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Space Gopher posted:Sadly, it fell victim to Microsoft being so drat full of itself. Things that really killed the zune were: Horrible software: What they have now rocks, what they had at launch was a buggy, poorly skinned version of WMP with less options. Annoying Format Support: The list here is long and niggling, but basically it is comprised of things not enough to can the thing for, but enough to annoy the poo poo out of almost every potential customer. For example, everyone had a blast finding software that could even encode video into the format the Zune used. To Big: I loved the hardware and UI, but the first gen Zune was just to drat large in the face of the iPod. It really hurt them. Horrible Marketing: I liked what they tried to pull off, but Microsoft lacked the image to do it well, and it pulled a lot of negative press as a result. The "Double Shot" case was actually really slick and the hardware and interface for the device itself was great, but Microsoft has this iterative release approach and they just couldn't afford that in the face of the Apple Juggernaut.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:04
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axolotl farmer posted:VCDs were huge in Asia, mostly because the movie could be pressed by the same plants that made bootleg CDs.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:05
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56k posted:
This is an excellent username + post combination. I'm still rocking 2 tube "hd" TVs that both only go up to 1080i. The widescreen one that I recently acquired from my parents used to look pretty good, but the picture is starting to ghost (its pretty damned old). My 7 year old 4:3 TV still looks great (you have to letterbox it to use 1080i, but the Wii looks excellent in progressive scan.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:32
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Leon Einstein posted:DIVX was doomed to fail. Does anybody remember those DVDs that somehow decayed or something after a few days? It was supposed to mean the end of late fees, as they were disposable. Of course, DVD encryption was cracked, and ripping DVDs became quite simple. Even a few years ago when I went on a cross-country road trip they were selling them in gas stations. They're actually pretty nice in that context, pay $2 or $3 for a movie you can watch in your hotel room that night and then toss the next day.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:36
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With Divx, I remember an issue with them at the time was the fact that they needed to be connected to a phone line every time you wanted to play a movie, even part of a movie, and you had to have a credit card connected to the player. If you wanted to watch a single scene in a film, you were charged. Also, there were some privacy concerns at play. One theory was that eventually Divx HQ might share information with somewhere like Domino's: After starting a movie on a Friday night, you might get a phone call saying, "Hey, we see you're getting ready to watch a film! Would you like to order some pizza?" Or they could track viewing habits of people, too. Of course, Disney and other companies did love the hell out of Divx because it represented the problem they had in the VHS era: After the initial sale, the companies pretty much never saw any money from rentals or repeated viewings of private purchased copies. With Divx, any time your kids wanted to rewatch the Little Mermaid, they'd get a few bucks. Of course, many Divx apparently had the option to do what I think they called "gold disk" where you'd pay a one-time fee of about $20 and unlock that movie for the life of your divx account and not have to pay additional fees.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:44
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Mister Kingdom posted:I had this for some reason: I had one that for some reason doubled as a TV remote control. This type:  Now that I think about it though, it's not really failed or obsolete, except that it might not work with newer TVs. I remember feeling pretty cool for being able to stealthily change the TV channels or the volume in restaurants and stuff like that.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:51
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Nasgate posted:Screw Ipods and Zunes, my family used Zen players I had the redesigned 16gig Creative Zen up until about two or three years ago. It was the size of a credit card (which was included as part of their marketing!) and was capable of playing video, listening too the radio and all kinds of other fancy crap! It also had an SD card slot, which was finicky when it came to listening to music (it tended to play everything from either the player OR the card, but never both) but great if you loaded it up with TV shows or whatever. It came with its own video conversion software which reduced the size of a file by about 2/3rds or more so you could get a good number of complete series onto even a gig of space. It was terrible if whatever you were watching was over an hour in length though: whether it was the fault of the player or the software, I could never watch a movie that didn't suffer serious desync issues after more than 20 minutes of play. What eventually killed it was a simple drop: one fall onto concrete and that was it. Any kind of jolt (or movement, for that matter) caused the player to crash utterly, to the point where even the hard reset function wouldn't work. Not the handiest thing when you're talking about a portable player you keep in your pocket. After that, I finally caved and bought a 120gig ipod off a friend. It's nice being able to take almost my entire music collection with me wherever I go, but the screen on the Zen really beat it by miles.
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Jul 18, 2012 02:34
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I still use a Creative Zen Stone. It's 1gb and TINY; Like the size of a quarter. The battery lasts forever, plugs in via usb and acts like a flash drive. Drag what I want into it, no software needed and I have plenty of music for the day.
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Jul 18, 2012 03:01
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Away all Goats posted:I had one that for some reason doubled as a TV remote control. This type: It could put you in Guantamo Bay, does that count as a failure?
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Jul 18, 2012 03:40
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56k posted:
Going off of this it appears that Microsoft acquired/bought out WebTV and renamed it "MSN TV." While you can no longer buy new hardware they are keeping things running for current subscribers (which I would have to imagine number so few that you can count them on one hand.)
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Jul 18, 2012 04:04
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You would be surprised. They were pretty popular with older folks that felt a computer was too complicated and intimidating.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:10
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This was my first digital camera; I got it for Christmas in 2005 * 4 megapixels! * 3x optical zoom! (5x digital zoom) * 1 minute od video recording! (but no microphone) * Runs on 2 AA batteries! Okay, so it was pretty basic. But you know, I got the best, richest colour from that camera than any others I've ever had. If it wasn't so underpowered, I'd still be using it today Also, since our furnace broke, I've been learning a lot about them. And I have to say, while modern furnaces are much safer and more efficient, in terms of sheer awesomeness you cannot beat the MOTHERFUCKING OCTOPUS FURNACE!    That white tape on the duct joints? ASBESTOS, sucka! Not only are you paying out the rear end for heating, you're probably going to get cancer, too. But there's something about them that is undeniably cool. They're from the 1880's - 1940's, yet many of them are still working perfectly today, mainly because there's no moving parts. And come on...they just look cool.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:39
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Cmdr Tomalak posted:This was my first digital camera; I got it for Christmas in 2005 That's not an especially obsolete camera. Most CCDs today are still not that much bigger than 4 megapixles. I not really sure how a point and shoot camera today would be that much different than that.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:06
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axolotl farmer posted:VCDs were huge in Asia, mostly because the movie could be pressed by the same plants that made bootleg CDs. I lived in China from 98-99 and spent most of my uni holidays there after that, and the sheer volume of pirated VCDs was incredible. You had to watch out for 'theatre jobs', where someone had taken a movie camera into a cinema and shot it from the crowd - it's weird watching a Jim Carrey movie with a laugh track. It also encouraged homebrew media; when it was still A Thing, I remember seeing VCD compilations of the Bill Clinton sex scandal available in stores everywhere.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:14
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JediTalentAgent posted:About 5-8 years ago there was a minor bump in the US for store-bought HDD DVRs that weren't part of any subscription plan like Tivo or part of your cable/sat. plans. I saw one at Frys a few weeks ago. I myself have a DVD recorder with a built in tuner, although I haven't used it in a while.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:15
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Dusseldorf posted:That's not an especially obsolete camera. Most CCDs today are still not that much bigger than 4 megapixles. I not really sure how a point and shoot camera today would be that much different than that. People really do put too much stock into a camera's megapixel rating. While somewhat important (unless you're making ridiculously large prints in which case bigger = better), the quality of the CCD and the optics in front of it matter more. My old Nikon D70 with a 6 MP rating can run laps around current point-and-shoots with over two times the megapixels.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:24
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Geoj posted:People really do put too much stock into a camera's megapixel rating. While somewhat important (unless you're making ridiculously large prints in which case bigger = better), the quality of the CCD and the optics in front of it matter more. My old Nikon D70 with a 6 MP rating can run laps around current point-and-shoots with over two times the megapixels. Sensor size and lenses make better pictures.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:33
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I remember my first digital camera was a Pentax Optio S that I got around 2003. It was small enough to fit inside an Altoids tin (and was marketed as such) and had a tiny screen on the back. That camera was great and I used it for probably 5 years before finally upgrading to whatever the current model Pentax Optio was in ~2008. It's funny, though, until I upgraded to a newer camera I didn't realise how poor the image quality was (high noise levels, poor low-light performance, small image size) but I'm still glad I had such a tiny and reliable camera to keep in my pocket throughout my late teenage / early college years.
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Jul 18, 2012 05:38
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kmcormick9 posted:Did SACD ever take off? I remember seeing players listed in crutchfield for like $2000 in the late 90s It never really took off, but we have a few of them in our classical collection in the library. It really lacked the leap in audio-quality to combat mp3s, like CDs had when they came about during the tape-era. Geoj posted:People really do put too much stock into a camera's megapixel rating. While somewhat important (unless you're making ridiculously large prints in which case bigger = better), the quality of the CCD and the optics in front of it matter more. My old Nikon D70 with a 6 MP rating can run laps around current point-and-shoots with over two times the megapixels. Real obsolescence in digital cameras is related to storage, not megapixels. If your computer can't read your memory card, you're hosed.  DONT TOUCH THE PC has a new favorite as of 07:21 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 07:11
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Creature posted:The special edition of Foo Fighters 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose' came with a VCD of all the videos. Took me weeks of searching for software to play it. Never saw another one. I didn't discover VCDs until 2004 when I got given a Studio Ghibli box set from Malaysia. It took me ages to figure out how to get them to play and when I did I thought the audio was defective, until I realized that left channel audio was Cantonese and right was Japanese and to disable whichever speaker to get the language you wanted. Apparently VCDs were popular in Asia, possibly to due their ease of piracy (specifically, ease of transporting pirated merchandise, VCDs being much less bulkier than video cassettes).
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Jul 18, 2012 08:40
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Cmdr Tomalak posted:MOTHERFUCKING OCTOPUS FURNACE! I live in the upper story of a house with a still-functioning octopus furnace. And it's an early model even for that. If I paid utilities, I would hate it. But I don't and therefore it is bitchin'.
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Jul 18, 2012 08:42
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Speaking of obsolote, how about this one: The loving TI-83, my school required us buy these for 100€+ apiece. They were somewhat outdated even when we got them, and when smartphones came about they became just laughable. Though I still have fond memories of coding small programs for them to automate some math stuff which made the classes pretty easy. VVVVV I'll be damned. With the ubiquitousness of netbooks, tablets and all that stuff I thought people would have moved over to a software-based solution by now. Well, shows what I know about math  VVVVVVV
Perestroika has a new favorite as of 13:20 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 12:25
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Perestroika posted:Speaking of obsolote, how about this one: Not obsolete at all, standard equipment for university Maths and engineering, interchangeable with the ti-84 pretty much, and really anything you need to do that is more complicated than what can be done on these, you'd probably want to use a computer with a specialised software package.
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Jul 18, 2012 13:04
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Loquitor posted:Not obsolete at all, standard equipment for university Maths and engineering, interchangeable with the ti-84 pretty much, and really anything you need to do that is more complicated than what can be done on these, you'd probably want to use a computer with a specialised software package. Seriously. I work at an engineering firm, and nearly every engineer has one of these or something comparable sitting on their desk.
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Jul 18, 2012 13:20
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I remember those ugly bricks being my second graphing calculator experience. My first was my brother's TI-89 titanium which was probably one step away from teaching math classes. Then I got an 84 myself that was obnoxious pink. And if we're bringing up old heating machines(screw working on octopus machines, that looks horrible), how about boilers? So dangerous that they have four safeties just for the water pipe, let alone the other safeties. If I wasn't on a phone I'd show you why, but for now just Google boiler explosion aftermath or something. The Shining has the only movie explosion that I don't believe is exaggerated.
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Jul 18, 2012 13:34
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What baffles me is that the prices of TI's calculators haven't changed seemingly at all in the past 12-odd years since I bought my 89. 
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Jul 18, 2012 13:34
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Nasgate posted:Screw Ipods and Zunes, my family used Zen players Here is an image depicting a Creative Zen Touch with french language settings playing some Joe Cocker:  It's called "Touch" because there's a small strip under the OK-button which is kind of touch sensitive. The thing is that the Zen Touch can withstand anything short of a direct bomb blast. I've had it hit the floor on many occasions, but it still keeps on truckin'. Pair that with 24h battery life and you have a pretty good MP3-player!
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Jul 18, 2012 13:38
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sirbeefalot posted:What baffles me is that the prices of TI's calculators haven't changed seemingly at all in the past 12-odd years since I bought my 89. This get brought up all the time whenever calculates are discussed and the answer is fairly simple, effective monopoly due to test regulations on calculators for SATs and the like.
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Jul 18, 2012 13:53
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The vision also had a touch pad like that. I have yet to mess with someone's Ipod that can scroll as fast or slow as my old Zen. The only reason I stopped using it was because I got one of those pre-smartphone touch screen phones. It had a music player, which meant I no longer needed 2 devices. Speaking of which, that lasted about a year before android phones came out. I mean, it was already pretty much inferior to an iphone, except files were drag-n-drop which I felt made it better.
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Jul 18, 2012 13:53
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Loquitor posted:
I refused to pay $100 for a new calculator for college in the early 2000s, so bought a used TI-82 instead on Ebay. When I was done with all my algebra classes, I sold it again by taping a sign to a campus message board. This one might actually be outdated, since they're not selling well on Ebay, but I'm sure they're still good for something.
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Jul 18, 2012 14:01
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Ramadu posted:What were the alternatives to DVD at the time? I lived through it and I don't even remember. Oh god I'm so old. In Asia we have VCDs (max 74 mins per disc) that vastly popular in pre DVD-era and even some after that thanks to rampant piracy. In America were VHS tapes which IMO was worse than VCDs since you have to rewind the drat tapes after playback which was a PITA and the tapes also degrade much faster. I would much prefer switching VCD discs myself (if the video length exceeds a single disc capacity).
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Jul 18, 2012 14:06
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Perestroika posted:The loving TI-83 My parents bought me one back in 1999 when I started high school. The exact same calculator is now getting me through calculus and college chemistry. The only difference that I see between mine and the newer ones is that the newer ones have a USB port. More of a question, how common are all-in-one printers? I have one that prints, copies and scans, the one my folks own does faxes, too. They are both close to ten years old. Do they still sell these things? Does anyone fax anymore?
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Jul 18, 2012 14:09
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RabbitMage posted:My parents bought me one back in 1999 when I started high school. The exact same calculator is now getting me through calculus and college chemistry. The only difference that I see between mine and the newer ones is that the newer ones have a USB port. The printer that we got about a year ago is an all-in-one model. It even has an assigned HP email address or something and you can email from it for some weird reason. We use the actual fax machine pretty regularly still.
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Jul 18, 2012 14:23
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I loved the poo poo out of my TI-83+. Had it for all of high school and all of undergrad for engineering. There were TI-89's or whatever that I could have easily bought, but my 83 was like an old friend that faithfully spat out the answers I wanted without any extraneous syntax. Here's a fond memory: in high school if you were caught playing games on your graphing calculator the teacher would make you fully clear the memory in front of them. So some people made a program that would print "MEMORY CLEARED" or whatever to fake their way out of it. I remember making the same program but instead of just printing to the console screen it would turn off the graph axes and pull up a crude graphical counterfeit of the actual mem clear screen ... it was the highest caliber of subterfuge.
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Jul 18, 2012 14:24
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This thread brought back a lot of fun memories. I adopted minidiscs wholeheartedly for two reasons: portability (since discmans and other portable cd players had such terrible skipping problems) and mostly due to the fact that cds kept in my car would get scratched up like CRAZY for some reason. Not sure why since I kept them in a cd wallet and all, but yeah - I had an MD deck in the car, a portable player, and even a bookshelf player that would dub cd -> md at 4x, which made it much easier to transfer all my cds to md. I also used the portable player to bootleg some live shows, before memory card media recorders could keep up with the quality of ATRAC3 (the Sony MD standard). I still LOVE my 3DO. There are a few games that never made it to other systems which I will pull out and play form time to time. Guardian War comes to mind. I've played it using an emulator on the PC, but it's just not the same. Surprised no one has yet mentioned the Vectrex. Arguably the first standalone videogame console (no TV required) this thing had a vector display (think Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe/Space War) and you used colored plastic overlays for each game to give it "color". It had a mini joystick with 4 buttons that flipped up and snapped into the front of the console for portability. Of course it still had to be plugged into the wall, but still - you could get your videogame on even when dad wanted to watch the news on the TV. I still have a working one, and there's 3-4 games on it that are really fun. It also featured ports of several vector arcade games which were basically identical to the originals. Towards the end of its lifetime, they added some really cool accessories which no other console had even tried at that point - including a light pen you could draw on the screen with and a set of "color" 3D glasses. My first-ever computer was a Commodore VIC-20 which was like a kiddie version of a Commodore 64. It boasted a whopping 5k of RAM, of which 1.5k was the video memory. My first experience "programming" was typing in lines and lines of BASIC code from a print out in a magazine in order to play a stupid ascii graphic game that was interesting for less time than it took to actually type in the code. If you were a baller and could afford it, there was a 5.25" floppy drive, but the rest of us punters had to use a cassette drive. Like literally audio cassettes. If you stored multiple programs on one cassette, you had to meticulously label the counter locations for each one, and they took several minutes to load into the computer. Woe unto the man who forgot to reset the counter after rewinding the tape, moved to a location and started loading only to realize after waiting 5 minutes that you loaded the wrong program entirely. I loved every second of it and it sparked a love of computers and programming that continues to this day.
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Jul 18, 2012 14:52
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RabbitMage posted:More of a question, how common are all-in-one printers? I have one that prints, copies and scans, the one my folks own does faxes, too. They are both close to ten years old. Do they still sell these things? Does anyone fax anymore? I've gotten one a few years ago mostly for printing a document, signing it and then e-mailing it. This happens once or twice a year nowadays, but it used to be more common. In the public library I work the most common question asked nowadays is "do you have a fax?" or "do you have a scanner?" for when they need to provide a company with a copy of their ID. edit: simple calculators are indeed a bit obsolete, but the proper technical ones are beasts that will simply not die by virtue of being really useful. DONT TOUCH THE PC has a new favorite as of 15:04 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 14:53
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The best thing about DIVX players is that they also played standard DVDs. So when the format died Circuit City had a massive clearance sale on them and I picked up two for the price of one normal DVD player.
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Jul 18, 2012 14:56
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HaB posted:but the rest of us punters had to use a cassette drive. Like literally audio cassettes. If you stored multiple programs on one cassette, you had to meticulously label the counter locations for each one, and they took several minutes to load into the computer. Woe unto the man who forgot to reset the counter after rewinding the tape, moved to a location and started loading only to realize after waiting 5 minutes that you loaded the wrong program entirely. A friend of mine grew up in Poland and told me that there were ham radio stations that would play a signal that comprised a computer program and that you could record it onto an audio tape and then use in your computer in this fashion.
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Jul 18, 2012 15:25
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We used to have a TV show or two in England that'd do it over the opening credits; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PLXq3UZZls&t=440s
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Jul 18, 2012 15:32
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Breetai posted:A friend of mine grew up in Poland and told me that there were ham radio stations that would play a signal that comprised a computer program and that you could record it onto an audio tape and then use in your computer in this fashion. Interesting. A friend and I tried to rip a program on cassette to .wav format to see if it would work. Out of 10 tries the program only loaded once.
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Jul 18, 2012 15:32
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