Comments on: Honeywell's Kitchen Computer: the 1969 behemoth that didn't sell a single unit

By: facebook-1008456859

facebook-1008456859 — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:39:00 +0000

I wrote this in perl in 7 lines

By: Frank Diekman

Frank Diekman — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:34:00 +0000

I love how it looks as if it can right of the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

By: Fred Ricardo

Fred Ricardo — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:12:00 +0000

The idea was right, the technology was not there. In 1968 Honeywell was selling the H800 which still had tube circuits in it and the size of a small house.

This is also the company that invented the internet hubs, (mini 316) and bought the Multics computers from GE and invented the first relational Database in the ’70s..

Now Honeywell is gone, bought by Allied-Signal who kept the name because their reputation was so bad.

By: kjh

kjh — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 11:31:00 +0000

I don’t believe she could actually open the fridge. There’s not enough space left.

By: gwailo_joe

gwailo_joe — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 09:30:00 +0000

Maybe because I’m buzzed but the whole contraption looks like a giant cybernetic ducks’ head on a pedestal.

And the woman is patting it on it’s widdle head…

While I imagine it would be more useful should it swivel and shoot lasers from his pointy bill; if it had self-awareness then…but that apron!

So…Prominent. So…Detailed. man, i am high…

By: stayzuplate

stayzuplate — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:36:00 +0000

Worst advertising ever. The woman is trapped behind the machine in her little kitchen.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:09:00 +0000

Well duh it’s an ad, they want everything to look idyllic.

By: nancy bee

nancy bee — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:05:00 +0000

What I noticed is the two baskets full of actual food- green onions- lettuce- peppers- and a bunch more. No prepared food.

By: bklynchris

bklynchris — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:33:00 +0000

And from the looks of it, the actual one in the photo. Wouldn’t that be cool if it was!!!!

By: piminnowcheez

piminnowcheez — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:22:00 +0000

this picture makes me really hope that Mad Men makes it into the ’70′s.

By: jimkirk

jimkirk — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 23:01:00 +0000

That reminded me of some TV commercials for Amiga Computers back in the 90s. Their main message was that you could do things at home that you had never dreamed of before; composing and playing music, creating videos, and ultimately launching your whole house into space…

By: oldtaku

oldtaku — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:33:00 +0000

Well of course you’re not going to be able to sell that monstrosity to any ladies. They should have asked Samsung or Sony. You need to make it pink.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:10:00 +0000

Comment deleted because Incipent Madness beat me to it.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:02:00 +0000

It doesn’t look like it could possibly fit in that tiny kitchen (although it’s not actually that small by the standards of the time), but I could see someone fitting an original-style Macintosh with Hypercard in there. (Actor/comedian/magician Harry Anderson, an early Mac adopter, once compared its design to an average Krups appliance.)

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:59:00 +0000

At least they tried. Somebody had to be first with a home computer. Full marks for effort.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:57:00 +0000

Why not? I’ve seen an old minicomputer with a built-in ash tray.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:56:00 +0000

Yep–Hammacher-Schlemmer does (or at least did) the same thing.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Depends on how long a servant robot is operational.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Doom probably.

By: Glippiglop

Glippiglop — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Even worse – inflation adjustment brings it to a whopping $64,123.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:03:00 +0000

But a little drawer in it and it would also act as a warming oven. Probably could just be a low temp hot plate without the drawer.

By: M

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Thank you SO MUCH for the Regretsy reference. Had never heard of it so zipped on over; especially loved the “passiveaggressivenotes.com” site.

I haven’t laughed so hard in quite awhile.

By: Marc45

Marc45 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Yeah, I miss all those blinking lights and switches…not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling I got from a full deck of Hollerith cards.

By: Keith Edwards

Keith Edwards — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:59:00 +0000

Not even free but cheep human labor still wins out. Sure, we could design and build servant robots but they’d cost a couple hundred grand a piece. Meanwhile, for a tenth of that cost, you can pay a human housekeeper.

Even economy of scale doesn’t work in this instance, because it’s still cheaper to press gang a village in Micronesia than it is to automate a factory floor in Lansing. All our utopian technocratic dreams fail when confronted with the naked efficiency of capitalism.

By: TonyF

TonyF — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:52:00 +0000

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has one on display. I believe the only one known to exist. http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/X579.85

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:32:00 +0000

One of the things I have appreciated about the internet is how I’ve been able to fill in at least some of the gaps my grandparents didn’t get around to teaching me about home economics. I know more than many of my generation (Boomer), which puts me lightyears ahead of the following generations, but it still amazes me how much more knowledge was wired into the brains of people born in the late 1800′s to the early 1900′s. Computers STILL haven’t caught up to the sophistication of their wisdom, but enough people are sharing what they’ve learned that at least there’s the sense that it won’t all be lost.

So, when I see something like this, what I see is a bunch of guys in a conference room having not the slightest clue how much more complicated cooking for a family is in comparison to the very limited functionality of a computer at the time.

By: Nadreck

Nadreck — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:27:00 +0000

Wow, typing in octal codes on the front panel – that sure takes me back! When I was in University I’d occasionally run across something such as a NOVA or PDP-11 that you’d have to toggle in the boot addresses on. I once met the last surviving General Electric Mainframe (8K in main memory! 20-bit words! Birthplace of BASIC!) genius who could play the much longer sequences needed there on the front panel like a church organist.

Of course, when the Honeywell thing came out it was after a decades long cycle of miniaturisation. By comparison, look at the IBM SSEC, which wasn’t even a computer, just a scientific calculator, but took up an auditorium 1949. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/ssec.html Coolest control panel ever though: http://jenniebewes.com/blog/76

By: blueelm

blueelm — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:15:00 +0000

10,000 and you still need a wife.

(actually, it occurs to me that even a machine can’t compete with free human labor very well)

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:07:00 +0000

But can it run *?

*Doom, Crysis, Halo, etc.

By: margaretpoa

margaretpoa — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:05:00 +0000

While dressed stylishly in colors that matched the case of the thing.