This week: An embarrassing admission; Reel to Reel editing; building computers using stone knives and bear skins; Star Trek: The Motion Picture vs. Aliens and the absurdity of Cocktail Party Talk… all this and so much less on this edition of Right Angle: Backstage!
I have the last generation of mechanical watches…the Bulovo Accutron. It is a marvel of engineering that even went to the moon before quartz and stepper motors cut the second into tiny segments. It cuts the second into 360 segments so that the second hand appears to move smoothly, but no match for kilohertz quartz.
This episode is akin to me talking to fellow surgeons about when we had to hand-tie bleeders instead of using cautery and when Ibuprofen was prescription only.
My grandmother went from no electricity/plumbing or automobiles to seeing men on the moon to the first computers.
Tulsi had my support right to the point when she said “I believe in 100% gun registration.”
As a police officer here in Vegas there were a few times when overtime venues included working Barbara Striesand concerts at the MGM. Same deal…we were told not to look her in the eyes as she was escorted from dressing room to the stage.
Blair Witch Project was the only movie my now wife/then girlfriend ever made us walk out of. Nausea inducing camera footage.
John Gill.
Patterns of Force isn’t available in Germany.
I used to write for a living, but never really learned how to type. I can actually crank it out at a good rate of speed, until I realize I am typing at a good rate of speed, and then I slow down dramatically.
While we’re on old timey solvent type memories… I remember being at the London College of Printing back at the end of the ’80s. We did various sorts of printing, webbing up part of a big old Daly Mirror newspaper press etc. I loved how the lecturer teaching us gravure printing introduced to the much more liquid and volatile inks used. Imagine a dozen late teen English lads in a circle, passing around a flask of a volatile solvent and each taking a good sniff. Every couple of guys the lecturer would pop up again and take another good sniff… Read more »
I remember the commercial they made for the watch with two Samauri warriors fighting. One of them asked what time it was (in Japanese with English subtitles). The other warrior proudly tucked his sword under his arm, pressed the button on his watch and announced the time. Then the last thing you heard him say was ‘Uh Oh’.
Steve, you poor person! Commodore 64? Pfft! I had a Commodore 128! Before that I had a TRS model 3 that I programmed to take a board game called Star Fleet Battles from tactical to strategic…. Somewhat. Before that, I had, on my belt in a case a TI SR50. But Bill, I was not picked on. Oh, no! I was in college getting a Chemical Engineering degree. Most of the time I was around the engineering building, with other engineers of all types. I was one of the first, so I was asked about it constantly, with envy. Before… Read more »