Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

spog posted:

And I guarantee that you can get through it by walking up to it with a handfull of papers just after someone opened it and smiling helplessly.

I pretty much rely on this whenever I go to the head office; At worst I've been asked who I'm there to see. There's a list of names by the door so that's a pretty non-secure question.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2012 04:40

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 00:35

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Good ol' dumb terminals. This was pretty much ubiquitous in any library I visited (school, public, university) well into the 2000's. We'd make them do weird poo poo but I forget what or how, sorry. But I did guess my high school library's admin password - DEWEY.

Perhaps the most widely-used software written using BASIC.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2015 06:52

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

I really liked the *klunk* of the big old pilsner-bothering light switches at my grandma's house.

My first job ever had a knife switch controlling whether or not the dodgem cars were running.

(Not my pic)

I can't think of any non-theatrical situation where that will be more practical than a modern switch/circuit breaker.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 12:53

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Humphreys posted:

Unless it's a Panasonic Toughbook. Those are built for actual field work not as a cordless facebook reader.

Agreed, Real computers have a RS232 serial port :colbert:

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 16:07

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Grumbletron 4000 posted:

I'd love to see a car manufacturer emerge that could produce a safe, cheap, reliable car that's built to last and easy to fix. Performance and luxury be damned. Its got to be possible.

Related: Grumman LLV

# ¿ Jul 8, 2016 14:00

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:

Krispy Wafer posted:
No, but I have a brain addled uncle who asked me to follow him to his bedroom one Christmas holiday probably 13 years ago to "show me something".

Just be happy things went the way they did

# ¿ Nov 30, 2017 10:09

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

GutBomb posted:

It exists but to use one to display a cropped version of content would be stupid.

I don't think you understand, it's about the $$$ Aesthetic $$$

Start making and selling them and the consumer base will write it's own marketing material for you e.g.

"The gentle contours add a sublime warmth that cannot even be simulated through the harshness of a regular display"

"Only people capable of truly thinking outside the square will appreciate the full benefits of this product" :smuggo:

Not gonna lie I do actually think a properly styled retro rounded-corner flat display would look rad as hell. They'd also be out of my price range but they could definitely carve a niche in the conspicuous consumption electronics market.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2017 23:50

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

rndmnmbr posted:

Strange how the mind plays tricks with memory.

Lol

# ¿ Oct 1, 2019 09:38

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

You can't remove single words but most if not all phones should have the ability to clear the user dictionary and start again. For Samsung it's in the Keyboard settings. For Apple it's under the Reset settings. For other manufacturers I'd guess Keyboard settings.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2020 14:59

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Does anyone do hidden tracks/songs anymore? How would they even be done?

The two I've personally encountered are Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP which had 2 grooves on one side, and Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Deaf CD which had a hidden song that some players could access by rewinding the first track.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2020 15:49

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

LifeSunDeath posted:

Mercury in kids toys....quaint:

got these from time to time, do remember cracking one open but not sure what I did with the mercury, lol.

To be fair elemental mercury is basically a kid's toy compared to methylated mercury compounds. IMO the dangerous chemistry thread got a bit :nms:

when that stuff came up

# ¿ Aug 24, 2020 15:37

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

R.L. Stine posted:

I used to periodically handle loading old obsolete and failed technology into large shipping containers to be scrapped and that included probably over a hundred trinitrons. Even the biggest ones can be handled by one person thanks to handholds and the right leverage. They were still the worst though, I'd rather shove a lovely huge rear screen projection over a mountain of fax machines, CRTs, and random poo poo any day.

I wish I knew there was a niche market for trinitrons at the time considering they made up the majority of CRTs I handled. Could've just sold them.

Speaking of, electronics recycling would be a dream for this thread. I found a fully intact, working Apple II in a fancy case with keyboard, mouse, and disk drive. Lots of early RadioShack PCs too, and Heathkit project PCs. And an Onimusha Pachislo machine. And a blowgun.

I was disassembling e-waste some years back. A few cool old things came through but nothing salvageable. Stuff had usually been picked through a couple of times before it reached us.

I had one of the big trinitron tubes implode in my face after the guy whose job it was to bust off the electron gun and relieve the vacuum prior to my task that day of cutting the metal band off from around the front of the tube, didn't do his loving job. Very loud and messy - the tube was utterly obliterated - but surprisingly no injuries from that incident.

Just found a few old pics from that gig, nothing too exciting:

Amstrad ALT-286

Lear Siegler ADM-3A Terminal

Inside

"Obsolete AF"

Last Chance posted:

StickDeath.com

Stickdeath was racist af and also really terrible animation. Goddamn I loved it back in the day but it has not aged well at all in any way and I'm glad it's gone. I haven't seen it archived anywhere online, but I might have the .swfs sitting on an old backup drive somewhere along with the anarchist's cookbook and my old school work with 8.3 filenames - CHEMIS~1.LWP

# ¿ Nov 19, 2020 12:50

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Trabant posted:

While not a Transformer, it did co-star as an artificially intelligent supercomputer sidekick in a Slovenian movie about rival kid gangs (?) who join forces to solve the mystery of who's been stealing from their common local fisherman friend:

I'm particularly a fan of the considerately placed beach umbrella.

Same, that's just adorable. Though the beach would be a good place to make use of that keyboard holder to help keep the sand out. Seeing it with the floppies in the storage slots just looks so weird and normal at the same time

# ¿ Oct 25, 2021 11:37

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

What's really failed and obsolete are those washing machines with a wringer on them
Especially the gasoline powered ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UPZkmcai-M&t=2599s

# ¿ Nov 18, 2021 15:25

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Dick Trauma posted:

My grandparents had an electric wringer washer when I was a kid. I never got to see it in action but it looked like an ominous finger pinching threat.

Same. I always wondered why they never used it until I had to do my own washing by hand while doing some remote work, wringing individual clothing items sucks and would suck even with an electric wringer. A little bit of understanding about how things used to be done makes it a lot easier to appreciate what we have today.

My parent's first washing machine was a twin tub which apparently is still in use because the house it's in only has rainwater to draw from. They're semi-obsolete but still being produced because they can use a lot less water than automatic machines, even less than front loaders depending upon how they are used.

Dicty Bojangles posted:

I did exactly that with my grandmother�s wringer, when I was about 5. Ran my arm right into it because I didn�t let go. Fortunately kids are made out of rubber and nothing was damaged.

In an alternate dimension this kind of thing is how Dick Trauma got his username

# ¿ Nov 19, 2021 15:19

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

verbal enema posted:

I wish I had a gas stove I hate electric stoves

Just get a portable one

... and a carbon monoxide monitor/alarm. I've had a portable gas stove malfunction for no apparent reason and start giving off a yellow flame, glad I knew that was a bad thing.

FilthyImp posted:

Induction is good

Portable induction stoves are also good if you're stuck with an electric hob against your will.

Computer viking posted:

Like near everyone here I grew up with electric, but one of the places I rented a share of for a year had a gas cook top. Apart from having to haul gas bottles to the fifth floor, I agree that it works very well, but I didn't really turn into a fan. Electric is more sedate, but it also feels more civilised. I'll trade some heat control for having a flat hot surface with a control knob instead of fiddling with flammable gases and fire for breakfast. I can easily see how someone who grew up with it would prefer it, though.

Understandable, but some of us enjoy playing with fire for breakfast. And on rare occasions I'll use the gas stove for something that isn't cooking related, like flame sterilization, heating up an implement to melt holes in something, or soldering when my soldering iron dies on me mid-project. But if I had to lug bottles up 5 flights more than, say, twice a year I'd settle for electric.

I grew up with electric, gas and wood stoves. Between the latter and the open fire we lost a lot of childhood weekends spent fetching, stacking and splitting firewood; solid fuel heating and cooking when modern options are available is obsolete and a waste of time. Wood stoves and heaters in the suburbs are anachronistic and polluting extravagance, they really aren't suitable for everyday use. But if I had an old house with the right spot for it, I'd be happy to obtain a Metters No.2 and use it occasionally to bake pies on a rainy winter's afternoon.

Aga stoves also stir some kind of romanticism in people too, but they're pretentious AF. I'm honestly disappointed that they're still making them because they're horrifically inefficient, seeing them marketed as carbon neutral is some hot garbage greenwashing. OTOH they're exclusive enough that it's probably not an actual issue compared to any industrial emissions or cryptomining.

Modern Stoves are good. That is to say if you're in a first world country in a kitchen that is within code there are no bad stoves, compared to a lot of the planet where the localized emissions from domestic open hearth cooking contribute to respiratory issues and a shortened life span. Open hearth cooking is obsolete but unfortunately has not failed, and a over a decade of UN-driven high-level philanthropy in that area involving hundreds of millions of dollars has failed to bring about meaningful change because it has focused on orchestrating market-based solutions that create opportunities for stakeholders instead of, you know, fixing the loving problem.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2022 15:14

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

I'm not allowed to share pics but I've been working in a place that's littered with stone tools and imo some of them are loving rad. Mostly little sharp chips that I guess were the equivalent of a pocket knife, but I did see a couple of longer stone knives and what appeared to be hand axes as well. I'm no archaeologist and it's likely the items I'm seeing are only from the last few centuries, but it's kind of exciting in a way.

On previous jobs I've used the stone chips to cut stuff after forgetting to bring my leatherman out for the day; and from rudimentary testing (not using actual artefacts) it seems like a hafted stone axe can work as well as a steel hatchet. Just like calculators, modern equipment is better in so many ways but that old poo poo still works and it works well for the appropriate tasks. "Stone age" technology is still technology imo, something perfected over thousands of years and something to be proud of as a human, it rates at least mention itt.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 13:28

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

One of the things I like about GOG is you can bypass galaxy and just install a game or two and play it until it's done with rather than be confronted with Yet Another List To Scroll Through that does something to my burnt out and possibly undiagnosed ADD brain which leaves me spending more time trying to choose and then just moving on to something else rather than just watching/reading/playing.

I found this while trying to see if mp3 players built into the cassette were actually a thing like I vaguely remember, it's pretty nifty even if it's obsolete at release.

Mixxtape Is A MP3 Player Masquerading As The Good�ol Cassette Tape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DVQDnc7oBA

The Sausages has a new favorite as of 11:40 on Oct 8, 2022

# ¿ Oct 8, 2022 11:17

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 00:35

The Sausages: Sep 30, 2012; What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

Humphreys posted:

This TV FUCKS

LimaBiker posted:

Some projection TVs even had a fluid layer over the front of the CRT, to spread out the heat generated by the fierce electron beam blasting away at the phosphors. They were definitely a feat of technology.
I don't think there's a reason to assume they'd break instantly, but if you play games with the same score counters and health bars and whatever everyday, it will burn in eventually, and quicker than with normal CRTs.

It wasn't just cooling, the CRT was monochrome and the fluid (some kind of light mineral oil iirc) was dyed to obtain the colors.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2023 01:49

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology