Classic Sesame Street – Computer Trouble | Hacker News Reader

Classic Sesame Street – Computer Trouble

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When I was ~6 or so my dad showed me how to use BASIC on an Apple //e (looks like the same model in the video). I asked him essentially the same question in the video about the cursor, to which he answered simply "that's the cursor, it's waiting for you to type something".

Which my 6-year-old brain interpreted as, there is a HUMAN called the "cursor" somewhere waiting for me to type something, so they can carry out the command! This idea filled me with anxiety as I assumed they must be impatient waiting for me to figure out what command to type next.

(I fairly soon realized this was not the case. But I think I must have kept my early computer sessions quite short to avoid irking the cursor.)

When I was a little kid, I loved scifi with sentient robots or computers. One day, I asked my dad (a high school teacher), what would a computer do if you ordered it to fly?

He guessed it would reject the order because it was impossible. I asked him what would happen if someone programmed the computer to believe it could fly? We've only seen the word in TV, it was the mid 70s, but he correctly guessed that it would behave like it was flying. I thought it was sensible and didn't ask more questions.

This little interaction has stayed with me for fifty years, and it has become surprisingly more accurate the more computing advances.

I miss Sesame Street, it never talked down to kids. You have two adults on screen and they are actually interacting like adults. The idea seems a little alien now.

Sesame Street continues with a similar vibe, only to be surpassed by Bluey in terms of seeing the world from a kid’s perspective.

Bluey is an absolute treasure. Fun for kids and awesome parental role models for the grown ups. I joke, but there’s a lot of truth to it, that I aspire to be the father than Bandit is.

In full agreement, it’s a delight. It’s always nice when you find a show that the family can all enjoy.

Bluey episodes are 12 minute informational nuggets on “how to play” - they’re amazing.

Still waiting on Disney+ to finally drop 3B.. I mean come on, how long am I sup.. I mean the children supposed to wait?

I’ve resorted to unscrupulous methods to get… the children’s fix.

There is also an episode about farting that was censored by Disney but that aired on Aussie TV.

Sesame Street still runs. My children are growing up with it just as I did. One of the true unsoiled wholesome treasures in this world.

> You have two adults on screen and they are actually interacting like adults. The idea seems a little alien now.

Indeed, and not just in children media - but in media in general. My pet peeve is science fiction movies and shows, which stopped featuring actual adult characters since late 2000s / early 2010s. It's particularly jarring in the sci-fi genre, since stories there are usually supposed to portray emotionally mature, competent adult professionals at work, often in uniformed service - meanwhile, for almost two decades now, we've been getting protagonists that are more like messed up teenagers in adult clothes. Any semblance of professionalism or maturity, if it exists at all, is relegated to background characters.

As a counterpoint to this for science fiction, I recommend Denis Villeneuve's Arrival.

And Primer…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)

The new Star Trek shows show this radical change compared to the classic shows (yes, even Enterprise is classic now). Well-adjusted, competent officers seem to be taboo these days, and all drama has to be self-inflicted emotional issues and irrational decisions. Even rugged old officers are emotionally stunted, not a single sane one.

I haven’t seen this before. There’s also a bit (relatively) updated version which I prefer: https://youtu.be/8d4RtvMQp10

Gateway AnyKey keyboard with diagonal arrow keys.

Ha yes it is. And the two sets of function keys. I loved the Anykey keyboard.

I worked tech support for gateway way back in the day.

The reset programming for the AnyKey was a very common call, many people didn’t even know they had an AnyKey keyboard and would accidentally remap keys.

My first PC was a Gateway 2000 (in 1991). The provided Anykey keyboard was awesome. I loved its ability to record and playback macros.

I had it for a while and mapped Ctrl+Alt+P to my password + Enter. This made the Unix guy at work groan audibly when I told him. :D

I remember the old one but I've never seen that one. That's great.

What is the appeal of either of these?

For young children, what's the developmental impact?

It's a harmless bit. The joke (if I remember correctly) is that these two creatures are aliens that pop up and don't know what the thing in front of them is. For children (and adults) it is silly because, of course, we know what a computer is – we've seen one dozens of hundreds of times! Compound that confusion with a silly way of speaking to reaffirm that they're not from earth and it makes you giggle.

As for the developmental impact, I think it's quite positive. Sesame Street has been and continues to be a great source of knowledge and useful lessons & morals for children. Adding in some silly situations like this helps keep them engaged and develop their sense of humor.

It doesn't show the year; but assuming this was about 1980, home computers were only just starting to appear - many kids wouldn't have seen them; and you've just told taught them computers do what you tell them to do, and not by themselves and also told them what the flashing thing is. For Sesame street that's more than enough for a little sketch. (And that the computer guy fixes everything....)

The machine depicted in the clip is an Apple IIe, which first came out in 1983. But this might not be a 1983 model, because the monitor depicted with the machine is the ColorMonitor IIe, which came out in 1985. Because it's a computer used on a set for a TV show, it's possibly a loan machine, perhaps from Apple themselves, so it was likely supplied as a new computer + new monitor combination. So I'd hazard a guess and say this setup is from 1985 or later.

If we take my previous assumption further, the Platinum IIe was released in 1987, which came with a numerical keypad built in, and looks distinctly different from the IIe. Even though this Youtube clip is 240p, you can distinctly see that there is no "divide" in the keyboard, so this is definitely not a Platinum IIe.

I would say this machine was manufactured between 1985 and 1987.

Introducing children to the concept of computers.

Keep in mind that Sesame Street basically pioneered children's educational programming.

It's a recurring vignette where two Martians go around-- often carrying their own guidebook-- and mis-categorize Earth things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ

The one with Bob's computer is a bit less clear. It seems the orange Martian falls in love with an Apple II(e?) and beams back in to bring it a rose.

> For young children, what's the developmental impact?

Kids get to practice talking about and describing what's silly about the behavior they see in the vignette. In the process, children usually end up properly categorizing various Earth objects, gaining valuable experience points which they will later exchange for increased attack and magic-conjuring abilities.

Additionally, the kids learn coping strategies to deal with the idea that creatures can teleport without warning to any location in the show and are never, ever noticed by any of the characters on the show. IIRC these characters scared the ever-living bejeezus out of a lot of kids.

Most important HN edit I've ever made: correct "everlasting bejeezus" to "ever-living bejeezus"

My little sister was TERRIFIED of them. Thanks for sharing this, she will be interested to know that she was not alone!

watched these as a kid, and was highly impacted for some reason by the "yep" aliens over much other sesame street content I believe because they were sort of dropped into a random situation and had to suss out how everything worked.

Apparently most of Sesame Street used an Apple ][ while Oscar the Grouch used a Commodore VIC-20 or 64. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VA0GMjxCCns

Reminds me about this classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-sgxDGuMDU

Always funny these coincidences. I watched the Yip Yips other classic video with the telephone yesterday with my kids.

https://youtu.be/KTc3PsW5ghQ

If you like the yip, yip muppets, check out this ante up compilation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePjpxPWtmgE

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