03-22-2016, 02:27 AM | #41 | |||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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Last edited by johndallman; 03-22-2016 at 02:33 AM. Reason: spelling |
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03-22-2016, 04:25 AM | #42 | ||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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What other programs were there in 1988? Could you connect a fingerprint scanner and send them by modem for analysis at Quantico? Carry around databases of tire tracks, fibers or other forensic evidence, to aid in recognising them, giving a bonus to specific Forensics checks? Quote:
Certainly more changes in adventuring relevant fuctionality than smallarms have experienced for almost two tech levels, from mid-TL6 to TL8. A Colt M1911 or a Browning High Power are both still relevant adventuring gear in 2016, with most differences between TL6 and late TL8 falling below GURPS resolution. Quote:
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03-22-2016, 05:40 AM | #43 | |
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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In 1988, most computers wouldn't even have a hard drive. And if they did, they were tiny. 20MB was cutting edge for storage capacity. Most likely, they'd have to go through the local department's physical catalog, but even having that wasn't really a concept until the early 90s.
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03-22-2016, 07:42 AM | #44 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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There are commercial databases available on dial-up, each with their own arcane search engine. But they're things like abstracts of scientific journals, not law-enforcement information. They are also expensive to use, about $5/minute. They're being replaced by CD-ROMs as of 1988, and were later replaced by the web. |
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03-22-2016, 08:36 AM | #45 | |
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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By that time, IBM PS/2 386 computers, Ataris & Amigas were out, Apple was up to System 6... |
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03-22-2016, 08:56 AM | #46 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
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The modem built into the GRiD will come in handy. Before the Internet, there were still networks and standalone systems, commonly accessed over the phone system by dialing a dedicate phone number that had a modem waiting at the other end. Pre-Internet, there was also a large network of systems that exchanged email and Usenet via dialup modems. Quote:
As far as I know, GRiD sold mostly to the government. If the computer is personal property from Stanford, it seems less likely than the Toshiba. On the other hand, she might get a GRiD from the FBI. Or knowing that she plans to be a field agent, maybe it was worth Daddy's money. And they did market it to executives, so Daddy could well have heard of them. Scanners were certainly available in 1988. (Cheap little ones were, after all, built into fax machines.) The FBI had "live-scan fingerprint devices" in the 1980s with a spec for minimum image quality, which term is distinct from "card-scan" reporting. So, two types of scanners, plus the physical cards themselves. "It is important to understand that live-scan devices are digital, that is they represent the information in fingerprints as discrete values rather than as continuous shades of grey produced by ink and paper." (Higgins, "Standards for the Electronic Submission of Fingerprint Cards to the FBI", speaking in 1995 of the history leading up to their planned improvements to their existing system -- the new one to be called IAFIS and to go online in 1997 to replace the then-current AFIS. Well, 1999, as it turned out, and they're just now talking about replacing IAFIS.) Sounds like you could take a traditional printed card and scan it, or use one of the live-scan devices. Or, indeed, mail in the printed card. It doesn't seem like a stretch for a PC that's a particular computer geek for the FBI to be using the latest tech she can get. We don't even need the "it's a prototype" excuse. Apparently the first FBI contract for fingerprint scanners went out in 1966, though I think that was for scanning their existing cards back at central HQ. They also created a standard for digital image reporting in 1985 (10 pixels/mm in the scan and 20 pixels/mm), because there was enough of a proliferation of competing equipment in use that they felt a need to standardize it. Bandwidth limitations were enough of a problem in the early 1980s that they were investigating methods into ways of classifying "minutiae" (details about ridges and loops and whorls and so on) in the field and transmitting that instead of images, but that never got settled before advancing modem technology obviated that problem. I came across one report from 2006 that mentioned "many" local agencies still using printed cards at that time. It seems less a matter of technology than budget and will to adopt. More historical detail here on the development of automated fingerprint ID, though unfortunately it doesn't focus on the field end of things. Quote:
Those Syquest drives were a bit temperamental. Sand and Syquest did not mix well. So they were getting replaced by an external hard disk, a typical 3.5" disk drive, for deployment in Operation Desert Shield, thus before August 1990. As far as the non-GRiD, non-portable stuff was concerned, all our development machines had hard drives; we (a small company, ~30 people, <$3M revenue) had an Ethernet LAN as well. The principals of the company were the only ones stuck with PCs with no hard disk. The admin staff, graphics, HR, and support all had hard disks. 1988 is a few years later than you're remembering, I think, and PC technology changed faster back then that it does now. |
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03-22-2016, 09:11 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
1988 also was the year of the Morris Worm, so the Arpanet already was big enough. And FBI paranoia was the rage in the BBS scene. (Given the pedigree of this site, "paranoia" might be the wrong term, though)
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03-22-2016, 10:42 AM | #48 |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
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Re: Background for Clayborn Allen (mill owner) and Courtney Allen (preppie son)
My dad had a Ford F-250 in the 70's and early 80's. The F-350 was available since 1953, but I doubt many people would have had it as a personal vehicle. It would have been used almost exclusively for commercial use/businesses that need to take fairly heavy equipment on the road.
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03-22-2016, 11:40 AM | #49 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: 1980s American Cars, Guns, Gadgets and Consumer Goods [Atmosphere, look, minutiae
What I remember about the 80's was fairly primitive space opera, dom-coms, and a few other things. And one thing that was different was that in Oregon you could find more donors to serve coffee.
The Cold War was the biggest thing on the Foreign Policy scene. Islamiscism was known but it was a minor key threat. Domestic politics has more then a bit of continuity. Oh and Reagan was not revered except by his own voters despite modern nostalgia. No sitting president ever is which is perhaps healthy but that is another story.
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03-22-2016, 11:43 AM | #50 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: MO, U.S.A.
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Re: Background for Clayborn Allen (mill owner) and Courtney Allen (preppie son)
A Ford F150 is a 1/2 ton pick up, a F250 is a 3/4 ton pick up, and the F350 is a 1 ton pickup, this nominally how much they can haul around. Chevrolets and Dodges generally use 1500, 2500, and 3500 numbers for the same thing.
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1980s, high-tech, monster hunters |
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