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Stunning, Classic Computer Console, from 1958?
Predicta Lover writes "It's widely believed that the late-50s Predicta series was the swansong for Philco. After its introduction, RCA's president David Sarnoff is quoted as having said "Philco has reinvented the industry and made TV more exciting again." Somehow, I can't imagine Bill reacting that way to an Apple product launch, at least not publicly. Years later, Philco's phenomenally-designed but questionably-engineered and over-priced TV sets are an icon of modern television design, and are even made in a stunning reproduction form. Maybe Philco would still be in business if they'd thought to shoehorn a contemporary computer into the box and put a high-resolution LCD up top (ahh, I guess that would've been tough...oh, the cruelties of history). At any rate, the researchers and designers at Onomy Labs did just that, 45 years later, and the result is an absolutely lust-worthy piece of computing hardware. Built to eventually house an experimental computer being produced by Sun Labs, the supercharged piece made its debut at their recent Open House held at the Computer History Museum.The Pedestal model that's used here was originally penned by Philco's Catherine Winkler, and is variously described as being inspired by the ideal female form and looking like a gas pump (I am not even going to touch that one). The perpetrators of this project have been mildly vilified by classic TV collectors (fearing imitators) and highly praised by most everyone else...some are calling it the 'best casemod ever'. I don't know about that, but it's definitely a beautiful object."
Bah. I'm underwhelmed. It actually looks pretty ungainly to me with that tall pedestal base (not exactly an ergonomic delight unless you're a giraffe). I'd prefer a mod of the Holiday model if anything, but I'm afraid I'm with the angry Predicta collectors on this one. Must make 'em wince to see Windows 2000 leering out at them when it should be Lucille Ball.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
i remember back in my day we had punch cards all lined up in order and we would see who could feed them through the fastest and we liked it
Check out the display! It has /. on it!
http://www.onomy.com/blue/images/headshotf.jpg
I'm not reading all that shit! This is /., give me the condensed form and link the rest so I can ignore it and make assinine comments.
Anyone seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil? The "monitors," while not quite so stylishly retro, resembled an old Underwood typerwriter with a screen in front of which was mounted a hilariously-oversized rectangular magnifying glass attachment. Brilliant.
I'm not so sure I would want one, or a Philco update, but somewhere between CRT monoliths, plastic flat-screens striving to distinguish themselves, Apple's attempts at novelty and the uber-kewl designs we regularly see in Sci-Fi movies, I'm sure eventually we'll be face to face with something far more interesting.
The classic Predicta TV, if well maintained in working order, still receives video as well as it did when it was new, and will continue to work for many years to come. But if you tear out the guts and put in a computer, you have a box that will be obsolete within months.
The perpetrators of this project have been mildly vilified by classic TV collectors (fearing imitators) ... there are only so many Predictas left, and Philco isn't making any more of them.
Here's an idea: modern Predicta reproductions are available, so why not buy a repro and case-mod it instead of trashing a really neat, really valuable technological artifact from another age?
This is no better than gutting a classic Zenith console radio to make a fishtank. It's lame as hell.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
I pulled it out of a trash can, actually, It needed a flyback transformer, which cost something like 100 bucks at the time. Fortunately, my dad had a close friend that owned a TV repair shop and he was able to use one from a more common TV set (I think it was an RCA). The picture was pretty good. Mine had an analog clock on the right side that could turn the TV on (an alarm TV!). The screen rotated so you culd see it from anywhere in the room. Alas, when my family moved when I was 15, it stayed and likely wound up in a landfill. A truly stunning TV...As a 11 year old I didn't appreciate it fully though.
That thing must be a black hole for feng shui. You'll need to pay some chinese guy thousands of dollars to remove it from your home.
Am I the only one who saw this and immediately thought "Fallout" here? All they need is Pipboy with the thumbs up in a gas attendant uniform on the case and they're set to go. *Sigh*, Fallout.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Remove trailing slash from URL to make it work:
http://www.ahleman.com/ElectriClerk.html
Do you put your monitor on top of your tower case? Of course not, because you don't want your neck to throb with pain for the rest of your life. That thing looks like it's about three feet higher than the desk. Every time you use your computer you feel like you got to a movie late and had to settle for the front row. Wow sign me up for this case, it's a model of practicality and ergonomics.
And now, for the dark side of Mr. Sarnoff, who did NOT invent the TV set:
http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profi le/farnsworth03.html
Sarnoff and RCA are the scum of the earth; they ruined a guy's life simply to not have to pay him royalties; thankfully, history has for the most part set the record straight for anyone who digs a little.
Pretty sad; Farnsworth never saw a dime and went into deep depression over the whole thing. Farnsworth saw the waste of his invention almost from the get-go; as the Time article says, his son said "I suppose you could say that he felt he had created kind of a monster, a way for people to waste a lot of their lives."
Nothing's changed in 50 years- corporations still bully the "little guy" like this. Back in the 80's, a company my father started had technology stolen from them by NCR (National Cash Register Corporation). Despite a signed NDA, NCR ripped off technology they were demo'd. There was clear evidence NCR had stolen the design, they had the NDA in hand, etc- but NCR managed to drag it out in court for years. I believe the suit was abandoned due to lack of funds, but I don't recall- it was a subject that was not discussed often or pleasantly in our house.
I hope they rot in hell- they helped cripple the company, which was working on some really innovative touch screen technology. Much of the touchscreen technology, now in use by PDAs and whatnot, you can owe to DTI- Digital Techniques Inc- a tiny little Burlington, MA company nobody ever heard of. Probably their most "famous" product was the very early touchscreen system in Super Stop and Shop where you could enter a product name and get a map to where it was in the store; they also did some award winning videodisk based exhibits for the Museum Of Science. They were also bullied out of an air traffic control system project with the FAA...by Raytheon. DTI designed a system that, in the late 80's, would have allowed a controller to manage all his electronics(radios and whatnot) from one small touchscreen system. Decades ahead of its time.
Please help metamoderate.
This is possibly the most convoluted summary I've ever seen on /.
Nowadays it seems that the trend of wearing the skin of a deceased beloved company like a corporate Ed Gein is increasing in today's post-dot-com business climate.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
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This thing is ass ugly and has that "don't touch me, I came from goodwill and you don't know where I've been" look to it.
I have no idea how anyone can compare this to an iMac. Hell, an average white box PC with a flat panel is about 10x more aesthetically pleasing.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW