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Little-known fact: commercial jukeboxes went digital in 1955

they were one of the first 'normie' consumer devices to beco...
Walnut Ladyboy
  08/17/26
fascinating. did not realize this. "In 1955, the See...
Passionate Therapy
  08/17/26
right. it was primitive, but companies like IBM were chargi...
Walnut Ladyboy
  08/17/26
HBO should do a deep dive 'Mad Men' period series about that...
Passionate Therapy
  08/17/26
1950's computation was a total frontier with most guys not r...
Walnut Ladyboy
  08/17/26
Wow
salmon theater
  08/17/26


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Date: August 17th, 2026 9:23 AM
Author: Walnut Ladyboy

they were one of the first 'normie' consumer devices to become digitized. the records themselves were not digitized, but when you plunked a coin into the slot and picked a song, the coin and selection would be transferred to a ferrite-based memory stack rather than processed via an immediate electromechanical system.

this meant that up to 200 people could pick their songs to play sequentially, rather than everyone having to do a one-by-one kind of thing and getting into fights.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50072898)



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Date: August 17th, 2026 9:29 AM
Author: Passionate Therapy

fascinating. did not realize this.

"In 1955, the Seeburg Corporation revolutionized the industry by introducing the "Tormat" Memory Unit on their V200 jukebox. This system used the exact same "ferrite" or magnetic-core memory technology that early mainframe computers from IBM and MIT were using at the time."

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50072907)



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Date: August 17th, 2026 9:30 AM
Author: Walnut Ladyboy

right. it was primitive, but companies like IBM were charging thousands of bucks for the exact same capacities for corporate clients in specialized applications just a couple years earlier.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50072909)



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Date: August 17th, 2026 9:45 AM
Author: Passionate Therapy

HBO should do a deep dive 'Mad Men' period series about that era of early computers/tech, how it all went down.

we've heard endlessly about the PC wars of the 70s/80s, but the pre-history is less well known.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50072936)



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Date: August 17th, 2026 9:46 AM
Author: Walnut Ladyboy

1950's computation was a total frontier with most guys not really knowing what they were doing, much less how to do it. but they had big plans.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50072940)



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Date: August 17th, 2026 10:47 AM
Author: salmon theater

Wow

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5893993&forum_id=2#50073054)