Curators Ignorance

From: Glenatacme_at_aol.com <(Glenatacme_at_aol.com)>
Date: Mon Jul 19 23:05:46 1999

In a message dated 7/19/99 7:09:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de writes:

> As we know, TV sets have been a very common display solution.
>
> can people forget that fast ?
> Isn't the C64 still (somewhat) around ? Where did these
> museum people live in the past 20 years ? some south sea
> island ? the moon ? or beyond ?

Oh, probably Mars, which is almost as far away as the Moon ;>)

They can't forget because they never knew. As has been pointed out here
before, to most folks "computers" were mysterious, faraway giants controlled
by trolls -- a totally abstract idea -- until the PC. So to most people a
"computer" is a PC, and they have 8 MB SVGA display adapters, 56K modems,
etc. What does a TV have to do with that (they ask) ???

Tony Duell wrote:

> DOubtless they'd think the same thing about using audio cassettes/normal
> cassette recorders for data storage....

The first thing people ask me about my old computers is "Where do you put the
disks in?" Most people these days would be shocked to learn that the
original PC could load programs from cassette.

> A TV display (US TV) was supported on the IBM PC with a CGA card. There's
> an internal connector for an RF modulator, and a composite output on the
> back.

Yeah, we've got a junk bin full of those cards at the shop, but who remembers
that there was an RCA jack in the back of their computer 15 years ago?

Moral of the story: the public knows very little, and has a very short memory.

Glen Goodwin
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Received on Mon Jul 19 1999 - 23:05:46 BST