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Post by bamber on Mar 4, 2018 8:57:24 GMT
I was stationed in Singapore in my late teens and I remember one year (1969?) my mother phoned to wish me a Happy Birthday. She had to book the call the previous day and had a set time (5 minutes) allocated. The call was made and I could just about make out an incoherent crackly voice amid the white noise, so the operator intervened and acted as an intermediary. The conversation was something like: Mum: "Happy birthday son. we all miss you" Operator: "Your mum said .........." Me: "Tell her I miss everyone too" Operator: "He says he misses........" You get the picture. So in the allotted 5 minute slot, very little was actually said, and at great expense. The point of this story? Yesterday, I was down the pub having a birthday pint when my mobile rang. I answered the call and it was my two young grandsons (2 and 4) making a (high res.) video call from Shanghai to wish Granddad a happy birthday Not a word lost, not a flicker on the screen or download buffering. WOW how times have changed!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 9:14:52 GMT
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Post by Graham on Mar 4, 2018 9:15:12 GMT
Your call was a particularly unlucky one. In 1960 I was regularly having telephone conversations from Nairobi to the UK. There were two possible routes landline to wireless. The Landline ones were always good the wireless ones could be difficult, that was because in those days HF frequencies were used and it was down to atmospheric condition at the time of the call.
Today a lot of the calls are routed via satellites using vhf upwards frequencies. The first broadcast using a satellite was in 1962.
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Post by Telemachus on Mar 4, 2018 9:22:13 GMT
For me it is the instantly available information about almost any subject, obtainable via the internet. OK it may not be the most robust and accurate source in some cases, but it does result in the population having a far wider breadth of knowledge and facts. Well that is, if they can drag themselves away from videos of funny cats, and porn!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 9:30:19 GMT
Technology, in all its forms.
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Post by twbm2 on Mar 4, 2018 9:36:22 GMT
There are many .. but the one that has struck me most recently is the advances in the science of anesthesia. I last 'had gas' at the dentists some 47 years ago and remember it as an awful experience involving horrible black rubber masks, a foul smell and taste that lingered in the lungs for days and dreadful nausea for hours after waking up.
Had a new hip fitted a week last Thursday, replacing one damaged 45 years ago. Cannula fitted painlessly in the back of my hand, an injection in there, a bit of a sting whilst the local anesthetic went in my back followed by completely painless epidural, lay down .... and woke up in recovery bright as a button demanding food.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 9:55:26 GMT
We were recently discussing the generation born in the early 1900's and the extraordinary developments and changes they had lived through. Two world wars for a start. Pioneering flight to the point of foreign holidays for all and the 'Space Race' .The birth of the Welfare State. Votes for women. The creation and demise of the communist block. But the explosion of available technology since the sixties arguably 'trumps' this. The pace and rate of change has been breathtaking and continues. However, I recall spending hours in a library, trawling through reference books, and the pleasure and satisfaction it gave me. Now I could obtain the same information within seconds, anywhere I happened to be, by merely asking the question of a modern device. And it's ruined pub quizzes Rog
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Post by JohnV on Mar 4, 2018 10:15:10 GMT
I have been giving it some thought but to be honest the advances in so many fields has been so great that I find it impossible to say which has been the biggest.
I can't help thinking of an aunt of mine.
She was born before the first radio broadcast, less than a year after the Wright brothers first flight. The US bought control of the Panama CZ for 10 million dollars the same year and Pelorus Jack was given protected status (if you don't recognise the name look it up, fascinating story) She witnessed such things as the invention of penicillin and a world flu pandemic
She was married the same year that the Sabina H was launched and the year of the Wall Street crash.
She lived through two world wars, watched men on the moon on her television from the comfort of her armchair, saw a second global financial crisis, saw a privately built spacecraft reach orbit, the first black president of the US and the launch of bitcoin.
I wonder what she would have thought the most important.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 11:38:20 GMT
Some of the prosthetic limbs you can get these days are pretty impressive.
Like this handy device
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Post by JohnV on Mar 4, 2018 12:06:27 GMT
Some of the prosthetic limbs you can get these days are pretty impressive. Like this handy device That is seriously impressive !!!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 12:11:15 GMT
I would just say 'the internet' in general given all the things it opens up.
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Post by bodger on Mar 4, 2018 12:17:05 GMT
instant communication - whether you are on top of mount everest (providing you have a satellite phone) or stuck in a traffic jam on the M4 - combined with sharing of knowledge, news and opinions on the interweb. surely the most life-changing developments affecting most of the world's population.
I find it hard to believe that just 40 years ago when I was trying to set up a site office I had to rely on waiting outside a telephone booth 3 miles from the site, expecting a return call promised for a certain time.
sadly the worst development is one of the consequences of the best ........ f***ing soshulmeedyar.
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Post by kris on Mar 4, 2018 12:20:30 GMT
Some of the prosthetic limbs you can get these days are pretty impressive. Like this handy device You would have thought they would have intergrated a bottle opener though
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Post by naughtyfox on Mar 4, 2018 12:25:44 GMT
The Internet and telecommunications technology has changed everything. The Humans like it, but they are too stupid to know it will be their downfall.
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Post by bamber on Mar 4, 2018 12:34:20 GMT
There are many .. but the one that has struck me most recently is the advances in the science of anesthesia. I last 'had gas' at the dentists some 47 years ago and remember it as an awful experience involving horrible black rubber masks, a foul smell and taste that lingered in the lungs for days and dreadful nausea for hours after waking up. Had a new hip fitted a week last Thursday, replacing one damaged 45 years ago. Cannula fitted painlessly in the back of my hand, an injection in there, a bit of a sting whilst the local anesthetic went in my back followed by completely painless epidural, lay down .... and woke up in recovery bright as a button demanding food. I well remember having gas at the dentist, and being sick on the bus on the way home. I also recall the 'school dentist' that used to visit my infant school every year, a Mr Wee! He would administer fillings with no anaesthetic at all. The drill was driven by a treadle mechanism so didn't rotate all that fast, and regularly got jammed. I think he put me off dentists even more than the gas. Good luck with your new hip. My wife had both of hers replaced in a single operation some 12 years ago and can run around locks with the best of 'em now.
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