Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Magnus Praeda posted:

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.

This is really not that big of a deal. If it's the kind from the '80s that take lovely cartridges which are no longer manufactured then don't buy it, manual typewriters from that era aren't worth it anyway. The old ones that take reels, you won't be able to get the exact manufacturer's reel, but I use spools of ink ribbon designed for adding machines or printing calculators or whatever the gently caress those things are, and the worst case is on one or two machines I have to keep vintage spools handy and re-roll the new ribbon onto them which takes about 30 seconds by using a little electric drill to spin the spools for me.

Still probably not worth it for the other reasons listed, but ink's not that big a deal, tiny amount of effort to keep it from being a paperweight.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 01:54

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:42

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

I used to get 3-2-1 Contact magazine back when it also ran the BASIC programs in the back pages. My mom let me use her work computer to type up a game from there which was some kind of ant simulator

# ¿ Feb 8, 2015 04:07

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

drrockso20 posted:

I've seen similar albeit more explicitly kiddy versions of this concept here in the states as well, Electronic Lab kits definitely still exist, they just tend to be packaged in a less dangerous and more child friendly package

also while we're on the topic of scientific experimentation meant for children that would be considered child endangerment by modern standards, have a gander at The Golden Book of Chemistry

nice

My theory is that with the Baby Boom & all, people were starting to feel like they had too many kids & they needed to thin the herd

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 20:13

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Zaphod42 posted:

What the gently caress

Chlorine Gas is literally chemical warfare.

yeah they open that section with an image of a WWI soldier but then the "don't breathe the fumes" text is this tiny red warning that's literally printed smaller than the instructions for "breathe these fumes to see if you did it right" so

# ¿ Jun 4, 2015 21:29

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

How do you do zeroes on that machine, just don't press any key for that column?

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 18:54

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

For Christmas in the mid-2000s my mom bought me a Chinese-made mp3 player that was externally designed to vaguely resemble an iPod and had one of those drives that lies about how much space is on it -- when you plugged it in it claimed it had 5 GB but it was actually only 128kb, most of which was taken up by the operating system. It could play tracks, but the nav-button circle on the front was just a sticker, so you couldn't actually skip tracks or otherwise have any control over it. I never asked her how much she paid for it because the answer would have been "too much" no matter what it was

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 06:50

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

"if you're American don't even drink coffee you idiot every single coffee in America is bad and so are you" I'm glad to be here at Something Awful, rapidly gaining international recognition as the coolest and most comedy-packed coffee discourse site on the world wide web

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 18:09

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

"have you considered that it's true" lmao

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 19:44

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

unironic coffee arguments itt

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 20:03

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

every coffee argument in every venue looks exactly the same, I'm sure we've all had or witnessed this coffee argument before, can we consider the entire coffee argument an obsolete and failed technology and move on back to looking at electronic pocket dictionaries or something

# ¿ Jun 16, 2017 21:32

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

My mom had the single-row-LCD typewriter too. Hers was a Smith-Corona and it had interchangeable font sets. We didn't get a computer for a long time because of being poor, so for a while in middle school my classmates were turning in printed-out computer reports and I was laboriously typing mine on the typewriter and having to swap out the font cartridges every time I needed italics.

I collect typewriters but I don't still use them because they're a huge pain in the loving rear end.

For the record, though, if you have a typewriter that has a ribbon in it but not ink, and you'd like to be able to use your typewriter, the thing I find easiest to do is to go to the office supply store and get a reel of ribbon for printing calculators, which is still available, and use your electric drill to reel the ribbon OFF the calculator spools and onto the spools that the ribbon in your typewriter uses. Slight pain in the rear end but you will not find packaged usable ink ribbons for a 1930s manual typewriter in the year 2017 and I've found respooling calculator ribbon to be easier than attempting to re-ink the typewriter ribbon, perhaps because I don't have access to Trabant's dad's machine for it.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 19:40

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

tonberrytoby posted:

Have you considered using actual cash money.

For payroll?

# ¿ Jun 12, 2018 18:02

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

I'm sorry but there is a toll collected by the state of Delaware on 95 by the Maryland border. It's 4 dollars, no matter which way you're going. Delaware is real! The toll is real!

I do like that I started the toll derail by saying surely people would remember Delaware who have driven on the East Coast because of its ludicrous shakedown and here's somebody who has done that and doesn't remember at all.

i moved from Texas to NY one year ago this Friday and did not pay any tolls on my drive up so I'm very confused right now

# ¿ Jun 17, 2018 16:09

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Rev. Bleech_ posted:

bend over and I'll show ya

https://youtu.be/nKKv8hcFBRM

# ¿ Jul 31, 2018 23:27

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Our internet went down in the shop today and we could not work on cars anymore because of that, so you know, the lovely future is already here

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 17:28

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

yeah, on new cars there is no "radio," there is an 8.4" touchscreen Wi-Fi enabled Apple CarPlay integrated Vehicle Command Center bullshit thing through which are routed all kinds of other vehicle computer systems, like engine and transmission and safety controls, so 1) you cannot change out the radio, aftermarket solutions will not be able to interact with your manufacturer's software suite, and 2) if you try to change the radio, or if the radio dies, your car is effectively bricked

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 20:05

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

So far this month alone we've seen two vehicles that wouldn't start and wouldn't shift, respectively, and the solution was replacing the radios -- but at least the fuckin doors still opened, Christ

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 22:16

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

The fact that this thing you're supposed to operate while driving has no physical controls that you could easily operate hands-free really pisses me off. I'm aware that they have voice commands and steering wheel controls for some things but I just really feel like this entire situation is incredibly stupid

e: i'm MAD about car radios
(does anyone else remember the "i'm MAD about ___" tags?)

InediblePenguin has a new favorite as of 00:24 on Aug 17, 2018

# ¿ Aug 17, 2018 00:21

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Shifty Nipples posted:

While you are driving you shouldn't be operating anything but the steering wheel, turn signals, headlights, windshield wipers, accelerator or brakes.

Do you honestly believe the majority of drivers would take seriously an injunction to never change the radio station without pulling over first

# ¿ Aug 17, 2018 20:13

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Iron Crowned posted:

They still text and drive after how many years of warnings and laws against it?

good point. but it's not even illegal to turn the radio on while driving so like what definition of "supposed to" are we even using though

# ¿ Aug 18, 2018 00:53

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:42

InediblePenguin: Sep 27, 2004; I'm strong. And a giant penguin. Please don't eat me. No, really. Don't try.

Krispy Wafer posted:

At least in the States, using food stamps or SNAP was never that complex. By the time they switched to refillable cards you could just swipe and go. Who knows what the heck his mom was doing.

Food stamps were originally hard paper bills with Thomas Jefferson on them. They had sharp edges and were surprisingly painful to count.

wic. wic is exactly that complex down to the paper checks because wic makes you have a little form that specifically says this piece of paper is for milk this piece of paper is for bread etc. everything that was described there sounds exactly like how the WIC system works to this day in 2019 because the WIC system only benefits poor women so making it a weird pain in the rear end to actually access and use for its intended purpose is a benefit to the government

# ¿ Jul 14, 2019 16:44

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