Library computer scene in 1986 movie (RAM, monitors, email, screens)
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Is it technically possible? Yeah, probably. Is it possible in a practical reality kind of way? No way. School computers weren't networked back then (almost nothing outside the enterprise was networked at that point), so there would have been no way to communicate between systems.
I laugh at that scene when I see that film. It's comically unrealistic.
But the high school mainframes were essentially networks, weren't they?
Not only "Jumpin Jack Flash" (Whoopi Goldberg) but there was a Tom Hanks movie (maybe "Big") where he gets a job as a computer operator due to his boyhood familiarity with computers (Ha ha). Both great computer films in the "Wargames" mode.
Yes I am grateful to have BIG,Wargames and Jumpin' Jack Flash on VHS in thier original formats!! (No remastering crap,etc)
The original format is film and your VHS copy is a low resolution and most likely highly edited "pan & scan" version that is not even remotely close to the original film. It simply cannot come anywhere near reproducing the original film even if the wide screen format has been preserved, it's technically impossible due to limitations of VHS. The closest you will get to the original film quality and aspect is Blu Ray if available and even that cannot 100% reproduce the film version but since you aren't viewing it on giant scree 20 foot tall screen it doesn't matter.
LOL! Yeah, I remember shlepping the "original formats." Roughly 50 lbs of cellulose acetate or (later) polyester with lotsa little slides all lined up in a row.
But the high school mainframes were essentially networks, weren't they?
A mainframe would have been, but no school I ever saw had terminals for the students to use. A mainframe would have given access to the faculty to manage student records and whatnot. A production mainframe wouldn't have any educational value, as they're not going to allow the students access to the same system that stores their grades, attendance, etc. I can't see any high schools installing a second (very expensive) mainframe just to teach students databases...
Computer labs were filled with whatever the "desktop" of the day was. At my junior high school, around the same time, we had Commodore PETs and IIRC, some Apple ][ machines. A few had FDDs, but most had cassette storage. None were networked - it wasn't even fathomable in that environment at that point in tech history.
Note that I'm only relating my own experiences - I can't speak for how things were done in other places, but I do have over twenty years of I.T. experience now, and except for maybe a few isolated cases in very wealthy areas, I can't see that many schools would/could have been much different.
The original format is film and your VHS copy is a low resolution and most likely highly edited "pan & scan" version that is not even remotely close to the original film.
No what I mean is Its in analogue where it is the nicest!!
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