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Endymion FRS MK1
Oct 29, 2011

I don't know what this thing is, and I don't care. I'm just tired of seeing your stupid newbie av from 2011.

BattleMaster posted:

How did that 8 year old girl know what it was, and by its proper name too :psyduck:

Yeah, and now I feel weird. I didn't know what a Walkman was until about high school, and have never owned one.

I'm 23.

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Wayne Knight
May 11, 2006

stealie72 posted:

"Daddy, how come Dakota and Raine have ipods and I have this stupid old boring walkman thing?"

Good luck with that. Maybe if you are blessed with alternative-minded teenagers you can try it then.

edit: and before anyone chimes in with "I would never let my kid be that bratty and stuff-focused" that's not the point. Your kid will not give a gently caress about your old assed walkman any more than I gave about my parents LPs and 8 tracks full of 60s and 70s music in the 80s. You might be able to show one off to them for some nerdy/cool cred, but it's not going to become any sort of actual music player for them.

You might be able to get away with one of the lovely pre-ipod/smartphone mp3 players out there. At least you can put the latest lovely pop band's hits on that.

I was mostly talking about the before school era. "Gotta run some errands but if you're good at the grocery store we'll go thrifting!" (We would go thrifting regardless.)

Fors Yard
Feb 15, 2008

Aside from getting shot in the head, David, what have you done with yourself?

stealie72 posted:

At least you can put the latest lovely pop band's hits on that.

If only you could make your own tapes with a mix of songs you wanted...

EatMySpork
Nov 19, 2009

Utensil of the Gods.
Speaking of Walkmans, I just found one of these in a old box not to long ago.

stealie72
Jan 10, 2007

Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
\

Fors Yard posted:

If only you could make your own tapes with a mix of songs you wanted...

How many of us, posting in a thread about obscure technology and actually interested in this stuff, honestly have the ability to do that right now? A cassette deck, blank (or record-over-able) tapes, and the ability to play an mp3 into the recording side of said setup.

ElwoodCuse
Jan 11, 2004

we're puttin' the band back together
I guarantee you can go to Big Lots or something and get a kid a 4 gb mp3 player for like half what my old tape and radio walkman cost.

Also I LOVED going through my parents' records and picking out ones to play pretty much based on what was on the album cover. :colbert: One standout result: Time Passages by Al Stewart

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

stealie72 posted:

How many of us, posting in a thread about obscure technology and actually interested in this stuff, honestly have the ability to do that right now? A cassette deck, blank (or record-over-able) tapes, and the ability to play an mp3 into the recording side of said setup.

Probably a lot of people. None of what you just outlined is rare or complicated.

Code Jockey
Jan 24, 2006

69420 basic bytes free

ElwoodCuse posted:

Also I LOVED going through my parents' records and picking out ones to play pretty much based on what was on the album cover. :colbert: One standout result: Time Passages by Al Stewart

I love Herb Alpert, and playing Whipped Cream and Other Delights when company is over always gets some interesting looks. :v:

EdBlackadder
Apr 8, 2009
Lipstick Apathy

stealie72 posted:

How many of us, posting in a thread about obscure technology and actually interested in this stuff, honestly have the ability to do that right now? A cassette deck, blank (or record-over-able) tapes, and the ability to play an mp3 into the recording side of said setup.

Don't know what it's like in the US but speaking as someone in his late twenties in the UK our stereo (and all my friends stereos) have tape decks and have line ins. The tape decks are never used, mind you. We're all using ten year old gear but if it ain't broke...

stealie72
Jan 10, 2007

Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
\

DNova posted:

Probably a lot of people. None of what you just outlined is rare or complicated.

I know it's not complicated. It's also super easy to type up a letter on a typewriter. My point was asking who the hell has a cassette deck anymore? :-)

As nerdy as I am about old technology, I am super glad about the death of physical media for entertainment.

Ron Burgundy
Dec 24, 2005
This burrito is delicious, but it is filling.
Hah, you guys and your modern CRT televisions.

I do NOT enjoy moving this thing, hence the carpet square it more or less lives on.

Cat Hatter
Oct 24, 2006

Hatters gonna hat.
A lot of people (myself included) put their old stereos in the garage to listen to when doing work out there. Usually they still have a tape deck. Its the same concept as making a beer fridge when you buy a new fridge for the kitchen.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Cat Hatter posted:

A lot of people (myself included) put their old stereos in the garage to listen to when doing work out there. Usually they still have a tape deck. Its the same concept as making a beer fridge when you buy a new fridge for the kitchen.

My parents used to have one of those old frigidares with the handle that's also a latch for the beer fridge, thing must have been 40 years old and still ran like a champ

Until a power surge killed it.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.
They have one of those kids videos about rotary phones and it's almost as much fun to watch. At one point they ask the kids how to make a call and one says something like "I don't know I wasn't born in the forties." :3:

Going to go home and plug my '54 AE 80 in. I love rotary phones.

Dick Trauma has a new favorite as of 19:05 on Apr 18, 2014

Ensign Expendable
Nov 11, 2008

Lager beer is proof that god loves us
Pillbug
Rotary phones are the best, dialing a number is super satisfying. Shame they don't work with digital menus and whatnot.

Disgusting Coward
Feb 17, 2014
Shame you end up never again talking to anyone with a bunch of 9s in their number because gently caress YOU.

stealie72
Jan 10, 2007

Their eyes locked and suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass.
\

Disgusting Coward posted:

Shame you end up never again talking to anyone with a bunch of 9s in their number because gently caress YOU.
Hey, the entire area code system is based on just how goddamn long that 0 takes to dial.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.

stealie72 posted:

Hey, the entire area code system is based on just how goddamn long that 0 takes to dial.

Ssssssuck it, Alaska! :phoneb:

axeil
Feb 14, 2006

Krispy Kareem posted:

GE is a really lovely company. Back in 2007 they were financing their day-to-day expenses with corporate paper (short term loans) instead of keeping a reasonable amount of cash in the bank. Then the corporate paper market disappeared overnight due to the Lehmann Brothers collapse. Suddenly GE didn't even have enough money for it's own payroll. If not for the Fed agreeing to buy all of it's corporate paper they would have gone bankrupt.

Okay as someone who actually works with this stuff I'm gonna stop you right there and say you're wrong.

Almost every large business finances itself with paper because keeping mountains of cash around is pointless when you can get a basis point or two making a short loan. You set up a 24 hour (or week or other extremely short time frame) loan, use the interest to fund your operating expenses and roll the loan over again.

In a financial free-fall when people were wondering whether or not people would open for business the next morning the rates on paper climbed to the point that companies weren't able to roll the loan over. You also had some people not paying back these short term loans because their assets all went to poo poo. This is a problem.

Additionally, the Fed buying paper did nothing, it was really the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program the FDIC ran that insured commercial paper that saved the market. And the FDIC made a pretty penny on that deal for the taxpayer. All the data is on their website if you ever want to see how the financial system got saved and how much money the US government made doing it.

edit: links: http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/resources/TLGP/index.html

The FDIC posted:

On October 14, 2008, as part of a coordinated response by the U.S. government to the disruption in the financial system and the collapse of credit markets, the FDIC implemented the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP). By calming market fears and encouraging lending, the TLGP helped bring stability to financial markets and the banking industry during the crisis period. The TLGP consisted of two components: (1) the Transaction Account Guarantee Program (TAGP), an FDIC guarantee in full of noninterest-bearing transaction accounts; and (2) the Debt Guarantee Program (DGP), an FDIC guarantee of certain newly issued senior unsecured debt.

The TAGP guaranteed in full all domestic noninterest-bearing transaction deposits, low-interest NOW accounts, and Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTAs) held at participating banks and thrifts through December 31, 2009. The deadline was extended twice and expired on December 31, 2010.

The TAGP brought stability and confidence to banks and their business customers by removing the risk of loss from deposit accounts that are commonly used to meet payroll and other business transaction purposes. Deposits provide the primary source of funding for most banks, and they are particularly important for smaller institutions. The temporary coverage allowed institutions, particularly smaller ones, to retain these accounts and maintain the ability to make loans within their communities.

Under the DGP, the FDIC guaranteed in full, through maturity or June 30, 2012, whichever came first, the senior unsecured debt issued by a participating entity between October 14, 2008, and June 30, 2009. In 2009, the issuance period was extended through October 31, 2009. The FDIC's guarantee on each debt instrument was also extended in 2009 to the earlier of the stated maturity date of the debt or December 31, 2012.

The DGP enabled financial institutions to meet their financing needs during a period of record high credit spreads and aided the successful return of the credit market to near normalcy, despite the recession and slow economic recovery. This improvement in the credit markets was reflected in the increasing ability of banks and their holding companies to issue longer-term debt over the course of the DGP issuance period. At the inception of the program, firms heavily relied upon the DGP to roll over short-term liabilities because of the fragility of the credit markets and investors' continued aversion to risk. By providing the ability to issue debt guaranteed by the FDIC, the DGP allowed institutions to extend maturities and obtain more stable unsecured funding.

Over the course of the DGP's existence, 122 entities issued TLGP debt. At its peak, the DGP guaranteed $345.8 billion of outstanding debt. The DGP guarantee on all TLGP debt that had not already matured expired on December 31, 2012. Therefore, at the end of 2012, no debt guaranteed by the DGP remained.

The FDIC collected $10.4 billion in fees and surcharges under the DGP. As of December 31, 2012, the FDIC had paid $153 million in losses resulting from six participating entities defaulting on debt issued under the DGP. The majority of these losses ($113 million) arose from banks with outstanding DGP notes that failed in 2011 and were placed into receivership.

The FDIC collected $1.2 billion in fees under the TAGP. Cumulative estimated TAGP losses on failures as of December 31, 2012, totaled $2.1 billion.

Overall, TLGP fees exceeded the losses from the program. From inception of the TLGP, it was the FDIC's policy to recognize revenue to the DIF for any portion of guarantee fees in excess of amounts needed to cover potential losses upon expiration of the TLGP guarantee period (December 31, 2012) or earlier. In total, $9.3 billion in TLGP fees were deposited into the DIF.

Note: The Dodd-Frank Act provided temporary unlimited deposit insurance coverage for noninterest-bearing transaction accounts and IOLTAs (but not low-interest NOW accounts) from December 31, 2010, through December 31, 2012, regardless of the balance in the account and the ownership capacity of the funds. This coverage essentially replaced the TAGP, which expired on December 31, 2010, and was available to all depositors, including consumers, businesses, and government entities. The coverage was separate from, and in addition to, the standard insurance coverage provided for a depositor's other accounts held at an FDIC-insured bank.

Only 6 default events and a total return of $9.3B to the FDIC's funds. Not a bad return for saving the economy. The was then used to help replenish the Deposit Insurance Fund, which is what the FDIC uses instead of tax money to resolve failed banks.

axeil has a new favorite as of 19:38 on Apr 18, 2014

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Disgusting Coward posted:

Shame you end up never again talking to anyone with a bunch of 9s in their number because gently caress YOU.

And gently caress trying to win radio contests.

eddiewalker
Apr 28, 2004

Arrrr ye landlubber

MA-Horus posted:

My parents used to have one of those old frigidares with the handle that's also a latch for the beer fridge, thing must have been 40 years old and still ran like a champ

Until a power surge killed it.

I got a flyer from the local power company offering $200 and free pickup to anyone who turn in a working "garage fridge."

Style obsolete by inefficiency.

Ensign Expendable
Nov 11, 2008

Lager beer is proof that god loves us
Pillbug

Mister Kingdom posted:

And gently caress trying to win radio contests.

Are radio contests still a thing? I can't imagine anyone listening to a radio these days unless they're in a car, and it's not like you're going to be dialing a phone while driving.

Tracula
Mar 26, 2010

PLEASE LEAVE

Ensign Expendable posted:

Are radio contests still a thing? I can't imagine anyone listening to a radio these days unless they're in a car, and it's not like you're going to be dialing a phone while driving.

You'd be surprised. Simply dialing would probably be 10x safer than what a lot of people do when driving these days.

Cat Hatter
Oct 24, 2006

Hatters gonna hat.
People still listen to radio in the car, if they work for a businesses that isn't big enough to have its own corporate radio station, and people doing housework or in the garage. Car listeners can safely call in with a hands-free device or if stuck in traffic (or they can just use their phone like most people do even though they shouldn't). Some people, like my dad, have the radio contest number saved in their phone so they can just tell their phone to dial the number while they get ready in the morning or whatever.

Old James
Nov 20, 2003

Wait a sec. I don't know an Old James!

Dick Trauma posted:

Ssssssuck it, Alaska! :phoneb:

Suck it Inland Empire (909)

cobalt impurity
Apr 23, 2010

I hope he didn't care about that pizza.

DNova posted:

Probably a lot of people. None of what you just outlined is rare or complicated.

The only things I play music out of anymore are my computer, my phone, and my car. If I want to do housework, I already have wireless headphones that reach everywhere in the house. I have no way to play the tapes I still have or to make new ones if I wanted to. :shrug:

The last thing I had that could even play tapes was my old Saturn Vue and even then the tape deck was solely used for the audio-in converter thing. I would be getting my kids the cheapest MP3 player I could find and let them know if they break it then they're just hosed. It would be cheaper in the long run too when you factor in buying blank tapes, equipment to make new tapes, and all the batteries they'll burn listening to a walkman.

strangemusic
Aug 7, 2008

I shield you because I need charge
Is not because I like you or anything!


EatMySpork posted:

Speaking of Walkmans, I just found one of these in a old box not to long ago.



I used to have exactly this. It was the greatest thing. I was born in 88 so I grew up mostly in the age of CDs, but I used to play some of my parents' tapes on it. I made a couple of incredibly horrible recordings to these kinds of tapes once. I wish I still had one, it would be a neat little lo-fi box.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

strangemusic posted:

I used to have exactly this. It was the greatest thing. I was born in 88 so I grew up mostly in the age of CDs, but I used to play some of my parents' tapes on it. I made a couple of incredibly horrible recordings to these kinds of tapes once. I wish I still had one, it would be a neat little lo-fi box.

I used a fairly modern version of the Walkman ($20 about 6-7 years ago) to transfer some tapes to my computer. Pretty decent sound considering.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
Those of you waxing lyrical about cassette tapes being the perfect thing for kids are sorely forgetting the fine art of winding one back together after a bored kid's pulled it all out.

You can pretty much buy a knock off brand for $20 off ebay and be somewhat rest assured when your kid drops it in the sink or tries to microwave it.

It's kind of amusing reading back through the Walkman's history and design as it had perfected getting the player down to being roughly the size of a cassette, only for CD players to boom in with their chunky designs.

And this feature which surprisingly hung around for a few years until the model became cheap.

Lazlo Nibble
Jan 9, 2004

It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

WebDog posted:

It's kind of amusing reading back through the Walkman's history and design as it had perfected getting the player down to being roughly the size of a cassette, only for CD players to boom in with their chunky designs.

You aren't kidding about chunky. My first CD player was a Sony D-5, their first-gen portable. It ran on four "C" cells and instead of putting the battery pack inside the player, you put the player inside the battery pack.

Horace
Apr 17, 2007

Gone Skiin'

Ensign Expendable posted:

Rotary phones are the best, dialing a number is super satisfying. Shame they don't work with digital menus and whatnot.

You can buy an inexpensive gizmo which is installed inside your rotary phone and converts it to touch tone for use with digital menus. It even adds speed dial and last number redial!

I love that someone went to the effort to design and manufacture such a thing. It's quite smart - it adds no buttons, you send it commands through the existing rotary dial by holding numbers against the finger stop until it bleeps.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
The first Sony Discman was actually an attempt to miniaturize their fully fledged CD player.
But if you wanted to take the D-50 for a walk you had to bring along one of the few rechargeable battery packs. This was well before they had any sort of track buffering so you were limited to a slow careful walk or sitting everywhere.



Keep in mind with that design idea, you eventually had things like the D-350 with it's ability to directly punch in track numbers and cram in as much electronic wizardry as possible.



There even was the D-Z555 model which shoved in an impressive amount of DSP and oversampling effects into one unit. It pretty much was a very very expensive showcase of what could be possible.

Aware of size Sony eventually came up with the D88. Which also played the new Mini-CDs.


By the end of the Discman's peak in 2003, stuff like the D-EJ885 pretty much had perfected all the quirks with CD playback, such as skip with two forms of buffering and a battery life of 110 hours.

Not to mention being one of the most attractive ever, with it's controls and displays being relegated to a cable remote. It was the last of the Luxury brands that Sony offered for portable music. But for all it's paring down of weight it suffered with flat audio output.

Captain Trips
May 23, 2013
The sudden reminder that I have no fucking clue what I'm talking about
I have to use a fax machine at least every other day at work. I literally just mash buttons until something happens.

Why do people still use these gigantic paperweights?

WebDog posted:

Aware of size Sony eventually came up with the D88. Which also played the new Mini-CDs.


How does this even work? Does the CD actually stick out of it like that and spin exposed during playback like a plastic buzzsaw?

Captain Trips has a new favorite as of 05:21 on Apr 19, 2014

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

Captain Trips posted:

I have to use a fax machine at least every other day at work. I literally just mash buttons until something happens.

Why do people still use these gigantic paperweights?

Ugh fax machines :suicide:

I do phone support for a major tire manufacturer's retail stores so we inevitably end up fielding "our fax machine from 1994/bargain basement level all-in-one printer with fax capability isn't working" calls. Upper management has already decreed that they aren't supporting fax machines anymore, but the stores inevitably have a sob story about why they can't use the e-fax service provided by corporate - typically "we do business with whatever government agency and need a standalone fax machine."

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

Captain Trips posted:

How does this even work? Does the CD actually stick out of it like that and spin exposed during playback like a plastic buzzsaw?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG2SARYVYn4

Yup. Utterly impractical if you wanted to take it anywhere unless you had a mini-cd which would fit inside the housing.

Zeether
Aug 26, 2011

I used to have some kind of Sony portable CD player with that weird "W" logo on it they started using around the early 2000s. Listened to the hell out of Weird Al and the Digimon movie soundtrack on it.

JediTalentAgent
Jun 5, 2005
Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!
For folks who want their kids to have cassette players, they also make an MP3 Audio Cassette so they can have the best of both worlds. I guess the notion was it worked along the same lines as the cassette adapters for your car, but it was essentially an MP3 player built in so you didn't actually hook anything into it.

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Player-...cassette+player

Pham Nuwen
Oct 30, 2010



I had the best cassette player, received as a gift in the 5th grade Secret Santa exchanged:



This was at a time when portable CD players existed but neither I nor anyone I knew had one, so cassette players were cheap and not totally useless. I used this while mowing the lawn, then got something like this for $5 at the county fair and switched to glorious FM radio:



It was a bitch to tune; it had a little flippy door like that, but didn't have a tuner knob. Instead, you tuned by pressing tiny little buttons under the cover. The battery lasted forever, though, it was so small and light you could easily forget about it, and I could listen to Science Friday while I mowed the lawn.

RC and Moon Pie
May 5, 2011

MA-Horus posted:

My parents used to have one of those old frigidares with the handle that's also a latch for the beer fridge, thing must have been 40 years old and still ran like a champ

Until a power surge killed it.

My grandmother has an ancient Kelvinator fridge on her back porch. I have no idea of its age, as the one inside the house has been there my whole life. The interior is a sea green, so I'm guessing 1950s-60s.

This is the sticker on the back of it:

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BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
That old Kelvinator appears to be from at least 1961 - going by an ad in the Kansas City Times.

I know of someone who's ancient outdoor beer fridge is something slightly older and is lined with blue asbestos. Perfectly safe unless you do something like break it apart.

Blue asbestos is far far finer than the regular stuff and the company who likely supplied this fridge (Hardie) was settled to the nines over the lack of worker safety as they would just get coated in the stuff.

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