Author Topic: You know you're old when.....  (Read 35898 times)

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Online BrumbyTopic starter

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #25 on: June 14, 2021, 12:24:01 am »
... you can vaguely remember milk being delivered to your door by a milkman who had a self-driving wagon.  He never had to hop into the drivers seat while running house to house - as the horse knew how to keep up with him.
 

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #26 on: June 14, 2021, 02:31:36 am »
When the first newfangled colour TV you saw was at a technology show, it was just displaying 'coloured snow', and it seemed amaaaazing.

Also seeing a 'music video' on B&W TV, perhaps one of the very first music videos, and realizing you were watching the birth of a new art form. I was then a young teenager or pre-teen - can't quite recall. Nor have I ever been able to find a copy of that clip anywhere on the net. Wish I could.

When as a small child you'd walk 2/3 of a mile to school and back every school day, alone, and that was perfectly normal and safe. Also that the school playground merged into bushland and you weren't supposed to wander off into it during lunch break but there was nothing stopping you. And I often did.

When as a small child your home had a fireplace in the living room, in which was burned coal and coke to keep warm in winter. With a fun childhood activity being melting scap lead in tin cans on that fireplace and casting lead shapes in sand.

When your first electronics learning kit (Phillips EE)  contained germanium transistors. And that was great because prior to that all the electronics you'd scavenged from the local tip (which nobody minded a kid roaming about in) was valve-based.

When you've hated Rap music since it appeared a looong time ago, but now some of it has come full circle and you discover it's become as curmudgeonly dismissive of current social trends as you feel. So it's actually fun.
Francis Aaron – Boys Will Be Girls
Francis Aaron – Problematic
Tom MacDonald - Snowflakes
Tom MacDonald - Clown World
Tom MacDonald - People So Stupid
Tom MacDonald - Fake Woke



Collecting old scopes, logic analyzers, and unfinished projects. http://everist.org
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #27 on: June 14, 2021, 03:53:15 am »
When the first newfangled colour TV you saw was at a technology show, it was just displaying 'coloured snow', and it seemed amaaaazing.

Also seeing a 'music video' on B&W TV, perhaps one of the very first music videos, and realizing you were watching the birth of a new art form. I was then a young teenager or pre-teen - can't quite recall. Nor have I ever been able to find a copy of that clip anywhere on the net. Wish I could.

When as a small child you'd walk 2/3 of a mile to school and back every school day, alone, and that was perfectly normal and safe. Also that the school playground merged into bushland and you weren't supposed to wander off into it during lunch break but there was nothing stopping you. And I often did.

When as a small child your home had a fireplace in the living room, in which was burned coal and coke to keep warm in winter. With a fun childhood activity being melting scap lead in tin cans on that fireplace and casting lead shapes in sand.

When your first electronics learning kit (Phillips EE)  contained germanium transistors. And that was great because prior to that all the electronics you'd scavenged from the local tip (which nobody minded a kid roaming about in) was valve-based.

When you've hated Rap music since it appeared a looong time ago, but now some of it has come full circle and you discover it's become as curmudgeonly dismissive of current social trends as you feel. So it's actually fun.
Francis Aaron – Boys Will Be Girls
Francis Aaron – Problematic
Tom MacDonald - Snowflakes
Tom MacDonald - Clown World
Tom MacDonald - People So Stupid
Tom MacDonald - Fake Woke

The first BW TV I ever saw was on display in Fremantle, around 1957 or so, fed with video & sound from a Telecine chain.
Perth didn't get broadcast TV till 1959, when TVW7 started transmissions.

The first colour TVs I saw were on a visit to the UK in 1971.

Back home, in 1974/75, I was involved in the modification of ABW2's 1959 vintage transmitters for colour.

We didn't have any colour test equipment at first, so were forced to make do.

Among other things, the transmitters needed to be tested for "differential gain".
To do this, you need a sawtooth or stairstep signal with colour carrier frequency impressed upon it.

We did it by using 4.433MHz, "give or take" from a Wayne Kerr signal generator fed into a Fernseh PGM75, which had the facility to add an externally sourced signal to its sawtooth video output.

It worked OK, so the Wayne Kerr was mounted in the rack under the video patchfield for convenience.
All was sweet, till we started getting reports of viewers who had bought a particular brand of colour TV for the big day, seeing random patches & swirls of colour across their BW picture.

It turns out the 4.433MHz from the generator was leaking into the jackfield above, & the low level signal was enough to deactivate the "colour killer" circuit on HMV TVs.



« Last Edit: June 14, 2021, 03:56:01 am by vk6zgo »
 
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Offline AlfBaz

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #28 on: June 14, 2021, 04:46:20 am »
... when you go to finish a project and you have to spend the better part of a week digging up software from deep within archives and firing up VM's to open files
 

Online Halcyon

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #29 on: June 14, 2021, 08:28:53 am »
When you look back on this thread in the year 2080 and wonder what the hell these guys were talking about.
 
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Offline AntiProtonBoy

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #30 on: June 14, 2021, 08:37:04 am »
When that techno track you got absolutely munted over in a filthy warehouse is now being played like commercial music in the supermarket.
 
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Offline DenzilPenberthy

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #31 on: June 14, 2021, 10:42:40 am »
When that techno track you got absolutely munted over in a filthy warehouse is now being played like commercial music in the supermarket.

 
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Offline Wallace Gasiewicz

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #32 on: June 14, 2021, 11:32:03 am »
When grandkids see your CD collection the same way you saw your own grandparents 78's collection.  :-[

When you know what a 78 collection is
 

Online Messtechniker

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #33 on: June 14, 2021, 12:36:07 pm »
... all women are young. :scared:
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Offline SeanB

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #34 on: June 14, 2021, 05:37:00 pm »
When that techno track you got absolutely munted over in a filthy warehouse is now being played like commercial music in the supermarket.

Is the muzak in a lift, or a part of the on hold track from some company you have to call.
 

Offline PwrElectronics

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #35 on: June 14, 2021, 08:18:57 pm »
I am pretty "old" at my workplace, but not as old as some here!  Old enough to have heard of a lot of stuff that younger ones have no idea about, even if I never used it myself.  It helps that I like old stuff and tech history, etc.

About 10yrs ago, I brought in about 1/2 dozen different vacuum tubes (valves) to the office and had them setting on my side desk.  Now, when I was in tech and college in the mid 80s, they were not teaching tube stuff for probably 10-15 or more years and you only saw that stuff in old "junk".

Anyway, a junior newish hire only maybe 2yrs out of BSEE was by my desk, sees these tubes there and HAS NO CLUE what they even are, maybe some strange light bulbs.....

Can't fault them really.  In their growing up years, all that old junk tube radios and TVs were probably long gone unlike some were still around when I was that same age.

In another case...  younger coworkers never heard/saw printed databooks for device specs and printed catalogs.  All they have known is doing their parts research online with mfg websites.
 

Offline Bud

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #36 on: June 14, 2021, 09:00:21 pm »
...when you think you are old. ::)
Facebook-free life and Rigol-free shack.
 

Offline Quarlo Klobrigney

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #37 on: June 14, 2021, 09:34:28 pm »
When 60 something year old's call you sir.
Voltage does not flow, nor does voltage go.
 

Offline Gregg

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #38 on: June 14, 2021, 11:35:07 pm »
When you can successfully play the 'hard of hearing card' to ignore your wife's rants.
 

Offline AlfBaz

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #39 on: June 15, 2021, 12:04:00 am »
When you can successfully play the 'hard of hearing card' to ignore your wife's rants.
I'm working on it >:D
 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #40 on: June 15, 2021, 12:25:48 am »
Surprisingly no one has brought this couple:

-The very first circuit I built that worked was all-tubes.
-The second circuit I built that worked was all-germanium transistors.
 

Offline andy3055

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #41 on: June 15, 2021, 12:37:47 am »
For me it is spending countless hours and precious $ trying to repair stuff others give up on because they are "too old." Is it worth it? But if I did not do that I wonder how long I will last!

Firm believer of not to late too learn something. Oh well...
 

Offline bsfeechannel

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #42 on: June 15, 2021, 12:44:21 am »
Surprisingly no one has brought this couple:

-The very first circuit I built that worked was all-tubes.
-The second circuit I built that worked was all-germanium transistors.

Then I'm young. The first circuit I built that worked was all silicon. Tubes and germanium transistors were already a thing of the past.
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #43 on: June 15, 2021, 12:59:32 am »
When you know how to change a tyre.

When you remember cars without airconditioning.

When your car doesn't have cruise control.

When you have driven thousands of miles on dirt roads with a normal car without whining for 4WD.

When you can use a street directory.

When you hate Internet Explorer & Google Chrome nearly as much as you hate Safari.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 02:21:17 pm by vk6zgo »
 

Offline Gregg

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #44 on: June 15, 2021, 01:15:35 am »
You know you are getting old when you realize that most of the things you wanted to do when you retire just aren’t going to happen for many unforeseen reasons.
When most of your stash of good stuff hasn’t withstood the test of time and you would be very happy to just donate it to someone that would appreciate it, possibly have a use for it or even make a YouTube video about how quaint it has become.

« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 02:00:57 am by Gregg »
 
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Offline Gregg

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #45 on: June 15, 2021, 01:58:29 am »
You know you are old when you start reading the obituaries ostensibly to see if anyone you recognize has died; but then you realize that over half of the deceased are younger than you.


edit: But wait, there is hope!  Some are much older than you.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 02:01:21 am by Gregg »
 

Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #46 on: June 15, 2021, 02:18:03 am »
When highly sophisticated automotive electronics meant an 8-track player and/or a CB radio.
 

Offline Gyro

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #47 on: June 15, 2021, 09:40:08 am »
When highly sophisticated automotive electronics meant an 8-track player...

Hey, now those were sophisticated (while they worked)! Pulling tape from the middle of the spool and winding it back on the outside.. That still does my head in!
Best Regards, Chris
 
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Offline BU508A

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #48 on: June 15, 2021, 09:56:12 am »
you are listening to Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and confused" and feel the same way.  ;D

I do really like more this approach:

"You are as old as you act."

 :)
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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Offline Gyro

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Re: You know you're old when.....
« Reply #49 on: June 15, 2021, 10:22:24 am »
Sorry, can't resist. :D

.... you wear a flat cap and go around 'helping' people:






EDIT: I'm pretty sure my kids agree!
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 10:30:43 am by Gyro »
Best Regards, Chris
 


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