9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron for April 19, 2010

So do I!

Now maybe they can try doing a little math without a computer

This is SO my parents. Although they do have a computer - used for e-mail only.

I still have two big black dial phones (one wall-mounted) though I can’t remember the last time I answered one of them, much less used one to place a call …

I remember how cool and game changing it was when Sony brought out its ‘betamax video cassette recorder’ $800 (on sale) Imagine, watching something whenever YOU wanted to watch it— totally new concept… and now pretty much phased out…. it’s interesting that technology was pretty much frozen for centuries– horseback was the main source of transportation from the days of the Roman Empire clear up to the Henry Ford’s new contraption…..something about the 20th century that started a snowball of technology rolling down a hill that seems to have no end

nighthawks, that’s because the 19th century physicists, starting with Hans Christian Ørsted in 1820 and culminating with James Clerk Maxwell in 1873, consolidated theories of electricity and magnetism into a single concept. That made it possible not only to use magnets to produce electricity on demand but also to use electricity to produce magnetism on demand. This made possible electric motors, electric lights, eventually leading to microphones, speakers, cathode tubes, transistors, magnetic recording media. I can imagine people telling Ørsted, “Why are you fooling around with magnets? Nothing’ll ever come of it.”

uh…..yeah, runar ..thanks

Rotary phones do still work - at least my parents’ does. As to the computer, my father only has one for solitaire!

Antennas are retuning as people use them to pick up local digital signals.