Strange Ideas In Computing History: Software On Vinyl Albums

"In July 1977, Software Records launched the first issue of its BASIC software collection recorded on a 12" vinyl record. User could directly transfer programs from its record player to its computer or tape a copy. Sadly, as soon as the vinyl record had a tiny scratch, recorded programs were unreadable.

The first advert (left) was optimistic: "If everybody who read this ad would order one, we would be sold out!"

The second advert came out three months later, it was like a S.O.S.: "If we don't sell a bunch of our BASIC Software Volume 1 albums quick, we'll get fired!".

Were they fired? One thing for sure: Basic Software Volume 2 never came to life..."

- http://www.old-computers.com

Classic Computer Ads

Was it really that long ago you had to shuck out $12,000 for an 80 MB hard drive? (from 1977):

E-Mail, when it was "electronic mail" (from 1981)

Nothing says "helluva man" today like a 4.8k dial-up modem the size of a toaster oven (from 1971):

Now THIS.....Is a LAPTOP!

I Don't Like Mondays

"I Don't Like Mondays" The Boomtown Rats is a seminal New Wave classic from 1979. What many pop music fans had forgotten (or never knew) that the song has it's origins in a tragedy that became a sort of precursor to the school shootings that occurred during the late '90s that led to the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 to the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings of late last year.

On January 29, 1979 (34 years ago today), Brenda Ann Spencer, a troubled 16 year old girl opened fire from the window of her house in San Diego to the playground of Cleveland Elementary School, which was across the street, killing the principal and a custodian and injuring eight students and a police officer. When asked why she opened fire, she flippantly remarked, among other things, "I don't like Mondays", which in spite of the context in which it was used became a sort of catch-phrase in the early '80s, appearing on buttons and t-shirts.

Her cold blooded lack of remorse for her crime at the time was enough to have her tried as an adult and sentenced 25 years to life for the killings. She had been denied parole four times. Her last parole hearing was in August of 2009 and she will not be eligible for parole again until 2019.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays

True

"I've Never Been To Me" Charlene (1976/1982)

Charlene originally released this tune on Motown's Prodigal subsidiary in 1976, but even with anything goes '70s radio (even on the hardcore R&B stations, which were serviced heavily by Motown and where Millie Jackson was NEVER a problem), those radio programmers had a problem with THIS song.

It referenced everything from abortion to prostitution in a sort of girl talk over coffee manner, the kind you would overhear coming from a secluded corner booth in the back of a Denny's. The kind of things that would spell instant career death for not only the person who sang it, but the DJ playing it.

But if there's one thing I know about pop music (and I can point out many, many more examples), it's this: The more conservative the country gets socially, the more outlandishly sexually themed the pop songs become. It's a natural rebellion.

So when a Florida DJ found this song in 1982 (during the first years of the Reagan administration) and played it on the radio, the phone lines went berserk. So Motown re-released it.

Where in spite of radio station boycotts of the tune (especially in the South), the song shot up to #3 on the national radio pop charts in 1982.