In my microwave thread Roger talked about his first microwave costing about £300.
Made me think of my first video player, a Hitachi VHS machine, with wireless remote control (- many were wired then) for a tad under £700. I can't exactly pinpoint when that would have been but I'm guessing 1980.
Also my first "portable" SatNav - TomTom's only model out at the time, somewhere around £400. I also had the voice-only SmartNav (www.vehicle-accessories.net/Smartnav-by-Trafficmaster/Smartnav-Satellite-Navigation-System) which I think cost around £400 plus a monthly sub of maybe £15.
And lastly, I worked for a company which went into IBM-clone PC manufacture in the 80s and a mate bought a really well specc'd 386 machine on a staff loan of just over £3000k.
You couldn't spend that much on equivalent items today if you tried... Any other examples out there?
|
1984 Specced up PC - 8088, 256K (base was 64K & 192K on card), colour adapter, Colour 14" (£550 +VAT), keyboard (£147+Vat), IBM 80 col 9 pin (£429+VAT). expansion box to take 10Mb HD (£2,200 VAT), HDD was £600+VAT, DOS 1,1 was £60+VAT- altogether £7,000 + VAT
Taking inflation @ 300% over 32 years = £21,000+ VAT
|
|
I remember trafficmaster, sometime around early 2000s. You could get it factory fitted to the car. You pressed a button and it rang a call centre iirc.
|
Canon starwriter. Bought for my eldest to take to uni in the early '90s £400 IIRC.
Couple of years later, younger sibling had one for less than half that.
|
|
I am always 4-6 years out of date on everything...Means replacements when needed are far better specced and usually cheaper.
|
>> I am always 4-6 years out of date on everything...Means replacements when needed are far better specced and usually cheaper.
Exactly my logic. Another advantage is that any designs faults have been made good. Well, in theory anyway.
The real reason is of course more that I'm tight-fisted.
|
A Casio Scientific Calculator suitable for A level & University costs less than a tenner today or free on your phone.
In the early 1970's my younger brother had an HP Scientific Calculator when he was on an undergraduate Geological Engineering Course in Glasgow.
It was 18 mths old & stolen -claimed on house insurance as it £350+.
New for old paid in Full as he had the receipt & it was listed on the House Insurance as a valuable!. New one was just over £250 - so around £100 profit!!
40 years later still in the "same job", but runs the firm of 60 employees - £350 was a "good investment"
|
May 1993, our first PC to replace the Commodore C64.
IBM PS/1, 2MB RAM, 80MB HD, Windows 3.0 an DOS 4.1. We were properly ripped off with the warranty Dixons sold us and a black and white inkjet printer the entire thing ended up costing £1300. I then upgraded it to DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. An additional RAM upgrade of another 4MB would have cost £200 as it was a propriety type of RAM.
In the end we got a 486 SX2 in 1996 which was a lot more standard.
I really want a 3D printer but I am going to wait a bit longer until the market settles down.
|
>I really want a 3D printer
Me too, but I don't really know what I'd use it for. You?
|
If you know someone with one, they can probably print most of a 3D printer for you.
My brother uses his a lot but he makes and sells things. For example, if you're familiar with the BB-8 robot in Star Wars the Force Awakens, then he printed the body for the one he built. That's just an example. He's into that sort of thing. And yes it's remote control, the lower body really does roll and the head stays in place.
|
|
I like messing about with electronics, so having a 3D printer would mean I could make more interesting things. However any 3D printer less than £500 is still very primitive so there time still isn't right to buy one.
|
|
Cheaper if you print it yourself. I was being serious.
|
>> I remember trafficmaster, sometime around early 2000s. You could get it factory fitted to the
>> car. You pressed a button and it rang a call centre iirc.
There was a simpler version called Oracle which was OEM fir in my 2000/X Xantia. Used roadside stations to measure traffic flow and send signals to the in car unit. If it detected congestion it would trigger one of a set of pre-recorded messages from witihn the system.
Something like:
A5 southbound, congestion, long range expect 5 minutes delay.
or sometimes (with atone of finality) the last bit was 'severe delay, avoid'.
Cost about £30 year and was a worthwhile augment to radio traffic flashes and the gantries. Withdrawn around 2009
|
The cost of being an early adopter - Falkirk Bairn
