this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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HistoryPorn

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This is what SQL took away from us. Never forget.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Now the drop table is merely a database command instead of a table actually falling down from an elevator failure.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s less fun, but ultimately saved lives

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[–] [email protected] 107 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What Futurama level bureaucrat do I need to be to get assigned this post?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Just gotta be able to limbo!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Technically correct.

[–] [email protected] 97 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Scientists in 1985: "This data can now all fit on a computer thanks to CDs. Get a few of them pressed at Gramozávody Loděnice every year and keep the index plus updates on a HDD or tape."

Scientists in 1990: "With CD-R, you don't have to pay a fortune to have a few copies of the database pressed every year. You don't need the magnetic storage buffer either, updates can be written on the disks."

Scientists in 2000: "Screw CDs. Many-gigabyte HDDs are decently cheap. You can store full scans rather than transcripts."

Scientists in 2010: "You can afford terabytes in SSDs now, and keep a few copies off-site for backup, all in a cloud solution with access from anywhere with less latency than the HDDs."

Central Social Insurance Institute Card File in Prague-Smíchov in 2013:
Gonna pretend I didn't hear that

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No shit? I always wondered where Futurama got the floating buerocrats from.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm glad they kept the cabinets grey

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don’t see an easy way of walking around those counterweights as it looks pretty tight or you get smacked in the chin as he suddenly rockets up

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Watch on YouTube
Here's a video of them in action - you can see the Nazis tried to create popular high-budget movies despite the war costs. They weren't very fast even back in the day and now that they are only used for historical records, they probably go even slower. I'm pretty sure their usage is very restricted and still they likely needed an exception from the European equivalent of OSHA.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Part of me wistfully mourns for the loss of edifices like this, caused by computers. Another part recognizes that those guys would probably have given their left nut to get out of those desks and in front of a computer.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm sitting here wondering what modern safety programs would find wrong with the processes involved here. Looks amazing though.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

The obvious one is an enclosure or latches door to prevent accidental falls. They might be wearing fall protection that we can't see but I doubt it.

There's a good chance nobody ever fell from one of these but those regulations exist for a reason.

Maybe less obvious is fail-safes for any elevator system so if the brakes fail it doesn't freefall into the ground.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It is still in use. I had to revisit this video where you can see it. (It has eng subtitles)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Amazing. They say the records are digitized but they still use the paper version as the authority for court cases and things like that. That's amazing because the rest of the world is rushing to jettison the idea of paper as authority and everyone accepts easily faked electronic documents.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago (22 children)

Cryptography and PKI makes it pretty feasible to authenticate digital documents.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Because paper and ink are impossible to Forge...

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Hey! Prague was one of the last cities ever to operate a public pneumatic mail system (until 2002).

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That looks kinda dope ngl.
I'd be a 1937 file clerk

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

You're gonna have a real blast in 5 years

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 weeks ago

“The offices of the Central Social Institution of Prague, Czechoslovakia with the largest vertical letter file in the world. Consisting of cabinets arranged from floor to ceiling tiers covering over 4000 square feet containing over 3000 drawers 10 feet long. It has electric operated elevator desks which rise, fall and move left or right at the push of a button. to stop just before drawer desired. The drawers also open and close electronically. Thus work which formerly taxed 400 workers is now done by 20 with a minimum of effort.

Source

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

^DAMNIT^ ^KEVIN^ ^STOP^ ^LEAVING^ ^THE^ ^FUCKING^ ^DRAWERS^ ^OPEN^

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I can see how that'd inspire Kafka

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Made in 1936 and Kafka died in 1924. He would probably have died in a concentration camp if he lived to see this. Nazis did not give special treatment to Jewish writers, for example Josef Čapek (✝ approx. 14 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen). Still, there must have been other bizarre filing systems in his era, a multi-story vertical conveyor belt of filing cabinets is used in some town halls to this day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nazis did not give special treatment to Jewish writers, for example Josef Čapek

They kind of did. The Nazis started out by hunting down and imprisoning or killing academics. If you were smart and educated, and not well connected inside the Nazi party, then you were enemy number one at the start of their takeover.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

🎵They say the world looks down on the bureaucrats,
They say we’re anal, compulsive, and weird,
But when push comes to shove,
You’ve got to do what you love,
Even if it’s not a good idea!🎵

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I am Bender, please insert girder

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

Workers of the Adeptus Administratum. Terra, 937.M1

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

seems like it came straight from harry potter

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

wes Anderson, is all I'm saying

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

What Terry Gilliam movie is this from?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

This must unironically be the first "big data", where it is cheaper to move the computation than the data.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The guys got replaced by a needle

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