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What Google would have looked like in the 1960s

masswerk.at

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Re: What Google would have looked like in the 1960s

#21

Post by Sami_Lehtinen »

I got really distracted about totally inaccurate audio and tape functions. Haven't you ever used those devices? Timing, sounds, tape reel operation, highly in-accurate. Sorry to complain, idea is nice. But execution is really non authentic. You should have written authentic simulation code for audio and tape reels. Now it's just ehh, artistic stuff, just like in movies, which usually means bad. Also tape storage usually used faster seeks, slower reads and some pauses in between.

I also deeply hated Brother electronic typewriters, because I could always write faster than those typewriters were able to extract data from buffer. There was always an risk that you filled the buffer up and then had a overflow. Then you had to wait until the buffer was clear so you were able to see what was lost before continuing. Really enraging. IBM Selectic typewriters were much better and a lot faster. Anyway, main point is that print timing differs between letters based on what's being printed.

Of course you were able to connect both of these to computer and use as a printer.

Good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter Bad: http://electricinnards.blogspot.fi/2013/04/brother-ax-250-el...

This should be interesting at least to tech hackers. Old but good stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Selectric.ogv

Re: What Google would have looked like in the 1960s

#22

Post by hawkharris »

ams6110 wrote: post #11
hawkharris wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 60s Google app is very cool, and I can see how it might inspire nostalgia. But whenever I think about how prevalent cigarette smoking used to be in those days, I feel sad that so many people smoked without fully understanding the health risks. Both of my grandfathers lived and worked in that era, and both died of lung cancer.

The risks were pretty much fully understood in the '70s

Your responses raises two questions:

1) Understood by whom? 2) How deep was the "understanding?" In other words, what did it signify for people's health and well being?

If your argument is that medical professionals understood the health risks associated with smoking by the late '70s, I agree. But everyday people, those most affected by smoking-related illnesses, continue to underestimate the danger.

Here are three of the many studies illustrating this point: [1] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239800.php [2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1381045/ [3] http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/1/55.full.pdf

Some excerpts:

"Smokers underestimated their relative risk compared to non-smokers and, contrary to previous interview surveys, believed they have a lower risk of developing lung cancer than the average smoker."

"These findings suggest that at least heavy smokers significantly underestimate their risk of premature mortality."

So, this leads to the second question: how does smokers' understanding of risks — or lack thereof — have practical implications for their behavior?

Among current U.S. smokers, the odds of wanting to quit, trying to quit and successfully quitting are still quite poor. About 30 percent of smokers do not want to quit. Sixty percent reported that they will not try to quit this year. And only seven percent reported successfully quitting their first time.

[4] American Cancer Society: http://www.statisticbrain.com/quitting-smoking-statistics/

Re: What Google would have looked like in the 1960s

#23

Post by hawkharris »

nationcrafting wrote: post #18
ams6110 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The risks were pretty much fully understood in the '70s

Indeed. My father quit smoking from one day to the next in the mid-60s, when a surgeon friend showed him photos of a smoker's lung. The info was available.

I'm glad to hear that your father successfully quit his first time. According to the American Cancer Society, he belongs to a 7-percent minority. Please see my response above for more statistics and qualitative data about what information was - and is - available.

Re: What Google would have looked like in the 1960s

#24

Post by masswerk »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #21

I got really distracted about totally inaccurate audio and tape functions. Haven't you ever used those devices? Timing, sounds, tape reel operation, highly in-accurate. Sorry to complain, idea is nice. But execution is really non authentic. You should have written authentic simulation code for audio and tape reels. Now it's just ehh, artistic stuff, just like in movies, which usually means bad. Also tape storage usua…

The sounds are actually extracted from footage showing this kind of equipment at work. The tape drive operations are controlled by random (based on what assumptions on the index and block locations should we do this?), but should usually feature some pauses and stops. The action of the tape tensioners is highly exaggerated in order to provide a substitute for the vacuum columns that can't be shown in this layout (providing a bit of a visual explanation for the asynchronous action of the reels).

Please understand that this is not meant to be a full emulation (like, say, Hercules compiled via Emscripten). Otherwise you would have to re-implement Google on top of zOS ... ;-)

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