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Maimgara posted:Speaking of indestructible phones My indestructible phone memories are of Qualcomm candybars that are so old I can't seem to find pictures of them on the web. You know, Qualcomm. The fine folks who brought you Eudora, because Pegasus was for newbies.  Something like that. The StarTac was prohibitively expensive, okay? VogeGandire posted:
The Thinkpad is unattractive? You're dead to me. vvv JediTalentAgent posted:I know they're generally mocked these days, but RealAudio used to be pretty popular back in the 90s. I know that in the pre-podcast, pre-youtube and pre-broadband days of internet video and radio it was a choppy and blocky, but it was still about as good as it got when it came to getting such content on slow connections. http://i.imgur.com/uv8pu.jpg moller has a new favorite as of 06:40 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 06:19
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Flipperwaldt posted:If that's a chiclet keyboard, then what do you people call this? That's awfully thoughtful of them to include both semaphore and a FAST button. Edit: Also I call it a Zee-Echs and you people call it a Zed Echs.
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Aug 13, 2013 01:36
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Pivit posted:I used one of these for quite awhile to play music from my phone before I got a headunit with bluetooth built in. Before getting that one I had tried probably three or four other cheap fm transmitters that didn't work nearly as well. It even worked and sounded fine after the car antenna snapped off. I've always had bad luck with FM modulators unless I was driving in the middle of nowhere. That said, snapping off the antenna likely made it work much better. vvv GWBBQ posted:Thanks to FM capture effect (in layman's terms, stronger signal always wins unless they're really close in relative power,) decreasing your antenna's gain will make the FM transmitter work better almost 100% of the time. Ehr, yeah. Isn't that what I said? The transmitter works if you're in the middle of nowhere because there aren't stations competing for the part of the spectrum you're using on the device. Therefore, snapping off your antenna would make it work better because your over the air reception is now worse? Or are you saying the opposite is true? (Sorry, radio/ham stuff is fascinating to me, but I appreciate it only as an outsider.) moller has a new favorite as of 04:25 on Apr 8, 2014 |
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Apr 8, 2014 01:16
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p-hop posted:I used to work at an electronics recycler, and among other cameras we would get Sony Mavica models that used a 3.5" floppy disk for external media storage. No other memory card options. You've got a whopping 1.4 megabytes of storage before swapping discs. Even when it was new, 1.4 MB was tiny and nearly useless. The strangest part is that after refurbishing and putting them on ebay, they would ALWAYS sell for a decent amount of money. Who on earth would want one of these and what would you even do with it? You could purchase floppy disks at the grocery store and didn't understand what flash memory was or how you could get more of it? I feel like the Mavicas that burned to a tiny CDROM were a way more stupid idea.
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Apr 8, 2014 07:46
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Frankston posted:Good grief, I wonder how much that weighs, or how they'd even get it into a house. I assume it's a projection tv and not a giant tube. Still would be a bear.
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Apr 11, 2014 09:45
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WebDog posted:Someone's actually retrofitted a Philco Predicta a few years ago. I'm sort of sad that MBA Action 2004 doesn't appear to exist.
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Apr 21, 2014 07:54
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GWBBQ posted:I found a teledildonics community where one intrepid fellow wrote software to make it thrust and attached a fleshlight to it. There's a video/gif that shows some sort of trade show demonstration combining the Oculus Rift, Novint Falcon, and anime.
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Apr 26, 2014 23:59
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I was thinking that it was sort of strange that the term teledildonics was old enough for me to recall seeing it on a mid-90s parody webpage, but apparently it was coined in 1975.
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Apr 27, 2014 04:29
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Have you guys tried a full-screen text editor like Dark Room or q10 or whatever? Or barring that, a fatMac? I mean, I'm all for the use of obsolete tech, but using a typewriter seems a mite like an affectation. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that. Also, inkjet/laser printable index cards are available at your local office supply store and alignment will never be a problem since the templates are built into your word processor. I'm saying this as someone who has a record player and an SGI Octane currently hooked up. moller has a new favorite as of 06:38 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 06:32
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Humphreys posted:seeing her go FASTER than the electric and having to wait for it to catch up, including her corrections, was amazing stuff. You can replicate this by using an underpowered windows PC from the late nineties or an android smartphone that got deprecated a couple of years ago. Waiting for an editor to catch up with your keystrokes is the antithesis of fun. moller has a new favorite as of 10:48 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 10:46
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JediTalentAgent posted:We've talked different film and cameras before, and I can't remember if we've mentioned the '110 spy camera'. I got a Leonard Part 6 branded 110 camera from a Ponderosa Steakhouse promotion. Pretty much no one in real life believes me when I tell them this.   vvv Christmas Present posted:It seems kind of cliche to say so, but holy crap the Leonard 6 micro camera looks bulky and chunky as all hell compared to tiny digicams. Maybe the sodas were just smaller. moller has a new favorite as of 23:28 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 22:56
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Killer robot posted:Intel's stopped at 100MHz, since they didn't want to compete with their own Pentium line. Other manufacturers went faster. I had an AMD 5x86, which was a 486 with a little extra boost due to larger, write-back L1 cache. It ran at 133MHz to perform the same as a Pentium 75, though with a little luck you could overclock to 160MHz for P90 performance. It could probably also do math without screwing up, much unlike my Pentium 60.
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May 11, 2014 06:25
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Larry Horseplay posted:People do laundry in the kitchen? It seems preferable to dragging everything to a laundromat.
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May 13, 2014 06:03
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carry on then posted:vi/vim, in the hands of someone who really knows it, can be really really fast, but it no longer wins the speed advantage for the average user, for whom classical keyboard shortcuts and mouse-driven menus are generally more intuitive. But I do have to admit that vim being used by someone who really knows it well can be obscenely fast for certain tasks. Every time I have to use vi I have edlin flashbacks. Apparently edlin still comes with 32-bit versions of windows, up to and including 8?
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May 15, 2014 02:35
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Zereth posted:Did anybody ever figure out exactly what was going on with that? Dirty or damaged disks could misalign the head which would then damage the disk which would then damage the head of any drive it was used in and so on. It was an Errorboros. Keep in mind that this didn't stop Iomega from calling a followup product the Clik! drive.
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May 25, 2014 07:01
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Pretty much every exercise bike, stair-stepper, elliptical, etc made in the past 20 years has what amounts to a rudimentary videogame built in, it just uses LEDs for the "graphics" of the hills and valleys you're navigating.
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Jun 3, 2014 19:03
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theironjef posted:Eh, it's fine, but I think they're limiting themselves to "fake bike almost like you're on a bike!" when it could be "fake bike through loving space and shoot lasers at aliens!" No space lasers, but Prop Cycle let you bicycle through the sky in a bizarre (steampunk anime?) fantasy land. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2qFz1yw4Xo#t=60s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_y7LVrQVdw
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Jun 4, 2014 00:38
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KozmoNaut posted:DD-WRT sucks, use Tomato instead. DD-WRT is awesome, use Tomato instead. (Unless you know exactly why you should be using the more esoteric option.)
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Jun 8, 2014 18:09
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As noted above, Tomato takes 90% of the functionality of DD-WRT and makes it opaque and user-friendly. I personally never had a problem with stability on DD-WRT unless I was mucking about with things above my paygrade - but Tomato is just a dream to work on. Or not work on, if you prefer.
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Jun 8, 2014 21:24
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Sappo569 posted:I've done some reading re: DD-WRT and now Tomato, but everyone seems to be talking about how to use it, not so much what it actually does? What Kozmo said. Also I knew nothing about the charging for features thing and possible GPL violations, that is certainly lame behavior if true. For most users, I would guess "what it actually does" is give your $40 router an uptime of years instead of days. Also some basic tasks like port mapping or having the DHCP server give out IPs based on the mac address are straightforward and well-documented. QoS can also a rather nice thing to have. If you have a router that supports aftermarket firmware and you can recall the last time you had to reboot it to restore your internet connection/wireless, you might want to look into it.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:03
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Sir_Substance posted:Is the screwdriver older than the can opener? The can was invented like a hundred years before the can opener. You had to stab them with whatever was handy, which might have been a screwdriver.
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Jun 18, 2014 10:16
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The wikipedia page for Screwdriver sort of seems like a Canadian-penned propaganda piece pitching Robertson screws, which are apparently the Avro Arrow of screws. I find it interesting that several hundred years of screwdriver development was solely due to firearms though. spog posted:But not a Philips screwdriver, which was invented in 1934 A phillips would just poke round holes in your can. I suppose you could pour some liquid out or whatever, but if you need to get to some sausages you'd be better off hitting it with a sharp rock. spog posted:The wiki on different scrw types is quite interesting and guaranteed to make you a hit at parties. Ah, so a "spanner driver" is what I need if I get the urge to disassemble a restroom. Good to know. vvv Jerry Cotton posted:If you poke enough round holes in your can, you can open it! ( Never leave home without your Leatherman. Also I didn't specify how sharp my sharp rock was.  Poking enough holes with a phillips head to open a can reminds me of thompson submachine guns in old cartoons, cutting an outline in a wall. moller has a new favorite as of 10:37 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 18, 2014 10:30
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looks like someone has never had to open a can with a Phillips driver. What a nube.)
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GOTTA STAY FAI posted:The P38 owns bones. I bought a big bag of them from an army surplus store years ago for next to nothing and I just toss 'em out when they get too dull. gently caress all those stupid twisty-handle can openers that barely work the day you buy them. Side-open/Safety can openers are obviously superior to anything that goes in from the top.
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Jun 18, 2014 13:48
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I know I've posted this on SA somewhere before but Space Quest IV came with a fake news magazine that contained runic codes that you entered into the time machine to get to various times and locations to solve puzzles - all of the codes you needed except the final one to reach the last area of the game. Where did you find this final code? It was on the display of the time machine the first time you stepped into it, before you had figured out how to operate it or to look for the codes in the booklet. Touching any of the controls in the ship blanked out the code. You had to copy down meaningless runic symbols you had no context for before clicking anything in the time machine you stole during an action-y sequence where any delay meant the time-cops returning and killing you. It's hard to adequately describe what a dick move this meta-puzzle was. Time to buy a hint book! Edit: There was also really no in game hint to point you toward this at the end when you suddenly run out of places to go. You just have to decide that you need to return to where the time cops came from before your first encounter with them and then start the entire game over to get back there and get the code. I'm fairly sure it changed with every new game as well so you couldn't just play a new save up until that point to get the code for your endgame save. moller has a new favorite as of 06:15 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 06:12
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Mikser posted:I think you may be misremembering some things. The fake newspaper is used for copy protection in the diskette version (no copy protection in the CD-ROM version), but in both versions all the time travel codes are found within the game. The codes to Vohaul's Fortress and the Galaxy Galleria mall can be gleaned when you first enter their respective time pods; the code to Estros is set to whatever you type randomly; and the code to Ulence Flats/Space Quest 1 is constructed from two halves that you find in the gum wrapper and the hintbook respectively. Yep, you're right. I was conflating the copy protection that pops up when you get to the first (?) timepod with the timecode puzzle and (i think) the similar looking runic manual-based copy protection from SQ1. I think this puzzle was sufficiently evil enough that it existed as folklore among some of my friends, and got exaggerated by re-telling it over the years. I appreciate the correction though and feel a bit silly now. I don't think I got to see the CDROM version until decades after the fact. Gary Owens was pretty amazing as the narrator though.
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Jul 4, 2014 11:48
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I feel like the most impressively weird part is that instead of simply swinging shut on a hinge, the cassette deck swivels into a diagonal position like any other cassette deck after sliding out like a drawer to present the space for two tapes. It's totally gross over-engineering for no benefit I can fathom other than looking cool. I wonder if it's manual or if it has a drive like a cd tray.
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Jul 13, 2014 07:35
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JediTalentAgent posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_World_Order I also recall him rebranding himself as TR-i for "Todd Rundgren Interactive." It was in a Wired article at the time. peter gabriel posted:Out of all the people we could choose as a metric, we are going with Weird Al? He's been in the social media "news" a bunch over the past week or so. It's vaguely topical. vvv Sham bam bamina! posted:His music really would make more sense as disconnected singles, which is why he was brought up here in the first place. Although the albums would usually contain one "style parody" and one polka, which were often more fun and less rote than the song parodies. I assume the song parodies are what move units though. moller has a new favorite as of 20:07 on Jul 17, 2014 |
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Jul 17, 2014 19:58
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But Mooooooom, I/you purchased a licence to use the software, not the software itself.
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Jul 26, 2014 12:30
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BattleMaster posted:Are you still going to call cadmium radioactive as a rule? Do you consider bananas to be radioactive too? I was told that eating 1000 bananas increased your risk of death by one micromort.
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Jul 30, 2014 08:10
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DrBouvenstein posted:Here's part of the reason the analog sticks on N64 went so bad: I've heard a rumor that Chris Kohler does lines of this stuff.
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Oct 7, 2014 04:44
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Non Serviam posted:If you're going to just transmit fm, you might as well just buy an fm transmitter and connect it to the audio jack of your phone. Also you should move to the middle of Siberia to ensure that your FM transmitter will function.
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Oct 21, 2014 17:42
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I think the popular/reasonable way to play VO:OT on Dreamcast in the states was to find two sets of Saturn Twin Sticks and a Saturn -> DC adapter, since the DC sticks were pretty much impossible to find for any price. I sadly never had that setup, but at least I still have my maracas and fishing controller.
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Jan 7, 2015 19:33
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I like how they prevent inclement weather by setting fire to giant intentional oil spills off the coast of Africa.
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Mar 15, 2015 09:12
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rockinricky posted:I remember those. Wasn't the screen resolution something like 800x600? Sure looked low res in that video. Unless your CRT TV was a really well calibrated trinitron or something of the sort text would quickly get unreadable at resolutions higher than 800x600. I think I recall using 1024x768 on a TV-out, but that was probably close to the upper bound. I don't think the OS would let you crank it up any higher. That being said, I think the Gateway Destination 35" "monitor" topped out at 800x600.
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Apr 20, 2015 03:23
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Cat Hatter posted:Well, a standard definition TV has a resolution of 720x480 so anything higher than that just makes detail smaller than the television can display. Not... really. CRTs don't "have" a resolution in the same way that we think of resolutions applying to modern displays. They have lines instead of pixels, and support different resolutions by having different refresh rates and dot pitch. Also, I believe the TV-Out cables (composite/Svideo) had their own limits on lines of output, so the video card was doing downsampling and interlacing on the any image that above 300 or so lines of vertical resolution.
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Apr 21, 2015 07:47
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Der Luftwaffle posted:Is there a reason why cameras use/used so many different varieties of battery? Years ago a friend without a credit card asked me to use ebay to find some camera battery he needed and it seemed like there was a staggering quantity of obscure varieties that weren't used for anything else. Was it before AA and AAAs became popular or do they hold better charge or something? As I understand it, the crazy camera batteries were used to provide quick cycling times and bursts of power to flashes primarily, but also to the shutter. EDIT: Also: form factor, profit, and TRADITION! moller has a new favorite as of 21:01 on Apr 26, 2015 |
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Apr 26, 2015 20:58
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VGA is really just D-Subminiature, which came out in 1952. The extra six pins that DE15 has over nine-pin D-Sub don't even carry display signal. You can convert DE15 to 9 pin D-sub and back and still get a perfect picture out of the other end in most cases.
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May 10, 2015 17:46
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The obsolete/failed technology of flip-phones and candy-bar phones often had batteries that lasted a week or two. Of course all they did was make phone calls, so in retrospect dumb phones were roughly as useful to the average person as keeping a flashlight in your pocket or a change of clothes in your car.
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May 13, 2015 00:11
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GLONASS is a hugely more entertaining initialism than GPS. EDIT: SMERSH was way cooler of a name than CIA.
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May 16, 2015 10:01
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Ensign Expendable posted:I thought that they needed too much current for USB to work. Some PS2>USB adaptors work and some don't. Or at least that used to be the case with dodgy adaptors. It's entirely possible that the demand for such adaptors is so low now that any one you happen to grab will be decent enough to work.
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Jul 11, 2015 18:31
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