These days we all love computers, but when they first arrived on the scene they had a few… glitches. So, instead of people punching their computer, they could take their stresses out on the technological equivalent of a stress ball: a Smack-a-Mac.
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30 years ago, the landscape of personal computing was vastly different. It hardly even existed, compared to what it is today. Footage of the Mac’s initial unveil is out there, but this second, more polished run—a presentation for the Boston Computer Society—hasn’t been available since the event itself back on January 30th 1984.
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Having a fever can be pretty terrible—but imagine having it before there was any cure, when nobody really knew what it was. This picture, from the 18 century, depicts just that.
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On February 14th, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell got his name put in the history books when he beat fellow inventor Elisha Gray to the patent office with his new creation, the telephone. And while the telephone’s importance to humanity is neat, it’s not exactly Bell’s most adrenaline-pumping idea. For that, you need water. And speed.
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Vinyl may have had its day—hell, some readers of this site may never have seen it in action—but for a small group of dedicated fans, it still lives on
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The old town of London never changes. Or at least, it changes very, very little. Just watch this side-by-side footage showing life in 1927 London and life in 2013 London to see how much the city has stayed the same. And sure, the streets might have slightly newer cars on them with street lights and freshly painted lanes but many of the same buildings are still up in London after over 85 years and everything else seems pretty much exactly the same.
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The Eastern seaboard is getting some serious snow, and even though we live here in 2014—the future—we’re still reduced to shoveling. Ugh. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
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Borderline supermen have been making crazy dives at the Earth since long before Felix Baumgarnter took a fall from space. Here are a pair of back-in-the-day badasses in a 1941 "Death Dive Race" to the ground. And looking back on it today they still seem as ballsy as ever.
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Visions of the future from the past always serve as an endless source of comedy. Look how dumb we were! Look how silly those people look! Look! Look! It’s completely true. Our imaginations of the future are rooted in the limits of today which typically makes it an awful thought exercise. So in a few years, we’ll look back at 2013 and poke fun of ourselves. But in the mean time, let’s laugh at the 1930’s and 1940’s for these ridiculous inventions.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
