Author Topic: The reducing Price of Technology... (Read 1574 times)

Welsh · « **on:** June 02, 2009, 04:17:47 pm »

By accident today I found a camera box in an office cupboard...

A SONY Cybershot DSC-F55E it was 2.1 Mega Pixels with a Carl Zeis lens and limited video capability.....

The instruction leaflets were dated 1999 so say 2000 in RSA...

What do you think the price was 10 years ago

? You will be surprised I think!

IceCreamMan · « **Reply #1 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:19:35 pm »

7k

i remember buying a 2 mega camera in singapore in about 2002 for about 4 k , so in 2000 i reckon 7 k is possible.

JABO · « **Reply #2 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:25:23 pm »

R6999.99.

IceCreamMan · « **Reply #3 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:26:17 pm »

love the sig btw ...

LuckyStriker · « **Reply #4 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:32:23 pm »

don't know
but I bought a DV camcorder in 2002 which cost me about 10K
I can buy a much better one today for a third of that price

Welsh · « **Reply #5 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:33:50 pm »

Quote from: JABO on June 02, 2009, 04:25:23 pm

R6999.99.

Nope, R 7,695

DeepBass9 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 02, 2009, 04:37:39 pm »

Man were you suckered! Wasn't it perfectly obvious to everyone that the telegraph and the polaroid camera would eventually merge into one whatsamadicky?

LeonDude · « **Reply #7 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:06:54 pm »

I remember working on the mines around 2001, and they got digital cameras. Only a select few of the higher up mine personel, usually the health and safety okes, were allowed to even touch the thing. And the memory on these things were stiffies that slid in from the side. (Floppy disks for those not used to South Africa lingo!).

Jacko · « **Reply #8 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:08:32 pm »

I bought a Pentax 3.1 mp digital camera in Munich about 5 years ago for R3500 on sale. Thought it was the shit. Then it started to give me trouble. Now, I know the store would've exchanged it quick time. Only problem was getting there. $:-\$

When I eventually went back to Munich two years ago I had a 8 mp Sony that I bought for R2.8K. Fok.

Uiltjie · « **Reply #9 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:15:35 pm »

I bought my first PC in 1986, with a 12" amber screen, with a wopping 20Mb hard drive, 256Kb RAM, for the bargain price of R5800!

DeepBass9 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:17:02 pm »

I had the coolest idea after too many beers last weekend. Instead of having your normal cellphone handset, why not build all the electronics into a watch that you put on your wrist, then have a wire that goes to a speaker you put on your thumb and a microphone you put on your pinky.

Then you can do this, BUT actually talk on the phone!! Super cool, I'll patent it.

LeonDude · « **Reply #11 on:** June 02, 2009, 07:11:40 pm »

DB9 if that's not PUI we might have to start worrying about you!

DeepBass9 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 02, 2009, 07:16:33 pm »

No, stone cold sober!!!! Wait, I'm having another brilliant idea........

Welsh · « **Reply #13 on:** June 02, 2009, 07:33:26 pm »

Quote from: Uiltjie on June 02, 2009, 05:15:35 pm

I bought my first PC in 1986, with a 12" amber screen, with a wopping 20Mb hard drive, 256Kb RAM, for the bargain price of R5800!

Best part of 20 years ago we (the company) bought a 486 one of the first in the country, it cost big moooolah, now you couldnt give it away, to run the old Dos programmes you cleared the machine of EVERYTHING then ran it, one mistake start again, as user freindly as a Pit Bull...

LeonDude · « **Reply #14 on:** June 02, 2009, 07:48:17 pm »

Quote from: Uiltjie on June 02, 2009, 05:15:35 pm

I bought my first PC in 1986, with a 12" amber screen, with a wopping 20Mb hard drive, 256Kb RAM, for the bargain price of R5800!

PC prices have not changed much, the PC's just got better. I bought my first computer, a P1 in about 1993. 560MB Hard Drive, 8MB Ram and a good screen. (At that time my dad, a programmer, told me I was wasting money on the hard drive, saying that I would never be able to fill a 560 MB hard drive in my lifetime

) That machine cost me R5500 (Does anybody remember the word "Math Co - processor"?

In 2006 I bought a Pentium Duo 1.8Ghz with a gig ram, 80 Gig Harddrive and all the other goodies for almost exactly the same price.

Oh, and I also still have my dads pc. It's a fully functioning 286 with 256kb ram and 20MB hard drive.

IceCreamMan · « **Reply #15 on:** June 03, 2009, 08:13:48 am »

Quote from: LeonDude on June 02, 2009, 07:48:17 pm

Quote from: Uiltjie on June 02, 2009, 05:15:35 pm
I bought my first PC in 1986, with a 12" amber screen, with a wopping 20Mb hard drive, 256Kb RAM, for the bargain price of R5800!

PC prices have not changed much, the PC's just got better. I bought my first computer, a P1 in about 1993. 560MB Hard Drive, 8MB Ram and a good screen. (At that time my dad, a programmer, told me I was wasting money on the hard drive, saying that I would never be able to fill a 560 MB hard drive in my lifetime ) That machine cost me R5500 (Does anybody remember the word "Math Co - processor"?

In 2006 I bought a Pentium Duo 1.8Ghz with a gig ram, 80 Gig Harddrive and all the other goodies for almost exactly the same price.

Oh, and I also still have my dads pc. It's a fully functioning 286 with 256kb ram and 20MB hard drive.

5500 in 1993 equates to 20k today, relatively speaking pc's are much cheaper today

LuckyStriker · « **Reply #16 on:** June 03, 2009, 08:28:49 am »

Think of the costs involved to travel from Durban to Johannesburg 100 years ago compared to today
we all like to claim that life is getting more expensive but it really isn't so

speaking of which, when I was a kid it was impossible to travel from JHB to CT without sleeping over. It was even impossible to take a +200km journey without stopping for road lunch. WTF?

DeepBass9 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 03, 2009, 08:33:18 am »

Ha ha, I remember when everyone was driving cortinas, and stopping to braai and drink lion lager by the side of the road

Zerc · « **Reply #18 on:** June 03, 2009, 09:08:52 am »

I remember buying my XT Clone in August 1987 with 640KB RAM, 10MB Hard drive, Mono Screen and a 80 column printer for about R3300 which at the time was 3 times my monthly salary. I'll be damned if I buy a PC now for 3 times my monthly salary.

I also bought 16MB of RAM for R2000 at one stage.

In about 2000 I bought a 2 Megapixel Canon Camera for about R5000 and then spent R3500 for a 340MB Microdrive (A compact flash sized hard-drive) so that when I went on holiday to the USA I would have enough space to store all my pictures as I didn't have a laptop at the time.

Beltzer · « **Reply #19 on:** June 03, 2009, 11:45:32 am »

Quote from: LeonDude on June 02, 2009, 07:48:17 pm

Quote from: Uiltjie on June 02, 2009, 05:15:35 pm
I bought my first PC in 1986, with a 12" amber screen, with a wopping 20Mb hard drive, 256Kb RAM, for the bargain price of R5800!

PC prices have not changed much, the PC's just got better. I bought my first computer, a P1 in about 1993. 560MB Hard Drive, 8MB Ram and a good screen. (At that time my dad, a programmer, told me I was wasting money on the hard drive, saying that I would never be able to fill a 560 MB hard drive in my lifetime ) That machine cost me R5500 (Does anybody remember the word "Math Co - processor"?

In 2006 I bought a Pentium Duo 1.8Ghz with a gig ram, 80 Gig Harddrive and all the other goodies for almost exactly the same price.

Oh, and I also still have my dads pc. It's a fully functioning 286 with 256kb ram and 20MB hard drive.

Math Co-processor, i remember that, the normal processors had 80X86 number and the math-co's had 80X87 like the 80387, The 486 DX was the first processor to include the math-co onboard, the 486SX you had to buy it separately.

We use to program a 8051 microprocessor in Digital Systems, the joy of assembler programming... YAY!