35 ms·

My favorite picture is [1] because the caption for it is "Floyd with her husband and a old electronic device," because I guess you can't use the letters "VCR" i

My favorite picture is [1] because the caption for it is "Floyd with her husband and a old electronic device," because I guess you can't use the letters "VCR" in an article anymore because no one will know what you mean. Looks like there's a Coleco Adam[2] in the picture too, a television set, cable box, a printer, and a fan. [1] - https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5fd116c330adc13fe89fb4f2/master/w_1600,c_limit/floyd-1-July_17_1985.jpg https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5fd116c330adc13fe89fb4f2/... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Adam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Adam

js2 6y ago
Where do you see that caption? The pictures are captioned only with dates on the page. That one is captioned "July 17, 1985". In any case, maybe the "old electronic device" is a reference to the Coleco? It looks like it's being used for word processing, which at the time was pretty novel.
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  I'm seeing it in emacs-w3m. It's probably the alternative text caption for when you can't see images directly, like for screen readers.
  - js2 6y ago
    Oh, yep. I forgot I have a "show alt text" bookmarklet I can use on iOS: javascript:function%20b(e,c)%7bfor(var%20i=0;i%3Cc;i++)%7be.parentNode.insertBefore(document.createElement('br'),e.nextSibling)%7d%7dfunction%20s()%7bvar%20t=this.title%7C%7Cthis.alt%7C%7C'No%20Text';alert(t)%7dfor(var%20i%20in%20document.images)%7bvar%20e=document.images%5bi%5d;var%20t=e.title%7C%7Ce.alt;if(t)%7bb(e,2);e.parentNode.insertBefore(document.createTextNode(t),e.nextSibling);b(e,2)%7de.onclick=s%7d
jfengel 6y ago
Story from a 50 year old friend of mine: On introducing him to a bunch of new engineers on the project: "This is Bob. He's older than TV." Bob: "I'm not older than TV. But I am older than VCRs." Young engineers: "What's a VCR?"

35 ms·

My favorite picture is [1] because the caption for it is "Floyd with her husband and a old electronic device," because I guess you can't use the letters "VCR" i

by pmoriarty 6y ago

js2 6y ago
Where do you see that caption? The pictures are captioned only with dates on the page. That one is captioned "July 17, 1985". In any case, maybe the "old electronic device" is a reference to the Coleco? It looks like it's being used for word processing, which at the time was pretty novel.
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  I'm seeing it in emacs-w3m. It's probably the alternative text caption for when you can't see images directly, like for screen readers.
  - js2 6y ago
    Oh, yep. I forgot I have a "show alt text" bookmarklet I can use on iOS: javascript:function%20b(e,c)%7bfor(var%20i=0;i%3Cc;i++)%7be.parentNode.insertBefore(document.createElement('br'),e.nextSibling)%7d%7dfunction%20s()%7bvar%20t=this.title%7C%7Cthis.alt%7C%7C'No%20Text';alert(t)%7dfor(var%20i%20in%20document.images)%7bvar%20e=document.images%5bi%5d;var%20t=e.title%7C%7Ce.alt;if(t)%7bb(e,2);e.parentNode.insertBefore(document.createTextNode(t),e.nextSibling);b(e,2)%7de.onclick=s%7d
jfengel 6y ago
Story from a 50 year old friend of mine: On introducing him to a bunch of new engineers on the project: "This is Bob. He's older than TV." Bob: "I'm not older than TV. But I am older than VCRs." Young engineers: "What's a VCR?"