3 ms·

The $2.98 Computer Library (1977)

42 points by glimshe 3y ago

HoppyHaus 3y ago
Adjusting for inflation, $2.98 in 1977 is equivalent to $15 nowadays, which means that we've knocked this out of the park. On Ebay you can get a cheapo Android phone for under that amount with more storage than detailed on the article. And hey, gfortran is free!
- Legend2440 3y ago
  Modern computers are stupidly cheap and fast. Moore's law has given us $2 microcontrollers faster than the Cray supercomputers of old.
- helsinkiandrew 3y ago
  > Adjusting for inflation, $2.98 in 1977 is equivalent to $15 nowadays And games have substantially more effort put into them - there aren't many developed by teenagers after school in a few months, but by huge teams over many years. $50 for GTA is much better value than $2.98 for the games available in 77.
mighmi 3y ago
Since it mentions video disc players as 10^10 bits... 5gb of data (encoded as digital audio) really could be stored on a single vhs in the 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnrQBfBCzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnrQBfBCzY although computers didn't leverage it at the time. I guess i/o would be impossibly slow.
mrfinn 3y ago
Sometimes I imagine myself going back in time, back to the middle 80's, or even early 90's, and showing to my past self the crazy devices we have right now. It's a funny exercise, I think I'd see a current 200 bucks cellphone as an alien device.
- moffkalast 3y ago
  Is it possible? Ancient astronaut theorists say... yes.
- pjerem 3y ago
  I sometimes imagine that also. Although I think me from the past would be pretty excited and me from the present would be pretty envious to stay in the 90s, when computers were boring but made for helping users in their tasks instead of trying to influence them into what corporations want them to do.
  - LastWeekendWas 3y ago
    Certainly! Even as late as the early 2000's, a corporations software 'phoning home' without the users knowledge (and explicit consent) was a minor scandal and a real privacy concern. Now such behaviour is so commonplace, it is unremarkable.
    - pjerem 3y ago
      Yes but it’s not even just that, it’s that there has been a paradigm shift from how can I sell the most useful product I can to how can I attract and retain as many users as possible in my trap, using as much dark patterns as I can so I can milk their data and make money with it. It’s too bad because we have truly awesome tech but it’s just full of traps and we aren’t allowed to own our own devices anymore.
- ourmandave 3y ago
  And imagine what future you from 2060 could show you today.
- gabrielsroka 3y ago
  Bring a Walkman and a Van Halen cassette.
DerekL 3y ago
It only took until 1988 for CD-ROMs and players to become widely available. Also, there was a craze for LaserDisc-based arcade video games, starting in 1983.

42 points by glimshe 3y ago

Adjusting for inflation, $2.98 in 1977 is equivalent to $15 nowadays, which means that we've knocked this out of the park. On Ebay you can get a cheapo Android phone for under that amount with more storage than detailed on the article. And hey, gfortran is free!

Legend2440 3y ago
Modern computers are stupidly cheap and fast. Moore's law has given us $2 microcontrollers faster than the Cray supercomputers of old.
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
> Adjusting for inflation, $2.98 in 1977 is equivalent to $15 nowadays And games have substantially more effort put into them - there aren't many developed by teenagers after school in a few months, but by huge teams over many years. $50 for GTA is much better value than $2.98 for the games available in 77.

mighmi 3y ago

Since it mentions video disc players as 10^10 bits... 5gb of data (encoded as digital audio) really could be stored on a single vhs in the 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnrQBfBCzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnrQBfBCzY although computers didn't leverage it at the time. I guess i/o would be impossibly slow.

mrfinn 3y ago

Sometimes I imagine myself going back in time, back to the middle 80's, or even early 90's, and showing to my past self the crazy devices we have right now. It's a funny exercise, I think I'd see a current 200 bucks cellphone as an alien device.

moffkalast 3y ago
Is it possible? Ancient astronaut theorists say... yes.
pjerem 3y ago
I sometimes imagine that also. Although I think me from the past would be pretty excited and me from the present would be pretty envious to stay in the 90s, when computers were boring but made for helping users in their tasks instead of trying to influence them into what corporations want them to do.
- LastWeekendWas 3y ago
  Certainly! Even as late as the early 2000's, a corporations software 'phoning home' without the users knowledge (and explicit consent) was a minor scandal and a real privacy concern. Now such behaviour is so commonplace, it is unremarkable.
  - pjerem 3y ago
    Yes but it’s not even just that, it’s that there has been a paradigm shift from how can I sell the most useful product I can to how can I attract and retain as many users as possible in my trap, using as much dark patterns as I can so I can milk their data and make money with it. It’s too bad because we have truly awesome tech but it’s just full of traps and we aren’t allowed to own our own devices anymore.
ourmandave 3y ago
And imagine what future you from 2060 could show you today.
gabrielsroka 3y ago
Bring a Walkman and a Van Halen cassette.

DerekL 3y ago

It only took until 1988 for CD-ROMs and players to become widely available. Also, there was a craze for LaserDisc-based arcade video games, starting in 1983.