Memba' These????

[Terre]

to me pepsi ALWAYS tasted like medicine. When coke changed their formula it sucked. in fact they must have known about it because they have tried to reintroduce the formula as Coke classic. Was never the same. I remember going to the pharmacy with my folks and getting a small bottle of cola syrup which was according to my doctor then good for stomach aches. Went to ginger ale when cola syrup was removed from ingredients and no longer available in pharmacies in its medicinal concentrated form. then Canada Dry removed ginger. Its back in there but no longer drink sweet soda drink just plain soda for indigestion. Once in a while I'll open a small bottle of CD Ginger ale for a few sips which still helps what ails me but the sugar gags me. Now I find out there is also sugar in milk. What is it about American food manufacturers with all the damn sugar and salt? No matter what the media or FDA tell us about the dangers for those two ingredients they are forever present in extreme excess in our food stuff.
Trading in empty bottles was a cash crop for me as a kid. 2 cents for little bottles and 5 cents for the litre/quart bottles kept e in chocolate milk and fry cakes for a long time. It all went away. Wonder why?

Milk has sugars in it naturally. Lactose being the best known one to most people. The only milks I've ever seen with added sugar are the flavored ones. Milk substitutes are another matter. Unless you get ones specifically labeled "unsweetened" they do have sugar added.

 

[robert952]

One difference in Coke and Pepsi that no one here has mentioned is the sweetener. Some years ago when the store I work at first brought in Mexican bottled Coke I decided to try it and realized that it was a flavor I hadn't tasted in many years. American sodas are made with corn syrup now. The Mexican made stuff is cane syrup like American made ones used to be. Despite what some of the advertisers want to claim it really does change the taste.

Too funny/coincidental... I was discussing taste with a colleague over lunch yesterday because Brussels sprouts were on the menu.

There's a genetic factor to taste that comes into play. I recalled a high school biology teach handing out PTC strips to the class and told us to put it on our tongues and report what we tasted. I was one who tasted it. If you've never tasted it...trust me... it is BITTER! I remember how funny it was to see the people who did not taste it get another strip and try again, chew the paper, roll it around on their tongues. It was like they thought they had to taste it pass the day's assignment. It was the teacher's way to introduce the concept of genetics. ( PTC The Genetics of Bitter Taste for a bit more info. A great lesson that stuck with me.)

PTC and similar substances exist in many vegetables like Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and broccoli. Hence, a reason people don't like those veggies as much. It's not a kid rebelling, such does taste awful to us PTC tasters. I can tolerate occasional Brussels sprouts (barely) and asparagus (more often). Broccoli - no prob. (I ate the sprouts as they were deep fried... anything deep fried should taste better... wrong.)

Could be a similar thing that some people are more taste sensitive to Pepsi v. Coke and corn syrup vs cane. I never have tasted a difference in the two, my wife and sister-in-law swear there's a difference and I am just saying there's none. So, my genes don't care... as long as it's sweet, I like it. They absolutely refuse to drink Pepsi products and will just drink water if no other choice. I think it's genetic... and it's my fault that my sons don't eat broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

(And my oldest has a source for Mexican Coke... no, not the drugs. Well, that's his story and he's sticking to it. But he likes it better than US variety.)

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Before the advent of 3D allowed me to become a full-time artist, my "day job" was a termite inspector. In crawling under houses, I discover all sorts of treasures from by-gone eras. Here's two examples from my bottle collection... Hires Root Beer and Arden Milk. While I'm not sure of the age of Hires bottles which claims the Root beer is made from "Roots-Bark-Herbs" and the milk bottle asks the user to "Speed victory! Return this vitally needed bottle as soon as empty"... so clearly WWII.

 

[eclark1894]

Before the advent of 3D allowed me to become a full-time artist, my "day job" was a termite inspector. In crawling under houses, I discover all sorts of treasures from by-gone eras. Here's two examples from my bottle collection... Hires Root Beer and Arden Milk. While I'm not sure of the age of Hires bottles which claims the Root beer is made from "Roots-Bark-Herbs" and the milk bottle asks the user to "Speed victory! Return this vitally needed bottle as soon as empty"... so clearly WWII.

View attachment 38256 View attachment 38257

It's funny you should mention collectibles, Ken. When I was ... MUCH younger than I am now, I used to work in a North Carolina based Restaurant called Darryl's. And the restaurant used to show items from bygone days on the walls, like signs, bottles, etc. I used to see these and remember that I had seen something like them on nailed to trees and old barns on my way down to the beach, so I always thought to might self that next time I saw one on my way to the beach, I'd stop and get it. Well, apparently, I wasn't the only one who had that thought. Places where I'd seen a sign or old bottle or pot, washboard, whatever were now bare the next time I went to the beach.

 

[robert952]

It's funny you should mention collectibles, Ken. When I was ... MUCH younger than I am now, I used to work in a North Carolina based Restaurant called Darryl's. And the restaurant used to show items from bygone days on the walls, like signs, bottles, etc. I used to see these and remember that I had seen something like them on nailed to trees and old barns on my way down to the beach, so I always thought to might self that next time I saw one on my way to the beach, I'd stop and get it. Well, apparently, I wasn't the only one who had that thought. Places where I'd seen a sign or old bottle or pot, washboard, whatever were now bare the next time I went to the beach.

LOL - speaking of collectibles.. a friend stopped by an estate auction in a residential area. A house caught fire down the street nearly everyone went to watch the firefighters to their thing. My friend paid $2 for a case of beer. Got home and found out each bottle was worth $15 each to collectors. Not a bad ROI.

 

[Terre]

Speaking of finds that are worth more than most realize... Back in the late 70s my dad was visiting and we went to a coin shop and a man came in with a circular piece with a checkered pattern that he had purchased at the flea market for a quarter. My dad looked at it and suggested he talk to the shop owner. He then quietly told me that he couldn't make a reasonable offer to the man because it was a Chinese Pattern Piece and they are a sellers market. He was too honest to offer what he could afford to pay. I looked up the one he had shown us in a coin catalog later that day and no price was listed.

 

[eclark1894]

Been awhile since I've seen one of these, too. Felt like I literally had hundreds of them.

 

[Miss B]

I did, and the larger ones I needed a special disc drive for. Then again, I have quite a collection of 3D related CDs as well. I really need to get all that stuff on an external hard drive so I can get rid of them all.

 

[eclark1894]

I did, and the larger ones I needed a special disc drive for. Then again, I have quite a collection of 3D related CDs as well. I really need to get all that stuff on an external hard drive so I can get rid of them all.

I had one of these and had to do the disk swapping dance for EVERYTHING.

 

[Charles West]

Been awhile since I've seen one of these, too. Felt like I literally had hundreds of them.

what about one of these... no keyboard... just a card reader and the computer was a walk in closet with an air conditioner in the back.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Our first computer was the TRS-80 / Tandy Color Computer. Note that it came with no monitor, but required a color tv which was purchased separately. I learned to program in BASIC on this little darling.

 

[eclark1894]

What if these kids today had to use... THESE?????

 

[Ken Gilliland]

What if these kids today had to use... THESE?????

Ugh! My first modem was a 300 baud-- having a 2400 was like a super car... you wouldn't believe how slow the 300 was...

...and my first computer was a TI-99/4a... complete with a state of art 5 1/2" floppy drive and 48K of memory

 

[SixDs]

I think that you are probably correct about the vintage of the Hires bottle, Ken, especially since it was with the milk bottle. I remember as a kid back in the fifties they were still using that same bottle design (Hires was my favourite!). I also remember the old Orange Crush bottles that were dark brown glass. Supposed to protect the contents from UV rays, I guess. And, I remember too when the first soft drinks in cans came out. They were steel, not aluminum cans, and not at all like the fliptop cans of today. They had conical tops to emulate a bottle, with the same crimped tops on them that required a bottle opener to remove.

Oh, and I also have a collection of 5 1/2" floppies around, Miss B, and I also still have two working drives to fit them. At least they were working the last time I checked, many years ago.

 

[Charles West]

Ugh! My first modem was a 300 baud-- having a 2400 was like a super car... you wouldn't believe how slow the 300 was...


...and my first computer was a TI-99/4a... complete with a state of art 5 1/2" floppy drive and 48K of memory

I don't remember the language name add on but it worked with a master file calling sub files and once loaded and used you could remove each sub file from memory. I found out that Chrstring numbers below 32 were in the graphics set.... the logo so I wrote the master file to print each line of the graphics erasing them from memory after they printed... The last command of the master file was to remove master file from memory ... everyone kept trying to snag a copy in our users group but it showed memory empty after running. lol. Also made a multi card loader ribbon cable and sockets for 5 cards... took an old card to make the plug for it and pulled the links to power added a separate power supply for the cards. playing around we got 3 cards to load... and the master screen displayed the multiple cards The last choice on the screen was 'see next page' There was an area that you could break out in the bottom ... best we could figure the plug in the bottom was designed to plug the unit down on an add on. I wonder what would have been released if they had kept the line going.

 

[Charles West]

What about portables.
Thanks John Hagler for the donation of this Kaypro 2X. From Wikipedia's entry on the Kaypro:

Kaypro 2X - The Kaypro 2X was similar to the Kaypro 4, but it featured a built in 300 baud modem. Kaypro 2X's were often sold in a bundle with an impact printer. An evolution of the Kaypro II, the Kaypro IV had two DS/DD drives (390 kB) and came with Wordstar in addition to the Perfect Suite of software.

notice the snaps on keyboard and case.. snapped and locked together and it was portable.... sort of

A handle.

from Wikipedia
The standard Kaypro II was powered by AC only. When battery-powered laptop computers became available, the larger machines came to be called transportable or luggable, rather than portable.) Set in an aluminum case with a keyboard that snapped onto the front covering the 9" CRT display and drives, it weighed 29 pounds (13 kg) and was equipped with a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 kilobytes of RAM, and two 5¼-inch double-density floppy disk drives. It ran on Digital Research, Inc.'s CP/M operating system, and sold for about US $1,795 (equivalent to $4,600 in 2017).

 

[Hornet3d]

Been awhile since I've seen one of these, too. Felt like I literally had hundreds of them.

Yep I still have those and and an internal drive although it is not internal to any computer at the moment and come to think of it my Yamaha Keyboard also has such a drive. I also have some of the larger 5 1/2 inch discs along with the drive itself and although used is in the original Atari box.

 

[Charles West]

my first computer to play on was at a local Radio Shed.... I didn't own one but wrote programs out in longhand then got 1 hr at the local RS thanks to a smart manager. He sold more copies of the programming manual. That store got 2 computer to sell and 200 programming manuals. What a sales gimic.
From Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 model III computer
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III
Introduced: July 1980
Price: US $699 base model
US $2495 w/ 32K, dual drives.
CPU: Zilog Z-80, 2.03 MHz
RAM: 4K, 48K max.
Ports: Cassette tape, expansion, serial
Display: 12-inch B/W monitor: 64 X 16 text
Strorage: 0, 1, or 2 internal 178K floppy drives
External cassette @ 500 / 1500 baud
OS: BASIC in ROM, TRS-DOS on disk

and somewhere in the garage.

 

[Charles West]

Yep I still have those and and an internal drive although it is not internal to any computer at the moment and come to think of it my Yamaha Keyboard also has such a drive. I also have some of the larger 5 1/2 inch discs along with the drive itself and although used is in the original Atari box.

Ever see any of the old 8 inch floppys usually ZCPM, Zenith's attempt to have graphics to compete with ms-dos

 

[Hornet3d]

Ever see any of the old 8 inch floppys usually ZCPM, Zenith's attempt to have graphics to compete with ms-dos

I don't remember the Zeniths but I do remember a very large floppy disc used in some of the telephone systems way back when I was an apprentice. I also remember the reel to reel tapes units that was used on some of the large US telecommunication systems, as seen in such shows as Lost in Space and Joe 90. Of course the digital equivalent of the Joe 90 programmer was used in the Matrix.