Rather a Lot Of Computers Being Bought!

That sounds really good, Swimmy…glad you are so organised in getting help when you need it. I have heard of what3words…never had to use it, thankfully, but if I get lost it will be helpful :smiley:

Hi

I am organised, I refuse to give in, I intend to last longer and enjoy every day.

What is What3words? There are a pommie narrowboat couple I watxh on YouTube and What3ords pops up in each of their videos.

What on earth is it?

Its a location finder app that pinpoints exactly where you are through the use of 3 random words assigned to your little 3 metre square of area. The words are permanent and do not change. All emergency services use it. Its like a postcode/gps location.

Here’s a bit of blurb on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words

Crazy, isn’t it?
Our telly on it’s own has more computing power than my first-ever computer!
:shock:

Thanks for that. I thought it might be a competition or word game, something along those lines but was way out. Can’t quite grasp the point of it, I mean, what was wrong with Latitude and Longitude, a sat nav or just your phone? I will have to look into it more.

I think its just easier, and straightforward, Bruce…for the general public. I mean, if I was on a hill with a broken ankle, there would be no way I could recall the co-ordinates of Long & Lat, but I could say 3 words (in between crying in pain!) Some of the three words are quite funny and are no way connected to each other (pink, stipend, sew, for example), but there are quite unfortunate ones relating to war memorials, or religious buildings.

But how would you know which three words? If you have your phone to call for help then you have access to your exact location. That’s the bit I don’t get.

One thing, not to be missed, in these large numbers of laptops, is that many of them are leased - so some leaser is buying new every 3 years, or so, to keep the customers happy.

The old ones are going somewhere, maybe for trashing.

That raises other thoughts!

Okay. Chapter and verse. Chromebook or laptop, and is it any good?

I was amused by a comment made many years ago by a computer geek when computers were first being developed for the mass market. He said that in years to come, there would be at least one computer in every street. :smiley:

Ok, so you download the app from google play store, or the apple store (its free) and get it on your phone. You need your location switched on, via settings. What happens then, is that it picks up where you are and you see your three words for your location. Wherever you go, the three words will change because your location changes (and it covers such a small area - 3x3 sq metres). If you get stuck somewhere or lost, you call emergency services and say that you have the “what3words” app, and that your 3 words are…blah,blah,blah. They will input that to their devices and be able to pinpoint exactly where you are. :smiley:

How many years ago was that? :shock:

Early to mid-sixties?

Blimey, before my time then. Did he mean on every street corner? Like a telephone box? :lol:

I’m assuming that he meant in well-off households. Until the mass manufacturing of transistors and later, microchips, computers were well out of the reach of most wallets.

Must have been VERY well off…when cars and TV’s were considered luxury items then, I think.

IBM System/360 Model 75

Announced April 22, 1965 and
withdrawn March 15, 1977.

The Model 75 was an outgrowth of IBM’s continuing engineering development effort to enhance the capabilities of the original System/360 offerings. Its main memory operated at 750 nanoseconds and was available in three sizes up to 1,048,576 characters of information. The memory was interleaved up to four ways to obtain increased performance.

The Model 75 superseded the original Model 70 of the System/360 family, which had been announced a year earlier. Manufactured at IBM’s plant in Kingston, N.Y., the Model 75 had a monthly rental range of $50,000 ($400k today) to $80,000 ($600k today), and a purchase price range of $2.2 million ($18m today) to $3.5 million ($29m today). Deliveries began during the fourth quarter of 1965.

I started work on IBM360’s in 1968 and, in the UK, only companies the size of GEC (who I worked for) could afford such colossal machines … :shock:

Oh my word!!! :shock:

Strange to think that there’s more computing power in a modern smart-phone than that one.