Little kids with old technologies

[Wezil]

You know, I actually remember using payphones a few times. Hard to imagine anyone using those anymore. I even made a collect call once!

I've taken a call at a pay phone before. They used to have their own numbers that people could "dial".

[Hauldren Collider]

I have never seen that in my life. It looks like a giant calculator. What's with 8 buttons for each number and there being no 0?

When was the last time you had trouble adding 0 to something?

[Egbert]

Maybe she meant... "like what? You mean you would write it down? Who carries around a pen and paper?"

Nah. The idea of giving out the home number hadn't occurred to her.

Youngsters these days.

[Hauldren Collider]

I've taken a call at a pay phone before. They used to have their own numbers that people could "dial".

Oh man, great story about that. My freshman year at high school was the last year they had payphones in schools--they tore em out sophomore year because no one used them. But I figured out with a buddy of mine how to get them to call themselves, causing them to ring endlessly. People would pick up the phone, go "HELLO? HELLO?" then slam it back down and it would start ringing again. Good fun.

[Al B. Sure!]

When was the last time you had trouble adding 0 to something?

I mean 0 as a placeholder... you know like how 24303898 has a 0 in there and without the 0 it's a whole different number?

I really have no idea how that number adding machine would even work to be honest.

[Hauldren Collider]

I mean 0 as a placeholder... you know like how 24303898 has a 0 in there and without the 0 it's a whole different number?

What kind of math did you learn? What's the point of having a number there if there isn't anything in it? God, math these days is so stupid.

[Al B. Sure!]

What kind of math did you learn? What's the point of having a number there if there isn't anything in it? God, math these days is so stupid.

Oh you mean like how the median isn't the same as the 50th percentile?

[Hauldren Collider]

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable, Al.

[Egbert]

When was the last time you had trouble adding 0 to something?

You can do that with a modern computer. Here is how I did it on my computer.

11
0
11

[-Jrabbit]

I mean 0 as a placeholder... you know like how 24303898 has a 0 in there and without the 0 it's a whole different number?

I really have no idea how that number adding machine would even work to be honest.

Dude, if you didn't punch a number in a given column, the machine treated it as a zero. So to enter the number 1,000, you would just punch the 1 in the 4th column from the right and pull the lever.

And the adding machine is entirely mechanical; no electricity was involved. The world was analog. Machines were precise and 100% accurate -- unlike today's digital world, where computer chip makers routinely sacrifice computational accuracy for energy efficiency, lower cost, etc.

[Al B. Sure!]

Dude, if you didn't punch a number in a given column, the machine treated it as a zero.
The world was analog. Machines were precise and 100% accurate -- unlike today's world, where computer chip makers routinely sacrifice computational accuracy for energy efficiency, lower cost, etc.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that machine is better than a computer, Jrabbit?

Wait so the 8 numbers are like the 8-digits on a calculator and if I wanted to type in 345,959, I would skip 2 columns, then type the numbers one in each column?

[Hauldren Collider]

And the adding machine is entirely mechanical; no electricity was involved. The world was analog. Machines were precise and 100% accurate -- unlike today's digital world, where computer chip makers routinely sacrifice computational accuracy for energy efficiency, lower cost, etc.

Wait, what? Do you know what you are talking about? I think there's about a dozen reasons that doesn't make any sense...

[-Jrabbit]

Are you seriously trying to suggest that machine is better than a computer, Jrabbit?

No I'm not suggesting that at all.
All it could do was add.

Reading is a skill.

The typical use of this machine was to total up money. That's why keys in the right-hand column are black. The ones, tens and hundreds columns are white. The thousands, 10Ks and 100Ks are black. Simple visual interface.

So at the end of a business day, the cash register is emptied and counted out. Each denomination of bills would be entered separately (X dollars in singles, $Y in fives, etc). No one wanted to punch in all those zeroes, and the machine didn't need them in order to add "nothing" to a given column.

Got it now?

[Egbert]

Wait, what? Do you know what you are talking about? I think there's about a dozen reasons that doesn't make any sense...

Those old addding machines machines were accurate and easy to operate.

[Al B. Sure!]

Actually I have seen it then in an old-timey cash register context.