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Showing Original Post only (View all)So I got a hard time from a younger relative about how to use a computer when we first got one.. [View all]
I stood there and listened to them make fun of me and basically my whole generation because we were slower on
the pick up with the computer.. As they finished up getting me set up on dial up (this was the 90's)for what ever God forsaken reason they asked for a calculator.
I walked into our bedroom and went into the closet and pulled out a beat up cardboard box that held a bunch of my stuff from high school.. Reached in and pulled out a slide rule and went back into the living room and handed it to them..
The look of confusion on their faces was priceless.
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So I got a hard time from a younger relative about how to use a computer when we first got one.. [View all]
Peacetrain
Aug 2025
OP
Back in those days I loved my slide rules. Tried a few varieties including circular.
erronis
Aug 2025
#2
I still have a few, including a circular one. The advantage is that the outer scale is 3 times longer than the diameter
Bernardo de La Paz
Aug 2025
#16
Timing belt? Is that what holds pants up, but only for a certain amount of time?
Attilatheblond
Aug 2025
#6
Yep - scales. I knew there used to be a term in the brain but it didn't bubble up soon enough.
erronis
Aug 2025
#47
It's the same thing that made The Martian so appealing - a movie about people solving problems . . .
hatrack
Aug 2025
#27
All of those computers and other technology were invented by and developed by Boomers.
MineralMan
Aug 2025
#12
My first encounter with a "computer" was a tabulator, sorter, printer programmed with plug boards.
erronis
Aug 2025
#40
I've seen videos of the millennials trying to use a dial phone....it's hilarious!
PortTack
Aug 2025
#23
I learned ot use a slide rule in High School, and in my very first engineering class in college.
Happy Hoosier
Aug 2025
#28
And built Little Boy/Fat Man, the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam, the Model T . . .
hatrack
Aug 2025
#42
Great story! You should put it all in handwriting and the young 'uns would never be able to read it
FakeNoose
Aug 2025
#35