1986 Promotional Video for Computer Science Dept, Edinburgh

[spudtater]

Via brucec.

A 1986 promotional video shown to prospective students of the Computer Science department of Edinburgh University. Worth watching for a bit of giggling about old tech.

• "...with gateways to other networks in the UK, Europe and beyond!"
• Computer science seemed to be all about solder in those days. (Could be worse; could be vacuum tubes.)
• I like plotters. Far cooler than printers.
• No disrespect, but is it really wise to be punching a hole in that wire when it's lying on your knee?
• I call it an "ethernet".
• Look at the refresh rate on that screen of text! Stunning.
• EdUni people will notice that the shop in the King's Buildings Centre appears to have not changed its layout in over twenty years — except for a slight downsizing of the shelves of cigarettes!
• This is my "OMG its teh eighties" cardigan...

Comments

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

I'll watch it when I get home and can stream video. I wonder if I'm in it, and how many people I know are? I started at Edinburgh in '86! I expect it's still quite high tech compared to the kit I first used...

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

I don't think I saw you in it; they mostly seemed to be filming the female students...   8^)

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

Ah, so they bussed some arts students in for the video then?

And would you recognise a 20 year old me anyway?

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

1) Or they found the one female student there, and gave her a variety of different wigs.

2) No, probably not.

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

God that takes me back. I didn't recognise anyone for sure, but it was a bit blurry. I think I saw Tardis in the background of the machine hall shot.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

600Mb of storage on TWO file servers! Holy disk space, batman! :)

[markadm.livejournal.com]

I can't get over that music! :)

Oooh. VAXen; YAY!

...and a mention of EMAS: my Mum used to use that!