The first time you ever heard about something that is now commonplace

[CormoranStrike]

I have two.

I was chatting to a guy who had an audio company in the early 90s I reckon and he mentioned Bluetooth, which confused me. He raved about this new tech and said he was sure it would be massive.

The other was interviewing a forensic scientist on his retiral from the police. He had been the most senior of his speciality at Lockerbie.

He was explaining transference (Occam’s razor) and I can remember sitting on his couch in his living room in the small village he lived in and saying, “wait, do you mean evidence of me having been in your house is now indelibly here, I’ve left traces?” - totally fascinating.

There started a fascination with crime novels, too.

A friend of mine was telling me about the amazing thing mobile phones would be able to do. “They’re developing them with cameras now” he explained. I thought it was a bit pie in the sky and would never catch on anyway.

I remember my DHs friend (always an early adopter, he even bought a 3D telly!) was the first person I knew to get an iPhone, and him showing us how it worked in the pub. I couldn't get my head round how a phone couldn't have a key pad, and how you would get the screen up when there wasn't really anything to press!

TED Talks are people who do the speaking circuit but putting it online, inspirational stuff

OR

Academics and Scientists and Creatives explaining shit

Mostly US contributors though

I remember my dad bringing home our first proper desktop computer - an old one his work was getting rid of - and explaining that we would be able to type up letters etc on it, as well as email friends. It was 1997.

I vividly remember telling a friend that we were getting email, but not the internet. We’d maybe get that later - but for now it was just email. I had no concept whatsoever of how it all worked!

I remember reading a Patricia Cornwell book where they used luminol which detected blood in a house where a murder had taken place years and years ago - the light showed up the splatter pattern so they could see exactly what had happened. It was like reading sci fi.

Oh yes, when I was uni a few people had phones with cameras (they were mostly massive flip phones) and I remember thinking 'that will never catch on' 😂

I remember going to an exhibition at the Science Museum as a child about technology and one of the things they had was an example of video calling. I remember being amazed at being able to video call someone at the other side of the same room!

I also took an ICT GCSE exam in about 2003 which had a section of various questions about the benefits/drawbacks of self-scan tills which absolutely baffled me as I'd never seen or heard about one! Safe to say I didn't do well in that exam!

I remember hearing about Velcro on "Tomorrow's World" I think in the 1970s.

Ted Talks are 15 minute talks by experts in their field. If you youtube them you can see them. They are really worth watching. There is quite a lot so that can be overwhelming so searching for the top ten ted talks can be a good place to start.

1997/98, i’d just started college and one of the boys I was with made a geeky new friend who told us both about the internet, he took us to the college library and showed us how to use it. The fact you could literally search for anything and get it blew my mind. So much so I couldn’t think of anything to look up 😂

Friend explaining to us about all the geek programming & maneuvers he had done so that he could read emails on his mobile phone. Sure we read emails constantly at work or on dialup, but why would we want to do that on a phone? Approx. 1997.

Totally not tech related but the 'new' can ring pulls circa 1989 .

I was on holiday in Switzerland and bought a can of Fanta or something and couldn't figure out how the heck to open it. Someone had to show me the 'pull forward, push back thing'.

Up to then it was ring pulls you just pulled off! This would have been around the same time Marathons became Snickers and Opal Fruits became Starburst.

.

My friend telling me around 10-12 years ago (I think?!) that there was this thing called Facebook. She was doing a masters so had stayed on at uni longer than us. I was like ah cool, I'll check it out. I remember it being so basic at the time and the "poke" function!

Yeah I remember someone I worked with getting WAP and thinking the same: why would you bother with the Internet on your phone?

To be fair those phones were a bit shit.

And my friend from uni telling me about this thing called Facebook where you could put pictures up and join different groups, I joined some really stupid groups when I first got it! It was like a much better version of friends reunited.

Then I remember when people started posting on FB from their phone (and it would come up with 'sent from iPhone' ) on their status. Me and my friend were talking about it and she said. 'if I am ever sad enough to post on FB from my phone, just shoot me'. To be fair, she doesn't go on it that much, but she has definitely posted on FB from her phone!

I also vividly remember asking at primary school why we we had to learn some sort of calculation or another when it was so much easier on a calculator and being told (rather smugly) "Well, you won't be carrying a calculator around with you in your pocket all the time will you?"

Avocados! I was at uni in 2005ish and a friend ordered some in. I thought it was a joke!

October 1991, at uni in the computer room, someone managed to get onto THE World Wide Web. It was a page with a picture of a tree on it. We were amazed!!

I so old I have millions of these! The oldest one though would have been about 1980 at a neighbours house. The dad showing us all the new electronic typewriter. You typed in your sentence, looked at it on the tiny little screen and then pressed go and it typed it onto the paper. We were all open mouthed with wonder.

That reminds me that we had asparagus growing in our garden when I was a child. We knew that it was edible but we had no idea what to do with it and just let it go to seed.

The one I vividly remember is DVDs and players. Saw a news report or Tomorrow's World or something about them. I honestly believed they were a fad that only rich people could afford and would never catch on for the rest of us with trusty VHS!!

Also my friend who had an MP3 player in 6th form. I really didn't see how it was any better than my CD player

I was at university when I had Pesto for the first time. My friends boyfriend was talking about it and I was like 'wtf is pesto'? However, once it had passed my lips, the love affair began and I basically lived on pasta and Pesto for the rest of my life University.

I remember my dh saying to me that one day everyone would have their own phone, and their own number, for life. I thought it was so far fetched. He'd just bought me a Nokia and I thought it was a ridiculous waste of money. I've still got the same number now, 20 years on...

Hummus. My flatmate bought some back from the supermarket in about 1988. I remember us all standing in the kitchen peering into this tub of mysterious beige stuff and wondering what to do with it.

I sent an email in 89/90. In my mind I thought it was like a telex machine. It was between a uni department to my dad who was a name in computing at the time. We chatted about how to set the washing machine.......my mum was away.