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The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology
 
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Opinion Haver
Apr 9, 2007

Johnny Aztec posted:

At which point, the graphite in the pencil would flake off, float around, and short out something important, as graphite IS conductive.
So, sure the Russians did it "better" if you don't really give a poo poo about the lives or safety of your crew.

I don't even think they used a pencil. I think they both wound up using wax pencils, which work in zero gravity and don't have conductive flakes.

* # ¿ Jan 19, 2013 20:00
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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 01:01
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Opinion Haver
Apr 9, 2007

 I remember having one of those! IIRC you sent files to your computer by plugging it in and hitting a 'send' button, and it would then essentially act as a keyboard 'typing' out the document very quickly.

* # ¿ May 8, 2013 18:55
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Opinion Haver
Apr 9, 2007

Brother Jonathan posted:

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned these yet: the VT100 terminal:



It was released in 1978 and was so successful that computers still have VT100 terminal emulation programs on them. I fondly remember banks of them at the university library for accessing the book database.

Hardware terminals aren't used anymore, though. Computing power is so cheap that it's wasteful to dedicate a machine to just providing a text terminal.

Some people I know managed to find one of these. They put a Raspberry Pi running Debian inside it and hooked it up, it was great.

* # ¿ Jul 24, 2013 07:48
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Opinion Haver
Apr 9, 2007

 Someone linked me to a small article about how the NES Game Genie decoded its codes.

* # ¿ Oct 5, 2013 04:11
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The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology