Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."'"

4 of 219 comments (clear)

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

    is here

  2. 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.

  3. 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.
  4. 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.