IOT

VCRs and moon hoaxers

The VCR is over. It was just too late to let us fake the moon landings.

22 September 2016

My earliest memory is being told by my parents that a man was walking on the moon. I don't recall what my toddler brain thought of that claim at the time, but I do remember the event. A related fact: Funai Elecronics has announced it has manufactured its last Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), bringing the curtain down on the first great era of consumer video technology.

These two facts are related because, interestingly enough, video technology wasn't sophisticated enough back then for Nasa to be able to fake the moon landing. Ironically, it turns out we did have the technology to send man to the moon in 1969, but we didn't have the technology to be able to fake it on video. The VCR rose to prominence just after the Apollo era wound down and has now finally ended, nearly 20 years after the DVD made its debut. Its popularity boomed in the mid to late 1970s, where it proved its worth recording television shows and providing a home-based movie viewing experience.

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