Successfully resolve problems. A better question might be what has it been able to do?
Let's say you awoke from a coma that started in 1996.
- Thread starter FAUlty Gator
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For me I think the biggest thing would be that current smartphones are way better and more powerful than the best personal computers from back then, and still less expensive than they were then.
Another thing is the advancement of car engines, and how current crappy cars have the same or more horsepower than some of the iconic muscle cars. For example, you can get a new Toyota Camry with 301 HP. By comparison, a 1976 Corvette, even with the L82 motor, had 210 horsepower. The 1973 Mustang Mach 1 could get as high as 280 HP with the right motor/carburetor combination. Some, like the Dodge Challenger and Camaro Z28 still had 400 HP, but it's crazy to me how cheap it is to get HP now, and still have comparatively good fuel efficiency.
I also agree with above comments about how much bigger, better, and (relatively) cheaper TVs are now, compared to then. Here's a Best Buy ad from 1996:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/donnad/best-buy-sunday-ad-from-1996
You could get a 35" RCA tv for $1100. For $100 less, you can now get a 75" LG or Samsung 4k smart tv. And the difference in the picture (not to mention the available content) is unbelievable.
Another thing is the advancement of car engines, and how current crappy cars have the same or more horsepower than some of the iconic muscle cars. For example, you can get a new Toyota Camry with 301 HP. By comparison, a 1976 Corvette, even with the L82 motor, had 210 horsepower. The 1973 Mustang Mach 1 could get as high as 280 HP with the right motor/carburetor combination. Some, like the Dodge Challenger and Camaro Z28 still had 400 HP, but it's crazy to me how cheap it is to get HP now, and still have comparatively good fuel efficiency.
I also agree with above comments about how much bigger, better, and (relatively) cheaper TVs are now, compared to then. Here's a Best Buy ad from 1996:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/donnad/best-buy-sunday-ad-from-1996
You could get a 35" RCA tv for $1100. For $100 less, you can now get a 75" LG or Samsung 4k smart tv. And the difference in the picture (not to mention the available content) is unbelievable.
Damn, flipping through that ad sure makes one feel old.
My job is in west soho on Hudson, but I often head over to soho proper for lunch. I see famous people all the time and you are right that many folks are just looking at their phones and miss them. What really bugs me about the zombie phone people is the way they walk in NYC. They just assume you will get out of their way or you will walk around their snail pace. It's one of my pet peeves with people in NYC, so it was probably best that I moved out to the burbs a few years ago.
Look at how many things in that ad really haven't changed. Dishwashers, microwave ovens, ovens and stovetops, refrigerators, washer/dryer really haven't changed that much. Yeah, they have sensor technology these days, supposedly more efficient, but I bet some of the appliances sold in that ad are still running today versus today's appliances that die in 7 years. Gas grills, heck charcoal grills really haven't changed much.
I see the Motorola flip phone there. Hell yes. And pagers. US Cellular. Probably offering 30 minute plans in-network, then $.99 each additional minute.
Best page is the CD page. White Zombie, Social Distortion, Butthole Surfers, the freaking Macarena.
Definitely #1 would be smartphones and the ease and low or no cost expense of finding cheap porn. Rather than explore the Cosmos and/or setup underwater colonies, we’ve focused 99% of our attention on making our porn cheaper and accessible anywhere on the planet. I suppose if someone went back in time and polled Americans and said there’s two universes:
In Dimension A we have achieved nuclear fusion; have underwater colonies farming 100% of the sustainable food we need; have setup colonies to terraform Mars, Io and Europa; have started vacation packages to see the underwater life on Enceladus; and we’re starting our first tests of a new “warp” drive to potentially start exploring space outside our solar system
In Dimension B we have only managed to create tiny lightweight devices that let us watch free high grade porn anywhere on the planet.
I’m guessing the vote would be 85-15 in favor of Dimension B.
The other thing that would be shocking is how far down the sewer the Republican Party has fallen. The party that praised and touted itself for its patriotism to America and its morals both real Universal (defense of truth, taking responsibility for your own actions, courage, etc..) and its enforced religious principles (family first, heterosexual normative monogamy, life over easier personal choice, etc...) is now wholly and undisguised the party of a group of cowards propping up a wannabe authoritarian who is treasonously beholdened to America’s greatest enemy Russia and who admitted to personally paying for abortions to mistresses while his third wife was pregnant. The Republican Party no longer pretends to care about truth whether a factual piece of one of Drumpf’s many scandals or scientific. They don’t pretend to care about heterosexual normative behavior (Remember when getting an unasked for blowjob by a consenting adult woman who was not the president’s one and only wife was the WORST THING? Now paying for multiple abortions while your third wife is pregnant is a NOTHINGBURGER). Remember when the Republican Party pretended to welcome in women and Hispanics and gave mouth service to letting in gays, blacks and Jews? No more, now it’s the party of open Neo-Nazis and Klansmen.
That new math means 1996 + 25 = 2019.
That's the crazy thing about life now. Despite all the social media and tech, it might actually be easier for famous people to blend in and not be noticed. Especially younger famous people. Older people probably wouldn't know them and younger people have their heads down looking at their phones.
Life seems a lot more difficult from a social perspective. People simply aren't as good at talking to each other any more.
He's ranking them, of course.
3,4,no,2,1 (the middle one might be legal but not worth chancing it)
wait. Is this M1 or M2? I’m so confused.
Smartphones and Tablets that everyone had who were visiting me
How amazing the football game looked on the huge flatscreen in the visitors lounge and then finding that it was ~400 bucks
How terrible and poorly coached the FSU football team with a losing record looked on that TV.
How amazing the football game looked on the huge flatscreen in the visitors lounge and then finding that it was ~400 bucks
How terrible and poorly coached the FSU football team with a losing record looked on that TV.
