thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

"[the] computer that provided hundreds of charts for Joan Quigley, the [President Ronald and Nancy] Reagans' astrologer, who determined the timing of important events in the Reagan presidency such as: the take off times for Air Force One for important trips, the timing of all presidential press conferences, the signing of numerous anti-nuclear treaties with the Soviet Union."

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746921

WHAT THE FUCK

sergio_101, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs

Oh MAN would I like to dig into how this worked. Was it like a magic 8 ball, or did it really do some kinda astronomical calculation that was interpreted by a person?

tsturm, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs Yep. The Reagans had an astrologer. It's a miracle we survived the 80s.

thedansimonson, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs the more I’ve learned about Reagan over the years, it’s become unambiguous that he dropped all of his skill points on charisma and literally nothing else

DrFerrous, 2 months ago

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thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@DrFerrous real

DrFerrous, 2 months ago

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thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@DrFerrous ikr

aral, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs @landybham It’s a fucking miracle we’re all still alive.

noyes, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs
If that's real it's got to be worth a fortune to a collector somewhere. Might be a fake, tho. Really hard to believe your own eyes these days.
@mcc

thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@noyes @mcc it’s real

nazokiyoubinbou, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs Rofl, reminds me of stuff like this:

thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@nazokiyoubinbou tf is this lol, looks like an elaborate egg timer

dr_a, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs The @mediaarchaeologylab needs one of these.

mediaarchaeologylab, 2 months ago

@dr_a @thomasfuchs oh that is beautiful and odd

thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@mediaarchaeologylab @dr_a it’s on eBay fwiw https://www.ebay.com/itm/305486787039

mediaarchaeologylab, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs @dr_a oof, that's a little steep. but what an oddity...

cenbe, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs OMG, different house systems at the turn of a dial! I must have this!

ncrav, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs well it still looks better than chatgpt astrology 🙄🤭

oliof, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs you can find these for about 500EUR, no warranty, no returns. After all, you should only buy one under auspicious signs.

christopherdrum, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs I would have killed to have one of those back in the day (when I was a child and thought astrology was real).
I had the Coleco Zodiac.

draNgNon, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs I'm pretty sure what MERID is but... what are these others?

amazing find nonetheless.

Mela, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs FYI: Links in ALT-Texts do not work.

thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@Mela there’s no link in the alt text?

Mela, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs on my client it shows one:

thomasfuchs, 2 months ago

@Mela That's the URL of the image that's attached, not text in the alt.

Mela, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs funny. Never seen this before.

sergio_101, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs

Looks like that computer the sleestaks used. Awesome.

sidereal, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs Wowww I'm going to make a company that makes these with RPi's and I am going to make so much god damn money. Thank you for posting this

sidereal, 2 months ago

@thomasfuchs Seriously. If you set up at a hip bar with one of these things and printed up charts for people on 1st dates? License to print money.