Technology old and new

I'm not certain how many programs I use on the washing machine, but it's definitely more than several! I use the cold wash for woollens, I use the allergy wash for bed linen, I use the cottons 40C wash and the cottons 40C wash with prewash, I use the self clean wash, there a freshen up wash (15 or 30 minute cycle) ok it only occasionally gets user but... There's a couple of 30C washes I use... then there's the option to change the spin cycle speed on all of those programs. Sometimes it gets turned off completely so I'll need to use the spin/drain cycle...

As for the tumble dryer, well it has so many settings that happen whether I like them or not... It's called the rotary washing line and I only wash clothes when it's on a non-water cycle! In other words is going to be dry.

As for the microwave, well that's another matter. I self program using 100% post mainly unless I'm defrosting something in which case I'll set the power. I only ever set the time. I don't use a single preprogrammed option on the microwave!
 
Master Cutler said:
It all started with Charles Babbage and his difference engine back in the 19th century. I bet he never imagined how much of our lives are now dominated by computer technology.
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At least his machine looked nice -all those wheels and cogs - much better than a screen that shows a picture of and hour glass then comes up with a message that says how it failed to do what you want :devil:
 
I remember when my son stayed with us some time ago. When he was washing his designer clothes he enquired if the temperature in the washing machine could be limited to (say) 60 degC. I explained to him that the temperature of the water was the temperature that it came out of the ground. It was unlikely to be more than 60 degC. (our washing machine does not have a heater).
 
sidevalve said:
Is it me or does anyone else think we seem to use technology because we can not because we need it ?
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This reminds me of something my son (who's 14) told me yesterday. A classmate of his keeps getting in trouble because he keeps checking his phone while in class. He said a friend decided to record how many times he checked his phone during one class, and he counted 56 times! This wasn't a kid awaiting some important phone call either: it's a daily occurrence for him! And, who could he possibly be awaiting a call from anyway: his friends are all in class, too! But, my son realized how to use this to his advantage: while the class was playing football (soccer), they know to kick the ball his way if he's on the other team. :laugh:

Now, as for technology. I remember my father - who was a biochemist - bought a calculator in 1968 for $50; that's $356 in today's money! It could add, subtract, multiply, and divide, and - wait for it - do square roots. Totally worth the money.

My first PC was in 1989. It didn't have a hard drive, but it did have two 5-1/4" floppy disc drives. It had a processor that ran at 4.77 MHz, with a turbo button to boost the speed to a blazing 8 MHz! I think it had 32 Mb of RAM. I later upgraded it to include a 20 Mb hard drive, which was waaaay more space than I could ever possibly need.
 
I got my first PC in 1996. It cost £50 secondhand, and had been upgraded to Windows 3.1 by its previous owner. 1997 saw it part-exchanged for another secondhand one with Windows 1995. My first new computer was one with Windows 1998, and I soon took advantage of a free upgrade to Window 1998SE. Whoopee - a whole 18MB of usable hard drive! I still have it, and it is still used - I have some music stored on there which will not play on more modern computers. The music programme on it is long defunct, and it didn't have enough space for iTunes or Windows media player. It sits in the spare room alongside my Windows 2008 computer. That has a bigger hard drive, but was always used in conjunction with an external hard drive. I did have a larger hard drive and DVD player installed in it. Unfortunately I can no longer remember the password for that one, but it was used regularly up until a couple of years ago. The Windows 7 computer bit the dust after only a couple of years and was replaced by a cheap laptop with Windows 8, upgraded to 8.1, and later Windows 10. The two external hard drives which were permanently attached to it, are now backing up my laptop as it really hasn't enough storage on it, which gives me about 2TB of storage plus what I have stored on various clouds. My tablet is a really cheap one. It only cost £70 brand new. It has hardly any storage but I can connect the external hard drives to it if I need to. That was Windows 8.1 too, but of course it has been upgraded. My main phone is Windows 8.1 and has a 32Gb memory card.

I can't remember when I got my first calculator, but I expect it was in the late 1980s when I ran the shop and did the accounts. I know it did not have square roots on it. I do still have one calculator - it is built into the mouse pad I use and is solar powered - but I very rarely use it. Before I got my first calculator, I used to use a pen and paper, or a slide rule.
 
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Back in the 1970's when I was a young draughtsman, we either had a slide rule, log tables or one of these beauties to do our calculations on.
 
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One technology area that I can't get to grips with is oven timers with on board digital clocks. I have tried to follow the instructions for my oven and still can't set a start and finish time. Does anyone actually use these timer features to start and stop their roast?
 
Master Cutler said:
One technology area that I can't get to grips with is oven timers with on board digital clocks. I have tried to follow the instructions for my oven and still can't set a start and finish time. Does anyone actually use these timer features to start and stop their roast?
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No - we both find timers on ovens a bit iffy anyway - it is either cooked or it isn't what ever the timer says.
 
Master Cutler said:
One technology area that I can't get to grips with is oven timers with on board digital clocks. I have tried to follow the instructions for my oven and still can't set a start and finish time. Does anyone actually use these timer features to start and stop their roast?
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I'm actually afraid of them. :hyper:
 
Mine drives me round the bend. You press the timer button once just to set the number of minutes, which is fine, and twice to set the start time/cooking time/end time to turn the oven on and off, which is an absolute pain. The number of times I've accidentally pressed that button twice..... and then of course you have to press it three more times to get back to the start. It also changes the tone of the ringer. If you want to change the time on the clock, you have to press that button and the + and - buttons all at the same time. My old oven was much simpler, but when you set the cooking time it automatically turned the oven off, so if you wanted to carry on cooking, you had to turn the oven back on again, So no, I just use the timer, thank you.
 
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I'm cooking a fish pie at the moment and no way could I set the start time. I'm working from home today and wanted to set the timer to come on at 16:30 and end at 17:20 to coincide with my wife's return from work. Instead of using the timer I have skived off for 15 minutes to switch on the oven and have a cup of coffee.
 
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