Fifties Advertising: UNIVAC Computer TV-Commercial (5 February 1956) (Ad 2 of 2)

[jvolstad]

I wonder how often you needed to replace a tube?

[AdventureJim1969]

Wow! A vacuum tube was the brain inside of UNIVAC. You don't see many of those any more.

[sneakers55]

In the 1950s, for some reason, popular magazines advertised capital goods. Now, they advertise drugs. I always wonder if there are enough crazy people out there to justify all the antipsychotic ads. They did learn they were useful for goosing antidepressants, either on-label or off-label. Geodon is a $450 per month drug habit but then it works for some and it won't make you blimp.

[RetroToledo]

@sneakers55 It's a shame it's like that these days.

[sneakers55]

@rivotrich7 Viewers couldn't afford a UNIVAC, but they could afford a few shares of Remington Rand stock. Why, after all, does Boeing advertise? Mostly to get their name in front of possible advertisers. (You can buy stock in EADS, their main competitor, but it's pink sheet stuff. I'm not scared of blue-chip pink sheet stocks.)

[estlib]

jack: "hey chip what did you got for your birthday?! :D"

chip: "just a lame old acer laptop... :( what did you get?"

jack: "AN AWESOME UNIVAC!!"

chip: "wow! thats so cool! whats its processor speed?"

jack: "FENOMENAL!!!"

[meatisdeliciouse]

Was that when the silicone chip came out?

[NoIDidunt10]

If you could go back to the 1950s and describe the technology of today to them,how would you do it? For a desk top computer i would tell them its typewriter keys hooked up to a television set

[tempetiger]

Do any of the big mainframe computers nowdays use reel-to-reel tape anymore? I used to run a reel-to-reel IBM 3420 (or 3480) at International Paper Co. back in 1990 and 1991.

[tboehnlein]

thought you may enjoy these words of wisdom

'But what... is it good for?'

Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems division of IBM, commenting on the microchip, 1968

'There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in the home'

Ken Olson, Present, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

'640K should be enough for anybody'

Bill Gates, 1981

[vernonls]

Unseen is the 3 phase 400 Hz generator and the large air conditioning system required for operation of the Univac computer. For years I walked around with a dozen punch cards in my chest pocket and now I can't even find one for a souvenier of the times. Once upon a time the guys and it was nearly all guys who operated these computers were demi-gods, the guys who fixed them were supermen and the guys who programmed them were just those d*** stupid programmers who could not get anything right.

[jvolstad]

This is how computers should be made. With tubes.

[blakegriplingph]

Will it run GTA IV on maximum settings? On a more serious note, it is quite interesting to know that a typical smartphone can be a hundred times faster than what was by then one of the fastest machines of its time.

[lrcdert2010]

What would literally happen if I go back in time and show CEO of this company an iPad.

[DevSodDribble]

@lrcdert2010 He'd tell you to go back to sixth grade and learn what the word 'literally' means.

[Tom1980nj]

My mom use to punch cards for Univac's.

[DrumminMuffin]

Lolz I would go back in time to the year when this commercial was made, take out my iPod Touch, and play Fruit Ninja in front of the CEO of this company XD

[rivotrich7]

Could people back in the 50s watching TV actually afford one of these??

[MattTheSaiyan]

@rivotrich7 Nah....I think the commercial was intended to promote the company that made it in general.

[RetroToledo]

@MattTheSaiyan And this was still back when American still made things as well, or felt proud to do say so.

[ewaf88]

@rivotrich7 And could they afford the Warehouse they'd have to buy to keep it in? However over 50 years later we have the I-phone - so I guess it was all worth it (?)

[ObiWanBillKenobi]

@rivotrich7 An "ordinary" person (or even a rich person) would really have no use for it. At his point in history, the only practical use for computers was to automate calculations and bookkeeping for large companies or government divisions, as this commercial shows for writing paychecks.

[TG626]

@rivotrich7 People ?! Hell no. NOBODY owned computers in those days.  When this ad was made the ONLY customer was big corporations - and even then they COULDN'T buy it, they leased it. (at least this was true of IBM)

[RetroToledo]

@TG626 I'm sure there were a few banks that bought into it in the 60's.

[AdamEtheredge]

Looks like the animated diagrams of the insides of the LHC.

[lolipopus]

What if.. you could travel back with a Extreme Ultra Gaming rig (i7, gtx 295, 8 gb ram) back to the 50´s and play Crysis in front of them. ;D

[dboy122660]

@lolipopus You probably would have been considered a space alien and taken by the military to Roswell, NM for interrigation....lol

[lolipopus]

@dboy122660 Yeah probably, but well, they would wonder where i got that advanced stuff... :P

[upyr1]

@dboy122660 Try Area 51 in Nevada or Hanger 18 at write patterson in Ohio

[HaakonMeihack]

@lolipopus When I was younger I always dreamed of going back in time and sell my computer to IBM for millions

[SeberHusky]

@lolipopus

It would end up much like when Marty McFly crash-landed in 1955 for the first time.

He got shot at by Old Man Peabody and barely escaped.

"It looks like an airplane - without wings!"

[lolipopus]

@SeberHusky I got all three films so yeah... if i look at my comment (which i wrote a year ago) those specs aren't quite good anymore. :P

[SeberHusky]

@lolipopus

I just bought a HP Envy 17. Intel i7, 16 GB RAM, 1.5 TB HDD, and Radeon 7850M.

Good for me....better than good...excellent! Compared to what I have now that won't even run MineCraft on high settings.

[tripjet999]

Most printers aren't that fast (8,000 checks/hour) NOW!

[fordude60]

State-of-the-art back in the day! This was pretty advanced stuff in its day.

[hyretech]

@fordude60 Yes, advanced, except that Remington-Rand was making transistorized systems for the Army by around 1957.

[methodistgirl]

Man how times have changed. Now

days some computers are small

enough to fit in your pocket with a

computer chip so small you need

a magnafying glass to see it

comparing to that monster.

methodistgirl

[methodistgirl]

Man how times have changed. Now

days computers come equipped with

windows 98- the newest 7 in the size

of a laptop.

methodistgirl

[joebradio]

that almost looks like a netbook in front of the guy at :05

[daffydoug]

LOL!!!

[girlstorm09]

wow compare tha giant dinosaur and to one of those pocket sized netbooks.....and wow the size difference would be termendis!!!! and the dinky computer would proboly be 100 times more powerful then the dino sized one :P

[Arabman666]

All the power of Dollar brand chinese calculator, with all the convience of fitting in a single room!

[Outatime86]

Wow! all that computing power! And it all fits in one room!

[mun63]

When I went to Cape Canaveral a few years ago, they have the old UNIVAC computers set up still in the original launch block house for the 1st launch in the 50's , the tour guide said it the temp in the block house got to over 100 because of all the tubes in the machine.

[SamPD2]

Huh, my Calculater is more powerful then this.

[MattTheSaiyan]

Yeah. Even my old V-Tech toy computers are more powerful. Nevertheless, this probably did reduce a lot of work at the time, so it deserves some credit.

[SamPD2]

Oh I bet it did.

[MrRobHere]

Remington seems to have made a bunch of stuff.

[Sungkawa]

thats all kinda crappi

[gli7utubeo]

I think Exec 1100 is still around and in use somewhere...