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Hilarious Antique IT Advertisements

Posted by Zonk on from the now-that-is-spooky dept.

PetManimal writes "Computerworld has gone back through forty years worth of magazines, and came up with some entertaining IT-related advertising gems from decades past. Highlights include The Personal Mainframe, an image of the earliest screenless briefcase portables, and Elvira hawking engineering software. From the article: 'Remember Elvira, Mistress of the Dark? Besides appearing on TV in features like Elvira's Movie Macabre Halloween Special, Elvira also invited Computerworld readers to "cut through paper-based CASE [computer-aided software engineering] methods with LBMS" software. "The scariest thing about CASE is the several hundred pounds of books that land on your desk and for which you've paid fifteen gazillion dollars, when you buy off on a CASE development methodology," she writes. Can you guess what year Elvira appeared in this Computerworld ad? Headline hint: "IBM delays notebook arrival in U.S."'"

8 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. print version.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    is here

  2. On the topic of vintage computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Hi all. Computerworld's antique ads article is fun, but if you want more on the subject of vintage computing in general, then check out Computerworld's blog devoted to the topic! I write it; the link is http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/koblentz/

  3. Re:I would kill for one of those! by G27+Radio · · Score: 3, Informative

    An acoustic coupler was a (probably 300 baud) modem. Rather than plugging it into a jack, you would dial-up the other modem with your phone, then place the handset into the coupler and turn on your carrier.

  4. Re:I would kill for one of those! by KokorHekkus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apparently, by "acoustic coupler" they mean "telephone". Goes to show that bamboozling unsuspecting consumers with high-tech talk has been around as long as the technologies themselves!
    Oh, the historyless youth of today! *dives into a lived in a shoebox on the motorway rant for 5 minutes*. ;-)

    Actually, the acoustic coupler is the cradle that the handset is inserted in. The microphone and speaker of the handset is then isolated from outside noise with rubber seals and have a corresponding speaker respectivly microphone. So the computer become acoustically coupled to the telephone net and not electrically. Now get off my lawn. Mumble mumble muble.
  5. Re:Provably? by mashade · · Score: 2, Informative

    Provably = adverb, and correct English.

    Prove - Provable - Provably.

    --
    Technology tips and tricks.
  6. Re:300 Baud is good enough for everyone... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

    300 baud modems really WERE baud-based, not bps-based, and so they provide 150cps (bytes/sec). If you type 75 words per minute at an average of 5 characters per word it's only a little over 6 cps. But I can read MUCH, MUCH faster than that. I know, because I once contacted a multiline text board BBS in my hometown "XBBS" with a BofA "homebanking" terminal, which had ANSI color, 40 columns IIRC, and a 300 baud modem. (And yes, I realize that this is not amazingly old tech nor does it earn me any "chops".) I could outtype the SOB on rare occasions, but more troubling was the constant waiting for text. Actually, I can skim (which is all you usually need) at much more than 1200 baud, which is the main reason I stopped using that board, which for approximately eternity had 5 1200 baud lines.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:I would kill for one of those! by fabu10u$ · · Score: 2, Informative

    Snot-nosed punk.

    The acoustic coupler was the cradle into which you inserted the telephone handset so the modem could use the speaker and microphone to acoustically transmit the data. We still have some around my place of business and they still work and are in occasional use. See how your high-falutin' iPhone works 40 years from now.

    One thing you also might not be aware of is that at the time, you couldn't OWN a telephone - they all belonged to ATT/Ma Bell. In fact that was more-or-less true into the late 70's/early 80s. And they were all identical designs (actually there were two different designs but completely standardized) so your coupler would work with any of them.

    More importantly, there were no RJ11 jacks - your phone was hard-wired into the wall by the Telephone Man(tm). So you could have had a direct connect modem, but you would have had to lease it from Bell, and the regulators let them charge an arm and a leg for it!
    --
    They say the mind is the first thing to ... uh, what's that saying again?
  8. Re:The BEST one..... by 3vi1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    OMG... Why did I just watch that? It's like porn, except without the sex and production values.