Sunday, August 09, 2020

The Sunday Five - In the Beginning



I recently stumbled across this while searching for a misplaced car key (I found the car key.) This was my first memory card based MP3 player.  It has a whopping 512MG memory card in it. My how fast things have changed, I can remember buying my first cassette tape player, and later my first CD player.  So technology - in the beginning will be the theme for this weeks Sunday Five. 

1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? 
2: Did you purchased any music CDs in the last year?
3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? 
4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? 
5: Was your first one, Beta or VHS? 

My answers: 
1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? Without giving away the answer I will just say it is not a public display of affection, and yes I did own one. 
2: Did you purchased any music CDs in the last year? A handful, ordered a couple of Amazon, and bought a few from artists performing in public. 
3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? No, wish I did.  
4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? These were the huge things that played music off of a disk the size of a 33 RPM LP, saw a few of them, never owned one (the disks were expensive.) 
5: Was your first one, Beta or VHS? Beta - the video quality was actually better. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

18 comments:

  1. 1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? I have no idea what that is?

    2: Did you purchased any music CDs in the last year? No...Itunes for my Ishuffle.

    3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? Nope.

    4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? Yes. My dad had to have one...and they were not around very long in the scheme of technology. My mother just recently gave it and the disks, which were the size of 33 albums, to a junk collector.

    5: Was your first one, Beta or VHS? VHS.

    I still swear by my Ipod Shuffle. It's the size of a half dollar and has around 600 songs on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phones largely replaced music players, I agree they were really neat.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous8/09/2020

    1. I don't know what a PDA is.
    2. Cds? Haha.
    3. Yes and it is so modern it can play cds too.
    4. Someone we knew had a video disc player, maybe a superior high quality player.
    5. VHS, although we knew Beta was superior as that is what TV broadcasters used. Young people wouldn't have a clue about what we are talking about, let alone the sectioned off area for those over 21 where more interesting videos could be hired.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The under 21's don't know the pain.

      Delete
  3. 1: personal digital assistant; no
    2: no
    3: yes
    4: yes; no
    5: beta (with the ex-husband)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? Personal Digital Assistant, and I never had one.
    2: Did you purchased any music CDs in the last year? Yes.
    3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? No.
    4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? No and no.
    5: Was your first one, Beta or VHS? Beta. God I'm old.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't use the PDA long, it was the gateway to my first blackberry smart phone. I needed a digital calendar.

      Delete
  5. 1. Personal Digital Assistant. Thanks Bob and Anne Marie! Didn't have one.
    2. I'm always buying CDs. That's as far as I'm going with technology musically.
    3. I do own a working cassette tape player. It's sitting on top of my working VCR both gathering dust.
    4. Never heard of video disk players.
    5. VHS. By the time BH and I could afford one, Betas were on there way out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should find a working cassette player

      Delete
  6. 1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? My original guess was Personal Data Assistant, but then I saw the other answers and knew "data" was wrong. I also thought they were just called a Blackberry.
    2: Did you purchase any music CDs in the last year? Yes
    3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? Several, in tandem with a CD player.
    4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? I didn't own one, but I saw one and used it when I was house/kid sitting for a family in Germany (it was a way teachers could earn extra money--usually several hundred Deutsch Marks for a weekend). This was in 1985-1987. This family had a video disk player because German television was pretty bad, and the Armed Forces channel (needed a special antenna for it to work) was about a year behind and fairly limited. They had dozens and dozens of the full size video disks. These families usually had big bucks since they were in Germany for several years representing a big company. One family had five kids in our K-12 International School, and the dad was head of McDonalds for all of Europe. Sorry, TMI, but a good memory for me!
    5: VHS or Beta: VHS even though my BIL swore that Beta was better. We still have a VCR that works and several dozen tapes, some recorded and some bought. We use our DVD player mostly, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My PDA was a Dell, no cell signal, just WiFi, I used it primarily as a portable calendar that synced to my Outlook calendar. Beta had high image density, but was never as popular. I parted with the last of the tapes when we sold the other house.

      Delete
  7. 1: What is a PDA and did you ever own one? Personal Digital Assistant. I did own one in the very early 2000s and I couldn't at first remember what kind. A Palm Pilot!
    2: Did you purchased any music CDs in the last year? No.
    3: Do you own a working cassette tape player? No
    4: Do you remember "video disk players" and did you ever own one? Oh yeah!
    5: Was your first one, Beta or VHS? A friend of ours bought a new BETA around 1985 and gave us her old one. We started buying BETA movies and had quite a collection until they were discontinued perhaps a year later. THEN we bought a VHS. We had our family VHS tapes (and a cable TV show SG hosted) digitized before coming to Spain in 2011.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a few tapes from my parents, and a bunch of old 8mm movies I should have digitized.

      Delete
  8. 1. Yes, I owned a Palm Pilot for a while. I honestly didn't think it was much better than my former "day timer".
    2. I didn't purchase any CD's but a friend gave me one.
    3. Believe it or not, I have a cassette player in my car. I bought the car when CD players were active but I asked them to put in a combination CD/Cassette player. They thought I was nuts.
    4. I don't remember video disk players.
    5.Beta was my first video player. (you are right, the quality was better)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is the first car I have owned without a tape player since 1990

      Delete
  9. I very much want a working cassette player for a I have lots of old cassette tapes waiting to be heard once more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have just a few left, and feel the same way

      Delete