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Athenry posted:I actually cracked the plastic on my NES advantage around the joystick from pushing right too hard. Still works fine. Are you the Hulk 
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Nov 15, 2012 18:20
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Jibo posted:Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't these for disaster relief and they only churn them out as needed? I remember Anheuser Busch gave a poo poo ton of water to the 2004 tsunami relief. Pretty much, so far as I know. Though that's exactly what the situation was with Civil Defense stores, just those were produced before the disaster. I don't know if canned water. Zack_Gochuck posted:What advantage does a can have over a plastic bottle in that situation? Just curious. Cans stack better and ship/store better than plastic water bottles, and converting canning lines to water production for disaster supplies goes back a long time before bottled water was a mainstream retail item. When it's a beer brewer doing it, cans are cheaper to produce and ship than bottles too, though the thin plastic used for water bottles is probably cheaper than either so I doubt that's a current concern.
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Nov 15, 2012 18:46
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Zack_Gochuck posted:What advantage does a can have over a plastic bottle in that situation? Just curious. In the case of Busch, they're already selling water in cans.
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Nov 15, 2012 19:27
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Like the others said, in cases of natural disasters where there's a huge demand for water they have the supplies and infrastructure to make and distibute cans, so they do that. It's a quick and dirty fix that might not be as efficient as bottled water, but it fills the need and it fills it quickly. I used to live in Jacksonville FL where they have an Anheuser-Busch factory, when Hurricane Katrina hit and all the shipping channels were effectively closed off they cleared out all the backed-up inventory by sending out absurdly awesome coupons to stores. You could buy a case for a few bucks, people were filling entire shopping carts with beer 
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Nov 15, 2012 19:35
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Sagebrush posted:Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people have seen Cerenkov radiation in person. For example, every nuclear scientist, and every person who's ever worked around an immersion research reactor, like that at Texas A&M and hundreds of other universities worldwide. What you saw was basically standard operating procedure -- as long as you have that twenty feet of water between you and the reactor core it's perfectly safe. 700,000 (your high estimate of number of people who've seen Cherenkov radiation) / 7,000,000,000 (population of the world) = 0.0001 or 0.01% of the world population. I am the 0.01%. JediTalentAgent posted:Along these lines, do you or anyone else remember the what the "extra large" drink cups at places used to look like? Rather than the normal cup and lid that we have everywhere today, some places used to have these strange cups that were round at the bottom like a regular cup then would become more boxy as along the top. The pull tabs, though, I do remember them. Manufacturing tolerances meant that some were easy to pull and some were fantastically hard. Sometimes the pull would break off in your hand, leaving an unopened can or a partially opened can you still couldn't drink out of. The only solution then was to either churchkey another hole or use a pair of pliers to rip the tab out. I don't think anyone missed them when they were gone. einTier has a new favorite as of 20:10 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 19:39
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Phanatic posted:Pyrex stuff I'm a little late replying to this, but you can still get borosilicate cookware. There's a company called Marinex that still makes it. They sell on Amazon, as well. I've been really happy the pieces I've bought so far.
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Nov 15, 2012 20:19
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Killer robot posted:I don't remember those days, but I do remember this era: We had those when I was a kid (70s) and we were always told not to drop the pull tab into the open can for fear of swallowing it and dying.
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Nov 15, 2012 23:45
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Mister Kingdom posted:We had those when I was a kid (70s) and we were always told not to drop the pull tab into the open can for fear of swallowing it and dying. That was featured on an episode of Emergency! Some tubby old dude used to dropping the tab into his beers and he was choking on it. The thought of that thing stuck in there disturbed me. While we're on soda can chat I don't think anyone's mentioned press button cans. They were an attempt to get away from pull tabs where you had to push in two "buttons" on top of the can: a large one to pour, and a smaller one for pressure relief. Some pour buttons were round, others curved but all were sort of annoying because you could wind up sticking a finger into your soda. 
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Nov 16, 2012 00:13
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I would be scared to cut my finger on that, or is it not sharp?
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Nov 16, 2012 00:16
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Code Jockey posted:I would be scared to cut my finger on that, or is it not sharp? Nope, it's sharp as poo poo.
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Nov 16, 2012 00:19
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They were pre-cut and had a similar edge to a pull tab. Not likely to cut you unless you were really clumsy jamming a finger into the pour hole. Of course sometimes the little tabs broke right off into the can, or the pre-cut was no good and all you could do was squash the tab in a bit and then have to use the end of a fork to bash it in. Obsolete and failed.
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Nov 16, 2012 00:20
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Code Jockey posted:I would be scared to cut my finger on that, or is it not sharp? Haha how precious that question was. Look at Dick Trauma's avatar and then picture that being a real possibility every time you bought a soda.
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Nov 16, 2012 00:23
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On the topic of canning and bottling from the last couple of pages, I was watching How It's Made or similar and was surprised to learn that, in the case of Coke anyway, all the PET bottles are made from the same blank, that is a capsule of PET with the screw already moulded, but the bottom is just like a small test tube of thick plastic that gets blown out to the mould size. (something like that) Which is why the 390ml (13 fl oz) bottle is like half an inch thick at the bottom, and the 3 litre bottles are paper thin.
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Nov 16, 2012 01:22
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 TS44, TS44 Deluxe, TS22-209, and a rather early GPS They still work (mostly), but it's only a matter of time. Totally Reasonable has a new favorite as of 01:53 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 01:51
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leidend posted:I had that too but completely forgot about it. Didn't love it as much as you. The slider controlled the rate of turbo (and maybe slow mo as the poster above said, but I forget). Those Epyx joysticks were awesome. Much more comfortable than the Atari ones to use.
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Nov 16, 2012 01:53
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CrunchyTaco posted:Haha how precious that question was. Look at Dick Trauma's avatar and then picture that being a real possibility every time you bought a soda. I'm not sure I want to know why you were opening soda cans with your dick. Those drat pulltabs were the reason I got into the habit of drinking through my teeth - I know it's terrible for them, and I spend extra time on dental hygiene for it, but I can't get past the anxiety of something solid being in my drink that's going to get into my mouth and throat.
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Nov 16, 2012 02:08
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WescottF1 posted:Those Epyx joysticks were awesome. Much more comfortable than the Atari ones to use. Look at these noobs who couldn't get a hold of a TAC-2. Back in the days of the VIC-20 one of my teachers at the time had a joystick that was essentially a BMX bicycle handgrip. You held it vertically and could tilt it to act like a joystick and I think you could squeeze it for the fire button. Presumably it used mercury switches or something similar. It was awful (and not shown below. That's the awesome TAC-2, obviously.)
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Nov 16, 2012 03:42
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Dick Trauma posted:That was featured on an episode of Emergency! Almost the entire run of Emergency! belongs here. It's crazy to watch the early episodes on Netflix and marvel at how anyone survived even small accidents in the days when paramedics were some strange, new, untested idea.
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Nov 16, 2012 04:08
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leidend posted:
It's worth pointing out that a lot of these Commodore/Atari 8-bit era joysticks are set up so that you use the stick with your right hand and the buttons with your left. Crazy poo poo. It's never made sense to me and everyone in my family uses Atari joysticks with a hands crossed grip. Edit: Anyone else have these wireless joysticks? 
A FUCKIN CANARY!! has a new favorite as of 05:30 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 05:19
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WescottF1 posted:Those Epyx joysticks were awesome. Much more comfortable than the Atari ones to use. I had a couple, they didn't last long at all. The Atari one's were much robust, you could bludgeon someone to death with the standard 2600 ones.
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Nov 16, 2012 05:23
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I don't even know what a hands crossed grip is. That epyx set up was very natural to me. But I also liked the original xbox controller and am one of those weirdos who uses both my middle and index fingers on modern controller triggers. And chose the Sega Saturn over the PS1 due to the superior controller  I was trying to find a really weird C64 controller I had, but I can't even find a pic of it. Was shaped roughly like a boomerang, with full hand grips on each side and an NES style four-direction pad in the middle, perpendicular to the usual side the direction pad is on. Horrible to use, but sure looked futuristic to me at the time.
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Nov 16, 2012 05:33
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einTier posted:Sure. I get that. But in the billions of people in the world, that's still a very small number. I don't know anyone else that's seen it. au contraire 
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Nov 16, 2012 07:31
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leidend posted:But I also liked the original xbox controller and am one of those weirdos who uses both my middle and index fingers on modern controller triggers. I like you. Let's be friends. I have giant loving hands, and the original massive xbox controller feels great to me. I have a pile of them, since I use an xbox for an emulation station now. Feels good, man. I didn't have any fun controllers for my C64 though, just a standard ol' flight stick style joystick. I feel like I was missing out.
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Nov 16, 2012 07:35
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Mr_Person posted:It's worth pointing out that a lot of these Commodore/Atari 8-bit era joysticks are set up so that you use the stick with your right hand and the buttons with your left. Crazy poo poo. I have a set of those wireless Atari controllers in the original box in storage at my mom's house.
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Nov 16, 2012 08:47
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WescottF1 posted:Those Epyx joysticks were awesome. Much more comfortable than the Atari ones to use. Epyx joystick? Where? That's the Konix Speed King. I always hated them. Now here's a real joystick:  I don't know if it's really obsolete, though. It was used as the model for the C64 Direct-to-TV, and apparently a USB edition was released a couple of years ago.
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Nov 16, 2012 11:55
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Ahh, the competition pro. Still making them? I never had one myself, mainly used the old atari controller* for arcade style games as it worked on the c64, or a quickshot 'fighter plane' type for driving/flying games. *edit the paddle type that came with later 2600s, so not a square base if you know what I mean, I've seen it called the atari supercontroller. It was great for punishing a stick and it never broke, but a real PITA to use for extended periods, which is why I used a 'aircraft fighter' style stick on a table for driving and flying games. Fo3 has a new favorite as of 13:08 on Nov 16, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 13:00
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Fo3 posted:Ahh, the competition pro. Still making them? So it seems. I still have my original, and it still works - they built them tough in those days. The best controller I ever used in the 8-bit days is so obscure I can't even find an image of it now. It was a D-Pad controller called the WizPad which looked a lot like the Famicom controller, except it was held vertically with the D-Pad at the top. This meant it could be used with either thumb on the D-Pad while your other thumb was below on the buttons. It was comfy, responsive, and best of all you could cheat like a motherfucker at joystick-wagglers by pushing the D-Pad down in the middle.
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Nov 16, 2012 13:27
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Jedit posted:Epyx joystick? Where? That's the Konix Speed King. I always hated them. That's a Kempston stick, and they ruled for C64/Spectrum gaming. Very distinct and it clicked when you moved it.
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Nov 16, 2012 13:30
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Newsflash: Almost every joystick out there back in the day was sold in different (and non-different) colour and button configurations by about 5000 companies under various names. Especially that one ^^^
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Nov 16, 2012 13:34
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The worst part of sticks in those days was the internal mechanism though, which depending on the manufacturer of the stick could be horribly fragile and easily broken. A common method was to use leaf switches inside which basically close a circuit when the stick is pushed in a certain direction, resulting in that familiar clicking sound. In some cases, the leaf switches were fragile enough to actually break off due to repeated stress, especially with notorious games like Decathlon which used stick waggling as control method. That game could tear through a Quickshot in minutes if you wanted to get a decent result. Unfortunately I cannot find any pictures of what such a stick looks like inside, but I opened up a few back in the days to find a broken leaf switch, resulting in a gimped stick. However, I did come across this thing which I also recall using at one point:  You push the ball in the direction you want it to move, and the buttons are off on the side(With a left/right hand switch to select which side) Uses the same leaf switch/microswitch technology so it's pure digital, and the LEDs near the buttons light up when pushed.
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Nov 16, 2012 14:09
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Going back to the nuclear chat. That yellow pen looking thing is an old instant read dosimeter. It is an evacuated glass tube that you apply a high voltage charge to as it gets hit by radiation the voltage drops. To read it you can look through it at a light and see a tiny needle that tells you the dose or more accurately by putting it back in the charging base and read out the voltage. Pretty much every time someone retires at work we find those in desk drawers or lockers. They used to cost a shitload of money. They are incredibly obsolete as newer electronic EPD's have far better accuracy and can read low doses. Working in the nuclear industry you see so much obsolete technology but I can't say I have run into much failed technology. Here is one I would love to see go. Meet Snoopy the neutron radiation detector. It is huge and heavy and has been the standard since the 1940's. Typically used in areas were you don't want to spend alot of time lugging heavy poo poo around in. http://www.fusor.net/board/view.php?bn=fusor_neutrons&key=1070060131
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Nov 16, 2012 15:30
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Joyball is a fantastic term that I'm going to work into regular conversation.
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Nov 16, 2012 15:34
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Smoke posted:However, I did come across this thing which I also recall using at one point:
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Nov 16, 2012 17:52
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Smoke posted:A common method was to use leaf switches inside which basically close a circuit when the stick is pushed in a certain direction, resulting in that familiar clicking sound. In some cases, the leaf switches were fragile enough to actually break off due to repeated stress, especially with notorious games like Decathlon which used stick waggling as control method. That game could tear through a Quickshot in minutes if you wanted to get a decent result. I like how joystick went away and were replaced by d-pads, because the joysticks weren't analog anyway. But then when the actual analog joystick came with the N64, they went right back to making joystick mangling games like Mario Party. I had two controllers that I brought to friends' houses when we had gaming nights. One was for 99% of games...and the other was my poo poo one for Mario Party. Nothing worse than trying to play Goldeneye or Perfect Dark with those lovely N64 controllers with about half an inch of travel in every direction while at the "zero" point.
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Nov 16, 2012 17:56
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leidend posted:I don't even know what a hands crossed grip is. That epyx set up was very natural to me. Where you run the joystick with your left hand and press the button by snaking your right index finger under your left palm. I didn't realize there were people who didn't use their middle fingers for triggers. It's not like there's anything else it could be doing (except for in fighting games).
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Nov 16, 2012 18:24
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Mr_Person posted:I didn't realize there were people who didn't use their middle fingers for triggers. It's not like there's anything else it could be doing (except for in fighting games). I've had some use out of it playing internet Scrabble. That's not a word, fucker!
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Nov 16, 2012 18:44
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Mr_Person posted:Where you run the joystick with your left hand and press the button by snaking your right index finger under your left palm. The reason lies somewhere between the fact that R2/L2 really weren't used much until sometime in the middle of the PS2's life and that pulling a trigger feels much more natural with your index finger.
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Nov 16, 2012 18:52
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Mr_Person posted:I didn't realize there were people who didn't use their middle fingers for triggers. It's not like there's anything else it could be doing (except for in fighting games). Sham bam bamina! has a new favorite as of 02:20 on Nov 17, 2012 |
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Nov 16, 2012 19:44
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HitClips!! CD's are now obsolete!
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Nov 16, 2012 20:13
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Jerry Cotton posted:Newsflash: Almost every joystick out there back in the day was sold in different (and non-different) colour and button configurations by about 5000 companies under various names. Especially that one ^^^ Kempaton was the original, sure there were knockoffs. They also made a joystick interface for Sinclair Spectrum computers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempston_joystick
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Nov 16, 2012 20:42
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