science: technology

I used to believe…

When I was young I used to think the screens at movie theaters were just like giant TVs. There was a VRC built into the wall below the screen and they just put a tape in and it played on the screen like a giant TV...

I used to believe…

When I was little, my aunt gave me a "chirp ball."
This is a device that when you plug it in, it makes a sound like a bird chirping.
I used to be afraid of it because I thought the bird was angry at me and would peck me if I got too close.

I used to believe…

When i was about 8, watching Buck Rogers..i actully believed that in the year 1999 we were gonna be able to own our own spaceships and fly them anywhere in the universe..

I used to belief that when a picture was taken the film would somehow be on the floor and then later in the day the photographer would dig it up and develop the picture. (the camera was just the mechanism to capture and somehow send the picture to the floor)

I used to believe…

When I was growing up in the 50s I thought we had reached the Moon - well, it seemed so close! I was delighted to find it might actually happen in my lifetime - and, of course, it did. I am now a space buff, and sometimes think the history of spaceflight has simply been a matter of reality catching up with my childish misconceptions!

I used to believe…

Up until i was roughly 5 I thought escalators had someone to pull on the rubber side at the top. Or push at the bottom.
The people did it all night, pulling and pushing at the escalator rilas so it would keep running for the whole day. I was worried that it would eventually stop during the day and the people would get into trouble, so whenever I used one I spent 2 minutes or so pulling on the rail at the top. My mother always kept a straight face as I left, panting with a modest, "That should be enough for now."
Once I wondered about the inviting red button beside the rail. Of course, I pressed it, being only about 2 or 3. The escalator stopped and now I remember the squiggly lines above the button ahd read 'EMERGENCY STOP'.
Haha. I was a little terror, eh?

I used to believe…

When my mother talked about using the fax machine and sending a fax, I assumed that the paper would actually roll up and zoom through the wires and come out at the reciever's machine! =)

I used to believe you couldn't burn food in a Microwave Oven, because it works on the idea of rubbing water molecules past each other, right?
And if we cooked something enough for it to dry out, there wouldn't be enough water molecules to keep the food up to a burning temperature -- self correcting!
Well, I'm not a great cook, but I've met someone recently who doesn't understand why you can't simmer something in a microwave oven over an afternoon, without it turning hard, salty, & sometimes burning (honest!)

I used to believe…

When we were younger, my sister and I used to tell our other siblings that there were people inside our record player. These people would sing and play instruments. They believed us!

I used to believe that there was a little goblin band inside my mums stereo and they played music whenever she turned it on.

I used to believe…

When I was little I knew that if you ran "C:\Con\Con" on a windows 95/98 PC it was mess up the computer. I thought that "C:\Con\Con" was some kind of magic word that would mess up or kill anything you said it to, or wrote on. I was horrified that I might absent-mindedly mumble it to myself or write it on myself. I once had a nightmare that it happened and I died. One die I was fed up with my little brother, so I wrote on his forehead "C:\Con\Con" during his nap, because I knew it was mess up his head. I still write it on things I don't like, it's a force of habit. I'm a nerd.

I used to believe that hitting the Break key on the keyboard would cause the computer to be ruined.

I used to believe…

When I was a child I believed that in the future we will have maid robots.

I used to believe…

On one home video of christmas morning, it starts out with my dad walking past the camera that he just set up on the tripod, and as he goes by he bumps it and the camera moves.
I asked my mom how that happened and she said "Well he's a big guy."
I thought there was a version of my dad inside the tape and since he was a big guy, in that part of the video he accidentally shook the video tape inside the VCR, therefore shaking the picture on the screen.

I used to believe…

When I was little my dad told me that tiny musicians lived in the speakers and were the ones making all the music. I would sit and stare at the speakers hoping to catch a glimpse of them. I tell this to my son today.

I used to believe…

My father has always worked with computers, and when I was 5 or less, it was on of those old computers with black and green monitors and programs on a actual audio tape! That thing scared me to death because I thought it was alive and hated me.

1 My father used to let my older sister and I play that game called the "hanged guy", the one where you're supposed to spell a mystery word wright, unless the guy gets hanged. That thing scared me to death, and I had to run away before the man died and made that spooky sound.

2 When my parents punished me, they would lock me up in their room, where the computer was. I would bang like crazy on the door, crying and yelling, checking from time to times if the computer was getting closer to me because I thought he could eat me.... I'm better now, thank you.