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Jerry Cotton posted:What is that ball anyway? You put fabric softener in it and toss it in the washing machine so you don't have to remember it partway through the cycle. It's kinda worthless though not technically obsolete.
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Jul 22, 2013 10:51
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pentyne posted:
I have one under my hand every time I'm at my desktop and I keep another as a backup. I had several of the mechanical roller version before this and one of the wireless ones Logitech released prior to the current Unifying version. Until the most recent one came out, the wireless versions were even more valuable than the wired ones are now. They're not really obsolete or failed technology, just very niche. CAD designers, for example, tend to love trackballs. I've always preferred them. I don't think they're endangered, either. Logitech released the Unifying version pretty recently.
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Oct 6, 2013 09:05
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Does anyone know if there's a typewriter thread in A/T or somewhere? Conversely, is there a typewriter nerd in the house? 1) Not that I've seen 2) Yes
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May 7, 2014 22:40
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Hi It's not terribly difficult to type on a standard 3x5 index card though it will curl them slightly due to the rollers. It may also not hold the card perfectly (depends on the design of your typewriter) but if you're okay with manually tweaking each card as you put it in, yeah, it's possible. Have you ever used a manual typewriter before? Or really any typewriter? I'm guessing not, so my suggestion is this: You probably don't want to use a manual typewriter for this unless you are lugging it to your local indie coffee shop for some "serious writer" cred or something. Electric typewriters are much, much easier to use. A manual typewriter will slow your typing to a crawl since imprinting each letter requires you to apply a somewhat ridiculous (for people spoiled by touch-typing on computer keyboards) amount of pressure rapidly. You're almost certainly going to be a hell of a lot slower than you would be hand writing each card. Go to your local Goodwill (or whatever thrift shop you like) and troll for an IBM Wheelwriter or Selectric. Brother makes (made?) some really fantastic typewriters, but if you don't know what you're getting, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to find a ribbon for it. Selectrics and Wheelwriters were and are the gold standard and their ribbons are easy to get (I think Staples carries them, for example). If you're just using it for index cards, you aren't likely to use any of the advanced typesetting stuff, so which version you get is pretty irrelevant. I'd recommend bringing a blank sheet of 8.5x11 paper so you can test to see if the ribbon that's in them has any life left and also to see that each key is still striking. The other nice thing about electrics is that they (almost) all have correction ribbons, making it easy to delete mistakes which it does by overtyping each letter with a lift-off film that just pulls the ink off the page. If you're dead set on getting a manual typewriter, know that although there are a couple manufacturers still making ribbon, there are so many various manufacturers and models of manual typewriters that you may be buying a really awesome paperweight. Also, almost none of the manual typewriters you find in secondhand shops will have been maintained, they may have bent hammers, they will almost certainly need cleaning, etc. all of which may conspire to make them useless or, at least, harder to use than they should be. Notably, there are still manufacturers making new typewriters to this day. You can get a Royal Epoch on Amazon for around $130, for example. Holy crap that's a lot of  about typewriters.
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May 8, 2014 00:31
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Tiny Brontosaurus posted:Yup no condescension there. Dude, calm down just a bit. Like others said, I wasn't trying to be condescending. In fact, I was trying to point out that many people have a romantic notion of manual typewriters and their use by "serious writers" (such as Cormac McCarthy, whose typewriter just sold for like 250k) and that this romantic notion ends up with them owning a boat anchor rather than a useful tool. If you say you have used a manual typewriter before, I believe you, but your original statement suggested that you hadn't. Particularly your apparent unfamiliarity with how an index card might be held in a typewriter (of any kind, not just a manual) and that you said that "learning curve/technical finickyness" was an issue. You also said "is this reasonable to do with a typewriter" and "what would you suggest." I said that it was reasonable/possible and that I suggested an electric. I, too, am a professional writer and I do all my first drafts by hand on an IBM Wheelwriter II. It's not a cache thing, it's just that I get easily distracted if I'm on a computer and my hand hurts something fierce if I try to write for much more than a page by hand. Like Trilineatus said, manual typewriters take a lot of pressure and if you haven't got a ton of hand strength/aren't used to typing on one, they fatigue your hands quickly. I tried to write a chapbook on one (an old Royal HH from the 50s that weighed about as much as an engine block) and had to give up about five pages in because I just got tired. I also have two Brother word processors, one with a lovely green CRT and the other with a green LCD that flips down over the keyboard for transportation. Now those are some seriously obsolete technology. This website, by the way, is awesome if you're interested in the beauty and technical intricacies of typewriters. Edit: new page, so have a picture of one of my Word Processors, the WP6 (not my picture, but it looks the same). That empty space next to the floppy drive is to store your floppies. It's just so well thought out and fun write with. 
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May 8, 2014 06:49
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Mescal posted:How dare you people talk down to Tiny Brontosaurus? The typewriter is medicinal. He'd be better off smoking the stuff Trilineatus found.  edit: moller posted: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. I'll admit it's an affectation, but yes, I have used WriteRoom and just end up cmd-tab back to chrome. I'm also a bit of a collector, so I've got them sitting around anyway. Might as well use them. Kinda how I feel about my 35mm SLRs (yet more obsolete technology, though the Dorkroom would disagree). Magnus Praeda has a new favorite as of 07:39 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 07:35
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Zonekeeper posted:Late 80's/Early 90's? I had that exact 8MM/VHS-C argument with customers while working at RadioShack 2-3 years ago. I just quit RadioShack in November and I'm pretty sure I was having that argument the week I left. Other perpetual favorites included "no, USB A-A cables don't work like you think they do" and "no, you need an ethernet switch, not a that splitter, yes I realize it's $10 cheaper, no it will not work, fine buy it anyway our return period is 30 days." I hated retail.
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Dec 20, 2014 01:20
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Grim Up North posted:I only looked at the cheapest car I could think of, but in the UK you can in fact buy a car with manual rear windows: Good news!
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Mar 3, 2015 23:41
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Humphreys posted:Some guy tracks down all the best bits from 2000 and builds a Quake 3 machine: That just reminds me how much I miss playing Quake 3...
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Apr 21, 2015 04:39
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Collateral Damage posted:Soon to be obsolete and failed technology: capped data plans.  Capped data plans aren't going anywhere anytime soon for most of the major players. Why would they? They make money hand-over-fist and the public just keeps paying.
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May 13, 2015 15:40
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laserghost posted:When CDP started punishing people with pirated copies of The Witcher 2... edit: ^^^^that's some lame poo poo. Though I expect you could counter-sue for court costs and damages if you could prove you owned it legally. Magnus Praeda has a new favorite as of 19:18 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 19:14
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Krispy Kareem posted:I can't remember, was it possible to get shocked by those? I don't recall ever getting juiced by my electronics kit. If you were very specifically trying to, yes. But you'd have to touch two leads to your tongue or something. They ran off either a 9V or a few AA batteries (depending on which one you had). It is, AFAICT, impossible to shock yourself intentionally or otherwise on the snap circuits.
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Jun 8, 2015 19:58
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ElwoodCuse posted:Is long distance still a thing? Pretty much every phone TV Internet combo I've seen for years has unlimited US calling. In the sense that you have to append 1+Area Code before the 7-digit number, yes? Though that's something I have to do on my cell phone as well. You're right about the whole unlimited nationwide calling thing. Which reminds me of another obsolete technology: long-distance calling cards. I know international calling cards are still very much a thing, but I remember having to ask my father for the MCI card so I could dial the 1-800 number then the card account number then finally the actual phone number just so I could call my grandparents.
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Jun 16, 2015 21:13
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Super Waffle posted:I've had to dial the area code for even local numbers since the mid 90's, is this not a thing everywhere? I thought the distinction between "long-distance" and "local" calls (aside from international calls) was obsolete technology Nope. Regardless of if I'm calling from a cell phone or a land line, if the prefix of the number is "local" (i.e. it shows up as a number from this city), I just dial the 7-digit phone number. If I am calling a number from a different city, I have to add the area code. I do live in one of the few states that only has 1 area code--I don't know if that makes the difference.
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Jun 17, 2015 00:27
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Code Jockey posted:Holy poo poo there's states with only one area code? Several, including (but not limited to) both Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Maine...Basically all the sparsely populated states.
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Jun 17, 2015 03:04
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Star Man posted:I am from Wyoming (though I live in Denver now). And I'm from a town of 10,000 people. It's only a small town compared to something like a major city. Regardless of how large 10k might be compared to "Bob's house is also the gas station, post office, general store, and town hall"-type towns that dot the west, 10k is pretty small even compared to Casper's nearly 60k (which is not a major city by any stretch of the imagination).
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Jun 23, 2015 23:34
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Pham Nuwen posted:probably a port/reimplementation rather than an emulator. That game went everywhere. I remember having like three different versions throughout high school, so probably several reimplementations. Then I went off to college and all my programs ended up being notes on probability/statistics.
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Aug 12, 2015 17:00
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KozmoNaut posted:They came so close to breaking whole smartphone market wide open, the 770 was released two years before the original iPhone. If only they'd realized what they had on their hands. With a phone/modem added (perhaps even 3G) and a proper software ecosystem, they've could have completely pre-empted the iPhone and Android. I kept using mine even after I'd gotten a smartphone. I watched the entirety of The Wire on it. They really were fantastic devices for the time. They had a larger screen than any smartphone I've ever owned (even if the resolution doesn't hold a candle to today's densely packed pixel displays).
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Aug 12, 2015 21:18
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Rectus posted:800x480 is still bigger than the first iPhones and android phones had. The screen of the N800 is almost exactly the size of the on on my S3. Bonus N900. I never owned a 1st gen iPhone since I've always had Verizon. It was definitely a better display than either my Droid or Droid 2 and it's still larger than my iPhone 5. It was definitely far less painful to use for anything other than texting or email than my earliest smartphone, a Motorola Q (Windows Mobile definitely counts as obsolete technology). ^^Edit: would you care to hear more about my personal phone usage history? It's thrilling and engaging!
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Aug 12, 2015 21:49
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blugu64 posted:A dollar used to be worth something, and I think that's $1.25 for the pie Are we sure the dress doesn't come with the pie? Kinda like a super-lame cereal box prize?
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Aug 14, 2015 00:17
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Collateral Damage posted:Meh, it's a convenience feature. Like if I want to find the results for last weekend's sportsball game I could go to sportsball.com and find it, but it's going to be much faster to just type "sportsball September 2015 results" in the location bar and let Google find a direct link for it, or in many cases it will just display the information I wanted on the search result page. Yes, but you're aware that you could type sportsball.com in the address bar and go directly there. He's talking about people that go to the location bar, type http://www.google.com hit enter, go down to the google search box, type http://www.sportsball.com hit enter again, and click on the first link that comes up. They're not using any "convenience features", they're just technologically illiterate.
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Sep 30, 2015 17:32
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Wasabi the J posted:Milk crates aren't still the de-facto book-moving implement? Milk crates are for moving vinyl or carboys. I use document storage boxes for moving books. They're designed for paper, have handles, are durable and reusable, and have a separate lid.
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Oct 1, 2015 19:16
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Trabant posted:I just discovered this thread and it's taking all I have not to spam it with a thousand pictures of vintage hi-fi equipment. I guess it technically qualifies as obsolete? Stuff like: Those are all beautiful and I don't think that they qualify as obsolete, either (with the possible exception of the 80s-as-gently caress reverb amp, which is badass). Sure, more modern receivers, amps, etc. exist with like 4k passthrough and poo poo, but it's just kinda added fluff.
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Oct 18, 2015 05:30
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There was also BEST, which worked kinda like that. My uncle worked for them before they went out of business and I loved going through the scratch & dent room. I got a lot of stuff that would fit this thread there, too. Like an electronic organizer (made by Sharp or Casio probably) that I thought was seriously hot poo poo back in the mid 90s (yes, storing all that information in volatile memory was a fantastic idea, really).
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Dec 4, 2015 23:05
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Goober Peas posted:So growing up, there was a local grocery chain named "Consumers Warehouse"; the gimmick was each shopping cart had a bin of labels and markers on the handlebar. As you put items in the buggy, you would take a label and mark the price from the shelf, then affix the label to the item. Cashier would then ring items up off of the labels. The world was a different place then. "Then" being the day that it took for "consumers" to rob the "warehouse" blind?
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Dec 5, 2015 00:27
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Iron Crowned posted:So far no DRM that I've found as I've downloaded and used them on different machines. I did get a notice that I can only download them from a limited number of devices when I did a download via their Amazon Music App on my phone. I have run across a few odd things here or there that are missing AutoRip, but most things are. It's like iTunes in that you can only have 10 devices authorized at any given time. But you can deauthorize them at any time. I've never run into a problem with it. The desktop app is functional and less cluttered with poo poo than iTunes these days, though I basically only use it to download stuff I've purchased. I love it when AutoRip physical CDs are substantially cheaper than just buying the MP3 album. I usually just give the CDs to my wife since her car doesn't have an aux-in and FM transmitters suck.
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Dec 15, 2015 18:26
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mystes posted:Both in the sense of there always being a new sucker and in the sense that the individual stickers literally never become obsolete because they don't do anything in the first place and don't have to even be changed for new models of phones. No, they changed since they were first introduced. They doubled the size (so they're worth about $0.10 now rather than $0.05 just in raw materials) and quadrupled the price. I used to work for Radio Shack and sold the ones that went under the batteries of flip phones--they were only about  at the time.You're right about there always being a new sucker, though.
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Feb 16, 2016 04:10
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robodex posted:or you could just install plex and download the show like a sane human being His method, while clunky and cumbersome, is completely legal IANAL and this is based on my understanding of US personal-use laws brought about by VCRs while downloading is (usually) not. If he were to then share out those files, then it becomes piracy. Wanamingo posted:I still torrent all my shows, is that an obsolete technology yet? I stopped torrenting basically anything once streaming became so drat easy. Magnus Praeda has a new favorite as of 18:04 on Mar 17, 2016 |
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Mar 17, 2016 18:01
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spog posted:I am sure I recall that the original one was about 3" strips and required you to pull the paper out at the same pace as you moved the scanner across the document, but in a different direction. I imagine the salesman when these first came out just saying something like, "... sure, so what you're gonna do is you hold the CopyWand® in your hand and just hold the paper you're copying with your other hand as you pull the CopyWand® across. Then with your other other hand you pull the copy out like this..."
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Apr 19, 2016 19:35
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sarcastx posted:also: Then they just need to do what Apple does with the Genius Bar: Have a friendly, smiling twentysomething in a bright-colored polo shirt holding an iPad come up to you and take your name and phone # and give you an appointment time. Then you either hang around and play with the display stuff (in Tesla's case, they can show you all about the Powerwall or whatever) or you head out for a while while you wait for a text that your appointment is almost ready. It's not that hard and Apple's retail experience (even including launch days) has been almost universally praised, so comparing Tesla's experience to that is pretty good. For your point about used cars: that's what math is for. Insurance adjusters calculate value based on variables like that all the time. Now Tesla can (presumably) apply the same kind of math to selling used cars.
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May 5, 2016 17:07
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Explosionface posted:Sometimes it's okay to leave things alone. Also, you can hit an American light switch easier in the dark. Just wipe your hand on the wall. Lining up the screws on the faceplates is also a good way to impress people with your OCD. What's wrong with American wall sockets? They're polarized, grounded, and backwards-compatible with older two-prong devices. With current code updates mandating tamper-resistant shutters, they're even hard for little Timmy to electrocute himself without REALLY trying. Plus, if you switch to using Decora for everything, it's easy to get keystone plates for up to six keystones so you can have a bunch of low-voltage stuff with the same cover plates as your outlets and switches.
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Jun 10, 2016 17:47
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El Estrago Bonito posted:Look, the guy does lighting rigs for a living, I think it's understandable that he really enjoys making fun of people doing lights in a lovely way. I mean yeah, it's repetitive and stuff, but I never got the feeling that Clive actually cared if anyone watched his videos and he more just does it to amuse himself. I actually appreciate that he regularly does circuit diagrams of the stuff he tears down and explains why whatever cheapskate poo poo they did is likely to set your house on fire. May be a little repetitive, but I've learned a lot about electronics by watching him. And his voice is awesome. 
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Aug 29, 2016 23:14
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GreenNight posted:Can I watch porn on that? D' y'all consider NASCAR porn? 
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Aug 30, 2016 05:37
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Phlegmish posted:They've understood their demographic very well and could get away with anything if they market it right. Watch the new iPhone break sales records. They've already said they won't be releasing sales figures for opening weekend because "initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand" (read: we've artificially limited available units to try and increase an appearance of consumer demand by selling out) and their 4th quarter estimates are down $4-6 billion. The iPhone is still a juggernaut, but it is slowing. It's an incremental change in all areas except the ludicrous decision to drop the headphone jack. That's actually a big problem for a company that, under Jobs, made huge leaps and, since his death, really hasn't. People compare the dropping of the headphone jack to leaving the floppy drive out of the iMac, but the iMac was a radical departure from the design language that existed across the computing world at the time. It was cool-as-gently caress and dropping the floppy was part of what made that possible. The only thing made possible by dropping the headphone jack is an uptick in wireless headphone sales (including Beats, owned by Apple). And yes, I realize they've made claims about how it gave them room for an hour or two more battery life or more haptic feedback on the loving home button, but ffs, they could have made it slightly thicker (i.e. as thick as the stupid camera bulge so the drat things sit flat on a table again) and doubled the battery life.
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Sep 9, 2016 07:57
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Explosionface posted:I love big solder jobs. I find them incredibly soothing, so this sounds like a wonderful project. If it would have been possible to find a career soldering, I would have done that. Instead, I have to put up with all the bullshit engineering that goes alongside it. Yeah, that's definitely through-hole. I also find huge repetitive soldering jobs kinda meditative, so that looks like it would be awesome to put together. The one thing I miss about working at Radio Shack is that when we'd get in those little Velleman kits, I'd buy one with my discount and sit there putting it together at the counter (yes, we were that slow--you wonder why the company went bankrupt?). It actually helped us sell them, since we could point to the put-together one sitting there and upsell it to some dude who just came in for a cable or whatever.
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Sep 19, 2016 19:43
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Kwyndig posted:If you were expected to continue working after being punched out that's illegal, by the way. I have a feeling that employer is one of those "labor law is for suckers" types.
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Sep 27, 2016 17:16
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edit: ^^^ not in that picture, she wasn't.Johnny Aztec posted:And that worker was Albert Einstein! Norma Jeane Mortenson Magnus Praeda has a new favorite as of 00:56 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 00:53
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Jedit posted:Only the £5 notes are polymer, we're still on paper for the rest. Wait, what? How are they not legal tender? Are they not backed by the HRM's government somehow or did Scotland just decide to print their own notes because, "gently caress the English?"
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Dec 19, 2016 19:49
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Powered Descent posted:I took a photography course in high school in the mid-90s (yes, yes, My grandmother taught me how to develop photos over the course of a few years and I took a couple summer classes in photography when I was younger that were all still done using 35mm. I agree that there's something wonderfully satisfying about developing your own prints that's lacking from digital. I won't ever knock the incredible convenience that is taking hundreds of shots without once thinking about swapping rolls and then just sorting out the crap later, though.
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Mar 16, 2017 23:50
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). I was never anything special at the artistic parts like shot composition, but I loved the hell out of developing the 35mm film and making prints in an enlarger. Partly because there was something so wonderfully chemical about the whole thing, and partly just because the darkroom was a cool place to hang out.)
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Krispy Kareem posted:Heh, I really want an old car. Maybe a 1970's SuperBeetle like I used to own, but drat those vehicles are death traps compared to anything made in the last 20 years. My sister got hit by a drunk driver in her 83/84 (somewhere in there) Dodge Colt back in the early 90s. Front end accident at ~30 mph. She broke the steering wheel with her chest and bruised her heart (and probably would have died were she not young and incredibly athletic). I definitely love old cars and would absolutely have one for going out on a Sunday drive but I don't think I'd ever daily one.
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Jun 12, 2017 19:09
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