Technology......

[Stevie47]

I was riding along the other day with my new digital camera. It is teeny and has a movie mode which is very impressive. Very high quality and with the big memory stick it will take almost an hour of video. Also, I usually carry my cell phone when I ride. A couple of times I have ridden up on people who were having health problems and I couldnt call an ambulance so now I take my cell. I also ride with a powermeter. It is really interesting to download a ride to the computer and look at how power varies as I ride. It's also amazing how much power varies just based on state of mind. If I think of something enjoyable the power goes up even though I feel like I'm going steady.

Then it dawned on me, I'm a high-tech, geeky, radio-wave, processor-power, lcd display, rolling technology center!

When I started engineering college (1967) I doubt the whole college had as much computer power as I have on my bike.

No point here, really. Maybe just things that make you go........uhh, i forget

[Jet Travis]

We had a computer about the size of a pickup truck in my high school. I think with many hours of tinkering it could perform the same functions are one of those cheap calculators some banks give now away for free. I'm starting to sound like my grandfather talking about the first cars.

[SSP]

Two examples of how the tech has changed:

At my college, in the late '70's, we programmed on a CDC mainframe computer. The main memory filled most of a 1000 square foot room, and generated enough waste heat to heat most of the 5 story building it was housed in. The memory used true "core" technology (little magnetic doughnuts with wires running through each doughnut "bit"). How much memory was that? 64K!!! :eek:

In my garage, I have a wooden crate marked "NEC Japan". It was the shipping container for the primary hard drive of a late '70's mini-computer, and it's nearly big enough to hold a washing machine. The hard drive in question was very advanced for its time, featured removable "platters", and cost nearly $200,000. How much did that hard drive hold? 10 Megabytes!! :eek:

As a side note...disk space was so expensive back then that saving even a couple of bytes could save a lot of money on a project. Thus, many projects chose to store dates with only the "2-digit year" portion of the date. Decades later, this led to the "Y2K problem".

[Terrierman]

When I went to college, electronic calculators were considered cheating and you had to use a slide rule or paper and pencil. No kidding. You probably have more computing power on your bike than ever went to the moon. It's an amazing time. And a good one too, even with all the little problems we get to deal with (like our forefathers didn't have them too, don't starve, don't freeze, don't let the Kaiser rule the world...)

[Little Darwin]

When I wrote my first computer program in high school, it was during the first term that they offered computer programming in my school.

We wrote the program on a sheet of coding paper, and once the instructor though it looked right, we typed it in on the key punch machine and then one day carried our cards down to the school district to run.

It was an interesting field trip, but we didn't have enough time to run all 20 student's programs, even though they were very simple (some simple computation and print out) so we left the cards and got the print outs a couple of days later...

[Tom Bombadil]

I still remember dropping a 1000+ punch cards program. What a mess to put back together.

[matagi]

I still remember dropping a 1000+ punch cards program. What a mess to put back together.
Even worse was dropping the bin when emptying the punch card machine and having all those little chads go everywhere.

[BluesDawg]

When I bought my first home computer, an XT, I thought I was a badass 'cause it had twice the hard disc size of my AT at work. A whopping 10 megs!

[maddmaxx]

Its only been 25 years. The first easily available non kit home computer went on sale at Radio Shack in 1978 and the IBM PC arrived in 1982. Does anyone remember the first available bike computer?? I don't.

[SteveE]

Stevie47 -

What I want to know is when did people start "having health problems" in paradise?

[jppe]

Steve-you're not alone but an excellent observation. Hey-how about the iPod with hundreds of songs on it????? There a number of us that just like these electronic gadgets. Some of us have a need to have the latest and greatest!!

[Hermes]

I also ride with a powermeter. It is really interesting to download a ride to the computer and look at how power varies as I ride. It's also amazing how much power varies just based on state of mind. If I think of something enjoyable the power goes up even though I feel like I'm going steady.

When I started engineering college (1967) I doubt the whole college had as much computer power as I have on my bike.

Started engineering college in 1968. The only affordable calculating device available was the slide rule.

What power meter do you use? I have been thinking about one.

[PaulH]

I had a cycle computer in 1958. It was called a speedometer, was cable driven, howled like a banshee, and gave up the ghost at about 1,000 miles. No desire to have another bike computer.

Then again, if I'm still ticked at Jaguar for introducing a synchromesh first gear on the 1964 XK-E, it's possible I may be a Luddite...:)

Paul

[Big Paulie]

You probably have more computing power on your bike than ever went to the moon.
T-Man,

I actually saw a documentary about the Apollo 11 computer system a while back, and they claimed that the power those guys had up there was comparable to today's stuff. I can't image how that could be true...and frankly, I'm more into the "astronaut attempted murder mystery" anyway! :)

[roccobike]

When I went to college, electronic calculators were considered cheating and you had to use a slide rule or paper and pencil. No kidding.
When I went to college, the electronic calculators were the old Freiden electric units with turning cyclinders. They weighed about 25 lbs and were the size of a typewriter. If you could sneek one into class, you could use it.
I was just thinking, its a good thing I'm posting this on the +50 forum. If I put it on some of the other forums, they'd want to know, "What's a typewriter?"

[Stevie47]

In 1976 or so, when I lived in Colorado I seem to remember there were no bike computers (speedometers). Every now and then when you were really moving along, a kindly and understanding motorist would pull alongside and tell you how fast you were going. In "Breaking Away" the semi driver was telling Dave how fast he was going too. So bike computers must have become widely available shortly after that.

SteveE....health problems in paradise. Evidently my bar for paradise is pretty low :) As long as I can still ride and my family is ok, then I'm good.

LOTR....Oh, I remember my slide rule very well. You were a geek (by engineering school standards, which is REAL geeky) if you wore your slide rule on your belt. I always carried mine with my books. And I use a powertap. If you like analyzing data you will really enjoy it. And it's very useful if you try to get stronger. (I'm slowly easing back into racing)

jppe...The trouble is that I really want a GPS. But I cant put two computers on my bike, too nerdy for even me :D If Garmin would just interface with the powertap I'd be in heaven

And before everyone starts pigeonholing me, I still drive a 1955 Chevy. Not my only car, mind you though.

[oilman_15106]

I was riding along the other day with my new digital camera. It is teeny and has a movie mode which is very impressive. Very high quality and with the big memory stick it will take almost an hour of video. Also, I usually carry my cell phone when I ride. A couple of times I have ridden up on people who were having health problems and I couldnt call an ambulance so now I take my cell. I also ride with a powermeter. It is really interesting to download a ride to the computer and look at how power varies as I ride. It's also amazing how much power varies just based on state of mind. If I think of something enjoyable the power goes up even though I feel like I'm going steady.

Then it dawned on me, I'm a high-tech, geeky, radio-wave, processor-power, lcd display, rolling technology center!

When I started engineering college (1967) I doubt the whole college had as much computer power as I have on my bike.

No point here, really. Maybe just things that make you go........uhh, i forget

You most likely remember doing your cobol programs on punch cards. What a pain. One mistype and the whole thing was a bust. Even in 1981 or 82 your big stuff if you had a 10 meg hard drive.

[head_wind]

T-Man,

I actually saw a documentary about the Apollo 11 computer system a while back, and they claimed that the power those guys had up there was comparable to today's stuff. I can't image how that could be true...and frankly, I'm more into the "astronaut attempted murder mystery" anyway! :)

If I recall right, the backup navigation computer on Apollo missions was
an HP-67 calculator with a mag-stripe reader.

I started writing code in the late '60s and wrote a bunch for the design
of the World Trade Center. It was on an IBM 1620 with 8K charactors
of memory. It was variable word length so it could be 8K bytes. It had
two disk drives with removable media of 1 MB each. The first disk was
addressable in fortran or assembler and the second in assembler only.
It's nickname was the CADET which stood for 'can't add, doesn't even
try' because it didn't have hardware arithmetic: it used an addition
table in low memory (out of the precious 8K) and was considered an
engineering computer! The I/O bandwidth of my Garmin Forerunner 301
is much greater!!

[I-Like-To-Bike]

I had a cycle computer in 1958. It was called a speedometer, was cable driven, howled like a banshee, and gave up the ghost at about 1,000 miles. No desire to have another bike computer.

Then again, if I'm still ticked at Jaguar for introducing a synchromesh first gear on the 1964 XK-E, it's possible I may be a Luddite...:)

You sure you aren't talkin' about the speedometer on the Jag giving up the ghost? As well as all the other Electrics made/designed by Lucas, the Prince of Darkness. Luckily the XKE does look good and doesn't require any electic light to shine in that department.

[stapfam]

I was working with PC's in 1990. Our computer man that ran my database for my customers left and the last thing he did was carry his Amstrad 2086 computer to my office and Tell me to learn how to switch it on. I knew nothing.
Right up to 5 years ago I was still the computer man for our company but the Management decided that they wanted someone qualified to maintain our system and the PC's. Although I knew everything about the Management system, all the Various programmes that the different departments used, and managed to keep the 50 odd computers in the company working all the time- I was not qualified.

As soon as the "Qualified" person walked through the door- I stopped knowing anything about the System. Even when 6 months later they sacked the expert and offered me the job.

Over the years- I have used various technical thingies at home but I have to admit that whenever a new camera or Cycle computer gets bought- I now have to read the destruction leaflets. Never had to do that a few years ago. My technical expertise has gone and I do not want to relearn it.

[NOS88]

My cell phone has more memory and processing power than the computer I used to get through graduate school. My kids have never been in school without a computer. Frankly, I like the hi-tech stuff. I just wish I could find a really good expresso machine I could throw in my seat bag.

[jppe]

jppe...The trouble is that I really want a GPS. But I cant put two computers on my bike, too nerdy for even me :D If Garmin would just interface with the powertap I'd be in heaven

And before everyone starts pigeonholing me, I still drive a 1955 Chevy. Not my only car, mind you though.

My best cycling but has the power tap on the handlebars and the Garmin on the top tube!! C'on-it doesn't look that bad!

And my vehicle has 440,000 miles on it!!! Imagine if I had ridden a bike that far.......

[Terrierman]

T-Man,

I actually saw a documentary about the Apollo 11 computer system a while back, and they claimed that the power those guys had up there was comparable to today's stuff. I can't image how that could be true...and frankly, I'm more into the "astronaut attempted murder mystery" anyway! :)

I saw a documentary not that long ago too and just had to look this up. The computer on the lunar module had about 4K of RAM (the closest thing to RAM they had at the time) and about 74K of memory. It ran at 1.048 megahertz. That's not a lot of memory or speed! Your Cateye probably really does beat what they took up there. To me that is incredible and hard to grasp.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/computer.htm

[John E]

I am old enough to remember, in 1974, submitting my Fortran IV class homework and term project in decks of Hollerith cards and waiting overnight for a big printout from UCLA's IBM 360-91, with its whopping 4 megabytes of magnetic core memory. Everyone else has already observed how much computer power we now take for granted in our phones, cars, IPODs, home appliances, etc. I have worked in the semiconductor business for almost 27 years, and Moore's Law continues to astonish me, years after its oft-predicted demise.

I very happily commute on a 1970 bicycle with mostly period-correct components, but I still use few, if any, electronic devices from that period.

[JanMM]

Anybody wear an LED watch? Understand they were quite power-hungry, compared to LCD's.

[Velo Dog]

Can't help thinking of the first calculator I saw, back about 1973 or '74. It was as big as a thick hardcover book, took six D cell batteries, had those little tiny red numbers and would only add, subtract, multiply and divide. It cost a friend of mine $125 and I was GREEN with envy. But I knew I'd never be able to afford one on my $240 a week salary....

[Stevie47]

My best cycling but has the power tap on the handlebars and the Garmin on the top tube!! C'on-it doesn't look that bad!

......

Dang! I wish you hadn't told me that! :)

[Nermal]

Evidently my bar for paradise is pretty low :)


Somehow, I rather like that statement.

[OBXBIKR]

[QUOTE]
I started writing code in the late '60s and wrote a bunch for the design
of the World Trade Center. It was on an IBM 1620 with 8K charactors
of memory. It was variable word length so it could be 8K bytes. [QUOTE]

In 1959, I was working for the SC Highway Department (now DMV) in the accounting data processing department. The engineering department bought a 1620 to calculate bridge angles, and I got the task of programming a payroll system on the 1620 using FORTRAN. That was my intro into a 30 year career in IT.

[NotAsFat]

Anybody wear an LED watch? Understand they were quite power-hungry, compared to LCD's.
Yes, they were. I had one, and only one, for that very reason. You had to press a button to activate the display, because of the display's power requirements.

[67walkon]

In the 1950's, probably around 1956 or 1957, my father was transferred by the telephone company to Orlando, Florida, to open the first computerized billing office in the Bell South system. He was an accountant, not a computer guy. It took a couple of years or so to get it up and running. The thing took up an entire floor in an office building in downtown Orlando. They had the room pressurized and cooled to protect the equipment. The thing had about the same computing power as a Commodore 64. Actually, it only covered half the state of Florida, and I suspect the population wasn't all that high back then.

As an 8 or 9 year old kid at the dawn of the space age, that computer was the coolest thing I've ever seen. Except now you guys have me wanting a power meter!

[Retro Grouch]

So I guess that if you'd take you and me together we'd be average. I'm pretty much stretching my grasp of technology to type this.

When I bike, I normally just carry enough stuff to fix one flat tire - no cell phone and no bike computer either. My fixed gear has Armadillo tires and bolt on hubs. The tires minimize the potential for flats and the hubs maximize the amount aggrivation to fix one so I don't carry anything at all with me when I ride that particular bike.

No techno weenie here, I'm a non-repentant retro grouch.

[lhbernhardt]

Does anyone remember the first available bike computer?? I don't.

The first electronic bike computer that I can recall was the Avocet 20. Greg Lemond used one, so it must have been introduced in the mid 80's. It wasn't that well made (all the Avocets I've owned stopped working at some point, while I have yet to have a Sigma fail on me), the Avocets were not waterproof (guys would wrap theirs in plastic in wet races), but it was intelligent enough to have the option of recording in kilometers instead of miles. I remember Laurent Fignon used a French kludge made by Huret, I think. The unit mounted mid-way up the fork, and depended on something attached to a spoke to trip the sensor wheel. Maybe it was just an odo. You probably needed good eyesight to see how fast/far you were going, although I find that as I get older, it sometimes gets difficult to read my Sigma computer, especially when I'm riding indoors on the track, or when I'm under street lights at night.

So even with all this technology, here's what I still don't understand:

The touch-tone phone became fairly common back in the 70's. The LCD display was also available (on calculators) around the same time. So why did it take until the late 90's for engineers to put the two together and develop telephones with visual feedback of the number being dialled, along with all the other features a display on the phone provides?

Why is it that elevators still don't have cancel buttons for when you select the wrong floor, or when some clown comes in and selects all the floors? I'd love to do a management study to add up all the time lost to business due to elevators stopping on floors where no one enters or exits. All you'd need to do is to hit the button a second time to de-select it. So what's the problem?

Anyway, I offer these two examples to show that even with all this technology, there still appear to be cultural impediments to fully exploiting its potential.

- L.

[I-Like-To-Bike]

Why is it that elevators still don't have cancel buttons for when you select the wrong floor...All you'd need to do is to hit the button a second time to de-select it. So what's the problem?
A second push cancel feature wouldn't work well because as other people get on the elevator they would end up canceling the floors previously selected by the other passengers. My observation is that at least half the people waiting for an elevator press an already lit up or down button, or upon entering an elevator with other passengers, press an already lit floor selection button. Breaking that habit would not be easy; probably impossible.

[DnvrFox]

1. As a high school junior in about 1955-56, I had a summer internship with Convair, who made, among many planes, the F102 and F106.

They had one of the first computers in the San Diego area, and it was in a huge room(s) with folks sakting around on roller skates puttin in tubes as they burned out. You had to schedule far in advance your "computer time" and it was running 24 hours per day. Likely less computing power than my new Garmin Edge 305!

2. A few years later I was in the management program for Pacific Bell, and they had these wonderful new things called "tape drives." I made the mistake of showing them to my wife and taking her into the "tape drive" room, where these monstrosities were doing their thing 24 hours per day. Soon after, there was a memo that "only authorized people could be in the tape drive rooms."