70 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

    2. Zilog Z80 or Z8002 (as its a 40 pin ceramic DIP package) on the board so no earlier than 1976 if its the Z80 or 1978 if Z8002…..

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      1. The keypad – it goes from 0-F so is a base 16 number system.

        ie hexadecimal, which is the standard “number system” for all modern digital systems.

        /me can however remember working on an octal computer, some Ferranti pile of junk which apparently was the command & control system for Polaris (we didn’t know that at the time). The entire “display” comprised of Nixie tubes 😀

        That may or may not clarify things 🙂

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          1. I came across aforementioned Ferranti kit in the late 1980s when I worked for Racal, who had been paid to support Ferranti kit by MoD.

            At the time I was working in Test so we “fixed” them – well we diagnosed the fault, found out part was invariably obsolete/no replacement, put them back into Govt store & thankfully never saw them again 🙂

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            1. RACAL at Newbridge? Knew folk that worked there. Late eighties I was in Hewlett Packard, the Printed Circuit Division at Queensferry.

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              2. Wait a sec, was Newbridge Racal MESL (they did custom ASICs etc)? If so then I had some dealings with them regarding an ASIC which failed at 45C+ in a radar warning receiver. Long long LONG time ago now 🙂

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              1. When something is as difficult to understand as that is, Vestas, my best answer is definitely LOL.

                I’m a total technophobe… so yes… clear as mud!

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        3. I worked on Westinghouse W105D which had an Octal computer, base 8.
          I used an AIM65, 6502 processor, same as the BBC computer. Did a wee hands on class with after school lads. To encourage them to learn machine code I used to get them to get the machine to print out return bus tickets, the Central SMT used the same thermal ink printer for producing their tickets. Why returns, well the driver wouldn’t accept a single as he hadn’t printed it out so you were up to no good. A return was much harder but worked everytime. I know it was wrong but the lads produced fine work that was their return fare home and so educationally well worth it.
          I was presented with the AIM65 when I moved on, still have it, 4k bytes of RAM and a One MHz processor.

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  2. One photo there showing an image of a great Scottish socialist hero. Unfortunately it’s being carried by a mealy mouthed apostate who sold his soul for ermine.

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    2. you mean Mr sorry Lord “devolution would to rapes and rioting” Darling?

      Mind you Brexit might lead to fights over the last can of soup…

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      1. Didn’t hear him say ‘and I’ll get a lovely well paid piece of the ermine for telling you this rubbish’
        Carless jackass on stv says he supports hunt, boris will need to convince him he’s the best candidate AFTER he becomes PM.
        Bit late for that idea.
        I don’t like olives but i’ll eat a large number then convince myself again that I don’t like olives.
        Are we in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire?
        More like the decline and fall of the westminister Empire, The Music Hall of Fools.

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    4. Don’t almost all politically successful British lefties end up selling their souls for ermine? An institutional reward from royalty for not having caused too much trouble?

      America (and the French) showed the world the proper way to deal with royalty and aristocracy, but the Brits and Canadians paid no mind. It’s an enduring disgrace that a “Queen of Canada” still reigns on the North American continent. Canadians are an annoyingly placid people. Typical Canadian protest signs:

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    5. He used to talk sense until he shaved off the beard. I guess his brain cells were located in the beard. A twist in Samson and his hair.

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    6. You can’t be referring to Baron Splendid, surely!
      The Millie Tant of his generation who held dinner parties for his exclusive circle of private school friends whilst a student at Aberdeen in the 1970s.
      I went to a normal school so didn’t know him but a friend of mine did. Two fun stories about Baron Splendid:
      1. At the dinner table, if other people were speaking, the Baron would mumble something to soneone far away who couldn’t hear. That person would invariably ask what he’d said. And everyone else would pipe down so he could speak.
      2. My friend emigrated and shortly after the General Election which saw every Tory in Scotland lose their seats, I told my friend that the Baron had been elected as an MP. My friends reaction was “We heard here that there were no Tories returned in Scotland.” Without sarcasm.

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  3. Oh I see the darling of the left before he ditched his principals. Biscuits when you bought by weight from the local grocer or already packaged. With retail price maintenance until 1964 the price was the same in all the shops. Once that was abolished the supermarkets started to flourish.

    Shane Fenton and the Fentones before he reincarnated as Alvin Stardust..

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    2. I was watching a TV program in which Alvin Stardust was introduced to the viewing public.
      He stated to the interviewer that Shane Fenton was no more and should be forgotten.
      Two hours later there was a Tommy Steele movie, I forget the title, incorporating a recording session by … Shane Fenton and the Fentones.
      If not worth a full blown LOL, then at least a quiet chortle or two.

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  5. The picture is from Sinatra’s years with Capitol in the 1950’s, where he fashioned a highly regarded musical style after his years as a big band singer with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra in the Swing era and his first recording contract with Columbia.

    Sinatra was by all accounts a 24 Karat jerk from New Jersey with strong mob connections who didn’t have a singing voice that could compare with the other pop music crooners of the era……Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Dean Martin, etc……but seems to be appreciated for a certain style of phrasing and tempo and musical material that was first showcased on the Capitol recordings.

    From the 1946 film “Till the Clouds Roll By.” The only song that could possibly serve as the finale to a movie biography of Jerome Kern:

    From Rolling Stone titled “The Capitol Years”

    https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-capitol-years-89185/

    A long biographical article in The Atlantic titled “Swing and Sensibility”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/09/swing-and-sensibility/377201/

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    1. I can’t see the fascination of Sinatra.

      It’s not that I don’t appreciate that kind of music… I like some of the others of his time. But he didn’t have a very good voice, and, I know that they say it was all about phrasing, but to be honest, I can’t see any of that myself. But maybe I’m weird. I also can’t see why anyone made a lot of Elvis.

      The ‘Ol’ Man River’ in the clip is possibly the worst version I’ve heard of that song!

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      1. Tris…..I agree. All the crooners of the era were better singers than Sinatra.

        Only in a lavish big-star 1940’s musical biopic would you find Sinatra singing Ol’ Man River. 😉

        The song was written by Kern and Hammerstein for Paul Robeson. But he was unavailable when Show Boat opened on Broadway in 1927, and the part of Joe was played by Jules Bledsoe, who thus became the first person to sing Ol’ Man River. Robeson sang the part in London when the show opened in the West End in 1928. Robeson appeared in a later Broadway production in 1932 and appeared in the 1936 film.

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      2. He was allegedly a “made man” and his time was peak time for the Mafia in the USA.

        I’d imagine he’d have been a money launderers dream back then – when you didn’t need retired miltary transport aircraft to move the dollars like now (no joke).

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        2. Vestas and Tris……There was never a dull moment with Sinatra. Stories of his association with Mafia figures followed him everywhere, and the character of Johnny Fontane in Mario Puzo’s “Godfather” was rumored to be patterned after Sinatra. He may have had mob assistance in getting him out of his contract with Tommy Dorsey. Whether or not someone held a gun to Dorsey’s head like the incident depicted in The Godfather, the ensuing feud between Dorsey and Sinatra was never resolved.

          His mother Dolly was active in New Jersey Democratic politics in Hoboken, and also functioned as a midwife (and abortionist when required.) Rat Pack member Peter Lawford was JFK’s brother in law, and Sinatra was active in the 1960 presidential campaign on behalf of JFK. After Kennedy was elected, Bobby Kennedy was appointed Attorney General and became concerned about Sinatra’s mob connections. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dug up dirt on him. When JFK cancelled a high profile stay at Sinatra’s Palm Springs home for a presidential visit to California in 1962, Sinatra was furious and ejected Lawford from the Rat Pack. He supported Republicans after that. 😉

          https://www.biography.com/news/john-f-kennedy-frank-sinatra-friendship

          https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sinatra-at-100-was-a-844595

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            1. And before Mia Farrow there was Ava Gardner. Lots of stories about her and other wives and girlfriends. Amazing that he ever found time to sing…..LOL.

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  6. I’m surprised that Cary Grant would agree to be photographed with a car like that. Perhaps money was involved. 😉

    Looks like the ad in the Saturday Evening Post shows very first De Soto. Walter Chrysler added the low cost De Soto to the Chrysler line in 1928, and it first appeared with the 1929 model year. Early 1930’s models had a similar body style, but with a split windshield and differently mounted headlights.

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    1. I wondered when someone was going to ask about him.

      He is John MacDonald’s grandfather. The photograph was taken on his first visit to New York.

      He died in 1926, aged 86, so we reckon it dates from about 1860 as he looks about 20 (or younger). He left the sea in 1889, married a 25-year-old and went on to have nine children. John’s father, the youngest, was born in 1910 when his granddad was 70!

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      1. He sounds like a hellava guy. In America on the eve of the civil war…and fathering weans when he was old enough to surely know better. The photo intrigued me…I’m guessing a tintype/ ferrotype. It’s certainly a studio composition, so it’s not done by some street hustler…c’mon, he’s posing like a chookie and all dressed up like a pox-doctor’s clerk . It’s possible there’s a support at his back…certainly that’s what the chair is for…to keep him still ( not something there’s any evidence of hitherto!). It’s a plain background …typical 1850’s – 1860’s … a wee bit of “classical” …but look at the floor… I’d guess that if you trawled thro’ early american/ new york photos you could make a pretty good guess at the studio…photographer etc

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        1. It is a tintype plate. My father found it among the meager possessions of his eldest brother (born 1900) when he died in Glasgow in the 1970s. Can only presume the NY photo studio specialised in souvenir pix for sailors. Equally unlikely that my grandpa namesake left North Uist with a ditty bag containing striped trousers, watch chain, and the rest of the fancy rig. Getting kitted out for the photie was probably part of the deal. Neck brace is also very likely. Long exposure time made it necessary to avoid movement and out of focus result.

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    2. Has anyone any idea who the Highlander might be. Again, John sent the pic. He got it in South Africa many years ago. It has no inscription.

      Any ideas?

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  9. After alvin
    Glasgow’s by-pass motorway at the junction into High Street, the hospital in the background.
    Must be late 60’s.
    Still there as it was built, just a bit more built up.

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  10. Four Austin Sevens at a garage.
    From left to right,1936 Mk2 Ruby saloon, 1934 Box saloon, 1930 Box saloon and a 1934 tourer,can’t tell if 2 or 4 seat, suspect 4 seater.
    Hard to believe that underneath the bodies are the same mechanicals with minor changes. In 1936 Austin introduced the pressed steel radiator cowl, the older models had chrome plated brass.

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