This is great. I follow a site called Modern Mechanix, which features old advertisements and articles in the fields of engineering, technology and science. Some of them go way back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
My father started his career off in the 60’s at Bell Telephone so I decided to send him the link to a recent post on Modern Mechanix which featured an ad for Bell.
I asked him if he remembered the ad. Here was his reply:

Yikes, not only do I remember it, in 1965 I was one of the few AT&T “data” technicians who worked on diagnosing and resolving problems on the “Dataphone” pictured in the Ad. Actually, it was a real fun job (to me anyway). These phones operated at 2400 bps (bits per second). Among other things, you usually had to “condition” the copper wires in order to pass error free data. This involved inserting customized equalizers in the signal path to compensate for the specific frequency attenuation characteristics of the assigned copper line. Soon after I advanced to supporting high speed/wideband data customers which introduced the then incredible transmission rate of 50kbps (50,000 bits per second). No one could imagine how there could possibly be a need or use for any higher data rates.

I think I understood a sentence in there somewhere.

So Josh Luke and Steve Lambert are lending their typography skills to Occupy Wall Street (via PSFK).

While I think their actions are commendable, I wonder if there’s not some emotion lost in these ‘professional’ signs.
I wonder if a more James Victore-ish approach would be better suited to the urgency and emotion in the protests.

This is not to say many of the protest signs I’ve seen couldn’t stand for an upgrade.

The 8813 was built with you, the professional, in mind. It quickly and easily processes cost estimates, payrolls, accounts, inventory, patient/client records and much more. You can write reports, briefs, and proposals on the 8813′s typewriter keyboard, see them on the video screen, and instantly correct, revise, or print them.

Using the 8813, one person can process what would normally require many secretaries, several bookkeepers, and a great deal of time. And data storage takes a small fraction of the space used by previous methods.

You don’t need to learn complicated computer languages. The 8813 understands commands in English. If you want to write your own programs, the 8813 includes a simple computer language, BASIC, that you can master in a few days. The 8813 slashes the professional’s overhead. It’s a powerful time and money-saving ally. Prices for complete systems including printer start at less than $8,000.

Classic.
via Modern Mechanix

via the Duke University Libraries . . . via the Library of Congress

I had read good things about the New Yorker iPad app, but now I’m convinced.
via FishbowlNY

I love the description:

via Vintage Scans

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Leave it to Mercedes to make mud-splattered tires beautiful tools of artistic expression.



Thanks, Mark

Paul Bennett at Bloomberg BusinessWeek keeps it real with his plee to brand and marketing gurus to drop the bullshit jardon:

The hardest thing that marketers and brand managers have to do right now is simplify. Marketing and branding need to get back to first principles — people, feelings, stories, and things. Tangible things. Not weird words. And for all of us agencies out there, we need to feel more confident that actually the best thing we can do is to tell it simply, both to the organization we’re working for and ultimately to the consumer.

Thanks Jory

Adobe has announced the Adobe Museum of Digital Media.
From the blog of Stephen Gates:

The mission of museum was stated as showcasing and preserving groundbreaking digital work and expert commentary to illustrate how digital media shapes and impacts today’s society.

I find it interesting Adobe has decided to launch a digital museum at a point in history where we’re seeing Flash lose relevance on the mobile devices and to a lesser extent the desktop web experience (I know, Android is now shipping with Flash).
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, while at the D8 conference, said, “Flash looks like a technology that had its day, but is waning”. There are a few factors contributing to the opinion that Flash is fading. As Jobs said, desktops are becoming the “trucks” of computing, still highly useful but not used nearly as much as smaller mobile devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets – and the desktop era is where Flash hit its peak.
We’re into our third year ‘post-iPhone’ and only within the last few months had Adobe been able to showcase a version of Flash that works well on mobile devices. Not to mention Apple has sold close to 100 million Flash-less, iOS devices (this includes iPods, iPhones and iPads).
So as we move past Flash, Adobe reasserts it’s history of excellence.
Re-living old glory days on the football field, if you will.