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I imagine it was something more like "unlike four-function calculators, our SR line reproduces all of the functionality of a slide rule!"
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Sep 3, 2012 15:32
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I miss the old bricky Archos Juckebox mp3 players. 5gb of storage was so much! Are there even any modern hd-based mp3 players? I'd kill for a large capacity flash/hdd hybrid that would cache whatever album you were listening to.
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Sep 3, 2012 17:54
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bucketmouse posted:I miss the old bricky Archos Juckebox mp3 players. 5gb of storage was so much! Apple still sells HD based ipods. I'm not sure if other companies gave up on that or not. I know apple is close to.
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Sep 3, 2012 17:56
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buttopticor posted:I imagine it was something more like "unlike four-function calculators, our SR line reproduces all of the functionality of a slide rule!" Pretty much that was their idea. I remember how annoying Smith Charts were, and they're pretty much a slide rule. I couldn't imagine having to use one of those things for every class. Maybe that's why I always hated communications.
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Sep 3, 2012 19:22
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Astrobastard posted:As for Minidisc players, I loved mine. I had this badboy - I had and used the silver version of that exact player for 10 years. It was recently stolen from me. Who would have wanted it enough to steal it is a mystery to me. I had a ton of discs that I had made so long ago that it was a nostalgia trip to fire it up and see what I was listening to a decade ago. It was perfect for recording voice too. As far as hard drive based mp3 players I hope they don't get axed any time soon. Its great having most of my collection available on the go and solid state players with 160+ gigs of storage seem a long way off. The iPod classic is just about perfect and I'm glad they've left it alone for so long.
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Sep 3, 2012 23:47
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buttopticor posted:I imagine it was something more like "unlike four-function calculators, our SR line reproduces all of the functionality of a slide rule!" But not the speed. It's not an urban myth that a trained slide rule operator can perform operations faster than most people can with an electronic calculator.
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Sep 4, 2012 00:06
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DocCynical posted:Sup HP48 buddy. I only had the HP48G+, no expansion slots for me. I still have mine and use it if I am actually going to do calculations at home. The buttons are so positive in their feedback. The whole calculator is built like a tank. The worst thing about them is the garbage collection that stalls out the calculator. I am also an HP48 goon. Still have mine, still love it and use it whenever I need a calculator. The thing could graph in THREE DEE man, and had the cool equation builder bit. I would say that this calc is most certainly NOT a failed technology, and gently caress Carly forever for closing the division.
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Sep 4, 2012 02:20
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How about those old games you plugged into your TV to play? Do these things even exist anymore? You know, those plastic little consoles (like old PONG units, but better) that plugged right into the front and either had long-rear end controller cords that people tripped over or short cords for everything so you had to play right in front of the drat screen. Or if they were hot poo poo, wireless IR controllers that were actually pretty crappy. My favorite was a Bass Fishing one that looked like a real fishing rod, like this:  Unfortunately, over the years, somewhere along the line the graphics or the game got screwed up, and the graphics on the menu are glitched the gently caress up. Can't tell how much money you've won (and the high score list is just broken, I think) because it's all garbage characters. Still worked though, but it's been a long time since we've hooked it up. I'm not at home to fiddle with it right now, and I'd call my brother to get it out and take a picture of it running but last time he plugged it in and turned it on, the music was messed up and it sounded pretty hellish. He doesn't want to play with it anymore. I kinda don't blame him.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:40
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Those still exist and are very common in toy stores. Here's a list of some that are sold on Amazon.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:53
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Also at every swapmeet ever you find those ones that look like N64 controllers that play NES ROMs that are totally not illegal.
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Sep 4, 2012 03:54
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madeupfred posted:Those still exist and are very common in toy stores. Here's a list of some that are sold on Amazon. I still have that Atari one. I wanted it so much for Christmas when it came out I dragged my dad to the store, pointed it out to him on the shelf, checked several times that he had absolutely positively picked up the right one, made sure he took it to the counter and bought it, and then pretended to be really surprised when I opened the present. Played that Missile Command so hard
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Sep 4, 2012 05:18
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:Also at every swapmeet ever you find those ones that look like N64 controllers that play NES ROMs that are totally not illegal. There are apparently legit devices like that you can buy with several Sega Genesis games built into them. Oddly enough, they make one that is licensed and everything with the added bonus of having an SD card slot that apparently allows you to download ROMs and play them off the device. http://www.amazon.com/Sega-Genesis-...ds=motion+sonic It seems such an odd feature to add to the device as it seems almost guaranteed to promote piracy.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:46
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JediTalentAgent posted:There are apparently legit devices like that you can buy with several Sega Genesis games built into them. Oddly enough, they make one that is licensed and everything with the added bonus of having an SD card slot that apparently allows you to download ROMs and play them off the device. I do believe that once a certain amount of time has passed other companies can just make their own systems that play old games and sell them. Obviously including the games without any sort of license would probably be frowned upon but the hardware becomes fair game.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:49
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Bought one of those things on clearance at work for $2.50. Had 121 games. No piracy involved that I knew of. Holy crap that thing was a ripoff. Sub-Atari graphics, sub-... Umm... Sub-... Yeah, is there 2-bit chip tunes? If so, sub that. Christ. I'd like to know what moron thought it was a good idea to try and sell those at an office supply store.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:08
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madeupfred posted:Those still exist and are very common in toy stores. Here's a list of some that are sold on Amazon. Holy poo poo golden tee with a spinny ball.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:14
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I get why there is a market for those sort of things, though. My mom has ZERO interest in a game system of any sort, but she's expressed interest in some of those Atari things on occasion just to play Pacman and the like. I do remember about 6 years ago there was an Atari Keychain of a minuature roller controller or joystick that were tiny, but you could connect a little cable to and hook up to a TV to play some games with. http://www.amazon.com/Atari-ATARI-JOYSTICK-KEYCHAIN/dp/B000TXTCES I've been tempted to buy one to keep at work to play in the break room during lunch.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:25
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Avenging_Mikon posted:Bought one of those things on clearance at work for $2.50. Had 121 games. No piracy involved that I knew of. Holy crap that thing was a ripoff. Sub-Atari graphics, sub-... Umm... Sub-... Yeah, is there 2-bit chip tunes? If so, sub that. Christ. I'd like to know what moron thought it was a good idea to try and sell those at an office supply store. Tell your employees you will give them a game system as an incentive for better sales, profit, whatever. Then present them with that if they meet your nearly impossible goal!  
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Sep 4, 2012 06:26
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While we're on the subject of calculators, back in the day I had a cool as hell Soviet-made calculator called Elektronika MK-52. Rundown on features: -RPN logic -Programmable, 105 steps in memory -15 memory accumulators -512 bytes of internal EEPROM memory, you could flash your programs and data into the non-volatile memory -The calculator took plug-in ROM modules, something like memory sticks -More bugs and undocumented features than documented ones! -It didn't take much of a hacker to crash the calculator (you had to reset afterwards). Keep in mind that all of this was made in early 80s. There were actual games written for the drat thing. If memory serves right, the calculator retailed for 115 rubles which was pretty dear in 1980s, but the features and the fun that this calculator brought justified the price. I'm sorry I sold it couple of years back, but my calculator was pretty trashed when I originally got it and the fact that it actually worked was nothing short of a major miracle. edit: another oddity, for some reason the manual informed you of the exact amount of precious metals that were used in the manufacture of the calculator, despite the fact that those were completely miniscule amounts - something like 0.0035 grams of gold and 0.020 grams of silver. This wasn't limited to MK-52, such information was found in the manuals of virtually all soviet-made calculators. Poknok has a new favorite as of 10:20 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 10:00
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Athenry posted:Apple still sells HD based ipods. I'm not sure if other companies gave up on that or not. I know apple is close to. I'm sure they'll kill the 160GB iPod Classic and replace it with a similarly capacious Touch. Maybe even this year.
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Sep 4, 2012 10:26
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Poknok posted:edit: another oddity, for some reason the manual informed you of the exact amount of precious metals that were used in the manufacture of the calculator, despite the fact that those were completely miniscule amounts - something like 0.0035 grams of gold and 0.020 grams of silver. This wasn't limited to MK-52, such information was found in the manuals of virtually all soviet-made calculators. The Soviets had weird rules about precious metals - if you found some gold thing for instance, even just scrap metal with gold in it, you had to give it to the state (but you got 25% of its value). And if the state took your personal gold collection during an investigation, but you were later acquitted, you got the cost of the gold back but not the gold itself. I wouldn't be surprised if they also had weird export laws that made you declare every single microgram of precious metal you're carrying. If someone wants to look it up here's an old soviet law book I found while googling around that I don't really want to read and couldn't find the answer in cursory searches 
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Sep 4, 2012 12:30
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confirmed reptile posted:I'm sure they'll kill the 160GB iPod Classic and replace it with a similarly capacious Touch. Maybe even this year. Yeah, It's a shame because I'd love a new high-capacity classic with flash storage. I don't use my phone for music at all because it's only 16 GB and I hate having to narrow down what I want into playlists and prefer to just have my entire music library on me. Because I already have an iPhone an iPod touch would be unnecessary, unfortunately there are pretty much no other manufacturers making HDD Mp3 players with that large a capacity anymore so I guess I'll have to keep repairing my classic when it breaks or buy one off ebay.
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Sep 4, 2012 13:18
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Jedit posted:But not the speed. It's not an urban myth that a trained slide rule operator can perform operations faster than most people can with an electronic calculator. Are you trying to imply that a corporate marketing team would do anything other than look out for my personal best interest as a customer? Because that's something we don't tolerate in a thread about botched tech. Also, you're comparing the speeds of a trained operator and "most people." "Most people" are not trained and probably do things like comment on Youtube.
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Sep 4, 2012 14:20
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:The Soviets had weird rules about precious metals - if you found some gold thing for instance, even just scrap metal with gold in it, you had to give it to the state (but you got 25% of its value). And if the state took your personal gold collection during an investigation, but you were later acquitted, you got the cost of the gold back but not the gold itself. I wouldn't be surprised if they also had weird export laws that made you declare every single microgram of precious metal you're carrying. If someone wants to look it up here's an old soviet law book I found while googling around that I don't really want to read and couldn't find the answer in cursory searches Yup, I have my great-grandfather's old watch, and the warranty card mentions how much silver is in it. It's not very much.
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Sep 4, 2012 14:37
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Kalos posted:Are you trying to imply that a corporate marketing team would do anything other than look out for my personal best interest as a customer? Because that's something we don't tolerate in a thread about botched tech. OK, then, a trained slide rule operator can work faster than anyone who would be using a calculator because they're not trained in using a slide rule, and is also not a freak of nature with 18 fingers on each hand. Happy now?
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Sep 4, 2012 15:46
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Dacap posted:I don't use my phone for music at all because it's only 16 GB and I hate having to narrow down what I want into playlists and prefer to just have my entire music library on me. Give it another year or so and you'll be able to buy a 128 GB microSD card for your phone (you can already buy 64 GB ones now.) Unless you have an iphone in which case you're stuck with whatever capacity Apple decides they should have.
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Sep 4, 2012 17:20
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Poknok posted:While we're on the subject of calculators, back in the day I had a cool as hell Soviet-made calculator called Elektronika MK-52. This is so rad. I love foreign poo poo like this. 
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Sep 4, 2012 19:57
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Terrible Robot posted:Was this the crash where he told police that a German man named Dieter had been driving and had run away after the crash? My friend and I still make jokes about that, but I never bothered to find out what the full story was. I have a friend who still to this day constantly curses Dieter for pretty much anything not favorable. DIEEEETERRRRRRRR! 
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Sep 4, 2012 20:26
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iPhones are not he only ones that won't let you use external storage. The Nexus series from Google don't have this either.
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Sep 4, 2012 20:46
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In terms of obsolete and failed gaming technology, this is one of the shortest lived Nintendo experiments I can remember.  I remember wanting one so badly, then one day I went to Electronics Boutique in the mall and tried one of these bad boys. After about 5 minutes I felt nauseous and immediately lost all desire to own one.
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Sep 4, 2012 20:58
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Edit: Never mind this is a stupid conversation.parka posted:In terms of obsolete and failed gaming technology, this is one of the shortest lived Nintendo experiments I can remember. I think the head guy on this ended up getting kicked upstairs far from any new-tech positions, if I'm thinking of the right thing. "Virtual" anything in regards to technology is in itself a dated term that's '90s as hell. Acute Grill has a new favorite as of 21:06 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 21:00
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Jasta posted:This is so rad. I love foreign poo poo like this. You could troll the poo poo out of schoolteachers with this thing. Most people don't know how to use RPN calculators with keyboard nomenclature in Cyrillic.
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Sep 4, 2012 21:01
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:Also at every swapmeet ever you find those ones that look like N64 controllers that play NES ROMs that are totally not illegal. These are instantly recognizable to anyone who read video game magazines in the early to mid 00's. Basically the guy responsible for making and importing them got smacked down hard by Nintendo's legal department and as part of the settlement had to take out huge page and half page sized ads in pretty much every video game magazine featuring his mugshot and what crimes he had committed.
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Sep 4, 2012 21:43
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How about Reliant Robins anyone? I know they're not in the scrap heap(yet) but soon. I just found out about them and they're absolutely adorable  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bIn_ZgHJaE
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Sep 4, 2012 21:50
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Geoj posted:Actually, mentioning the pcmods rheobus reminded me - have we touched on DIY PC modding yet? Oh, this takes me back. I bought a Chieftec Midi tower 8 years ago, and 2 square meters of plexi glass and some rubber listings, and then started with the electric dremel and way too many discs cutting the metal, cutting the plexi glass in the right shape, cutting holes for the fans etc. Fitted it with some fancy colored cathodes which had the ability to blink to the beat of the music I played (what it really did was just blink at every sound of the bass drum or what sounded like a bass drum, and if it didn't hear anything like it, it just stayed on). It was a smash at parties. I remember lugging around that 20 kg case and an early external HDD filled with my MP3 collection, and having to make sure everyone was very careful around it, because if the HDD was bumped, it crashed. Good times. Sadly, all the pictures I had of it are gone.
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Sep 4, 2012 23:39
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Kalos posted:Edit: Never mind this is a stupid conversation. Nah it was actually designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who is the creator of the original Game Boy. Not every project can be a winner, I guess. Virtual Boy was kinda cool in a gimmicky way but yeah it certainly wasn't a great system.
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Sep 5, 2012 03:25
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Adus posted:Not every project can be a winner, I guess. See also: Hattris.
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Sep 5, 2012 03:27
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iamathousandapples posted:How about Reliant Robins anyone? I know they're not in the scrap heap(yet) but soon. I just found out about them and they're absolutely adorable I was hoping the video you posted was what it is. This is the funniest Top Gear segment I've ever seen.
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Sep 5, 2012 05:01
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Adus posted:Nah it was actually designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who is the creator of the original Game Boy. Not every project can be a winner, I guess. The technology of the Virtual Boy was probably better suited for arcades than any sort of home system, where gameplay is limited to minutes and it could expand the capabilities of the design to perhaps expand beyond monochrome graphics, or allow for a degree of head movement in controlling gameplay.
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Sep 5, 2012 06:16
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JediTalentAgent posted:The technology of the Virtual Boy was probably better suited for arcades than any sort of home system, where gameplay is limited to minutes and it could expand the capabilities of the design to perhaps expand beyond monochrome graphics, or allow for a degree of head movement in controlling gameplay. The problem with arcade use was that onlookers couldn't see poo poo and that was considered (probably correctly) bad for business.
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Sep 5, 2012 10:46
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JediTalentAgent posted:The technology of the Virtual Boy was probably better suited for arcades than any sort of home system, where gameplay is limited to minutes and it could expand the capabilities of the design to perhaps expand beyond monochrome graphics, or allow for a degree of head movement in controlling gameplay. Jerry Cotton posted:The problem with arcade use was that onlookers couldn't see poo poo and that was considered (probably correctly) bad for business. http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=12746 I've played this thing before. You stick your head in the helmet, but there's a second screen for people to watch on. I think it was a pretty popular machine, and there were always lots of spectators because you looked pretty dumb spinning around.
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Sep 5, 2012 14:27
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