SpaceX-Starlink

[fdnycruiser]

Saw the space X launch while out doing chores yesterday. Help is on the way , more satellites 

[Randyk47]

I have to smile almost chuckle to myself.  I can easily remember when I started cruising in the early 90’s.  My mother and sister were still alive and we always send them the ship’s phone number in case of emergency.  Over the years we were “excited” that we could when we could actually use our cell phones though we certainly couldn’t leave them on all the time.  Then it was eventually Internet but costly and slow.  So here we are in 2023 and wanting and thinking of close to land based Internet connectivity.  Amazing for a guy who used to be my father’s “remote control” for the TV and the whole three or four TV channels we had.  I was “change the channel….turn up/down the volume” device.  😀

[fdnycruiser]

LOL !  That was a part of my job description too, many years back Randy. Only 1 television, and you watched whatever your parents watched. 3 or 4 channels and black & white. 

[Randyk47]

1 hour ago, fdnycruiser said:

LOL !  That was a part of my job description too, many years back Randy. Only 1 television, and you watched whatever your parents watched. 3 or 4 channels and black & white. 

Yup.  We had a black and white Sears Silvertone television.  I think it was around a 19” screen which was considered big for the time.  The cabinet itself was like a 3x3’ cube and it weighted a ton.  Had to turn it on and let it warm up.   We watched whatever my father wanted to watch.  It wasn’t a democracy.   I was actually surprised he eventually got a computer and the Internet.   He also cruised out of Florida quite a bit after he retired but I don’t remember him talking about the Internet on a ship.  If he used it it wasn’t to send me an email.   

[canderson]

22 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

Amazing for a guy who used to be my father’s “remote control” for the TV and the whole three or four TV channels we had.  I was “change the channel….turn up/down the volume” device.  😀

Were you also in charge of 'the rabbit ears'?  Unlike the volume control, that adjustment was more art than science!

[Randyk47]

11 minutes ago, canderson said:

Were you also in charge of 'the rabbit ears'?  Unlike the volume control, that adjustment was more art than science!

That too.  😬👍

[Host Jazzbeau]

I guess having a father who had been a licensed electrician made a difference in my childhood:  we had the first TV on our block, and we had a roof antenna from the get-go.  No rabbit ears for me.  [Of course, living on Long Island all the TV stations were in the same place (Empire State Building) so it was easy to aim the roof antenna!  But we did have 7 to choose from, even in the earliest days.]