27 July 1956 “New Blog Schedule and 1956 Computers”

As I have been rather lax of late in my posts and with continued good advice from some of you, I have decided to try and make an ‘official Blog Schedule’. I simply used to make time each morning as part of my normal home making schedule, but have increasingly found the call of the garden, chickens and my Barn Project (more to come on that) too tempting.
So, my proposed new schedule is to try and post something everyday. On Tuesdays and Fridays I will do my usual rambling photo filled posts. The rest of the week I will simply put up an image or video or recipe etc a single item of interest to us, 1956, the Home and general vintage living. This way, at least, we can keep our conversations and insight going everyday. I know we have the Forum for this as well, but I rather like way our conversations have unfolded in the past on the blog and hope to keep that and rekindle the old ways. (See I am already nostalgic for 1955 and it was only last year! I suppose I am just a hopeless romantic)
Well, then, today (as it is not Tuesday nor Friday) Will be the first simple post. Enjoy, comment and thank you if you are still sticking around.
Hubby emailed me this picture. He said it is a 350 disk Storage unit for IBM. It holds the equivalent of roughly TWO mp3 files! So basically, two songs from your i Pod would fit on this. I looked up the Computer this was associated with and found this interesting film about the IBM computer in 1956. We often forget the impetus for the computer was warfare and protection. This film has that mid-century feel of living with that fear. I suppose when you consider two world wars, people had become used to the idea of their world being taken away rather easily. Ironic, as well, that all the power and work that went into systems to protect or create fear now allows us to bob along to our favorite songs on our iPod or sit and blog about what we had for dinner. Sometimes 1956 seems Centuries away.

Well, there you go. Simple information but I shall try and do so each day. Let’s do discuss, though. The impact of computers on our current life. What do you think our life would be like today if the computer had never been invented? Is our casual use of technology today for entertainment merely a part of our consumer culture, or is it an almost pacifier for us to not think and worry about what is actually happening with technology in the military? Are we any safer than those felt in 1956 or are we just more distracted?