In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive and that beauty is it The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5 MB of data.
So send some love to your 32gb Memory stick right now!
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Monday 8 June 2009
Be sure to tell your Flash Drives you love them
In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive and that beauty is it The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5 MB of data.
So send some love to your 32gb Memory stick right now!
Friday 12 December 2008
Another wee blast from the past to help you fill your idle time
If you like me ever owned an Atari console, or more recently a Nokia phone you will have probably have a game or two of "Snake" well those very nice people at Neave.com have a nice wee flash version for your websites and blogs..
Go on you know you want to!
Use the arrow keys to move
Pause game – space key or P
Mute sound – M
Go on you know you want to!
Use the arrow keys to move
Pause game – space key or P
Mute sound – M
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Have a wee game - Go on you know you want to
Control Keys are ... left and right arrows to move and space to fire
You need to get at least 300,000 to get on the high score!
You need to get at least 300,000 to get on the high score!
Sunday 6 July 2008
Rites of passage memes - "Buying my first record"
Gentle reader,
I was reading July's "The Word" and I came across an article about the rite of passage that is buying your first record, cassette,cd or whatever. This being the download generation part of the ritual of being a teenager is now fading fast. That day when you parents relaxed the "you will listen to..." rules and let you take your saved up pocket money or record token down to the local record shop and choose a record by yourself.
That first choice was a very important choice, do I buy what "I like" or do I buy what "I want to like" the peer pressure to like Pink Floyd or those Scouser haircuts The Beatles when really all I wanted to do was get down with Black Sabbath or Hawkwind. This choice was doubly hard given the steely gaze of the lady behind the record counter who would (or so it felt) measure your choice against a secret scale of acceptability that only she was privy to.
I remember my first record well. It was 1972 it was sometime in the 2 weeks around the 12th July and it was"Silver Machine" by Hawkwind. It was somewhere in the top 10 and it was a perfect song for a teen whose main claim to fame was "epic hair" and a silver Raleigh Chopper.
It was bought in Woolies (Woolworth's), I cycled like my arse was in fire both there and back, and with much pomp took the 7 inch platter from it's sleeve, placed it on my father's Bush turntable and played it ... my first non-adult assisted purchase.
Somehow iTunes doesn't have the same thrill.
I was reading July's "The Word" and I came across an article about the rite of passage that is buying your first record, cassette,cd or whatever. This being the download generation part of the ritual of being a teenager is now fading fast. That day when you parents relaxed the "you will listen to..." rules and let you take your saved up pocket money or record token down to the local record shop and choose a record by yourself.
That first choice was a very important choice, do I buy what "I like" or do I buy what "I want to like" the peer pressure to like Pink Floyd or those Scouser haircuts The Beatles when really all I wanted to do was get down with Black Sabbath or Hawkwind. This choice was doubly hard given the steely gaze of the lady behind the record counter who would (or so it felt) measure your choice against a secret scale of acceptability that only she was privy to.
I remember my first record well. It was 1972 it was sometime in the 2 weeks around the 12th July and it was"Silver Machine" by Hawkwind. It was somewhere in the top 10 and it was a perfect song for a teen whose main claim to fame was "epic hair" and a silver Raleigh Chopper.
It was bought in Woolies (Woolworth's), I cycled like my arse was in fire both there and back, and with much pomp took the 7 inch platter from it's sleeve, placed it on my father's Bush turntable and played it ... my first non-adult assisted purchase.
Somehow iTunes doesn't have the same thrill.
Tuesday 13 May 2008
Rhubarb and Custard - Nostaglia
Gentle reader, Twas just this evening I was have a postprandial peruse of twitter when i came across @MattandJess and @Phigment reminiscing about kiddies shows from the past.. and all at once I was transported to that magical time in the 70's when there was nothing finer that retiring to the student flat after a hard day spent avoiding learning anything of note. Armed with nothing more than a selection of the Indian subcontinent's finest and hottest consumables and a 6 pack of Theakston's Old Peculiar we would settle around the steam powered television, provided by Philip's parents - Philip was from Kendal and his family had something to do with the eponymous mint cake and could thus afford to give their sprog a colour TV to take to university in the 70's.
I digress - we would settle around the TV everyday around 5:50 just before the news (I seem to remember) to get our 5 -7 minutes of sheer unadulterated joy that was "Rhubarb and Custard" and here for your edification are three episodes... oh Im filling up... pass the Kleenex....
**UPDATE** @MattAndJess hath just twitted... "I think you have shown me something that's actually trippier than Yo Gabba Gabba... and I didn't think that was possible"
My day it complete I can go to bed happy that we more chronologically gifted individuals can still show these young whippersnappers a thing or two.
Nite Nite all!
I digress - we would settle around the TV everyday around 5:50 just before the news (I seem to remember) to get our 5 -7 minutes of sheer unadulterated joy that was "Rhubarb and Custard" and here for your edification are three episodes... oh Im filling up... pass the Kleenex....
**UPDATE** @MattAndJess hath just twitted... "I think you have shown me something that's actually trippier than Yo Gabba Gabba... and I didn't think that was possible"
My day it complete I can go to bed happy that we more chronologically gifted individuals can still show these young whippersnappers a thing or two.
Nite Nite all!
Monday 21 April 2008
Before U2 , Before Lizzy there was .....
Probably the best Irish band of all time ;) Horslips with "Dearg Doom" from 1973 ...oh god I had hair (and a 'tache) just like that....
nowt like a good dose of nostalgia!
nowt like a good dose of nostalgia!
and 30 years later ....
Sunday 6 April 2008
You want me to WHAT? - My induction as a Master Traveller in the Worshipful Brethern of the yellow
Way back here Theo Heselmans got all nostalgic about how he got into notes. I left a short comment there about my own introduction to Notes However that is not the whole story. So get your self a cup of tea (or a tequilla), pull up a chair and listen up for this is no word of a lie.
Twas late in the year of the lord Ozzie nineteen and ninety five and I was regularly sacrificing virgins every Thursday so that my RPG code would compile without a profusion of indicator errors. Sadly the local population was up in arms and waving nasty smelly torches outside the gates of the data center. They were a bit pissed about the virgin situation so the Baron suggested that a short vacation might be in order and as I was at that stage a real Kiss-Ass I duly absconded myself to a beach on Corfu and waited for the fuss to die down.
On my return I discovered to my horror that the chap that ran the cc:Mail server had been caught in a compromising position with a decollator, a deep fried banana (with toffee sauce) and a young female acolyte called Deirdre. Now eating bananas in the machine room is a very risky practice as bananas can carry a tremendous static charge and as we all know accidental discharges can lead to massive data loss. Given the severity of his crime he was taken to the ducking stool and soundly ducked until he confessed that he was an agent of the Dark Lord of Redmond sent to infiltrate our order with dissent and FUD.
Our Baron, usually a wise and thoughtful chap, summoned me to his chamber and gave me charge of the cc:Mail services adding that he had a cunning plan to be one step ahead of the Dark Lord. And low he did reveal to me his plan. It came in a yellow box and have the mystic runes LOTUS NOTES engraved deeply upon it. Yea didst my heart tremble before this magical artifact with it's promises of email AND RAD application support for verily it was the newly hatched version 4.
Long didst i labour and fret for getting one's head around it was difficult for one previously soaked in the lore of Sys34,36 and 38. It came as a surprise that there were no Virgins to sacrifice nor amulets to insert up ones nose before compilation. Yea was my heart and nostril filled with joy!
Having laboured hard the Baron recognizing my worth and moral rectitude didst arrange for me to be inducted into the Order of the Worship Brethren of the Yellow (PCLP and bar). I underwent the questioning, faced the terrors of the dungeon of the formula of @ and recited from memory the first 2 chapters of the epistles of the sacred Mooney on the correct manner of recertification of organizational units. My elders were best pleased and gave me my own desk with a new IBM thinking machine.
And that gentle reader is the way I did get the yellow!
Twas late in the year of the lord Ozzie nineteen and ninety five and I was regularly sacrificing virgins every Thursday so that my RPG code would compile without a profusion of indicator errors. Sadly the local population was up in arms and waving nasty smelly torches outside the gates of the data center. They were a bit pissed about the virgin situation so the Baron suggested that a short vacation might be in order and as I was at that stage a real Kiss-Ass I duly absconded myself to a beach on Corfu and waited for the fuss to die down.
On my return I discovered to my horror that the chap that ran the cc:Mail server had been caught in a compromising position with a decollator, a deep fried banana (with toffee sauce) and a young female acolyte called Deirdre. Now eating bananas in the machine room is a very risky practice as bananas can carry a tremendous static charge and as we all know accidental discharges can lead to massive data loss. Given the severity of his crime he was taken to the ducking stool and soundly ducked until he confessed that he was an agent of the Dark Lord of Redmond sent to infiltrate our order with dissent and FUD.
Our Baron, usually a wise and thoughtful chap, summoned me to his chamber and gave me charge of the cc:Mail services adding that he had a cunning plan to be one step ahead of the Dark Lord. And low he did reveal to me his plan. It came in a yellow box and have the mystic runes LOTUS NOTES engraved deeply upon it. Yea didst my heart tremble before this magical artifact with it's promises of email AND RAD application support for verily it was the newly hatched version 4.
Long didst i labour and fret for getting one's head around it was difficult for one previously soaked in the lore of Sys34,36 and 38. It came as a surprise that there were no Virgins to sacrifice nor amulets to insert up ones nose before compilation. Yea was my heart and nostril filled with joy!
Having laboured hard the Baron recognizing my worth and moral rectitude didst arrange for me to be inducted into the Order of the Worship Brethren of the Yellow (PCLP and bar). I underwent the questioning, faced the terrors of the dungeon of the formula of @ and recited from memory the first 2 chapters of the epistles of the sacred Mooney on the correct manner of recertification of organizational units. My elders were best pleased and gave me my own desk with a new IBM thinking machine.
And that gentle reader is the way I did get the yellow!
Friday 4 April 2008
Lunchtime induced Nostalgia
T'was at lunch today, myself and the tech-support chappies were comparing silly ring tones on our phones. There were several "Knights that say NI!" at least one "He cant come out.He's been a naughty boy" and other Pythonesque novelities. The one that made us all smile was The Banana Splits Tra-La-La theme song.
Now it has to be said that myself and the techies are "of a certain age" that is able to remember the Banana splits when they appeared first in the early 70's in Ireland. I remember them because they were one of the first shows I saw when we got our first colour TV in 1972. We all could remember the lyrics to the theme song and the fact that the main protagonists were Fleegle,Bingo Drooper and Snorky although there was some disagreement as to whether Snorky was an elephant or a mammoth. Then blows were very nearly exchanged over the actual words to the Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay song that the Mexican ladies sang at the door every week. Currently the Repeated-7-times-n-the-chorus-Phalange are considering a formal Jihad against the Repeated-8-Times-no-less-no-more-army. A UN peacekeeping force lead by Top Cat, Yogi Bear and Dangermouse are preparing to act as intermediaries.
The conversation then wandered to the relative merits of The Arabian Knights, The Three Musketeers and Secret Squirrel. It was agreed that being able to shout "Arse of a Hippo", clapping your hands and being transformed into what ever it was you said was and remains pretty cool. Although changing into Jamie-Lee-Curtis was dismissed as a fun thing to do but not a lot of use when faced with a ferocious Djinn. It was agreed the best of the lot had to be HySpy from "secret squirrel". HySpy was the master of scientific criminology who invented a computer operating system called Glass Filled Apatures v1.1 and instead of a mouse you had to stroke a cat and say "no i expect you to die mr bond" to move the cursor (our memory might be a bit faulty there).
Of such things are Friday lunch times made :)
** 3pm GMT (Guinness Mean Time) Update **
The Repeated-8-Times-no-less-no-more-army has officially disbanded and now wishes to be known as the Socttish-Rockers-Love-Nazareth-Army and are currently repelling an assault from The Alex Harvey Militia. They are marching to battle as I write this accompanied by the haunting strains of "My White Bicycle".. it fair brings a tear to this writers eye.
Now it has to be said that myself and the techies are "of a certain age" that is able to remember the Banana splits when they appeared first in the early 70's in Ireland. I remember them because they were one of the first shows I saw when we got our first colour TV in 1972. We all could remember the lyrics to the theme song and the fact that the main protagonists were Fleegle,Bingo Drooper and Snorky although there was some disagreement as to whether Snorky was an elephant or a mammoth. Then blows were very nearly exchanged over the actual words to the Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay song that the Mexican ladies sang at the door every week. Currently the Repeated-7-times-n-the-chorus-Phalange are considering a formal Jihad against the Repeated-8-Times-no-less-no-more-army. A UN peacekeeping force lead by Top Cat, Yogi Bear and Dangermouse are preparing to act as intermediaries.
The conversation then wandered to the relative merits of The Arabian Knights, The Three Musketeers and Secret Squirrel. It was agreed that being able to shout "Arse of a Hippo", clapping your hands and being transformed into what ever it was you said was and remains pretty cool. Although changing into Jamie-Lee-Curtis was dismissed as a fun thing to do but not a lot of use when faced with a ferocious Djinn. It was agreed the best of the lot had to be HySpy from "secret squirrel". HySpy was the master of scientific criminology who invented a computer operating system called Glass Filled Apatures v1.1 and instead of a mouse you had to stroke a cat and say "no i expect you to die mr bond" to move the cursor (our memory might be a bit faulty there).
Of such things are Friday lunch times made :)
** 3pm GMT (Guinness Mean Time) Update **
The Repeated-8-Times-no-less-no-more-army has officially disbanded and now wishes to be known as the Socttish-Rockers-Love-Nazareth-Army and are currently repelling an assault from The Alex Harvey Militia. They are marching to battle as I write this accompanied by the haunting strains of "My White Bicycle".. it fair brings a tear to this writers eye.
Thursday 27 March 2008
The "My Album Cover" meme
I have been following the "My Album Cover" meme that was doing the rounds a few months ago, and it occurred to me that there must be some truly weird but REAL album covers out there and yes true enuff there are .. here are just a couple I have found.
The rather cheerily titled Freddie Gage Opus, the first in the "It is perfectly OK to wear white socks and shoes" 6 record Box Set.
And the unforgettable classic now digitally remastered and reissued as "want a sweetie little boy?"
The rather cheerily titled Freddie Gage Opus, the first in the "It is perfectly OK to wear white socks and shoes" 6 record Box Set.
And the unforgettable classic now digitally remastered and reissued as "want a sweetie little boy?"
Sunday 17 February 2008
Nostaglia and Daddy's taxi
I had to sit up this evening until after 1:30, not because I was cutting code or engrossed in some painting project .. but because I was being Daddy's taxi for my son and his friends. Ferrying them to an from Kelly's Nightclub in Portrush.
Now I really don't mind this, it is after all considerably safer if I pick them up and redistribute them back to their beds, doubly so if they are "tired and over emotional"
However I was sitting the car park thinking of how it hadn't really changed since I was their age ... 1.30 am in the car park, once again bereft of female company and munching down on a Kebab with extra chili and garlic. Then it occurred to me it HAD changed at my son's age we were going to Kelly's of a Saturday Night but unlike now our parents were not outside in a nice warm car waiting to take us home. In fact our parents didn't even know we were there and would have had canipitions had they found out that their darling children were "shaking the stuff to the funky funky beat" in a sink hole of depravity like Kelly's NiteClub!
Ah the world turns and things change ~sigh~ gone are the days when we as young Irish lads wondered if this would be the Saturday night where at LAST we would find what delights lay beneath Siobhan McNally's cheesecloth shirt. Delights so tantalizingly hinted at by her more than adequate curves. In those days lassies moved in packs like she-wolves but instead of circling prey they circled their hand-bags on the dance floor as we fellas got down to the serious business of the evening which largely involved beer, purchase and consumption of same.
10pm,11pm and Midnite would pass and then at 12:30 PANIC another Saturday Night was nearly over and female company had eluded us once again. Once the panic subsided it was followed by a mass stampede of fellas from the bar. The hall would echo not only with the latest ditty by T-Rex but also with the phrase "Are you dancing.?" which was responded to with a nod which equated to success or "nah i'm not THAT desperate"
After 4 or 5 rejections, the siren call of the bar once again worked it's magic and twas there we were found when the lights came on. Our illusions of stud-dom shattered, broke, drunk and wondering how we were going to get home.
This usually involved walking the 8 miles back to town .. Hey ho! Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time ... but on an icy Feb night with a long trudge down the roads of north Antrim ahead i think i prefer the here and now :)
Now it is time to head off to bed I think...
Now I really don't mind this, it is after all considerably safer if I pick them up and redistribute them back to their beds, doubly so if they are "tired and over emotional"
However I was sitting the car park thinking of how it hadn't really changed since I was their age ... 1.30 am in the car park, once again bereft of female company and munching down on a Kebab with extra chili and garlic. Then it occurred to me it HAD changed at my son's age we were going to Kelly's of a Saturday Night but unlike now our parents were not outside in a nice warm car waiting to take us home. In fact our parents didn't even know we were there and would have had canipitions had they found out that their darling children were "shaking the stuff to the funky funky beat" in a sink hole of depravity like Kelly's NiteClub!
Ah the world turns and things change ~sigh~ gone are the days when we as young Irish lads wondered if this would be the Saturday night where at LAST we would find what delights lay beneath Siobhan McNally's cheesecloth shirt. Delights so tantalizingly hinted at by her more than adequate curves. In those days lassies moved in packs like she-wolves but instead of circling prey they circled their hand-bags on the dance floor as we fellas got down to the serious business of the evening which largely involved beer, purchase and consumption of same.
10pm,11pm and Midnite would pass and then at 12:30 PANIC another Saturday Night was nearly over and female company had eluded us once again. Once the panic subsided it was followed by a mass stampede of fellas from the bar. The hall would echo not only with the latest ditty by T-Rex but also with the phrase "Are you dancing.?" which was responded to with a nod which equated to success or "nah i'm not THAT desperate"
After 4 or 5 rejections, the siren call of the bar once again worked it's magic and twas there we were found when the lights came on. Our illusions of stud-dom shattered, broke, drunk and wondering how we were going to get home.
This usually involved walking the 8 miles back to town .. Hey ho! Sometimes I wish I could go back to that time ... but on an icy Feb night with a long trudge down the roads of north Antrim ahead i think i prefer the here and now :)
Now it is time to head off to bed I think...
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