Back in 2013, Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased Wet Nellie, the Lotus Esprit submarine from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, for a whopping $997,000. What you may not know is that initially a couple from Long Island, New York attended a blind auction in 1989 where they paid around $100 for an unclaimed storage unit. Inside that storage unit was this Lotus Esprit used in The Spy Who Loved Me. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: RR Auction via Apple Insider
If you’ve never used a computer equipped with a floppy disk drive, it basically refers to disk storage composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic enclosure lined with fabric that removes dust particles. Boston’s RR Auction has a Macintosh System Tools version 6.0 disk signed by Steve Jobs in black felt tip pen currently up for bidding. This “fine” condition specimen is currently at $5,060 with the next bid at $5,566. Read more for a video of Steve Wozniak on floppy disks and additional information.
Photo credit: Gold Coast Motors via Car Scoops
In early 1990, Honda unveiled the 1991 Accord wagon, manufactured at the Marysville, Ohio plant, who also exported right-hand drive wagons and coupes to Europe / Japan. However, in Europe, the station wagon was called the “Aerodeck”. These vehicles were available from November 1990, only in LX and EX trim in North America or just 2.2i in Japan. One pristine condition example was recently discovered with just 33,726-miles in Naperville, Illinois at Gold Coast Motors. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
The SEGA Dreamcast was officially released on September 9, 1999 in North America, and was the first in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube and Microsoft’s Xbox. Unfortunately, it was also SEGA’s final home console, marking the end of the company’s 18 illustrious years in making game consoles. Many considered it ahead of its time when SEGA discontinued it on March 31, 2001 after selling 9.13 million Dreamcast units worldwide. Read more for a video and additional information.
The original Apple iMac G3 was introduced by Steve Jobs on August 15th, 1998 and it stood out because of its unique egg-shaped look, with a CRT monitor that was enclosed in a Bondi Blue colored translucent plastic case. The slot-loaded optical drive was innovative for its time, as many computers still had the front-loading version, and there was also no floppy drive in sight. Later, it was offered in a total of thirteen different colors, including Strawberry, Blueberry, Lime and more. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Ferrari may be synonymous with cars, but did you know they also built a hydroplane inspired by Achille Castoldi in the early 1950s? That’s right, Castoldi persuaded then Ferrari racing drivers Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi to influence Enzo Ferrari to supply him with a 4.5-litre, V12 Ferrari engine. That engine was then installed in a Timossi three-point racing hydroplane hull. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
If you’ve always wondered what it was like to edit images using the earliest versions of Adobe Photoshop, then wonder no more, as the “Computer Clan” shows us. They fired up Adobe Photoshop 0.63 Beta from 1988 on an old Macintosh powered by a 32MHz 68030 processor with 8MB of RAM. On a related note, did you know that Photoshop was developed in 1987 by two brothers Thomas and John Knoll? They later sold the distribution license to Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1988. Read more for the video and additional information.
The Apple-1 was released in 1976 and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. It was the Apple’s first product, and as many of you already know, Steve Jobs sold his VW microbus for a few hundred dollars to finance its creation while Steve Wozniak parted with his HP-65 calculator for $500. The computer was demonstrated in July 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California. If you’ve always wanted an original Apple-1 manual, now is your chance, as one of them has headed to auction. Featuring 12 pages (8.5 x 11) and Apple’s original logo on the front cover, designed by third Apple co-founder Ron Wayne and showing Isaac Newton thoughtfully seated beneath a tree, with a shining apple dangling overhead. Read more for a video, additional pages from the manual and a link to the auction.
Sony’s original Walkman was released on July 1, 1979, and this portable cassette player changed the music listening habits of people around the world, due to its compact size, or at least for the time. The idea came about from Sony cofounder Masaru Ibuka, who felt the compay’s existing portable player was far too expensive, so a prototype was manufactured from a modified Pressman, a compact tape recorder designed for journalists. Read more for additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: Peta Pixel
Memes and cat pictures have nearly been around as long as the internet, but back in 1898, an unknown photographer was already planning for this by capturing the photo above, or so we’d like to think. Then starting in 1914, American photographer Harry Whittier Frees continued by shooting an entire series of photos showing cats wearing clothes and in human-like poses. Frees photos of posed animals were published on postcards, in magazines, and even children’s books. Read more for additional pictures and information.