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Weird and surprising old school tech

Started by biggytitbo, June 01, 2016, 01:40:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

NoSleep

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 07, 2016, 10:47:38 AM
I liked the one about the picocassette - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5FqjQlFBDM



In an alternative universe where we never had solid state memory cards we might have phones and mp3 players powered by these things now.

I worked with a guy who was involved in developing something similarly small but for a portable music system and it was digital, but the tapes were smaller and were more of a cartridge affair like a vhs tape (or like a DAT tape but much smaller). I'm not sure where to begin looking to see if there's a trace of it on the internet somewhere. All I remember was that the sample/bit rates he was talking about were ridiculously low.

Rizla

Quote from: NoSleep on July 07, 2016, 02:32:27 PM
I worked with a guy who was involved in developing something similarly small but for a portable music system and it was digital, but the tapes were smaller and were more of a cartridge affair like a vhs tape (or like a DAT tape but much smaller). I'm not sure where to begin looking to see if there's a trace of it on the internet somewhere. All I remember was that the sample/bit rates he was talking about were ridiculously low.

People would get them mixed up with coins of money, surely?

NoSleep

They were near the size of a fifty pence piece (about half to 2/3rd the size of those little cassettes up there), so yes.


Zetetic

Quote from: NoSleep on July 07, 2016, 02:32:27 PMI'm not sure where to begin looking to see if there's a trace of it on the internet somewhere. All I remember was that the sample/bit rates he was talking about were ridiculously low.
Digital Compact Cassette?

Edit: No, too big, isn't it?


buzby

Quote from: NoSleep on July 07, 2016, 02:32:27 PM
I worked with a guy who was involved in developing something similarly small but for a portable music system and it was digital, but the tapes were smaller and were more of a cartridge affair like a vhs tape (or like a DAT tape but much smaller). I'm not sure where to begin looking to see if there's a trace of it on the internet somewhere. All I remember was that the sample/bit rates he was talking about were ridiculously low.

Was it the Sony NT Cassette? NT was a miniaturised DAT system created by Sony for use as a digital memo recorder (though from the specs it looks like they were planning for it to become a portable music format)

EDIT: Bah - beaten by Twed!

NoSleep

They were smaller[nb]Or possibly just more compact[/nb] than that because they weren't the expected shape; more of a square. They had worked out a system where the tape didn't have to be reeled from one spool to another to one side, which effectively doubles the amount space required to accommodate the quantity of tape. Either it was a tape loop or possibly the spools were stacked instead of standing side to side.

Whatever it was the whole thing seemed too dinky, intricate and fragile. The rest is history.

biggytitbo

Quote from: NoSleep on July 08, 2016, 08:55:00 AM
They were smaller[nb]Or possibly just more compact[/nb] than that because they weren't the expected shape; more of a square. They had worked out a system where the tape didn't have to be reeled from one spool to another to one side, which effectively doubles the amount space required to accommodate the quantity of tape. Either it was a tape loop or possibly the spools were stacked instead of standing side to side.

Whatever it was the whole thing seemed too dinky, intricate and fragile. The rest is history.


They sound a bit like microdrives, the notoriously unreliable speccy addon.


NoSleep

Clive Sinclair. The man who though it was clever to make everything too small to be useful.

Twed

Apart from the Sinclair QL, where he thought he'd give elongating things to increase their usefulness factor a try.

biggytitbo

People knock the QL, but not only did it help (sort of) inspire linux, and add ons are till produced for it today.


Strange man though, strange, strange man. I not find it impossible to think of him without picturing Alexander Armstorng in a bad bald wig from Micromen aswell.

Twed

Oh, it was a great computer really. Just the wrong time/marketing/demographics.

NoSleep

Quote from: Twed on July 08, 2016, 01:34:30 PM
Oh, it was a great computer really. Just the wrong time/marketing/demographics.

Several months before it was actually production-ready.

Twed

Oh, it was that shonky? I didn't ever use one, I just had the impression it was capable but commercially idiotic.

Blumf

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 08, 2016, 12:43:12 PM
They sound a bit like microdrives, the notoriously unreliable speccy addon.



And they were basically just shrunk down 8-Track carts



A tape arrangement I'm amazed was even considered. I mean, just look at them, how can that not fuck up the tape? But then, they were made and sold fairly well.

I think one of the players on the Techmoan channel used a similar layout, but with vinyl style grooves on the tape instead of magnetic material.

NoSleep

Remember when, after years of of the stereo walkman (with optional stereo radio capability) he took out luxury full page ads in the colour supplements to market a fucking mono radio that you rammed into a single ear?

http://www.edixxon.com/stanit/sp_button_radio_en.html


Twed

I love his obsession with "firsts", which were all unusable and clearly only made so he (or Britain?) could do it before anybody else.




Blumf

Quote from: NoSleep on July 08, 2016, 01:46:59 PM
Remember when, after years of of the stereo walkman (with optional stereo radio capability) he took out luxury full page ads in the colour supplements to market a fucking mono radio that you rammed into a single ear?

http://www.edixxon.com/stanit/sp_button_radio_en.html



True to form, he was waaaaay ahead of time, and not quiet right


[Quick search for bluetooth earphones]

Blumf

Quote from: Twed on July 08, 2016, 01:56:16 PM
I love his obsession with "firsts", which were all unusable and clearly only made so he (or Britain?) could do it before anybody else.

I doubt there was anything strongly jingoistic in his motives. He was clearly interested in miniaturisation and wanted to excel at developing these small devices. That he overreached often was just a sign of his determined focus on that goal, always pushing tech just a little too far. It's obvious that he loved the challenge, why else would he stick with it for so long?

Teardown of Sinclair FTV1 micro portable TV set:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJPF6Ei3Vw
(warning: contains Chris Evans level irritatingly high pitched voice)

NoSleep

Quote from: Blumf on July 08, 2016, 02:15:44 PM
I doubt there was anything strongly jingoistic in his motives.

Although a good deal of it (at least) was manufactured in the UK. I remember when up in Dundee I was to told (when having a similar conversation to what we're having here about "wacky Clive") that he had brought lots of jobs to the area.

Twed

It could (regrettably) be Micro Men giving me notions of jingoism. I think "beat the Japs at their own game" was uttered as part of a news report, which may or not have been a real one. And it's not fair to attribute that to Clive anyway, I suppose!

Steven

I wouldn't be so hard-on old Clive, he dumped his wife and married a lapdancer, reckon he's certainly not a micro man in one department.



On yer foldable bike, you bald cunt:


doppelkorn

What the fuck was he thinking with that bike? You'd go arse over tit at the first pothole. First grid even.

NoSleep


Blumf

Quote from: Steven on July 08, 2016, 02:55:58 PM
I wouldn't be so hard-on old Clive, he dumped his wife and married a lapdancer, reckon he's certainly not a micro man in one department.



Good for him, I say, he earned it.


biggytitbo

Quote from: Steven on July 08, 2016, 02:55:58 PM
I wouldn't be so hard-on old Clive, he dumped his wife and married a lapdancer, reckon he's certainly not a micro man in one department.




He only likes her because she makes a loud, high pitched whine as she very slowly reaches climax.

doppelkorn

A few years ago (2006?) I was well into the "maker" scene and used to follow all the blogs like Make, Hackaday, HackandMod, Afrotech... I'm sure there were others.

Anyway, a big thing back then was Nixie tubes, possibly because the scene also had a massive hardon for Steampunk, which I hated. Anyway, they're little glass bulbs that contain ten wire filaments bent into the numbers 0-9. These were kind of early numeric displays and were used a lot in Soviet technology, for example.




Here's how they work: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-nixie-tubes-work.html
Here's how you can build a clock out of them: http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/nixclock.html


NoSleep

I remember seeing an old calculator (actually a comptometer) that had a display made up of those nixie tubes. Possibly one of these (perhaps this one is a bit too "modern" looking, come to think of it):



It was still in use in the office I saw it in the early 80's. Just around the same time as one of these babies arrived:



That's a really shit arrangement for the floppy drives as the electromagnetic coils in the VU affected the reading of the disks.