You know you’re old when...

[Daniel E.]

 

[GaryQ]

^^^^ Dang technology changes
all my backups were once on 5 1/4” floppies :facepalm:

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[GaryQ]

My first computer a timex Sinclair 1000 with 2KB ram. Mine didn’t have the 16k ram expansion cartridge
you ran out of memory just thinking of writing any software

 

[Daniel E.]

^^^^ Dang technology changes
all my backups were once on 5 1/4” floppies :facepalm:

If it makes you feel better, I think David used punch cards mg:

 

[GaryQ]

David: “Gary, at our age which would you rather have Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s?”

Gary: “Parkinson’s for sure”

David: “Why?”

Gary: “I’d rather spill an ounce of scotch than forget where I put the bottle”

 

[David Baxter PhD]

If it makes you feel better, I think David used punch cards mg:

That's true. I needed to run a statistical analysis on my Ph.D. data that SPSS at the time couldn't handle (I had both unequal N's and missing data cells) so I had to learn Fortran and write my own program on the university mainframe. And punch cards it was.

 

[GaryQ]

You know you’re old when...

Looking in a forum section to post in a thread, you surprisingly stumble upon a Topic/thread (hint: this one) and then realize that you started it not that long ago and already forgot all about it.

which now reminds me of at least one other thread I have forgotten about and haven’t updated as planned in a long time. :facepalm:

I have a neurological condition...
But I can’t remember what it is...
<old timer’s disease - AKA Alzheimer’s>

 

[GaryQ]

Was going to post this in Humor-NOS but might as well post it here now since it’s related to the topic

 

[GaryQ]

You know you’re old when you remember when wearing a seatbelt wasn’t mandatory...

And you know you’re really old when you actually remember when cars didn’t even have seatbelts.

 

[GaryQ]

Inspired by Dainiel’s post:
https://forum.psychlinks.ca/showthread.php?8181-3-Positive-Things-Part-5&p=251011#post251011

You know you’re getting old or getting there if you actually remember when the stuff they sold in dollar stores actually cost a dollar.

 

[Daniel E.]

They do only cost a dollar at some of them still. Just requires a longer drive sometimes, which makes the trip even more special

 

[GaryQ]

Not in Canada, we have to cough up all this in precious metals:



Just to get one of these, ugly as heck pieces of paper:

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[GaryQ]

Google up their prices for the 8MB hard drives around 1982 or 83... If I recall they were over 4,000$ US

 

[Daniel E.]

That's a lot of station-wagon-filled trips to the "dollar" store.

 

[Daniel E.]

 

[GaryQ]

OK I found a RadioShack catalog archive and found the following in the 1982 catalog as expected...

But! First let's see what 1$ in 1982 would be worth today!



So Price in US dollars listed must be multiplied x 2.62 to give you an idea of what it was worth back then.
From historic charts it seems the US Dollar cost $1.32 CDN on Oct 30, 1982
In CDN $ that's listed price X 2.62 X 1.32 mg:



So the WHOPPING storage capacity of the NEW TRS-80 8.4 MB, yes MEGABYTES, Hard drive System could be yours in 1982 for the amazingly low price of only $4495.00 US (taxes and installation and configurations extra)

Now for the real mg: part:
Compared to today's value...

If you were a Yankee only $4,495.00 = $11,776.90 equivalent to today
If you were a Canuck just a couple extra bucks for you $5,933.40 = $15,545.51 equivalent to today

Don't forget to add the Taxes!
And you do realize you needed to have spent $3,899.00 US or $5,146.68 CDN +Tax to have a TRS-80 Model II or the drive would be a pretty expensive paper weight.

​

Some fun price comparisons for 1982:

Ford Mustang $6,572 Maryland 1982 (MSRP so most likely a lot less on deal days)
GMC 1500 Pickup $5,400 Maryland 1982 (MSRP) For the pickup truck lovers
*MSRP = Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price and usually way above actual dealer price.

Toronto (Average MLS sale price - wish I was able to get only Detached home prices) in 1982 was $95,496.00 CDN
Average Detached home sale price Vancouver in 1982 $110,700.00 CDN​

 

[GaryQ]

For any nostalgia buff this site has all the published Radio Shack catalogs from the first one in 1939 to the last in 2005.

It also has a whole bunch of other Radio Shack info.
I added it to my favorites bar for when I feel like going back to a specific year(s) when I used to literally look though every page relevant or not to my hobby or dreamer interests.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

 

[Daniel E.]

Awesome!

And I think you just found the cure for something, like extremely mild geek melancholia