Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Libluini posted:

It was:
-Emitting some sort of high-pitched sound, which got stronger and louder over the months. That sound kept my little sister away after a while, since she couldn't stand it. Our parents couldn't hear it, though. It was apparently to high a frequency or something to be in their hearing range. They thought we were just stupid kids, inventing things.

That was most likely an unsecured wire in one of the power supply chokes. I can still hear them at 37, but no one else seems to. Unfortunately you can still buy things with that problem, and unless you're willing (and know what you're doing) to open them up and secure them with epoxy, they can drive you to distraction.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2012 00:48

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:34

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

0dB posted:

TASCAM Portastudio One. It records 4 channels to a cassette and you really should use a high quality CrO2 tape. My one worked hard at a college for years on end so it's a little worn. But still - four channels! On a cassette!

We had the slightly more low-rent 4-track cassette studio, with record player and radio, with the best advert in history:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyewGF9xkmE

Still, it was good enough for recording the band I was in during my sixth form in the mid-90s, although the mics that came with it were of the quality that ad suggests.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2012 14:11

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Flipperwaldt posted:

If that's a chiclet keyboard, then what do you people call this?

We actually bought a chiclet keyboard for our ZX81 so we could type more easily! Something like this:

(from wikipedia)

# ¿ Aug 13, 2013 11:08

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Gentwise posted:

I hope using Google Glass type devices while driving a car is made illegal and given harsh penalties before too many people are killed because of it.
I can definitely see the uses, but I don't think they outweigh the risks, especially given the people that would use it irresponsibly, and try to watch netflix with one eye.

They're already trying to make it illegal in the UK.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 12:59

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

OttoVonBismarck posted:

An example of digital obsolescence and the work needed to save the material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project

So all the work I did when I was 10 is on it's way to being lost?

How depressing.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 21:10

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Mr. Flunchy posted:

Just read this about the London Underground and thought of this thread:

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/underground-is-in-deep-trouble-6497394.html

This miiight be what they're talking about :

Also in Tube news they accidentally poured 3 feet of quick setting concrete into a Victoria line signalling room today, bringing the whole line to a standstill:

gently caress knows how you clear that up.

It turns out they used sugar (as Platystemon mentioned) to clean it up(via the Telegraph).

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 14:44

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

DNova posted:

This is really cool because it lets you use any pen that yields itself to the threading tool. I would have liked to see how it looks with a cheapo ball point. With the nice drafting markers and premium paper, the output looked great.

This should give you an idea - someone repurposed their vinyl cutter with a bic ballpoint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP9Ij7Vnc5c

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 13:08

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

drrockso20 posted:

Okay since today's my birthday, I think it'd be a reasonable request for everyone to tell me all the interesting things you can about the Commodore 64, 128, and Amiga family of computers, since I think they are really cool and want to know more about them

Here's all the sections from The Dinosaur Den vodcast where Bil Herd, the designer of the C128, chats about working at Commodore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3wiTffEw_0
(the internal nickname for the Commodore sign was "Chicken Lips").

# ¿ Oct 20, 2014 19:55

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Flipperwaldt posted:

My first computer was an Amstrad IBM PC compatible that referred to the mouse in the documentation as 'the turtle'

I guess in 1986 that poo poo wasn't as cut in stone as it would be soon after.

That reminds me of the piece of obsolete technology I took with me to university - the Amstrad PPC 512 - a portable XT PC without a hard drive, just a couple of floppies, that ran off C cells. Given I went to uni in 1993, it was a bit elderly even then, but it was fine for some basic programming/maths work and writing papers.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 10:16

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

ookiimarukochan posted:

That Toshiba T-1000 at the bottom of the image is arguably the world's first modern laptop. I think my dad's (which he "acquired" from work after they fired the people who were in charge of inventory tracking right before they made him redundant) is in his loft. An important bit of computing history.

You have to be careful when you turn them on now, as the mosfets in the internal power supply degrade with time rather than use. One day I turned my T1200 on after a couple of years, and it was dead. I tested the power supply, and it was putting 12V on all the lines, straight from the external power supply, including the 3.3V line, happily frying all the Toshiba proprietary ASICs:( I looked it up on retro support forums, and apparently it's a thing. Eventually, I'm going to stick a pi in the case, running DOSbox, as I love the keyboard.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2021 05:14

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Buttcoin purse posted:

Is this a thing that happens with all mosfets, or just particular manufacturers, or some made in particular eras? I'm pretty sure I saw one on an old 486 motherboard I was using recently.

Also that sucks that your cool old system died

I've only heard about that happening to the Toshiba T1x00 series power supplies. The late 80s/early 90s was when both the process and chemistry of mosfet manufacture were changing rapidly, so it could have just been a bad batch.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2021 21:10

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Johnny Aztec posted:

a Cursory google look, I couldn't find what it is for.

DuMont 6292 vacuum tube.

It's a photomultiplier. Here's someone selling one.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2021 01:09

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Sweevo posted:

It probably uses some version of HPGL, which is (was?) the de-facto printer language for controlling pen plotters. There's almost certainly a generic HPGL driver you can use to get it working.

From what the internet tells me, it uses HPGL/1.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2022 15:07

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:34

One Eye Open: Sep 19, 2006; Am I awake?

Zopotantor posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY4AeO7t7dE

Includes a section with the guy who built it.

If it's the one I think it is, I may actually have the electronics magazines that that synth was featured in. I might have to go and have a search.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2023 23:59

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