# What sort of job would the man in this poster been doing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694 "2012-05-02T23:29:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/1 "2012-05-02T23:29:03Z")
[4051 personal computing](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Tektronix_4051_ad_April_1976.jpg) I’m not talking about being a bad model in this case. Going by the description and words like MATRIX DRAW and VIEWPORT, is he some sort of a graphics designer, or aero-engineer? It says: > [@](#): > > The 4051 will handle most application problems. But what are these “application problems” that existed back then? (1980s?) ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/2 "2012-05-02T23:40:44Z")
My guess is that he’s doing some kind of financial management. The graph that he’s looking at might be sales or profit figures. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/3 "2012-05-02T23:41:33Z")
Just about everything in the field of science and engineering, including marketing and business modeling among many other things. The 1980’s wasn’t the dark ages. The dark ages were the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/4 "2012-05-02T23:45:53Z")
Back then, it might have been something as basic as charting some sales data, but with the novelty of doing it electronically for the low (!?) price of $7,000. My suspicion is that the depiction is of plain old “business” rather than engineering, although this would certainly be capable of some engineering work. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/5 "2012-05-02T23:55:43Z")
I’m going to go with some sort of sales/business data. He appears to have the months across the X-axis. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/6 "2012-05-03T01:06:10Z")
Just a dedicated graphics platform, someone who assembles reports for printing. The software way back when was often so cumbersome you had dedicated operators just to know how to draw a graph or chart in such a program. > **[Tektronix 4051 Graphics System](https://www.atariarchives.org/bcc2/showpage.php?page=282)** > > Tektronix 4051 Graphics System (product review, BASIC computer) from The Best of Creative Computing Volume 2 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/7 "2012-05-03T01:09:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Just about everything in the field of science and engineering, including marketing and business modeling among many other things. The 1980’s wasn’t the dark ages. The dark ages were the 1950s. According to wikipedia, these units where late 1970’s ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/8 "2012-05-03T01:28:46Z")
And, kids, those things by his right hand? Those are data cassettes. That’s what held the software he’s running. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/9 "2012-05-03T01:41:02Z")
The picture is pretty self evident. He’s a pencil pusher. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/10 "2012-05-03T01:50:58Z")
> [@SlickRoenick](#): > > [4051 personal computing](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Tektronix_4051_ad_April_1976.jpg) > [@drachillix](#): > > [Tektronix 4051 Graphics System](http://www.atariarchives.org/bcc2/showpage.php?page=282) The exact same chart is on the screen in both of these pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/11 "2012-05-03T02:17:14Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > … for the low (!?) price of $7,000. Sure, $7000 _sounds_ like a lot, but remember it had a full 8K of memory and both upper and lower case! Those sort of bells and whistles don’t come cheap. [Edited to add: I don’t really need a smiley there do I? Just in case, I suppose I’d better add: :D] ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/12 "2012-05-03T02:27:58Z")
He’s compiling the weekly TPS report. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/13 "2012-05-03T18:14:17Z")
Isn’t that a ledger off to his left? Maybe he’s doing some accounting or comptrolling. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/14 "2012-05-03T18:26:04Z")
He is analyzing the analytics and his market approach vis a vis downsizing the economics in a growth culture formed by business structures coherent in today’s volatile and rapidliy expanding worldwide market place, and he is basing his strategic growth concerns in today’s modern corporate vision of redundancy over a scalable foundation. duh. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/15 "2012-05-03T18:34:50Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > He is analyzing the analytics and his market approach vis a vis downsizing the economics in a growth culture formed by business structures coherent in today’s volatile and rapidliy expanding worldwide market place, and he is basing his strategic growth concerns in today’s modern corporate vision of redundancy over a scalable foundation. duh. It’s a good thing he knew all those buzzwords when the boss walked by, because he was actually just playing Snake. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/16 "2012-05-03T19:13:52Z")
I used that terminal. It was cool, in a ‘70s sort of way. It could only be written to - to erase a line, the entire screen had to be erased, with an impressive flash. Here’s the [technology](http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/tektronix_the_storage_story.html). ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/17 "2012-05-03T19:16:35Z")
I’m sipping coffee out of a Tektronix mug right now. One of the selling points of Tektronix was their graphics. Laugh if you want but that little graph he has there was hot stuff at the time. Other, lesser computers could only show text or had to use text symbols to draw crude graphs. So he is probably doing financial work but has the power of simple graphs to give him the edge over his competitors. Lord Mondegreen makes jokes about the price then conveniently forgets to mention the 300K byte cartridge tape drive. That’s 300K! On one cartridge! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/18 "2012-05-03T19:29:38Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > I’m sipping coffee out of a Tektronix mug right now. > > One of the selling points of Tektronix was their graphics. Laugh if you want but that little graph he has there was hot stuff at the time. Other, lesser computers could only show text or had to use text symbols to draw crude graphs. > > So he is probably doing financial work but has the power of simple graphs to give him the edge over his competitors. > > Lord Mondegreen makes jokes about the price then conveniently forgets to mention the 300K byte cartridge tape drive. That’s 300K! On one cartridge! 😃 I wouldn’t call it that expensive. Back in 96 or so, I bought (for myself, with my own money, while in high school) an IBM ThinkPad with a 486DX2 processor and (IIRC) a 280 meg of hard drive. It was $3000. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/19 "2012-05-03T19:37:39Z")
It looks to me like he’s playing one of the easier levels of \*Gravitar \*or _Thrust_. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694/20 "2012-05-03T19:41:44Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I wouldn’t call it that expensive. Back in 96 or so, I bought (for myself, with my own money, while in high school) an IBM ThinkPad with a 486DX2 processor and (IIRC) a 280 meg of hard drive. It was $3000. It wasn’t really expensive for the technology at that time, but it was expensive for the application. Very few personal computers were used in business then. Most efforts for a single workstation in that price range failed. High end word processing machines cost in that range, and weren’t moving, along with small mini-computers being packaged as individual workstations. All of those technologies could be seen as soon to be obsolete because of the emergence of more and more powerful low cost personal computers. The business model of developing devices like that which would only sell a few hundred units a year was rapidly coming apart under the realization that you could sell a million units of something a year if the price was low enough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-job-would-the-man-in-this-poster-been-doing/620694.md?page=2)