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A look at what the silicon chip will do for us - 1978

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 wilkie14c 03 Jun 2014
Part of the Horizon season, this rerun of a tech programme. Very enjoyable if you are from that era and most predictions being correct. Insightful discussion at the end too.
My 16YO daughter really enjoyed watching too which tells you something!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chip...
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

Thanks this is fascinating
Shockley was a climber and has a climb named afte rhim in the Shawagunks. He was also a bit of a eugenicist and by all accounts had a rather brusque manner.......
sjm
OP wilkie14c 03 Jun 2014
In reply to sjminfife:

I thought I'd heard of him, was climbing In J Tree last year, perhaps I'd seen a mention in a guide book perhaps? One thing that programme could never even wildly imagined is that we'd be watching the film again on our HD smart TVs streamed over the internet and then have discussions about it by posting to ukc on my phone in the bath! Lol
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

That's the fun of tech stuff, most of the predictions never come true but some things come to pass that nobody thought of.
Mind the nascent web was well underway http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/DARPANET
sjm
 Mike-W-99 03 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

Yes, I watched it a few weeks ago. Also thought it was a great program and a real insight into how technology would influence our future.

I'd never had seen it in 78. Horizon was on after my bedtime! Even if I had I think that computers were still in the realms of science fiction until the early 80s. Cant have imagined that would be my career back then.
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

I have worked for a lot of the majors, Texas Instruments, Motorola, DEC, Raytheon.... used to be a lot of fun
sjm
 girlymonkey 03 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

My dad is one of the grandads of the electronics industry now, but has a patent up the loft for some sort of wafer chip (I have no understanding of technology!!). He also has drinks coasters with wafer chips in them from back in the day (perspex type coasters with the chips set in), it was all very modern and exciting when he was young. They look so dated now though!
Removed User 03 Jun 2014
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to Removed User:

I wish I had done it when I was there. I had a couple of trips when I worked at DEC in Hudson Mass.
sjm
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to Removed User:

The bloke from ASTMS is smoking a cigar!!!
 sjminfife 03 Jun 2014
In reply to sjminfife:

Pretty accurate in many ways...BUT the discussion at the end was worrying.
OP wilkie14c 03 Jun 2014
In reply to sjminfife:

Yea we picked up on that too, Union bloke with a cigar, more shocked it wasn't a rollie!! The supermarket prediction was pretty actuate but the introduction of bar code and scanners wasn't even thought of then.
My biological father was in electronics, various tech jobs, redifusion TV repair man for a while before working for rotadata on military stuff. Not even sure I can say that buy hey ho, he's no longer of this earth. The path has been picked up y me eventually, going through my accounts today I was shocked to learn I've repaired 314 iPhones since jan 1st!
 sjminfife 04 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

The silicon chip is remarkably reliable I am not so sure about other aspects of modern "gadgets". I use a £17 Nokia for personnel and business use .... friends with iPhones often seem to have problems with the hardware and software.
Look at digital photography.. a happy snapper like myself would be bankrupt if we had to use film.
There again I have ambitions to own a really good film camera and a proper valve amplifier!!.
One thing I have always thought is that the "powers that be" really have very little control over what happens in tech( and other stuff too). Adeventurers of all kinds just try stuff out and some of it catches on and some doesn't. Then in 10 years time the time comes for something that was left on the shelf. As far as I know GPS was NASA's second biggest programme after the moon landings. The US Navy didn't want it and saw all sorts of problems with it. NASA went ahead anyway, the millitary eventually thought they'd give it a go and he ho look where we are now!
sjm
 Lurking Dave 04 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

"BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only."

Booo

Anyone know if there is a way around this?
LD
 rallymania 04 Jun 2014
In reply to Lurking Dave:
ask professor google to look for...

uk proxy server free

there should be some free ones you can pretend to be in the UK with... however do some research / review reading before you try any of them
Post edited at 08:29
 john arran 04 Jun 2014
In reply to Lurking Dave:

The most reliable way is to use a paid VPN service. I can vouch for https://www.my-private-network.co.uk/ but there are other good ones too.

The best free alternative is to use the Hola https://www.my-private-network.co.uk/ browser extension. This usually seems to work perfectly but because it uses peer-to-peer hopping it can be disappointing sometimes, particular if you're in a region or country with very few other users.
 steve taylor 05 Jun 2014
In reply to Lurking Dave:

I use HideMyAss VPN

Or see if it's on PirateBay and download it from there.
 GridNorth 05 Jun 2014
In reply to wilkie14c:

Thank you for posting this. I remember the program at the time, it had a profound, I might even say life changing affect on me. I was working for BT at the time on what were electro mechanical telephone exchanges and I decided to go back to night school. The course that I had been on previously which was called Telephony and Telegraphy was now computing. The course and the program made me realise that if I didn't get into computing I may not have a job in future. I also decided to buy a home computer, a Dragon 32, the best £200 I have ever spent even though it was a bit of a luxury back then. It was limited in it's capabilities but it allowed me and my son to learn a programming language. Commercial style "PC's" were out of the question at the time because of the expense but after I had upgraded a couple of times Alan Sugar marketed a PC clone that was affordable. I moved on from BT as I was unlikely to be in a position to use my new found knowledge, I moved South and gradually got involved with computing hardware and eventually IT management. My son went on to a very successful and well paid career in software development all down to this program.

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