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chiz posted:"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULIE" I can never find the article when I'm reminded, but I remember reading an interview with Stallone where he explained that thing. It was basically "It was the 80's, gently caress it I wanted a robot". Who made those weird tiny cell phones? The one's that were a bit bigger than a stick of gum, and only had a little joystick to dial? I still want one of those. EDIT: I think This is what Im thinking of. Fooley has a new favorite as of 01:40 on Aug 5, 2012 |
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Aug 5, 2012 01:25
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Zombie Rasputin posted:How about playstation games on your dreamcast? Bleem is why I still have a grudge against Sony. It's an example of "We may lose but we're bigger then you so we'll keep suing you until you go bust.  " Can't even fire up my copy for nostalga purposes. Because of the way they coded it, it will not run on any OS newer then the Win 9x platform.
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Aug 5, 2012 01:56
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Fooley posted:Who made those weird tiny cell phones? The one's that were a bit bigger than a stick of gum, and only had a little joystick to dial? I still want one of those.  ?Barely 10 years later and that part of the movie doesn't make any sense; the trend in phones for a while has been to see who can put the biggest screen on them. Content: Some really cool obsolete technology, mechanical computers! This is part of a Vickers Viscount training simulator from the 1950s.  Edit: was breaking tables
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Aug 5, 2012 02:04
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Fozaldo posted:Another favorite of mine is Nixie Tubes I worked for a Kellogg's production plant in the late 90's and a lot of the control panels for the machinery still had functional nixie tubes on them. They were redundant after they switched everything to digital screens, but they were still there working as well as they ever had. Looked cool as hell too.
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Aug 5, 2012 02:38
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SimplyCosmic posted:
While cleaning out my grandmother's house a few years ago, I found my Dad's calculator:  And here's something I thought would be obsolete by now, but shockingly still exists: [Classic] StarLab. Once per year, this thing would roll around to all the schools in the county and we'd spend one class period in this stuffy, cramped thing and not have a clue as to what we were seeing.
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Aug 5, 2012 02:49
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redmercer posted:You call that a brick? Here's a brick: Yeah I'm still using mine for audiobooks. God help you if you lose the USB cable which is a propritery size somewhere between mini and micro usb. For day to day music listening I've upgraded to a Zune 
email has a new favorite as of 04:57 on Aug 5, 2012 |
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Aug 5, 2012 04:55
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Fozaldo posted:When I was a kid if you wanted to play games it was all about vacuum fluorescent table top arcade games. I guess the most popular were these bad boys: I have one of those! It still works perfectly, I'm gonna have to hunt down some C batteries to play it now. 
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Aug 5, 2012 07:21
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One of my favourite pastimes before I got my hands on a GameBoy in '89. 
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Aug 5, 2012 08:45
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RC and Moon Pie posted:While cleaning out my grandmother's house a few years ago, I found my Dad's calculator: My grandma has one of these:  Gonna put it on my desk if I can remember where the hell it is right now.
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Aug 5, 2012 11:08
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Lankster NZ posted:Back to old school Mp3 player chat for a minute. I had both the iHP-120 (died suddenly) and the iHP-320 (died after I dropped it into the sink). Great players, bulky, but sounded great. Real clicking buttons and the remote was good too. You could keep the player in your coat pocket and leave the remote clipped to the coat collar so you didn't have to fumble around with the whole player if you wanted to switch tracks. The thing also didn't require any kind of software installed. Just plug in the usb, and it worked like an external HD. Just drag and drop files. Used it with Windows, OSX and even Linux a few times. Great for moving large files around. Only downsides were that it was bulky and required you to manually update podcasts. No dedicated software means no syncing.
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Aug 5, 2012 11:37
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)and I still use it pretty much daily running RockBox firmware. 
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Puddin posted:I have one of those! It still works perfectly, I'm gonna have to hunt down some C batteries to play it now. That brings up another somewhat obsolete technology: D batteries. And D batteries lead right into 80s Boom Boxes.  9v batteries seem pretty uncommonly used these days as well, outside of garage door openers and clock radios.
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Aug 5, 2012 17:29
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SimplyCosmic posted:9v batteries seem pretty uncommonly used these days as well, outside of garage door openers and clock radios. Fire alarms and RC remote controls too. Fake edit: RC remote controls... I don't know. Sounds wrong..
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Aug 5, 2012 17:50
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SimplyCosmic posted:That brings up another somewhat obsolete technology: D batteries. Still used in big flashlights, larger portable radios, lanterns, etc. But perhaps flashlights that use D cells themselves are starting to become obsolete. I'm thinking of those crappy Everready flashlights with the colorful plastic casing and the white switch that feels uncomfortable. You probably know the type. You buy it, 6 months later you have to start messing with the switch and partly unscrewing it to get it to light. If you leave batteries in them they'll quickly lose charge and corrode. Compared to a good LED flashlight, well I have an Energizer flashlight in my truck that I haven't changed in 3 years and it still lights up nice and bright. Oh and as for 9 volts, don't forget smoke detectors.
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Aug 5, 2012 18:20
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Landerig posted:But perhaps flashlights that use D cells themselves are starting to become obsolete. I'm thinking of those crappy Everready flashlights with the colorful plastic casing and the white switch that feels uncomfortable. Maglite disagree. Gotta have that reassuring heft for private security guards that aren't allowed a truncheon, but are allowed a torch... 
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Aug 5, 2012 20:33
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I loving love my maglite. And it's nice to know that I could bludgeon someone with it if need be.
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Aug 5, 2012 20:39
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Teah, D batteries still get some use. C batteries, on the other hand, have always sucked a sack of poo poo and I'll be glad to see them go. I mean...you're so close to being as big as a D, what's the point?
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Aug 5, 2012 21:06
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SimplyCosmic posted:9v batteries seem pretty uncommonly used these days as well, outside of garage door openers and clock radios. A lot of music stuff uses them. Preamps, active pickups, stomp boxes, tuners, etc.
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Aug 5, 2012 22:19
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SimplyCosmic posted:
Not exactly a common use, but a lot of the moisture meters we use at work take 9v.
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Aug 5, 2012 22:33
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Stuporstar posted:Too many boring-rear end phones, not enough strange post-90s technology. They're still rocking the universe in Germany. Every planetarium I've visited has a Zeiss projector. Where I live we call them the „Kartoffel“, though. ;-) Did we already mention mechanical computers? No? Learn about them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4 Make sure to read up on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who constructed some very odd mechanical computers. http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Leibnitzrechenmaschine.jpg&filetimestamp=20060706122903 Who said computers must be digital (you did just read about Leibniz, right?) or mechanical? There's still analog computers for the wicked: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer der_tsu has a new favorite as of 23:57 on Aug 5, 2012 |
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Aug 5, 2012 23:14
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Blue Square posted:gently caress me, teletext still exists? From a few pages back but even in this thread teletext rises again. “The road begins from here. Teletext is the future.”
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Aug 5, 2012 23:17
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VogeGandire posted:I loving love my maglite. And it's nice to know that I could bludgeon someone with it if need be. D-cells may no longer be the optimum choice in powering high-end flashlights but those fancy schmancy CR123A's don't even come close in terms of bludgeoning power. Anyone still use NiCd rechargeable batteries? I hope not. As well as suffering from the Memory Effect they generally just sucked for high drain devices. I have childhood memories of foolishly thinking NiCd batteries were the sustainable solution to my Citizen ST555 handheld TV needs, only for them to be drained in about 4 minutes. Also, handheld TV's  I suppose they were kinda fun but little more than a gimmicky gadget. I soldered a cable from the TV modulator output of my Amiga to the metal antenna, tuned it in and had a simulation of what an Amiga handheld would have been like 
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Aug 5, 2012 23:47
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KuruMonkey posted:Maglite disagree. Gotta have that reassuring heft for private security guards that aren't allowed a truncheon, but are allowed a torch... Maglites are in a whole other league. Those aren't flashlights to me, those are maglites/beating sticks.
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Aug 6, 2012 01:23
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Once used a Maglite to administer the coup de grace to a deer that ran in front of my car. It was partly to put it out of it's misery, but mostly I was just loving furious that my otherwise pristine old sports car had had it's front end re-arranged. Content: How about some technology that should be obsolete but isn't? I use a Powerbook G4 Titanium every day, in fact it's my only computer. 867mhz of raw, untamed processing power, less than most smart-phones today. It may not be the fastest thing anymore but I haven't had any problems. Plus the drat case/chassis is made out of titanium and carbon fiber, how loving cool is that? Terrible Robot has a new favorite as of 03:10 on Aug 6, 2012 |
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Aug 6, 2012 03:05
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Ultrasonic remote controls These were used before IR remotes took over in the 1980's. If you've ever heard a remote control being called a clicker, this is where that nick name came from. All it was were buttons that hit tines which emitted a sound frequency that the TV would pick up and act upon.
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Aug 6, 2012 03:23
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How I wish for the return to remotes that are this simple and not have your parents ring you every week to be reminded which button displays the program guide or requesting that I come over to reprogram the set top as it's been accidentally reset.
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Aug 6, 2012 03:28
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Terrible Robot posted:Content: How about some technology that should be obsolete but isn't? Fax machines are the top of my list. And will likely be on that list for at least another 5 to 10 years.
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Aug 6, 2012 04:33
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On the subject of batteries, whatever happened to the minor "Rechargeable Alkaline" boom of the 90s? It seemed like for a few years there was a company selling a device to let you 'safely' recharge all your normal alkalines, and Rayovac was selling dedicated rechargeable alkalines. I guess they're still around, but they seemed to vanish even before the NiMH batteries started to get cheap. (My memory was sparked, no pun intended, by the sight of a charger at a rummage sale a short time ago.)
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Aug 6, 2012 06:19
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SimplyCosmic posted:Fax machines are the top of my list. And will likely be on that list for at least another 5 to 10 years. I don't know...people keep saying they should be obsolete, but if you have something that is already a physical copy, and doesn't have a digital copy (because someone had to sign it, or it's a bunch of receipts for an expense report,)and/or you need to send it to someone else who also needs it as a physical copy, faxing is easier than the sender scanning it, attaching it to an email, sending it, and then the receiver printing it. However, if the sender already has it as a digital copy, or the receiver only needs it as digital, then emailing the attachment is easier.
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Aug 6, 2012 07:04
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Everybody had one of these or knew someone who had one:
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Aug 6, 2012 08:33
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DrBouvenstein posted:I don't know...people keep saying they should be obsolete, but if you have something that is already a physical copy, and doesn't have a digital copy (because someone had to sign it, or it's a bunch of receipts for an expense report,)and/or you need to send it to someone else who also needs it as a physical copy, faxing is easier than the sender scanning it, attaching it to an email, sending it, and then the receiver printing it. Most office copiers these days will do all that automatically (well, at least all the ones I've seen in use recently). They'll also fax it if you want. Actually, the cheapo Canon scanner I got in 1998 will do it automatically if you set it up that way but it'll need to be connected to a computer, of course. Also, faxes really often render documents unreadable because of low resolution and poo poo so you'll have to call back to check everything anyway.
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Aug 6, 2012 08:45
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Landerig posted:Bleem is why I still have a grudge against Sony. It's an example of "We may lose but we're bigger then you so we'll keep suing you until you go bust. Before Bleem, a small company called Connectix, which mainly made computer peripherals, wrote a commercial PS1 emulator for PC and Mac. Sony sued them, but Connectix won. Of course, Sony then just bought the rights to the software for several times what it was worth, and instantly discontinued it.
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Aug 6, 2012 09:05
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Mousepractice posted:You've reminded me of the bad boy of childhood portable video games : the TomyTronic 3D, a crap Game & Watch game displayed on a terrible lovely set of goggles Man, I've been trying to remember exactly what this thing was for ages. My uncle had one when we were kids, think it was a motorbike themed one. Can still remember the music on it.
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Aug 6, 2012 15:43
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OozieNelson posted:Everybody had one of these or knew someone who had one: Holy poo poo, for such a simple device, that thing was able to keep me entertained for absurd amounts of time. I once spent 8 hours, fishing for bass from New York City to Relleigh NC. Mine was silver and had a more detailed reel. Time to hunt through the app store to find an iPhone version of this. (Although the reel sticking out of the side was really what made it fun.)
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Aug 6, 2012 20:02
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Landerig posted:Ultrasonic remote controls That's genius compared to this, though.  It was a remote control which was just a flashlight. You shined it at one of four light sensors on the TV, and that was it. It was hard to use since you needed to have a direct line of sight with the TV, and the sensors could be finicky. It was also incredibly annoying since a beam of sunlight moving across the room could turn it on.
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Aug 6, 2012 20:44
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Wanamingo posted:That's genius compared to this, though. That's not all that different from how modern IR remotes work. Of course it's much more sophisticated now, but the principle is the same.
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Aug 6, 2012 21:02
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Absolutely harmless to humans! (No guarantees about your pets.)
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Aug 6, 2012 21:16
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Wanamingo posted:That's genius compared to this, though. "And you remain in your easy chair." And at this point obesity started escalating.
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Aug 6, 2012 21:24
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If we're taking about ancient hand-held games, I give you this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race I played the gently caress out of this game. It's so simple, it's ridiculous, but in the higher "gear", it would kick your rear end.
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Aug 6, 2012 22:57
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"You can also shut off long, annoying commercials while picture remains on screen!" Does that mean mute? Also I like how people were already trying to avoid commercials in 1956.
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Aug 6, 2012 23:09
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Elim Garak posted:"You can also shut off long, annoying commercials while picture remains on screen!" Yep, that pretty much just means mute. You can also infer from it that back then you couldn't even change the volume.
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Aug 6, 2012 23:38
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