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Bandwidth

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
JMN2
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Bandwidth

#101521

Postby JMN2 » December 4th, 2017, 6:28 pm

As in "PM only has so much bandwidth".

Never heard that word used in this context before today but today I've heard it three times already. It's as stupid as what Americans used to say a few years ago, "Thank you for reaching out".

Slarti
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Re: Bandwidth

#101526

Postby Slarti » December 4th, 2017, 6:38 pm

She can only handle one thing at a time?

Perhaps she isn't a woman after all, as they can multi-task.
Perhaps she's a robot?


Slarti

swill453
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Re: Bandwidth

#101530

Postby swill453 » December 4th, 2017, 6:49 pm

Not sure I'd call its use stupid, "mental capacity" is one of the dictionary definitions. I've heard it frequently in this context.

"Reaching out" though, that's another kettle of fish. When UK colleagues started using it non-ironically, that's when I knew it was time to retire.

Scott.

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Re: Bandwidth

#101541

Postby redsturgeon » December 4th, 2017, 7:10 pm

JMN2 wrote:As in "PM only has so much bandwidth".

Never heard that word used in this context before today but today I've heard it three times already. It's as stupid as what Americans used to say a few years ago, "Thank you for reaching out".


I heard it yesterday on one of the political TV programmes, others have since decided it is a useful phrase. I forget who said it but I remember he was stumbling around looking for the right word and came up with "bandwidth" when it wasn't perhaps the actual word he was trying to find. It may have been Clegg.

John

bungeejumper
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Re: Bandwidth

#102070

Postby bungeejumper » December 6th, 2017, 11:11 am

Agree, on the whole, that it's one of those rare neologisms that actually says something useful. A telling sign of the times and of the way our multi-connected lives are changing. Indeed, I daresay our parents would have been shocked at the phrase "multi-tasking" too, unless we were talking about electric drills or suchlike? ;)

Conversely, the march of technology is always rendering familiar words obsolete. "Wireless", anyone? (as in "listening to".) "Roneo"? "Carbon copy" won't be with us for much longer. Mark my words, it's the end of civilisation as we used to know it. :lol:

BJ

redsturgeon
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Re: Bandwidth

#102074

Postby redsturgeon » December 6th, 2017, 11:19 am

bungeejumper wrote:
"Roneo"?

BJ


You got me there...what was that? A stereo that only played the Ronettes? :)

John

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Re: Bandwidth

#102077

Postby Gaggsy » December 6th, 2017, 11:25 am

redsturgeon wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:
"Roneo"?

BJ


You got me there...what was that? A stereo that only played the Ronettes? :)

John


No, it was a phrase as uttered by 'Big' Ron Atkinson, for example: "The boy done good" or "It was a game of two halves".

swill453
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Re: Bandwidth

#102081

Postby swill453 » December 6th, 2017, 11:29 am

bungeejumper wrote:"Carbon copy" won't be with us for much longer.

Is email going obsolete then?

Scott.

bungeejumper
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Re: Bandwidth

#102083

Postby bungeejumper » December 6th, 2017, 11:40 am

redsturgeon wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:
"Roneo"?

BJ


You got me there...what was that? A stereo that only played the Ronettes? :)

It's Shakespeare, innit? Roneo, Roneo, wherefore art thou Roneo?

The first time I heard that, I nearly fell out of me perambulator. Not that baby buggy would have sounded very good to my mother either. ;)

BJ

(Actually, Roneo = https://habrastorage.org/getpro/geektim ... cbd2da.jpg . We were still using one of those for lesson materials when I quit teaching in the 1970s. HTH)

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Bandwidth

#102087

Postby UncleEbenezer » December 6th, 2017, 12:03 pm

bungeejumper wrote:"Wireless", anyone? (as in "listening to".)

Frequently. Sadly searching the word turns up a haystack of alternative usages, but a bit of context[1] finds instances like viewtopic.php?t=4361 and viewtopic.php?f=71&p=99463
"Roneo"?

Whut?
"Carbon copy"
BJ

Use that a great deal more than when it was a physical thing. Can't complain at the vast improvement in quality, functionality and ease of use, not to mention reduction in mess.

[1] Using google, because lemonfool's own search insists that it knows better than me and discards the context.

scotia
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Re: Bandwidth

#102118

Postby scotia » December 6th, 2017, 1:29 pm

Ah! the Roneo. The secretaries used to type out the tutorial questions on a stencil, but we had to hand-cut a stencil for the solutions, which could contain diagrams. For the younger generation - this involved the stencil being placed on a hard plastic board, and operated on with a sharp stylus. The stencils went through the Roneo machine to produce the copies (classes of up to 100) - and the room required serious ventilation from the ink chemicals. These stencils were kept hanging up in a specially designed steel cupboard, and could be used year after year - provided the lecture course didn't change too much.
One academic looked into the cost of a photocopier, and concluded we could afford it - based on the number of copies made by the Roneo. But once the photocopier was installed the number of copies produced escalated enormously due to the added convenience, and his cost estimates proved hopelessly optimistic.
And as for the wireless set - of course that's what we all called it. In a mains powered wireless set the valve cathode heaters were indirect, and took time to warm up, whereas in my grandmothers house, which had no mains power, the wireless set was battery powered with an accumulator for the direct cathode heaters so, to my surprise, it started immediately when it was switched on. Does anyone still remember what an accumulator was? And how about valves and cathode heaters?

bungeejumper
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Re: Bandwidth

#102138

Postby bungeejumper » December 6th, 2017, 2:06 pm

scotia wrote:Ah! the Roneo. The secretaries used to type out the tutorial questions on a stencil, but we had to hand-cut a stencil for the solutions, which could contain diagrams. For the younger generation - this involved the stencil being placed on a hard plastic board, and operated on with a sharp stylus. The stencils went through the Roneo machine to produce the copies (classes of up to 100) - and the room required serious ventilation from the ink chemicals. These stencils were kept hanging up in a specially designed steel cupboard, and could be used year after year - provided the lecture course didn't change too much.
One academic looked into the cost of a photocopier, and concluded we could afford it - based on the number of copies made by the Roneo. But once the photocopier was installed the number of copies produced escalated enormously due to the added convenience, and his cost estimates proved hopelessly optimistic.

Thank you for rescuing what remains of my sanity. :) Yes, it was odd that, in Thatcher's era as Education Minister, we had video recorders coming in for the science teachers (although nobody was allowed to touch them - that was the lab assistant's job). But in the staffroom we were using 19th century mimeograph technology for our lesson materials.

And as for the wireless set - of course that's what we all called it. In a mains powered wireless set the valve cathode heaters were indirect, and took time to warm up, whereas in my grandmothers house, which had no mains power, the wireless set was battery powered with an accumulator for the direct cathode heaters so, to my surprise, it started immediately when it was switched on. Does anyone still remember what an accumulator was? And how about valves and cathode heaters?

Battery power for radios was the only available option in some rural areas, even as recently as the 1950s. My former neighbour had once set up a business with a motorcycle and sidecar, delivering charged-up accumulators to the outlying farms and bringing back the empties for recharging.

Speaking of which, one of my (very) elderly neighbours at another address remembered how a young lady who'd lived in my house had been "ever so modern" in getting a radio set back in the early thirties. But that she'd complained to this neighbour about having to listen to the announcers for so much of the day.

"Why don't you turn it off then?", the neighbour had asked. "Oh, I'd like to," said the young woman. "But it seems so rude." :lol:

BJ

Watis
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Re: Bandwidth

#102148

Postby Watis » December 6th, 2017, 2:20 pm

My school acquired a Sony reel to reel video recorder in the early 1970's. Apparently it cost somewhat north of £10,000!

After a week it broke when a user set it to rewind and fast forward at the same time. I was told that the damage was so great that it had to be returned to Japan for repair. We certainly didn't see it for about three months.

Some students argued that the money would have been better spent on new textbooks. The response was that it wasn't an either/or decision but that the school could have the recorder, or not. The funds must have come from a different budget.

Watis

Rhyd6
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Re: Bandwidth

#102210

Postby Rhyd6 » December 6th, 2017, 5:15 pm

My dad made me a wooden trailer for my push bike and I used to take the accumulater to "Jones the Bike" for it to be recharged. Jones the Bike had been a wireless operator in WWII and was regarded as the fount of all knowledge regarding such things. I also earned pocket money by going around the houses of spinster ladies and taking their accumulators to be recharged and also doing their shopping at our local "Bells" shop. The Jardine spinsters were my favourites for shopping as they used to give me 3d instead of the usual 1d. Still needed to persuade my mum to give me a coupon so that I could go to the sweet shop to spend my hard earned cash.

R6

scotia
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Re: Bandwidth

#102226

Postby scotia » December 6th, 2017, 6:16 pm

This is wandering delightfully off topic - so here's another addition
Still needed to persuade my mum to give me a coupon so that I could go to the sweet shop to spend my hard earned cash.

I remember the day when sweets went off ration - and mum told me I didn't need a coupon. So I tentatively attempted a purchase without a coupon - and it worked!

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Re: Bandwidth

#102237

Postby JMN2 » December 6th, 2017, 6:42 pm

What was the printing or more likely the photocopying technology called until the 70's when the teacher would hand out notes/reports what have you and the print was pale blue, usually it used to be hand written stack of stapled A4's, pale and faint blue and a smell? Was it acid printing or something else?

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Bandwidth

#102250

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 6th, 2017, 7:01 pm

Bander?
With a strong alcohol/solvent smell. Or perhaps that was our French master..

redsturgeon
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Re: Bandwidth

#102267

Postby redsturgeon » December 6th, 2017, 8:05 pm

JMN2 wrote:What was the printing or more likely the photocopying technology called until the 70's when the teacher would hand out notes/reports what have you and the print was pale blue, usually it used to be hand written stack of stapled A4's, pale and faint blue and a smell? Was it acid printing or something else?


I think we knew it as cyclostyle copying but I believe that was a hangover from a yet earlier process.

John

JMN2
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Re: Bandwidth

#102268

Postby JMN2 » December 6th, 2017, 8:14 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Bander?
With a strong alcohol/solvent smell. Or perhaps that was our French master..


Thanks, Banda it is. AKA Ditto, Roneo, spirit duplicator. I remember the smell.

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Re: Bandwidth

#102293

Postby tjh290633 » December 6th, 2017, 10:43 pm

In the 1960s our typists used tracing paper with a yellow carbon underneath to provide a master which could be used in a dyeline machine to produce multiple copies. Telex was interesting, in that you could falsify documents that appeared to come from another genuine source. They could be used with care to support visa applications. No good if they checked with the apparent source.

From what I remember, the Banda was a pain. One Round Table had one used to produce bulletins. Having to operate the Banda was drawing the short straw. Word processors were a blessing. Olitext was the first we used, then Wordstar. I forget what the one that the BBC Micro B used was called. Began with a "V" from what I recall. Ultracalc was the spreadsheet. Then came Lotus.

Happy days.

TJH


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