|
 Old-rear end Sidekick meter and a legitimate Blue Box. The Sidekick may not be totally obsolete, but the Blue Box most certainly is. I'm not sure if the entire pre-4AESS phone system could be considered "failed" but it's definitely gone. For background: these are both tools used in the maintenance and testing of older phone networks. The big one on the right is particularly infamous in some circles, as unsavory types (like the Steves Jobs and Wozniak) used to make unlicensed copies of it, which were used by other unsavory types to make free and untraceable calls all over the world. edit: That Blue Box takes 12 D-cell batteries. It's heavy as hell when prepped for "portable" operation. Totally Reasonable has a new favorite as of 04:35 on Aug 8, 2012 |
#
¿
Aug 8, 2012 04:14
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 19:01 |
|
|
So much old crap lying around. Seriously. I think I have an XT board around here somewhere, but the m100 is p old. 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2012 19:42
|
|
|
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2012 22:17
|
|
|
Ensign Expendable posted:Holy poo poo, disc 10, how many floppies did it come on? As I recall, somewhere north of 25. At the time, a CD-ROM drive was well over $800.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2012 22:28
|
|
|
Bonzo posted:26. It took at least 2 hours too, or at least it felt like it. The shop I was working at soon started doing installs without the games because that saved about half an hour. Depriving children of Hover! should be lumped in with similar crimes, like genocide.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 04:42
|
|
|
 Memory tone dialers! These things would remember numbers for you (dozens of numbers!) and play the corresponding DTMF tones into a phone's mouthpiece to connect the call. Also, you could replace the oscillator crystal in them to slightly nudge the tones, which made them useless for dialing numbers. However, this also made the 8 key play the 5¢ OOBS tone, allowing you to make free calls from payphones by programming 88888 into the memory. Tone dialers themselves were pretty much DOA, but they were rather big sellers (for Redboxing purposes) until 5A ESS phone systems started rolling out, which made the money signalling digital. About the same time, everyone bought a mobile and welp.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2012 07:53
|
|
|
 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 |
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2012 01:51
|
|
|
Sad? My pentium 999 was awesome.
|
|
#
¿
May 30, 2013 19:46
|
|
|
Krispy Kareem posted:Maybe my memory is faulty, but has anyone else ever seen a parallel port powered device? I had an old sheetfed scanner that I could swear was powered via the parallel printer port. If you can run a scanner on 4.5V at (maybe) 50mA, that's kinda amazing. Note that oldschool DRM dongles sometimes hosed up because of the paltry current available via LPT. e: you'd be using maxed-out signal pins to do this, so I'm not sure it would work as a scanner, unless the data transfer was hugely deferred. Totally Reasonable has a new favorite as of 03:52 on Jun 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2013 03:48
|
|
|
Speaking of linear light gun games:  This thing allowed you to (sort of) interact with a show on TV. Shooting at certain flickering patterns would increase your score, while other patterns would cause damage, eventually causing the cockpit to eject and scare the poo poo out of your cat. Once VHS degradation rendered the show unplayable, you could still use the accessories to play the stupidest looking game of laser tag in history.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2013 17:10
|
|
|
Laptops are going to have a place with reporters and other writing professionals for a good long time. Nobody is going to enjoy typing at 65wpm on something with a <10" screen.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2013 18:21
|
|
|
Non Serviam posted:I have a film camera that I simply can't use because I can only get those batteries online and they're too pricey to justify trying to practice film photography The cameras that rock that battery will teach you jack poo poo about photography, for what it's worth. Go grab an old Nikon FE body from ebay, with maybe a 50mm prime lens. It may be an old way to learn how to shoot, but it's not quite obsolete. e: and it's cheaper than the d40 kit i started out on
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2013 07:37
|
|
|
Slanderer posted:The real issue is with libraries being unable to deal with the mentally ill dudes who come to use a public terminal to look up weird fetish porn. The difference between a homeless psycho looking at weird fetish porn in the library and a grad student researching a paper on weird fetish porn in the library is that the homeless guy isn't behind on his rent.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2013 06:03
|
|
|
grad students literally always have their dicks out. especially when it's not biologically feasible.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2013 06:10
|
|
|
 The Atari Mega STE, which died about a minute before the Amiga. The ST series were temporarily popular with the music crowd, while Amigas managed to massively overstay their welcome due to Lightwave.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2013 00:24
|
|
|
Pretty much any audio hardware from 5+ years ago is hilariously obsolete. I've got a DR 202 kicking around somewhere, and I swear that thing still feels like the future.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 5, 2014 05:47
|
|
|
drrockso20 posted:So let's say I wanted to make a low budget film and wanted to use an actual Film Camera and not a digital one, what would be the best choice for Film format and what would be a good camera to use? Low-budget and actual film no longer live in the same area code. Unless you already have a photo lab, and want to develop and edit a few miles of black and white 8mm film. Totally Reasonable has a new favorite as of 02:42 on Jan 13, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2015 02:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 19:01 |
|
|
Imagined posted:Not that I don't enjoy live music chat, but what does it have to do with obsolete and failed technology? Sounds like a wimpy gun for effete German pansies. Also obsolete, but way scarier, is the Lahti anti-tank rifle from WW2 Finland  Which is basically a man-portable 20mm cannon on a stupid looking sled.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2016 05:29
|
|
