Age verification challenge:
Uncategorized
47
Posts
28
Posters
0
Views
-
Age verification challenge:
Growing up, I used a gramophone to play my mum's 78rpm jazz records (on shellac, not vinyl). And was taught to indicate I was about to make a turn by sticking my arm out the driver's side window on vehicles that didn't have indicators. (It was on the driving test back then.)
@cstross You're 105 years old
-
@Steveg58 Yes, my older sister owned a Morris Minor for a few years. No synchromesh on first and second gears so you had to double-declutch every time or (DEAFENING SHRIEK OF TEARING METAL AS GEARS FAIL TO MESH)
-
-
Age verification challenge:
Growing up, I used a gramophone to play my mum's 78rpm jazz records (on shellac, not vinyl). And was taught to indicate I was about to make a turn by sticking my arm out the driver's side window on vehicles that didn't have indicators. (It was on the driving test back then.)
@cstross
It still is on the driving test. Any vehicle fitted with indicators can become indicator-free with one loose wire or a blown fuse. Amazingly, they don't stop running if this happens, maybe to avoid causing other crashes. -
@cstross using a slide rule in Maths at high school
@lizmeyer Yep, calculators weren't permitted in maths exams until I was 15, and we had to learn to use a slide rule. (I was right on the cusp of the transition—got my first basic four-function calculator aged 13, and I'd already learned how to do the operations longhand, so it was a time-saver, not a replacement for learning.)
-
@cstross You're 105 years old
@rafa_font No, but a few months ago my wife and I should have celebrated our joint 120th.
-
@lizmeyer Yep, calculators weren't permitted in maths exams until I was 15, and we had to learn to use a slide rule. (I was right on the cusp of the transition—got my first basic four-function calculator aged 13, and I'd already learned how to do the operations longhand, so it was a time-saver, not a replacement for learning.)
@cstross you are but a child! My first calculator was long after high school.
-
@pheedbackPhil @Steveg58 There were no buttons on phones when I grew up. Just rotary dialers talking to Strowger electromechanical exchanges at the Post Office. (Motors and relays!)
-
@cstross my mum had a reel to reel recorder from her brother, he imported it from the US, Realistic brand.
I wrote letters to my cousins in the GDR and was told to draw little parallel lines on the envelope seal so the recipient could check if the Stasi had opened the letter. -
@cstross I can drive a manual transmission.
-
@cstross Mechanical typewriter!
@70hz Yeah, I wrote my first million words on one of those too.
-
@cstross Did you have a circular disc of offcuts of leftover fabrics secured with a button in the middle and kept in your pencil case to clean the business end of a fountain pen that might have leaked?
@christineburns @cstross
Nope, I just kept some bog roll in my pocket with my tube pens (like fountain pens, but omnidirectional; essential for writing on "blueprint" sheets to be duplicated on site). -
-
Age verification challenge:
Growing up, I used a gramophone to play my mum's 78rpm jazz records (on shellac, not vinyl). And was taught to indicate I was about to make a turn by sticking my arm out the driver's side window on vehicles that didn't have indicators. (It was on the driving test back then.)
@cstross
That's still taught in driver's ed; partially so you know what to do if your blinkers aren't working, but mostly I think so drivers will understand cyclists' hand signals. -
@pheedbackPhil @Steveg58 There were no buttons on phones when I grew up. Just rotary dialers talking to Strowger electromechanical exchanges at the Post Office. (Motors and relays!)
@cstross @pheedbackPhil @Steveg58
> Strowger electromechanical exchanges
And what a fascinating back story *they* have!
-
Age verification challenge:
Growing up, I used a gramophone to play my mum's 78rpm jazz records (on shellac, not vinyl). And was taught to indicate I was about to make a turn by sticking my arm out the driver's side window on vehicles that didn't have indicators. (It was on the driving test back then.)
@cstross
I remember using my dinner money to buy five Park Drive tipped. -
@Steveg58 @pheedbackPhil Pay phones in the UK didn't have buttons until well into the 1980s. They ran on pulse dialing and if you needed long distance you could either dial the area code *or* talk to the operator.
-
@cstross @pheedbackPhil @Steveg58
> Strowger electromechanical exchanges
And what a fascinating back story *they* have!
@neil @cstross @pheedbackPhil @Steveg58 There was a working telephone exchange in Berwick Town Museum - though they seem to have neglected to put any information about it on the internet.
-
@Steveg58 @pheedbackPhil Pay phones in the UK didn't have buttons until well into the 1980s. They ran on pulse dialing and if you needed long distance you could either dial the area code *or* talk to the operator.
@cstross @Steveg58 @pheedbackPhil button B predates me, but it must have been in the UK because i've seen them in old UK movies — and i seem to remember Hancock had a "bit" about them?
-
@christineburns No, I just put up with the leakage.
@cstross @christineburns we went from pencils to ballpoints once it was time to use pens.
Not quite 60 yet, decimal / metric happened the year or so before I went to primary so I missed the change but it was still all new to the teachers which was a weird feeling; counting skills went up to 12 as a matter of course but no-one explained why or gave us anything to apply it to. Also calculators became a standard thing a year or so before we hit the exams, we got school-approved ones issued
Feed RSS
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
@philvuchetich let me know!
-
Moriva 5 anni fa e questo #film di 25 anni precedente ne raccontò la vita. Che è qualcosa di più di culi e tette ma ha a che fare con la libertà d'espressione. Watch #LarryFlynt - Oltre lo scandalo https://streamingcommunityz.men/it/watch/12622
-
@esilvia @ro
più probabile che ci vada tu a lavorare nei suoi locali.
Sperando che versi i contributi per la tua pensione ;-)
-
@odisseaquotidiana per salvini è sempre colpa degli anarchici
-
@gmarcosanti
:-D
-
Da oggi pomeriggio non riesco più a crosspostare, mi arriva un messaggio criptico
Si è verificato un errore critico sul tuo sito web.
-
@maudel ecco perchè vogliono i magistrati lacchè del governo
-
FL5 Roma–Civitavecchia ancora rallentata
Prosegue il servizio ridotto sulla linea FL5 Roma–Civitavecchia a causa dei danni da maltempo. La circolazione avviene su un solo binario, con treni limitati a Ladispoli e Santa Severa. Disagi ancora significativi per i pendolari del litorale nord.
Aggiornamenti 👉 https://www.odisseaquotidiana.com/2026/02/crollo-ponte-ferrovia-roma-civitavecchia.html
