The Computer Chronicles - PC Expo New York (1994)

Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: archive.org/details/computerch...

[@ruthlessluder]

0:40 the guy on the right finally realized what show it was.

[@ericwood3709]

Yep. I get a kick out of him. Kind of funny that Stewart and crew chose to keep that take.

[@WalnutSpice]

He's legit like "Oooh ok, well that makes sense" good catch haha

[@crusader2.0_loading89]

These shows are such gems

[@goodiesguy]

The amazing thing about watching these things is how on the money Tim Bajarin is 99% of the time.

[@TrashPandamonium]

100% agree, and it is even more impressive when you consider how wrong the other analysts were! hehehe

[@JaredConnell]

​@@TrashPandamoniumlike paul Schindler? He was right about as often as tim was wrong lol

[@warwagon]

This makes me feel old, and i'm only 35!

[@91Chanito]

39 now!

[@CaseySexton]

Just wait until next year :/

[@lacitysun]

You're almost 40 now!

[@chubbycatfish4573]

I'm 35 currently. I know your pain.

[@thatguy6214]

Sorry your old asf. U 40 now. Even more old.

[@MrMurtaX]

It strikes me that at that time, the world of computing was still a formal world. People who took care of business wore jackets and ties and there was still a lot of formality among people. Nowadays, kids are running companies wearing flip-flops and nose piercings. I can't say if it's better or worse now.

[@KayAteChef]

Worse.

[@remghoost]

11:52 The description of this laptop reminds of the Rockwell Automated Encabulator. And it's delightfully retro-futuristic.

[@joerusso4219]

I attended the PC Expo from 1988 to 2006 never missed a year. It changed names around the 2000's it was called TechXExpo and then it was changed to the C3expo, 2006 was the last C3expo at Javitz.

[@nathanbush6781]

Admission pricing?

[@hypercube33]

I had a Windows 95 Beta 1 users guide that told you how every single thing worked. It was awesome having relatives that worked at Intel. Also PCMCIA cards had dongles to hook up to phone lines, or ethernet, etc. 2020 - We're back at the dongle game. And the compatibility thing is surfacing again with M.2 and USB-C/USB 3.+

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Do you still have it?

[@KGrooveBlanka]

Stewart Cheifet: "Thats our report from the PCExpo in New York, for Computer Chronicles I'm Stewart Cheifet. Back to you Stewart." Stewart Cheifet: "Thanks Stewart. In the Random Access files this week..."

[@wallacelang1374]

This was from earlier in 1994 when Microsoft was still developing what would be Windows 95, when it was going under the R&D title of Chicago that the PC industry were referring to it as Windows 4. Of course at this PC Expo in New York City there were other companies that had other things that had great possiblities.

[@Jakek200]

"PCMCIA will become THE standard for expansion"... then USB happened and the rest is history. And on desktops the internal expansion slots remained.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Yea but PCMCIA was way faster than USB 1.0 and neater than having some dongle awkwardly stick out of your laptop.

[@DanielPierce]

Windows 95 is when everything changed, it had what we know windows to look and feel like today

[@ericwood3709]

It was when Microsoft finally managed to copy the Mac in earnest. Shame they didn't just give users Windows NT 4 instead of that Frankenstein hackjob of an OS that was ostensibly 32-bit yet still sat atop 16-bit DOS and was prone to all manner of stability issues, though.

[@acmenipponair]

The reason was, that Windows NT wasn't yet multimedia compatible. In fact, when Windows ME failed in 2000, Microsoft worked overtime to get their Windows 2000 multimedia compatible and make it Windows XP. Because they feared, that when they don't get a stable, secure multimedia system in 2001, the iMac will take the lead.

[@procactus9109]

I looked in the comments and nobody has said it.... PCMCIA = People Can't Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms You're welcome.

[@BSD2000]

Hey! That's me with the glasses behind the guy talking at 04:08, going from left to right.

[@willietarkington1628]

Really???

[@infinitecanadian]

Fun fact: Eurocom exists - and still makes its laptops in Canada.

[@allentoyokawa9068]

no one cares

[@infinitecanadian]

@@allentoyokawa9068 Sure they do.

[@IdealIdeas100]

Wow, Vr back then was literally just strapping a tv close to your eyes. Look how big that thing is!

[@tom7601]

You're right about that. In 25 years they'll be laughing at our "high tech" earth-shattering inventions... :-)

[@700gsteak]

The first oculus prototypes were literally mobile phones pulled apart for their screens. Nothing has changed.

[@yellowblanka6058]

@@700gsteak This - the concept is still screens close to your eyes, just higher resolution/refresh rate, color depth screens nowadays.

[@ian_b]

Stewart's adjective of choice: "big". Tim's adjective of choice: "little".

[@timlaunyc]

It's amazing how much computing has changed. But here we are, in 2020, almost 2021, and the Javits Center has not changed.

[@willgibson8534]

And 3 years after your comment it’s torn down.. the irony

[@rustynail6819]

Go back and be transported to this show and you will walk around a laugh at the tech and the multi colored polo shirts.

[@andree1991]

Crazy how i have never heard of most of this shit even thought i have been using computers since 99/00. Goes to show how brutal the computer business was. If you weren't a hit, you were done for good.

[@eddieloius4592]

i remember the Tri-State Fairs in NYC. Amazing deals everytime. Always spent all my money! Good times

[@drhoads08]

haha.. I still have a B&W laser instead of a color inkjet. They charge a fortune for ink still. It has been cheaper for me to send out pictures to print all of these years... My B&W toner last me at least 3 years, no nozzle clogs (which takes yet more ink to clean).

[@ericwood3709]

I have one also, a Brother. Same story, really. Also finally picked up a cheap inkjet, however, because sometimes it is nice to have color. This one seems OK about not getting clogged or anything, at least.

[@Yellowshark33]

16:16 shows us all we need to know about computing in the mid 90s. Multiple giant plug and pray cables lol

[@paulgascoigne5343]

PCMCIA will become the future for all pc expansions!!

[@charliepotatoes001]

Wow a Laptop that ran on regular store bought AA batteries. Why aren't these regular battery adapter pack sold now.

[@silicatewielder1128]

Dunno, but I bought an HP 95LX yesterday so I'll probably be playing a lot of DOS games during studyhall. I'm now looking into purchasing an Infrared capable printer so I can print using it.

[@700gsteak]

2 main reasons - weight and $$$ selling new rechargeable battery packs.

[@acmenipponair]

Well. Modern computers would not last long with these battery packages. Why? Because your ventilation system would kill the batteries in minutes.

[@nelsoncabrera6464]

So strange not to see a single web address displayed anywhere. Compuserve/AOL/Prodigy Keywords were still king in 1994.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Still too early. Needed traction of Win 95's ease of setting up an internet connection rather than the horrific trumpet winsock method for Win 3.1 where captive software solutions worked far easier.

[@nelsoncabrera6464]

@@oldtwinsna8347 "trumpet winsock" You sir owe me a visit to PTSD therapy for unlocking that long repressed memory. Oh god I had to setup a bunch of win3.1 and MacOS 6 machines to access tokenring to PPP/SLIP>frame relay IP bridge concoction that I swear used actual voodoo for my high school and I nearly jumped from the roof. Whoever came up with that thing was either a madman or genius.

[@RonEconomy]

12:14 with regard to PCMCIA, "this stuff is very difficult to figure out." In my opinion, NO, because they made it simple. Type-1, type-2 and Type-3. Each one is a little thicker, and the thinner ones can go into the thicker slots but the thicker cards cannot go into the thinner slots. The plight of engineeers, they come up with a good standard with simple rules and someone will inevitably have a hard time.

[@straightpipediesel]

Nah, you don't remember PCMCIA then. There as 5 V and 3.3 V cards and slots. Then there was Zoomed Video capable cards and slots, similar to the VESA feature connector. Then there was CardBus, basically PCI instead of ISA. Finally, there was CardBay, which ran USB and 1394 to the slot. The worst problem was the software. This was DOS and Windows 3.1, pre-plug and play, let alone hot swapping. Because the OS had no idea about this, you needed complex software stacks (e.g. CardSoft), which would invariably cause compatibility problems with the card's drivers and all your other hardware. Even simple flash cards (linear flash) required complex add-on drivers. Ejecting a card while the computer was on would very likely cause a complete freeze.

[@AxiomofDiscord]

Even in 1994 even video files where desired at framerates higher than 30 fps. Now in 2015 we are being told that video games should be limited to 30 for a "better experience." How far we have fallen.

[@andree1991]

The Random Access news at the end were so fucking cheesy, but informative AF

[@adenowirus]

9:42 Anyone knows what that clip is from?

[@HellaMoist1337]

This is super fun

[@f1dog]

I'm pretty sure I can hear Steve Jobs in the background throwing stuff around and telling his team to work harder.

[@JaredConnell]

He wasn't working for Apple at that point. He didn't come back to apple until 1997. That's why all their products sucked during this time.

[@ThEmEsSiAh187-CFGeorge]

3:19 My god those things were HUGE. I always thought cartoons exaggerated, but DAMN! 😂

[@patrik_x86]

8:20 he says that chicaco/win95 does not rely on DOS 'whatsoever' lol

[@medes5597]

In comparison to 3.1, he's correct.

[@invis648]

LOL.. welp... I guess that guy's prediction at 15:08 that PCMCIA would take over standard cards in desktops didn't work out LOL.

[@WhatALoadOfTosca]

Wait a minute... What happened the Don't Copy That Floppy man?!

[@mightyman6459]

3:37 that computer is huge

[@ruthlessadmin]

8:23 - BOLLOCKS! Windwos sat right on top of DOS until win2k! It was awful...I mean win98se finally was at least stable and reasonably backward compatible, but I remember getting hardware and a lot of software to work in 95/98 was a nightmare. I wasted hundreds of hours of my life resolving IRQ conflicts and looking for workarounds to other issues. And back then, it was a serious PITA on 14.4 and 28.8 dialup

[@YAUUN]

You forget Windows NT 3.5 & NT 4.0

[@700gsteak]

+Yauun The guy in the video was talking about Chicago which is Windows 95 so he was incorrect. The 'new windows' he is talking about does run on top of and rely on DOS.

[@YAUUN]

I am aware of that. I was correcting OP's misconception that Windows 2000 was the first true 32bit version of Windows. I forgot to mention Windows NT 3.1 & 3.51 though

[@david-spliso1928]

Windows 95 ran 'on top' of DOS but ran in its own protected 32 bit space which made it much better in terms of speed and function. This was a good stop gap for their commonly home OS in between DOS and XP.

[@mauriciohuaman9688]

Which one of these was used for Jurassic Park? XD

[@askjeevescosby2928]

When this was fimed they were still repairing the giant hole that was blown throug the world trade center parking garage.

[@doemis8573]

Good thing, OS/2 came out before Win 95. 👍

[@rooneye]

Chicago is basically Windows 95?

[@amcadam26]

Yes. Chicago was the project name for Windows 95

[@luisgonzalez1637]

god I miss powerpc

[@ericwood3709]

Well, if you want to run a POWER-based machine today, you could spring for a Talos II, or wait a bit longer and get a cheaper Blackbird, both from Raptor Computing Systems. You'll have to use Linux on it, of course.

[@johnnylongfeather3086]

“One day will buy disposable inkjet printers which die after a year, but the ink costs more than gold!”

[@zeusgb]

'PCMCIA the expansion standard for all PCs', well until USB came along

[@KozenaDrzka]

3:20 And i thought it is new! xD

[@Neodestro]

VR is from 80s lol

[@willietarkington1628]

I remember VR from the 90’s. There was sort of a resurgence in the early 2000’s I think, but it died out so fast. And here we are now, they’re finally figuring it out.

[@johneygd]

Windows 4.0 become windows 95, just to convince peoples that it become the new gen of windows to line up with 1995.

[@HuggieBear39]

I kind of liked the name Chicago. I know it was just a code name but stil...

[@acmenipponair]

Well, they still left the 4.0 for the NT series. And they only changed the name, the version number still was 4.0 in Windows 95 and 4.1 in Windows 98. Every file in System32 at that time was a 4.0xxx version

[@Finallybianca]

Windows 4.0 damn

[@JohnnyTheCache]

PCMCIA tiny little cards :D

[@MrBronsonNY]

Why no take the first shot in the Rockefeller plaza, or a nice place in NY??. I mean they almost went to the fucking Bowery.

[@tom7601]

PCMCIA never really caught on. The real nail in their coffin was USB, in my opinion.

[@brandonupchurch7628]

USB to me serves a different purpose, PCMCIA was widely used and more analogous to a portable ISA or PCI device , the only thing that really killed it was that laptops started integrated all the peripherals that you needed right into the unit , same thing happened to a lesser extent with expansion cards on the desktop, once sound cards , USB interfaces, Ethernet controllers, and Graphics started coming onboard fewer and fewer user ever need to add any new peripheral into the unit, so many people never use them , since nobody really needed them anymore on laptops manufacturers started removing them to slim down units and to have more board real estate for integrated components.

[@acmenipponair]

Yes, at first PCMCIA was killed, because you got then the modem, the WLAN, the soundcard etc. on board. But then came USB 2.0, which is faster than PCMCIA.

[@WalnutSpice]

Network cards were really all it had to keep it going. Once most laptops had built in wifi by 2003, it never stood a chance

[@BlownMacTruck]

PCMCIA filled a role and filled it well though it never caught on on the desktop. USB has little to do with it as that was hardly the same market.

[@johnnylongfeather3086]

13:59 Shalom

[@leonardoantonio8756]

Windows still fails at critical moments

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

mine freezes occasionally, its not a hardware issue either :(

[@aussieanon-369]

I come here for buying advice in 2024. Gonna start looking into these PCMCIA cards.... #mindblown. AND a 486DX2 60MHz super portable laptop for only $3800 USD!!??? Ill be putting that in my 'bargain' bin for later.

[@yellowblanka6058]

"The real key thing about Chicago is that it's a new operating system"...Some real hard-hitting journalism there, lol, thank god he could provide his insight.

[@oksyar]

Guess What, Intel Still owns the market. They were absolutely right in that show

[@link238_]

11:30 desktop computing will always be cheaper... uhhuh sure there bud. more powerful, possibly, we dont know the future but they are starting to add desktop grade processors to portables now so it may just be a matter of time

[@dorlaretz5901]

Will still be cheaper. Desktop Cpu's in Laptops is nothing new.

[@Neverest.]

2 years later and it stands true and will stand true for the next few decades at least. Desktop PC's have larger cases, there is more room, the latest hardware which costs more can go into them easily. Until people stop buying desktops and all focus is on laptops, desktops will be the better price point.

[@blazed85]

5:43 And many years later they continued to 😐

[@moonjimunji7916]

back when computers were still exciting

[@MrLense]

It still is! Look at the stuff AMD, Nvidia and intel are releasing. It’s exciting the youth into technology. You only need to look at the work Linus tech tips and other techtubers are doing to see how exciting pc technology still is

[@HikikomoriDev]

18:52 lol...

[@davicoutinho7921]

O Brian

[@imperiumcommentingnetwork4677]

"not much is going to change" 2020: 64 core CPU's exist laptops paper-thin Pentium is very low end now

[@mornnb]

Interesting talking about apple hitting 20% in reality once windows 95 launched they dropped to more like 5%

[@mysterymayhem7020]

Laptops will replace the desktop market............... NOT!

[@SnakeGuyJohnny]

I love when the experts on this show say, something will always be more something than something else. In this case, portable computing being more expensive than desktops. They had no ability to look beyond the market as it existed at the time.

[@jesuszamora6949]

Well, what they said is that desktops will be further ahead, and it IS true. The absolute best desktop will be better than the absolute best laptop. It's just that, between laptops and mobile, the chips got good enough for many home users. Too good, really - unless you're into computer gaming, you can probably get away with 7-10 year update cycles nowadays. Put bluntly, anything out there is good enough for most casual home use, and you'll be able to do your business on either desktop or laptop.

[@yellowblanka6058]

This was the mid 90's - did you honestly expect them to look 20 years into the future and see more affordable laptops? Also, they aren't wrong - a given set of specs will cost more in the laptop form factor than a desktop, this still holds true today. If you need portable power you pay out the nose for it.

[@acmenipponair]

Yes, for example, when I want to buy a new computer with the following specs: Computer chip of the 8th generation, 16 GB RAM, graphic card not older than 2 years, 1 GB SSD hard drive... you pay a fortune for that in a laptop - especially the RAM is a problem, in most computer shops you will only get one or two computers that are not Macbooks, that have 16 GB already, meanwhile, in the desktop version it just cost you 50 or 60 bucks more.

[@elgeneralxx]

Go poop yo pants big old grandma pants

[@k43mc73]

i have more computing power in my left thumb than all the pc's at this combined

[@BlownMacTruck]

And yet you still can’t use an apostrophe correctly.

[@willietarkington1628]

@@BlownMacTruckdamn lol

[@larryk731]

Desktops always cheaper? lol

[@k43mc73]

lol

[@chloedevereaux1801]

intel own the market untill 2020........ :D

[@willgibson8534]

Windows 4.0? Lol

[@rooneye]

Colour going mainstream? What a sellout! Colour you used to be cool when you was underground!

[@Teewriter]

Microsoft, Bill Gates. What a joke.

[@wonderpierrot]

The way the announcer emphasizes/shouts the last word of every sentence is just bizarre and annoying.

[@MelonRace]

Don't talk shit about Stewart Cheifet

[@700gsteak]

That's how Presenters spoke back then, strong, to the point and clearly.

[@acmenipponair]

That was normal in that days, they were trained. Nowadays we get trained to get down with our voice at the end of a sentence, to let it sound less read.

[@jeffm2787]

PCMCIA, total flop.

[@AbdiPianoChannel]

Canada made the fastest laptop in the world in 1994? Wtf? What happened to Canada laptops in 2020? I guess Canada forgot how to make laptops thanks to feminists.

[@davejacobsen3014]

I am very glad that the powers PC from apple died. Now every one used Intel or compatible processors. Much nicer world , even now AMD is pushing the limit.

[@crusader2.0_loading89]

dave jacobsen power pc rocked

[@ericwood3709]

PowerPC was great for most of its life and could keep pace with, if not outperform, Intel and AMD offerings. I loved my Power Mac G3 blue and white back in the day. It played a mean game of Unreal Tournament.

[@mitchbuchannon6637]

This comment has aged poorly 😅