From: detritus@ix.netcom.com
flipper wrote:
> On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:25:49 -0600, Lord Valve
> wrote:
>
> >Don wrote:
> >
> >> In article <4E161353.D7FC0919@ix.netcom.com>, detritus@ix.netcom.com
> >> (LV)says...
> >> You think that the glob you're standing on is the only
> >> game in town, that there's only one pie and the more
> >> humans there are, the smaller everyone's slice will
> >> be.
> >>
> >> Nonsense.
> >>
> >> There are quadrillions of tonnes of resources in just
> >> our own solar system. The amount available in just
> >> our own galaxy is so huge there is probably no way
> >> to even estimate it. And there are trillions of galaxies.
> >> But no - ecotards are content to sit crying in their
> >> beer (oops...make that recycled filtered piss) about
> >> how we're running out of everything.
> >>
> >> LV, I think you have too many science fiction novels.
> >> Let me know when the UFO's land.
> >
> >Oh, yes, of course.
> >
> >"It's too hard." "It's impossible." "It costs too much."
> >There are any number of excuses for not doing
> >something. Much easier to sit on your ass and
> >wait for that little green check in the brown envelope
> >to show up in your mailbox. I understand. It's all
> >"science fiction."
> >
> >Back in 1980, it was pure science fiction that
> >there would be a device which would enable one-
> >on-one telephone calls with real time video at
> >both ends, from any spot on the planet to any
> >other. Farfetched, eh? Today - only thirty years
> >later - people nonchalantly carry this very capability
> >*in their pockets*, and think nothing of using it.
> >It's as easy as turning the tap in the sink, and
> >it's used with as little thought as that given to
> >where the water comes from.
>
> I agree with the gist of the example but it's amusing to note that
> Bell Telephone had been trying to make 'video phones' from almost the
> beginning.
>
> As someone who has more than a few decades under his belt I can
> remember the (failed) big push for 'video phones' and if you recall
> the 1969 (I think it was) movie 2001 our protagonist calls home from
> the space station on one, in a 'phone booth' of course.
In fact, I do remember something about early videophone tech.
The National Geographic Society had a primitive one set up
in their "Explorer's Hall" museum in Washington, DC, which
is where I grew up. It was tethered to another unit in some
other city - Chicago? LA? - and you could book time on
it; the person on the other end had to show up on time and
be ready for the connection. I don't remember how much
it cost, but I do remember seeing it in their building. I had
a subscription to National Geographic Magazine courtesy
of Grandma, and they did an article on it. They probably
had a dedicated coax line with repeaters. I'm sure the
Bell System was involved. (The *real* phone company,
not the disgusting mash of crap we have now.... ;-)
> But that wasn't the 'beginning' either. Back in the late 1920s Bell
> experimented with 'large screen' television, mechanical of all things,
> and, what else, a 'combined' video/telephone system
>
> http://www.earlytelevision.org/bell_labs.html
What a monstrosity. Probably still works. ;-)
> I'm sure someone at the time made an 'analysis' and explained how none
> of that could ever come to be but, as you point out, we carry the
> things in our pockets these days.
I'm sure the "2-way wrist TV" shown in the Dick Tracy strips is just around
the corner...
Lord Valve
Old Fart
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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