27 Prairial CCXIV (June 15, 2006)
Caesar, 'tis Strucken Eight.
Boing Boing just recently put up a post about a collection of photos allegedly depicting rural Soviet life during the 50s and 60s.
Now, the photos themselves are interesting, but as for the date attributed, I say allegedly as there doesn't appear to be any date given in the linked to article once I pass it through the fish — but that could just be that it's been babelfucked out of existence.
Actually, I lie; that's not the reason I say allegedly. The reason I say allegedly is one particular photo, and amusingly enough, it's the one that Doctorow chose to include in his blurb.
It shows an old man in front of some sort of display, typing away on a keyboard of some sort. More specifically, it shows an old man in front of what looks suspiciously like a computer monitor (sitting next to what looks suspiciously like a personal computer tower) typing away on what looks even more suspiciously like a standard pre-Windows 95 102-key keyboard. (You can even make out the start of the area for the various lock lights at the bottom of the photo.)
Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet money that a more in-focus shot of the monitor would show that the text on the top says "Low Radiation" and I'm almost positive that there appears to be a GUI visible in the monitor (although that may just be a reflection of light from somewhere else).
On the other hand, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that isn't a personal computer, but some other period device. However, in my opinion that's probably just as likely as Brutus having actually counted how many times the clock stuck.
Anyone want to make a guess as to whether or not this gets noticed by anyone else and pointed out to Doctorow, and if so how long it takes?
it was also the first thing that came to mind for me, when i saw the post. did that style of alphanumeric keyboard even exist prior to the eighties or thereabouts?
Wikipedia claims that the 101- or 102-key "Enhanced Keyboard" (as IBM called it) layout first showed up on PCs in 1987. They don't state whether the same layout was used on other systems prior to that, but I'm tempted to say no. (Or, if it was preceded, then not by that long of a period of time.)
In a brief search, I can find somewhat similar layouts, but none that exactly match the one shown in the photo. Granted, if it is an old Soviet layout, then it's likely that it would be different than any others I could easily find information on — but so different as to be exactly the same as the pre-Windows 95 PC layout? That's asking a bit too much.
Posted by ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://leftblank.org/nav-commenters.gif)
And I just spotted something else that shows that the pictures aren't all 50s or 60s in origin.
Located on the far right of the back wall in this picture is a logo which I missed when first looking at the photos, but which caught my eye the second time through. The logo in question is for the XXII Olympiad, held in Moscow in 1980.
-
-
-
