What do you remember being invented?

[MontyVeda]

MD are still going for some people
...

Yup. I'm one of them. A great little format.

 

[Nearly there]

mp3 player
sat navs
in house bathrooms
george forman grill
mobile phones
ring pull tin cans
sky+
self heating food

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Viennetta ice cream

What was that Victoria Wood thing??

Something about housewives or mothers or similar doing some sort of sporting competition and of one being disqualified after being tested positive for Viennetta

 

[sunnyjim]

Viennetta ice cream

You've just reminded me of Mr Whippy. I can forgive Maggie for more things than most here, but there is a limit.

 

[Davidc]

My dad worked on the development of the Maestro and Montego and from the things he's told me it's not surprising they weren't great.

To start with, at the time many of the top management weren't from an engineering background so didn't understand the issues involved, then after the fully engineered prototypes had already been built and were being tested it was decided by someone high up that they would buy gearboxes in from VW instead of using the in-house one which had just had all the kinks worked out of it.

Fitting the new gearbox involved turning the engine round in the car and realigning wiring and driveshafts among other things. By this time the launch date is imminent but the gear shift linkage now isn't right and if you go out in the wet, water centrifuges off the driveshafts onto the distributor causing the car to break down.

Instead of having a good well thought out car at launch they ended up completing the development after the first batches of cars had already been sold.

The first Montegos were, indeed, very poor. Later ones were as a result cheap, well built, reliable cars with a phenomenal spec for the money. I wasn't the only one who discovered this. If it hadn't been wrecked I'd probably still be driving mine now at 22 years old.

 

[guitarpete247]

My first video was a Ferguson Videostar. The remote was on a cable and only about 6' long so only went as far as the coffee table.
A mate had the first mobile phone I saw outside US TV programmes and the car phones where the driver had to phone the mobile operator to get a number. He worked for Virgin Lightships advertising Hutchison Telecom. They gave him a phone just like this.

He brought it into the pub one night to show it off. I think that was late 80's or very early 90's.

 

[sunnyjim]

I'm pretty sure both pre-existed my birth.

I trust that happy event was not the consequence of either the sainted Maggie or Mr Whippy or (heaven forbid) both.

 

[Trembler49]

I've known a few people with Meastros and Montegos and I have to agree, they are a very under-rated car. None were ever troublesome, one, a 2L Estate, is still going strong today with over 300,000 on the clock. They were supremely comfortable, spacious, light and airy inside (in complete contrast to todays claustrophic cars imo) with excellently calibrated suspension giving a firm but well controlled ride with respectable road holding. It's possible to coax 70mpg from the one with the Perkins Diesel engine. Rust was their only real enemy, but no worse than the Fords of the era.

How long have you had those rose tinted specs?, or are you still kept under lock and key for your own good?

 

[slowmotion]

Eight track cassettes
BetaMax
Alpha Suds
Fiat Pandas
Sony Walkmans
Clan Dew ( a blend of white wine and Scotch Whisky )
Spin Doctors

 

[guitarpete247]

Eight track cassettes
BetaMax
Alpha Suds
Fiat Pandas
Sony Walkmans
Clan Dew ( a blend of white wine and Scotch Whisky )
Spin Doctors

I had a mate who had 2 videos. A VHS and a BetaMax. He always said the BetaMax was better. He kept the BetaMax out and had the VHS tucked out of sight. When he was burgled they wrecked his living room but found the VHS and left the BetaMax.
My Dad's got an 8 track, Tuner and player unit (not a car system but one for the home) in his workshop. He bought it for the radio but got a couple of tapes thrown in. He hates them, one is Alex Harvey. My Dad found Mantovani too avant guarde and preferred Vera Lynn but couldn't get any tapes of her.

 

[rikki]

Two Dogs

Why do you ask?

 

[rikki]

Seriously - I didn't know Two Dogs had travelled that far from Adelaide.

 

[rikki]

I remember my Dad bringing a calculator home from his work, when I was around 7 or 8. The display was green numbers, in that form that looked a bit like glowing wire.

I remember he wrote out lots of basic arithmatic sums, and did them in front of me on the calulator, and the got me to do them on paper to 'check the calculator got it right'. Cunning sod!

I remember my father bringing home his office' new electric (as distinct from electronic - I think) calculating machine. It could multiply but it did this by adding repeatedly. I can't remember if it could divide - probably not. I do remember that it was very expensive. The equivalent of between 1 and 2 month's salary for an accountant. These things were never going to be on everyone's desk!

Today I realised that it's not really long ago that we got our first wheely bin. About 22 years ago - and I had to buy it or pay an annual fee. So I bought it, and it's at the back of the shed that I' cleaning out.

My father's office got an answering machine for after hours requests from customers who were all orchardists. No-one would talk to the machine at first. Then they started leaving abusive messages - mostly about the machine.

When the Big Eight accounting firm (Remember them?) that I worked for got a fax machine, you had to have a partner's written permission to use it (and a lent to charge it to). It quickly replaced the telex machine. We used to have our telex code on our letterhead.

Plus:-
Indexed gears
Carbon fibre oars
One piece rowing suits (and one piece apparel for most other sports)

I know. They were probably invented before I was born, but they came into common use while I was watching