Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: How tech has changed
Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > Shadowrun
Snow_Fox
ok kids, every now and then we get a thread about SR tech that we have now, decades ahead of what was expected in 1989. Cell phones and the current internet are the best examples. but I just had it come round in another direction.

FX has "Commando" runinng. They just had the scene where a bad guy sees Arnold in a mall when he's supposed to be hundreds of miles away. The baddie grabs Rea Dawn Chongs purse and starts burrowing throw it. Being a 21st century woman I thought/misremembered he was going for her cell phone. WRONG! his dialogue is "Gimme a damn quarter!" a quarter for a pay phone? I don't know what surprises me more.

Look at the cars in early James Bond films. the 'cool cars' in Goldfinger, except for the Austin Martin are, well really bad.

Anyone else think of stuff that was standard with these movies that we'd laugh at now?
Squinky
Man, I can't even find a payphone where I live anymore...

I always love watching old movies and seeing those tv's with uhf dials and old videogame systems when the characters are like "check out the Rad graphics!"...heh...
Kagetenshi
Cannons for travel to the moon.

~J
ronin3338
The first Lethal Weapon. There's a scene where Murtaugh's calling the shrink, and he's using a mobile phone... Man, it was HUGE!
Tanka
I remember that scene. Also; any other 80's flick with mobile phones. Friggin' GIGANTIC.
James McMurray
Dr. Who last night had the Doctor and Rose in 1987 London. At one point Rose pulls out her cross-time cell phone (looks just like a modern cell phone) and her dad's eyes bug out of his head. Shortly after, a cutting edge technogeek with his own mobile phone comes out. The thing is bigger than his head.
Backgammon
QUOTE (Snow_Fox)
FX has "Commando" runinng. They just had the scene where a bad guy sees Arnold in a mall when he's supposed to be hundreds of miles away. The baddie grabs Rea Dawn Chongs purse and starts burrowing throw it. Being a 21st century woman I thought/misremembered he was going for her cell phone. WRONG! his dialogue is "Gimme a damn quarter!" a quarter for a pay phone? I don't know what surprises me more.

Snow Fox, I had the EXACT same reaction when I saw that movie recently too!
Snow_Fox
QUOTE (James McMurray)
Dr. Who last night had the Doctor and Rose in 1987 London. At one point Rose pulls out her cross-time cell phone (looks just like a modern cell phone) and her dad's eyes bug out of his head. Shortly after, a cutting edge technogeek with his own mobile phone comes out. The thing is bigger than his head.

Yeah I saw that. the 80's cell phone looked more like a concealed weapon.

Rose's phone is a normal cell-and bigger than the one I carry, it works pantime because the Doctor meddled with it so Rose can call her mother.
Calvin Hobbes
QUOTE

Rose's phone is a normal cell-and bigger than the one I carry, it works pantime because the Doctor meddled with it so Rose can call her mother.


I never liked that. The point of going with the Doctor is that you're cutting yourself off from the realy world, like he is. It lowers the feeling of alienation if you *can* always go home again.
James McMurray
Well, since you're in a time machine, you can always go home again (albeit sometimes you'll miss by a year). The phone just cuts down on travel time.
The ubbergeek
2001 will probably make our sons or grandsons laugh. biggrin.gif
James McMurray
You had to carry your phones in your pocket instead of your head?

What is a "remote control?"

Grampa, why is grandma's back massager shaped like that?
hyzmarca
Because people were a lot more uptight about sex back then. You can buy a customized love-bot in any vending machine today but back then we bad to rely on "back massagers."
Lindt
Leave it to James to nudge the toe over the line.

Yeah, having watched Hackers not 2 days ago, Im still so greatly entertained by the tech. 28.8k modem... I think I still have an external one banging around somewhere...
Snow_Fox
Just look at the computer screens in the original Battlestar Galactica.

In 2010 Roy Schieder, on earth, is drinking budweisser out of a foil pouch.

As something most people may not know. Top Gun is now outdated. this year the Navy retired the F-14.
fistandantilus4.0
'bout time really. They were really old.
Tanka
QUOTE (Lindt)
Yeah, having watched Hackers not 2 days ago, Im still so greatly entertained by the tech. 28.8k modem... I think I still have an external one banging around somewhere...

I just put a wireless card into my sis' old Compaq. And I mean old. Like... 300MHz old.

My parents are finally wisening up to the 'net. Or should that be "being assimilated"?

(Yes, yes. 300MHz isn't old compared to what I'm sure some people have. Hell, I've got one up in the attic that I'm certain barely hits 100MHz. Got a C64 around here somewhere as well.)
Lindt
Hey... my 390E is a 300 mhz, and its had a wireless card in it since 1999...

You want old? I have an IBM XT around somewhere I should donate to a museum... that and a 1st generation SPARC.

Pity about the F14. It was so damm cool to look at. But I suppose since its primary payload, aka the phoenix missel was out of date by 1991...
Fire Hawk
* I had an Amiga 500 for a while during the mid '90s.

* I'm currently on an AMD K6 (450 Mhz.)

Dog
I recently saw an old episode of Knight Rider. David Hasselhoff and his blonde-of-the-week are tracking down the bad guy. They find him and are about to give pursuit. But first, they stop the car -remember: the car with an AI personality, that's indestructable and can drive itself- and Hasselhoff tells the blonde, "Go find a phone and call the cops."

Speaking of cars, just last night I noticed that stunt-driving on TV with modern cars has changed a lot. You just can't fishtail a 2005 Tiburon like you can a 1970-something Charger.
Snow_Fox
Front wheel drive is more standard now. that makes fish tailing difficult-which is why it is more standard.

As for the F-14, the A-10 Warthog is even older but is in place until 2020. The Navy is waiting for the F-22, it is using the F-18 Hornet in the meantime. And IF you watch Independance Day you'll see almost no F-14 or F15's in the attack scenes. Almost all the fighters are F-18's. A case of time growing up to meet the movie.
toturi
Soooo that's what was bugging me in Independance Day! With the amount of payload a F-15 can carry there should be no reason they wouldn't field them in a battle for the planet!
Grinder
Maybe Emmerich didn't like the look/style of the F-15? wink.gif
KarmaInferno
QUOTE (tanka)
I remember that scene. Also; any other 80's flick with mobile phones. Friggin' GIGANTIC.

Thing about those old mobile phones?

They could work in the freaking mountains.

They had like 100 times the tramsmitting power as today's cellphones. I would hazard a guess that if you could still hook one of those phones up to today's network, there would be no such things as dead zones for you.


-karma
Fresno Bob
Fun story about old technology. My friend's dad is a photographer, and he uses old style photo equipment, all film and whatnot, and he has one of those old style brick cellphones. I used to rag on him for being in the past, but then someone broke into his van. I guess they thought all his stuff was too old, because all they stole was a few CDs and other assorted unimportant stuff.
Snow_Fox
Their power packs were their own purses. It looked like a WW2 radio set.
eralston
Yeah, that was me. He needs to get with the times, who the hell has an antenna on their phone, anyway?!
Dog
"You're months behind state of the art!"
-Dodger
El_Machinae
I still think in "CD units" when it comes to music. So iPods blow my mind ("There are a gazillion CDs in there!")

In Van Damme's Timecop, they had time machines by 2004 frown.gif I feel like we've let the future down.
Mr. Unpronounceable
QUOTE (Calvin Hobbes)
QUOTE

Rose's phone is a normal cell-and bigger than the one I carry, it works pantime because the Doctor meddled with it so Rose can call her mother.


I never liked that. The point of going with the Doctor is that you're cutting yourself off from the realy world, like he is. It lowers the feeling of alienation if you *can* always go home again.

I'd figured it was a Douglas Adams homage:

He was one of the Dr. Who writers back in the Tom Baker days, and one of his scripts that wasn't used ended up becoming his book Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency. One of the gags in that book is that the time-traveller's phone only works when it isn't in the present time.
SL James
QUOTE (Voorhees)
My friend's dad is a photographer, and he uses old style photo equipment, all film and whatnot,

Good man. Damn kids and their digital cameras.

QUOTE (Snow_Fox)
As for the F-14, the A-10 Warthog is even older but is in place until 2020. The Navy is waiting for the F-22, it is using the F-18 Hornet in the meantime. And IF you watch Independance Day you'll see almost no F-14 or F15's in the attack scenes. Almost all the fighters are F-18's. A case of time growing up to meet the movie.

Plus it's cheaper to film the same six models over and over again.
Kyoto Kid
QUOTE (toturi)
Soooo that's what was bugging me in Independance Day! With the amount of payload a F-15 can carry there should be no reason they wouldn't field them in a battle for the planet!

...man if any F4s, A6s, or MiG 21s were still flyable, you bet they'd be scrambled for a last ditch battle against annihilation.
stevebugge
As a random aside all this discussion of old warplanes is reminding me of my recent visit to the National Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. Makes an interesting day trip.
John Campbell
QUOTE (El_Machinae)
In Van Damme's Timecop, they had time machines by 2004 frown.gif I feel like we've let the future down.

Thing about time machines is, no decent time machine has a proper invention date. If they're ever invented, they will have always existed.
stevebugge
http://www.rinspeed.com/ This has some kind of cool concept cars for the aspiring rigger.
El_Machinae
QUOTE (John Campbell)
Thing about time machines is, no decent time machine has a proper invention date. If they're ever invented, they will have always existed.

You're right! smile.gif

Maybe someday we'll attend the timetravellers conference that occured in 2004! (There was only ever one, since that's all that's needed!)
Kremlin KOA
It was dull
and the Chocolate mousse was a little off

I had the runs for weeks(personal time line)
James McMurray
It's gonna be dull? Crap, I was looking forward to it.
stevebugge
QUOTE (El_Machinae)
QUOTE (John Campbell @ May 4 2006, 09:02 PM)
Thing about time machines is, no decent time machine has a proper invention date. If they're ever invented, they will have always existed.

You're right! smile.gif

Maybe someday we'll attend the timetravellers conference that occured in 2004! (There was only ever one, since that's all that's needed!)

I'm suprised someone hasn't shut it down yet, can you imagine how many alternate universes converge and diverge at that point? It must be the mother of all quantum traffic jams (but I heard JFK assassinated himself at the convention and it's really driving the conspiracy theorists nuts!)
Kremlin KOA
Well you DID seem disappointed James
old too

Oh and Steve, No JFK never arrived

Bush JR was there
Along with a young Bush senior

it was funny to watch Bush jr ogle his young mom
James McMurray
Maybe later that evening Bush Jr pulls a Lazarus Long and becomes his own daddy?

At least now I know that I live long enough to look old. Of course, I could take up a massive heroin habit and start looking old in 3 months.
Kremlin KOA
would explain the senility
Voran
Ah, time travel inbreeding, the root of so many problems.
hyzmarca
And the solution to many more. Immunity to the giant flying brain's mental pwoers, for example.

Of course, it is better to be one's own mother and one's own father, all it takes is access to a future where complete sexual reassignment is available.
Snow_Fox
Lets not mess with time travel. I had enough trouble sorting out that mess in Dallas in '63. All for a couple of curries.
ShadowDragon8685
You smeg 'ead. All you blighters 'ad to do was go back and not fuck with anything. But you blokes coulden't just do that, could you? You had to turn the poor bastard into pavement pizza!
Sean Bad
QUOTE (James McMurray)
It's gonna be dull? Crap, I was looking forward to it.

Don't you mean "It willan pre-have-done dull?" Someone needs to brush up on his fourth-dimensional grammar!

Anyway, postfore while-after the conference, everyone willan on-eat at Milliways. It is/was/will be good times!
Fire Hawk
Now, there's a frood who really knows where his towel is.
Snow_Fox
Now lets not get started on all this. I hate to bring up bad memories but remember what happened the last time you tried to help? You volunteered on the samaritan help line. 4 people committed suicide and one of those was a wrong number. They called it "night of the lemmings."
El_Machinae
QUOTE (Kyoto Kid)
...man if any F4s, A6s, or MiG 21s were still flyable, you bet they'd be scrambled for a last ditch battle against annihilation.

An airplane is an awfully slow/expensive way of delivering a missle. You'd think the battleships would just fire their cruise missles.

Remember the "don't shoot the aliens" commerical in ID4? I wonder if the new services switched over after the blasting started? "Please shoot the aliens!"
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Dumpshock Forums © 2001-2012