#retrocomputing

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

#retrocomputing

Anyone recognize the apparatus this woman is using?

I suspect she's at a drafting table, and this is some sort of digitizer based on the corded puck she has in her right hand.

edit: She is doing PCB design work, and timeframe is 1983.

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

Googling for "drafting table digitizer" revealed to me that the drafting table is not actually even dead.

And here I was drooling over CintiQs...

I think I unironically want this thing.

[petrillic@hachyderm.io]

@gloriouscow I wish I had space for a real drafting table. There’s something very satisfying about working on pencil and paper.

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

feel free to take this pic and do the dlss5 meme with it with a wacom tablet on the left

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@petrillic I used to have an angled art desk which was very comfortable to use, but very difficult to fit into a tiny apartment. When I got into watercolor painting I realized that an angled desk was not ideal, but for drawing it really is hard to beat it. Much easier on your back and neck not being hunched over.

[reyjkw@mastodon.social]

@gloriouscow I love the coffee holder

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

It may not be a digitizer - closest i've gotten is this Nestler Florett digital drafting machine. You can see this is a more modern version, but it shows that such things did have control boxes with an LCD and controls on them.

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@reyjkw

gotta take a sip while kicking up the 4d3d3d3

[idiot@mastodonapp.uk]

@gloriouscow $12,000

Cupholder is a paid extra.

[falken@qoto.org]

@gloriouscow how does a digital drafting machine differ? Does it record as you instead of all at once later?

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@falken In this case I don't think it actually records anything - some version may have a motor to move the two primary axis and have a digital readout of the angle you have set with the square.

[techtangents@dialup.space]

@gloriouscow
I cannot pin down an exact one because I think these predate the kind of commercial coverage that is better search indexed.

But I think this may be a Calma GDS-II system digitizer with some later addition or a calculator sitting on the rail.

But this will be a 70s device that was in the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" business world for sure.

Source: https://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/calma/Calma_CARDS_Sales_Presentation.pdf

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@TechTangents

i sort of find it slightly unlikely reading up on the system because I think the company that employed the person pictured would have had trouble paying for a used Toyota

but damn this terminal is some gorgeous retro-futurism

[deltawye@tiggi.es]

@TechTangents Wow.

[techtangents@dialup.space]

@gloriouscow I was not prepared for how incredible it would be when I went reading into it.

10/10 would pay too much for one on craigslist that I would never be able to make work.

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@TechTangents

oh yeah, Seequa definitely did not have this lol

[colinstu@birdbutt.com]

@DeltaWye @TechTangents "they don't build 'em like that anymore"

[gloriouscow@oldbytes.space]

@TechTangents If I had a dollar for every time I had to physically check if two vias were so close as to be intentionally connected I'd .. .well I could buy lunch at Arby's

[colinstu@birdbutt.com]

@TechTangents @gloriouscow 10/10 would watch that series

[deltawye@tiggi.es]

@colinstu @TechTangents That “notch” command to route a line around an obstruction… I don’t think AutoCAD has that! I wish it did!