Waaayyyyy back in Dec 2000 I decided to re-read all the Frederick Forsyth novels starting with 'Day of the Jackal'. It seemed somewhat weird reading about old ways of communication, money transfer etc but then I got to 'The Negotiator' issued in 1989 in which an oil magnate stood in the top floor penthouse of his company building in Houston, pressed a remote control and a panel of walling slid aside to reveal a 24" TV screen.


These days that would more likely be some gigantic smart jobbie with all the bells and whistles.
Even my mum has a 28" TV in her TV cabinet (she has a thing about TV's being on view when not being watched)

He is one of my favourite authors and the film of 'Day of the Jackal' was, IMHO, just superb and tracked the novel exceedingly well.
Sadly 'The Odessa File' film was  compared to the book

Your typical Texas oil tycoon these days probably has a 24" smartphone...

I watched "Die Hard" for the first time not so many months ago (one of those films I keep seeing referenced, but never saw), set around the same time; it was amusing to see how they could cut a bunch of people off from the telecommunication network by cutting a bunch of, like, wires. It was also a bit of a jolt to be remined just how prevalent smoking used to be.

It's amazing how quickly things become out of date. Taking sitcoms as an example, a huge amount just seem so old hat, yet a sitcom set in an enclosed set e.g. 'Porridge' is timeless and hasn't aged at all really (not that I've been inside a nick to know but believe they have it a lot more cushy than even Norman Stanley Fletcher's day)

My Grandson, then 10 asked me how we managed without mobile phones.

I explained we used landlines, and phone boxes and letters.

'But how did you meet your friends?' he said.

When I explained that we met up regularly at pre-arranged times and places. He seemed very worried about that as... 'People might be late and not know where you've gone!' He thought it very cruel that if you were late you missed out.

Daniel Hannan is writing today about how different the civil service is from the way it was in Sir Humphrey Appleby's time. I still find Yes Minister wonderful, though.

Quote from: Newportnobby on January 29, 2022, 09:31:32 PM
It's amazing how quickly things become out of date. Taking sitcoms as an example, a huge amount just seem so old hat, yet a sitcom set in an enclosed set e.g. 'Porridge' is timeless and hasn't aged at all really (not that I've been inside a nick to know but believe they have it a lot more cushy than even Norman Stanley Fletcher's day)

except when Napper Wainwright arrives, no he was a right