amstrad 1640 so where briefly I used it, probably at lunchtime as the the intended software ran under DOS.

For me, 80s work computing was IBM PS2s running Wordperfect and Lotus 123 whereas at home I had bought a Beeb, (BBC micro), ostensibly bought for the kids education.

By the early '90s there were increasing numbers of Dells and Compaqs. At home, the beeb was superceded by a Tiko PC.

 

[dgl]

GEM ..... I had forgotten about that. I never owned one but work had an Amstrad 1640 so where briefly I used it, probably at lunchtime as the the intended software ran under DOS.

We acquired an Amstrad PC1512 in the 90's with a hard card and remember playing around with GEM, had both a 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives. Of course until Windows 3/3.1 came around MS-DOS was really still king so a lot of software was not yet designed to be run within Windows.
At college in the 00's we found a PS/2 (25?) and it powered up and worked, though we couldn't get a mouse to work with it, but it happily booted in to Windows 1.1.
I did acquire an NCR3125, a windows 3.0/windows for pen computing tablet. Used a stylus the same as a Wacom tablet rather than being touch sensitive and had a greyscale reflective LCD, it did support colour with an external display though.

At school until later on in junior school it was all Acorn machines and my secondary school's earliest windows machines were ones running Windows 98, previously the main computer room, at least, had Acorn A7000's networked together with Acorn's Econet, with a RISC PC as a file server.

 

[AM9]

We acquired an Amstrad PC1512 in the 90's with a hard card and remember playing around with GEM, had both a 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives. Of course until Windows 3/3.1 came around MS-DOS was really still king so a lot of software was not yet designed to be run within Windows.
At college in the 00's we found a PS/2 (25?) and it powered up and worked, though we couldn't get a mouse to work with it, but it happily booted in to Windows 1.1.
I did acquire an NCR3125, a windows 3.0/windows for pen computing tablet. Used a stylus the same as a Wacom tablet rather than being touch sensitive and had a greyscale reflective LCD, it did support colour with an external display though.

At school until later on in junior school it was all Acorn machines and my secondary school's earliest windows machines were ones running Windows 98, previously the main computer room, at least, had Acorn A7000's networked together with Acorn's Econet, with a RISC PC as a file server.

The original Tico computer was soon extended both RAM and HDD, (a 128MB disk cost £229 in 1992) and running Win 3.1 and then Win 95.
By the time Win 98 was released, I had built a second PC and through a process of frequent updating, had two machines running (early) Pentiums and using Windows for Workgroups, I could share files and internet access between the two. I fitted a Miro DC10 capture card, which started my interest in video editing. It was all very different then when a workstation had to comprise carefully selected RAM and HDDs.

 

[GordonT]

The dye Gentian Violet applied to the faces of children as an antiseptic treatment for skin conditions.

 

[Trackman]

How about new cars with a 'Please pass, running in' notice on the back window.

 

[Killingworth]

When a 21 inch TV screen was big.

 

[GordonT]

BlackBerry devices.

 

[Harpo]

Large offices full of rectangular desks, without a single piece of IT to be seen*, the only ‘device’ on any (every) desk is a hard-wired cradle telephone. No chairs with wheels, arms, headrests etc.. Lots of paper and filing cabinets. Kettles and tea pots. Mail rooms and messengers. Daily notice wallets. (A distinct railway-ism?)

* First piece of desktop IT in my workplaces was 1989.

 

[AM9]

There's been Information technology in workplaces for over a century:
typewriters
mechanical calculators, e.g. Plus Adders
duplicators, e.g. Ormig/Ditto
printers, e.g. Gestetner/Roneo
messaging equipment, e.g. Telex/fax
and of course the common or garden telephone.
In fact a busy office depended on much of the above more because portable devices like mobile phones and pocket devices weren't around.

 

[EYFanatic]

Daily notice wallets. (A distinct railway-ism?)

Still a thing for bus companies when clocking on at the depot

 

[billh]

The dye Gentian Violet applied to the faces of children as an antiseptic treatment for skin conditions.

Ha! There was a lad in our class c1963, was accused by the teacher of sucking his pen, his lips were certainly blue, lad explained that it was Gentian violet for some problem he had, teacher went very quiet!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Daily notice wallets. (A distinct railway-ism?)

Are these the things we called "Internal post envelopes" where I worked? We used both types of the image below - and they rarely seemed to last more than four or five names before getting chucked, even if they were still intact - what an appalling waste of paper!!

 

[Pegpilot]

Household electrical appliances provided without plugs, meaning we all had to wire them ourselves. Such a senseless waste of human life !