Tech Nightmares: Ghostline the flux

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How many quarters after Q1 2016 till Marissa Mayer is unemployed?
	1 or fewer
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	Her job is guaranteed; what are you even talking about?

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 23 hours!

PhazonLink posted:

wait do new tapes actually still get made?

why , what possible niche are they filling?

Billy Eilish and Lady Gaga released new casingles and vinyls in the last few years.

(To be fair, I think they were both flops/novelties that nobody bought)

# ? Apr 21, 2023 13:33

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# ? May 12, 2024 00:45

Watermelon Daiquiri: Jul 10, 2010; I TRIED TO BAIT THE TXPOL THREAD WITH THE WORLD'S WORST POSSIBLE TAKE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID AVATAR.

People like cassettes because it seems so romantic in it's primitivity

# ? Apr 21, 2023 14:25

Heck Yes! Loam!: Nov 15, 2004; a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

LTO tapes are still heavily used for data backups and long term data storage. It feels quaint but there isn't anything better.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 14:27

This Is the Zodiac: Feb 4, 2003

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

(To be fair, I think they were both flops/novelties that nobody bought)

Cassette tape sales are higher than they've been in 20 years.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 14:44

Prism: Dec 22, 2007; yospos

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

casingles

I hate that this is a word.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 14:46

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 23 hours!

This Is the Zodiac posted:

Cassette tape sales are higher than they've been in 20 years.

Yeah, but they are still pretty low. They were definitely novelties/flops.

Most of them were limited runs for collecting/marketing/novelty purposes and the ones with larger prints didn't sell out.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 14:56

steckles: Jan 14, 2006

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Yeah, but they are still pretty low. They were definitely novelties/flops.

Most of them were limited runs for collecting/marketing/novelty purposes and the ones with larger prints didn't sell out.

Novelty is the right word. I�ve been to plenty of concerts where cassettes are the cheapest thing at the merch table. I don�t know anyone outside of this one weird audiophile friend who can even play them, but as a fun memento that also doesn�t take up much space, they�re pretty much perfect. The fact they they actually contain music, even if you�ll probably never hear it, has some appeal beyond something like a T-shirt or poster, I think.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 16:33

Neo Rasa: Mar 8, 2007; Everyone should play DUKE games.

steckles posted:

Novelty is the right word. I�ve been to plenty of concerts where cassettes are the cheapest thing at the merch table. I don�t know anyone outside of this one weird audiophile friend who can even play them, but as a fun memento that also doesn�t take up much space, they�re pretty much perfect. The fact they they actually contain music, even if you�ll probably never hear it, has some appeal beyond something like a T-shirt or poster, I think.

Yeah agreed, I'm not into them myself but it's easy to see the appeal of cheap compact collectable of a thing someone likes.

Prism posted:

I hate that this is a word.

EON should release each Bond theme on a cassette and call the series Casingle Royale.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 17:20

cat botherer: Jan 6, 2022; I am interested in most phases of data processing.

https://twitter.com/jjvincent/status/1648594881198039040

# ? Apr 21, 2023 17:29

Dietrich: Sep 11, 2001

For what it's worth, I was messing around with Clyde yesterday, and that jailbreak was fixed about 10 minutes after that tweet went live.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 17:42

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; I can't count to four.; Yams Fan

Until a few years ago I had a car with a cassette player, and this one cassette I bought from a college band was always in there and got a lot of play even though I had bluetooth.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 17:47

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Shrecknet posted:

how i feel when the kids don't know l33t sp33k

I got my oldest son a 1337 phone number (last 4 digits) in the 1990�s. He still has it.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 18:58

VideoGameVet: May 14, 2005; It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion. It is by the juice of Java that pedaling acquires speed, the teeth acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my bike in motion.

Watermelon Daiquiri posted:

People like cassettes because it seems so romantic in it's primitivity

My first published games were on cassettes.

Yeah, I�m that old.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 19:03

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 23 hours!

VideoGameVet posted:

My first published games were on cassettes.

Yeah, I�m that old.

What video game platform/console used cassette tapes as their media format? I know there was one in Japan, but I can't think of any in America that didn't use disks or cartridges.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 19:13

Tayter Swift: Nov 18, 2002; Pillbug

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

What video game platform/console used cassette tapes as their media format? I know there was one in Japan, but I can't think of any in America that didn't use disks or cartridges.

Does the VIC-20 count

# ? Apr 21, 2023 19:15

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 23 hours!

Tayter Swift posted:

Does the VIC-20 count

That might be it. I was thinking of a game console, but that is an older PC that did have a cassette slot. I'm guessing they probably made some games on cassette for it.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 19:18

His Divine Shadow: Aug 7, 2000; I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

I had a cassette reader for the SVI-728

I also have a cassette tape collection and a deck. I enjoy old tech and I can't really tell sound quality from a CD or a tape. I got poo poo ears or something.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 19:19

This Is the Zodiac: Feb 4, 2003

I had a TRS-80 with a cassette drive.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 20:41

exmachina: Mar 12, 2006; Look Closer

The main market for music cassettes today is prison.

# ? Apr 21, 2023 23:32

LASER BEAM DREAM: Nov 3, 2005; Oh, what? So now I suppose you're just going to sit there and pout?

LASER BEAM DREAM fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Apr 22, 2023

# ? Apr 21, 2023 23:57

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

e: stupid D&D rules, nvm

# ? Apr 22, 2023 00:00

Alctel: Jan 16, 2004; I love snails

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

That might be it. I was thinking of a game console, but that is an older PC that did have a cassette slot. I'm guessing they probably made some games on cassette for it.

Atari

# ? Apr 22, 2023 00:25

Wheeljack: Jul 12, 2021

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

That might be it. I was thinking of a game console, but that is an older PC that did have a cassette slot. I'm guessing they probably made some games on cassette for it.

The Coleco Adam computer, with a Colecovision cartridge slot, had a double cassette drive. So a mix of game console and PC.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 01:24

HootTheOwl: May 13, 2012; Hootin and shootin

CRTs will also kill your eyes.

But I can't understand a love for cassettes. They were always lovely, they weren't designed for or to improve quality. They were just smaller than the other tape formats.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 01:46

Jen heir rick: Aug 4, 2004; when a woman says something's not funny, you better not laugh your ass off

HootTheOwl posted:

CRTs will also kill your eyes.

Huh?

# ? Apr 22, 2023 02:30

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

they make a non zero amount of xrays and maybe gamma?

like maybe they increase cancer risk by a similar factor like being a banana worker or xray tech?

# ? Apr 22, 2023 03:30

SCheeseman: Apr 23, 2003

nah that just makes them cooler

# ? Apr 22, 2023 03:57

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

HootTheOwl posted:

CRTs will also kill your eyes.

But I can't understand a love for cassettes. They were always lovely, they weren't designed for or to improve quality. They were just smaller than the other tape formats.

Isn't it just because of the aesthetic? They come from a decade that's beloved by nostalgia pop culture, they look distinctively different from CDs, vinyl, and MP3 players, and they're relatively hardy so you can leave them lying around as decorative items. I don't believe anyone's collecting old audio storage mediums for their audio quality.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 06:47

His Divine Shadow: Aug 7, 2000; I'm not a fascist. I'm a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what to do.

People just think they're cool and nostalgic. There's something neat about them that I don't get from LPs or CDs. Tapes give me all warm nostalgic 80s feelings, the whole analog - mechanical wonder that is a tape deck is fascinating. For some people they scratch a whole bunch of itches. Since a lot of zoomers seem to like tapes too I guess it's more than just the personal connection to ones childhood. Which I can understand since I like a lot of vintage tech that is way older than myself. And like I said I can't tell the difference between a tape and a CD unless the tape has been severely degraded or the player is broken. I am something of an anti-audiophile.

Part of the reason I think it's just... everything is too easy nowadays, you get things too easily without any effort at any time and that makes you appreciate it less. Maybe that's also what motivates younger people? You have to put some effort into recording onto a tape and making your own mix tape, that human effort feels like it's worth something.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 07:17

Ruffian Price: Sep 17, 2016

it's cool when the wiggly air you hear comes from something tangible

# ? Apr 22, 2023 09:47

Llamadeus: Dec 20, 2005

Main Paineframe posted:

Isn't it just because of the aesthetic? They come from a decade that's beloved by nostalgia pop culture, they look distinctively different from CDs, vinyl, and MP3 players, and they're relatively hardy so you can leave them lying around as decorative items. I don't believe anyone's collecting old audio storage mediums for their audio quality.

For tapes it's definitely not the quality, which has actually become worse since their heyday. The higher quality tape types (chrome and metal) are no longer in production, Dolby no longer license out their noise reduction system (which needed specialized hardware, but there is a software implementation now at least) so you're getting the full hiss with most newer tape decks.

# ? Apr 22, 2023 10:40