Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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F4rt5: May 20, 2006

TinTower posted:

Related to the CableCARD in America is the Common Interface, or CI card, which had the same PCMCIA form factor. Most TVs come with slots but I don't know anybody who's used the CI modules in the past ten years.

It was basically a descrambler for "premium" digital terrestrial TV. They launched with nearly 20 channels but, over the space of five years, they were eventually only used for sports channels. The use of CI was eventually phased out for those channels in 2013, when BT started offering the sports channels through their IPTV service only.

Then again, maybe they actually got some use over on the continent.

In Norway these are still used for digital terrestrial TV (RiksTV) if you're a pleb without cable or satellite (like me). You need a subscription to decode anything that's not an NRK radio or TV channel, which are free since it's a public state-owned network paid for by us via the TV license, like your BBC. Any TV with a built-in DVB tuner has one, like my 2009 46" Samsung LCD (speaking of obsolete: Non-LED backlight).

Our RiksTV has a good variety of channels, though. Not all sports, thankfully

# ¿ Mar 27, 2016 21:23

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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 12:59

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Tunicate posted:

Your phone doesn't have physical buttons?

Only the three most common across phones: Power, Volume Up and Volume Down, I guess. Nothing suitable for breaking the texting speed records of the early noughties.

# ¿ May 27, 2016 10:43

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Remember the time when ATi had rock solid drivers and nVidia were the buggy ones?

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 12:28

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

KozmoNaut posted:

For a ~700MB crap-quality Xvid encode

A CD-sized XviD encode was not crap quality, as long as it was a DVD-rip and not a cam. Recompressed audio and video, yes, but almost indistinguishable from the source. By the way, anyone remember DivX ;-) when it was a hacked MS codec?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 12:19

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Tube amp with Lightning connector, you say?

http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/idecco-amplifier-with-dac.html

# ¿ Sep 9, 2016 09:07

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

I think it was linked in a previous page, or in another thread, but it bears repeating. Wonderful film, and just look at that computer technology!

# ¿ Oct 11, 2016 16:12

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

KozmoNaut posted:

[...] as you get into them, you realize how much taste they have over standard bottlings, even with a bit of water added.

I find a little splash of tepid water opens the whisky up releasing more of the sweet, smoky aroma. But I'm an Islay freak.

F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 13:34 on Dec 25, 2016

# ¿ Dec 25, 2016 01:28

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:

I never forget the audiophile reviews of different NAS's - all hooked up to the same DAC.

The one where they were testing a DAC plugged in to a router, with different TP cables from the NAS to the router? Yeah, that was a good one. Also different HDMI cables where you can totally see the difference in quality in the picture (yeah I know about those new anti-aliasing cables with a microprocessor in the contacts, you know that's not what I mean).

Audiophiles don't know how digital stuff works, apparently.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2017 23:03

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Krispy Wafer posted:

That's your 3g signal. I remember CMDA not having that problem.

Nah, it went away with 3G - it was regular old GSM that had this problem. Takkata takkata takkata takkata WRAAAAA

# ¿ Nov 16, 2017 21:15

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Capn Jobe posted:

In college I lived in a number of small rooms, which meant my computer and guitar amplifier were in close proximity. drat near anything wireless would produce a distinct tone from the amp if it was turned on. My favorite was the scroll wheel on my mouse producing noticeably different tones when scrolling up or down.

Probably could have made a whole song out of it.

At Jimi Hendrix' Isle of Wight gig the walkie-talkies security used interfered with his amps so the chatter was played through them.

The clicking and noise through speakers I've experienced many times. Usually on old motherboard sound cards. I think the graphics card itself interfered with the horribly-shielded sound circuits.

But recently I had the same problem in VirtualBox - Windows 7 would make the same sound when playing audio, if the virtual CPU maxed out AND there was network activity. Annoying.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2017 21:18

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

bigman.50grand posted:

Just lol if you weren't half-speed mastering you Phil Colin's VHS back in 2004.

"Hi Fi"

The stereo track on VHS in regular SP mode was all kinds of awesome. Much better than regular music cassettes, and not far from CD. So I get, sort of, why this uncle would do that. Unless the sources were cassettes, that is.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2017 16:12

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Pope Guilty posted:

I can't imagine this would work well- think about the last time you heard a radio broadcast without even the tiniest little bit of distortion or signal strength fluctuation.

It worked well, mostly used in Europe (UK and Scandinavia especially) where the FM radio signal usually was clear and strong. Small countries, you know. Plus, what the above posts said - it was very simple encoding of the data, just like a modem. Remember those?

And of the VHS as backup thing - I've seen advertisements for such systems. They allowed you to use your regular VHS player. Some, if I recall correctly, didn't even use any special interface cards - they plugged into the lines in and out of your soundcard and the software handled the rest. Capacity? Around a gig or two, I think. I found it interesting and almost bought one, when my HD was 540 MB (and that was YUGE!) but decided against it.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2017 14:25

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

The Ape of Naples posted:

For a time I know some home musicians who would mix down 4 track recordings to VHS. It was better than mixing town to cassette, especially if you wanted to make duplicates.

I suddenly remembered that Alesis ADAT used SVHS tapes, but that was digital... anyway, the analogue Hi-Fi track on VHS was good poo poo and that's that!

# ¿ Dec 1, 2017 14:55

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

He just wanted to hear that twonk-click like any other nerd :3

# ¿ Dec 7, 2017 10:40

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

poo poo, I could hear that loud and clear. Mostly in my right ear. But if I moved my head around it would fade considerably when I stopped moving again. Weird. 39 here, and thought my ears were more damaged from playing drums in small rehearsal spaces. Goddamn cymbals.

Strangely enough I do have an incessant tone in my ears but it sounds more like 16 KHz. And it's faint enough to not bother me until I think about it.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 10:05

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Enourmo posted:

New car models take about 5 years to develop from concept to production ready, and specs for things like the infotainment system have to get locked in fairly early.

Do you know why it has to be locked in so early? Specs like screen size, buttons (yeah right), number and types of sensors, placement, etc, ok. I can understand. But writing the software? One would think that came kind of late in the process. Because, you know, I think it would be easier and faster to change a SoC for a newer, faster one or add a sensor input than suddenly realising your Hofmeister kink is the wrong angle and introduces structural problems - when the tooling is already manufactured and set up...

But I'm obviously talking out of my rear end.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2017 10:43

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Horace posted:

That's not Comic Sans, it's their ripoff version that comes with the Mac. Chalkboard, or Noteworthy or something.

A ripoff, yes, kind of, but a ripoff that does the job better. Chalkboard actually has proper kerning and all the pro typeface things that Comic Sans lacks (since CS was never meant to be a proper typeface, just a throwaway crap handwriting thing for Comic Chat?)

# ¿ Jan 10, 2018 02:25

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

evobatman posted:

Real business computers like Dell Latitudes and Lenovo Thinkpads have hardware LPT and RS-232 ports on the motherboard today. You just smack one of these in the docking station connector, to give them the actual physical ports:

My Asus H81MP-Plus motherboard had an RS232 header so I just bought the plate with plug and cable. Most motherboards still have them, I think?

# ¿ Feb 3, 2018 17:40

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

I had 2011 MacBook Pro. Although not that light, the keyboard was amazing. The new, thinner ones I like the design and lightness of, but the redesigned keyboard sucks rear end. Thinner is not always better. Couldn't care less about physical buttons on my phone though. Hang up while watching YouTube? Well, the button for that just showed up when the person called you. And you were watching the screen, probably...

And the n5x does mute the ring volume with the volume buttons - after a touch of the lock button to turn the screen on. I can see why, so it doesn't change sporadically in your pocket.

Shut the ring up but not hang up? A touch of volume down. I think phones have some of the best, and easiest to learn, context-sensitive UIs.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2018 10:12

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Aren't even laptop karaoke setups using CD+G? Or rather MP3+G since I haven't seen one karaoke host with non-warezed files or discs.

CD+G is kinda cool actually, tech-wise.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2018 16:26

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

KozmoNaut posted:

Some older Citroëns (SM, CX, XM) and some Citroën era Maseratis (Quattroporte II and Khamsin) had hydraulic steering on the higher trim levels, called DIRAVI.
.

Even the scrub tier CX had hydraulic steering. I learned to drive in a base level CX20, later replaced with a CX24 Pallas. Both had hydraulic steering (and the old style barrel tach and speedo).

KozmoNaut posted:

Most people found it very odd, because there was absolutely no steering feedback, and the wheels would always return to point straight ahead if you released the steering wheel, even if the car wasn't moving. Steering was completely effortless because of the hydraulics, but as speed increased it also increased the auto-centering force, in effect firming up the steering, not by making the wheel harder to turn (as in modern cars), but by making it more forceful in returning to center.

Yeah, you could turn the wheel and it would center without the car moving. I think that in speed it also tightened the radius or something, since just a nudge on the wheel would make it change direction. It was an awesome highway cruiser, comfy as heck. Stable, too, due to the front having a wider track than the rear, and always level due to the suspension.

KozmoNaut posted:

* Not quite true, as there was a mechanical fallback, in case hydraulic pressure was lost. It made the steering extremely heavy with a lot of slop, but it was possible to steer the car (sort of).

Happened more than a few times and yeah, it was heavier than a standard servoless car even. Turning the wheel at a standstill was next to impossible.

The brake pedal was also hydraulically assisted and the lightest tap compared to a regular car would slow it down. Hard braking, though, was wonderfully dynamic when you got used to it.

The CX is the Frenchest car ever. Wonderfully quirky and for anyone having driven one, imagine learning to drive in the thing.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2018 16:55

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

anonumos posted:

I've driven cars without ABS and TCS. It's poo poo. Oh you can choose to drive on the edge like a "real man" (hello toxic masculinity). Good for you Dale Earnhardt. You'll end up the same way.

Yeah I grew up on cars with no modern amenities and ABS has saved my rear end a couple of times in situations that would otherwise end with me in a ditch. I still like turning off TC some times though, feeling the wheel slip point and modulating the gas yourself helps in those really tricky situations where the TC will just cut throttle and get you nowhere up that hill.

e: this is in winter country Norway where everyone has either spiked or non-spiked winter tyres (no all-seasons) and we have actual icy and snowy roads.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 12:08

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Konstantin posted:

I actually wish modern cars had hand cranked windows. If the windows are iced shut in the winter, sometimes the power window motor isn't strong enough to roll the window down, with a hand crank you can apply more force to break the ice.

Down. 1mm. Up. Down. 2mm. Up. Down *crack* YASS! up (no can do, motor burned)

This happened to me with a hand crank in the base level CX. Wore just snapped

# ¿ Feb 20, 2018 13:28

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Lol at the US banking system. I realise it's a huge country with a lot of banks with different systems but now that the Internet and digital instant communication has existed for decades I'm dumbfounded by the delays and stupidity of it all. Hell, over here we're annoyed that a transfer between banks won't come through until the next business day, two at the most, except weekends and bank holidays. However, you can now select "instant transfer" for a fee ($.75 ish) even between banks. Which basically means the bank loans cash to the other bank for a day until the SWIFT or whatever transfer is in the books.

All banks here run a sync three-four times a day with our equivalent of the SEC central so if you place a transfer before noon, it's likely in the recipient's account by 3:45pm the same day.

Transfers between own accounts, or other acvounta in the same bank, are instant - even Saturdays and Sundays.

Sometimes Evry (formerly EDB ASA) that run the central transfer system gently caress up a software upgrade and all card payments are down for half a Friday or Saturday. (It's always those days). And all the banks have quit cash at the counter. You literally can't withdraw cash at the bank anymore. You do that in stores or the ATM.

F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 16:32 on Jun 2, 2018

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 16:29

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:

They don't really have much of an excuse considering how well it works in the EU.

That's true, was in Greece a couple of years ago and even with only a Visa Electron with BankAxept I could withdraw cash and pay in stores and my account was updated instantly.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 16:33

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Also obsolete tech: running system upgrades before a weekend when the entire nation depends on everything to work and no-one but drug buyers use cash any more. How about doing it on a Monday at noon, Evry?

E: Last time it was a hard drive in an IBM mainframe (ancient 370 I guess) that failed and they didn't have a spare. Had to be shipped. When you find out how the most important financial infrastructure in the country is run, you have to laugh.

F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 16:39 on Jun 2, 2018

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 16:35

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Chyrosran22 has the best YouTube voice. With Techmoan as a close runner-up.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2018 10:49

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

I think he has a cushy, boring 9-4 accountant or banking job, he looks the part.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2019 19:11

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Geoj posted:

My first "real" computer (a 133 MHz non-MMX Pentium I) had that same card, or one very similar to it.

It was a bit odd having a sound card with a sizeable percentage of your system RAM capacity.

I just bought a Radeon RX 580 with 8 GB GDDR5.

As much RAM as on the motherboard...

# ¿ Jul 4, 2019 06:53

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Shut up Meg posted:

I'll admit I am cherry-picking examples, but my point is that the BBC doesn't have the same pressure to cater for the lowest-common denominator in order to win the viewing-figures battle.

They have the option to put out quality TV and it doesn't have to justify its existence on how much advertising time it sells during that programme's timeslot.

Isn't NPR kinda sorta the US equivalent? The BBC also have, I would think, regulations to make sure a certain percentage of programming to be for public education and such things. I know the Scandinavian equivalents have this, and they are pretty much modeled after the BBC.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2019 16:10

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

rndmnmbr posted:

These were painfully slow with bigger cards. I dug two of them out of a newspaper's obsolete tech pile, along with an Olympus digital camera and a couple gigs of smartmedia cards (in 256/512mb cards). It didn't take me long to scrap the floppy adapter in favor of a real card reader.

I thought SmartMedia topped out at 128 Mb

# ¿ Sep 30, 2019 07:15

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Pham Nuwen posted:

Yeah, it was an alphabet where each letter was a single stylus stroke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_(Palm_OS)

Pretty good idea when the alternative is pecking at a tiny on-screen keyboard.

I had a Palm III and got fluent enough in Grafitti that it was /almost/ faster than pecking at the keyboard.

I was extremely impressed trying out a Note 9's handwriting recognition.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2019 20:15

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Pretty good posted:

I never used Soulseek until like three or four years ago when whatcd bit it and my verdict is that it is insanely good and I'm grateful that the rest of the world is on spotify etc now so it's presumably pretty unlikely to catch heat and get pushed offline.

I've been curating the same mp3 library continuously since 2003 now and I'm never gonna stop

Since late 1996 here. First songs I had were Virtual Insanity, Cosmic Girl, Hand in my Pocket, Ironic, and You Oughtta Know.

The first album I ripped myself was Green Day's Dookie, using cdda2wav and l3enc. Still have it and a few other rips from that time in the library.

Fraunhofer's reference encoder sounded awesome in 128Kbit joint stereo cbr, remember? That Xing thing, it was kinda crap in comparison but mostly due to having poo poo defaults (112Kbps, IIRC, which makes cymbals sound hazy, lump and warbly)

ne: Forgot quote!

# ¿ Feb 19, 2020 11:03

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Nocheez posted:

I'm quarantined and have nothing else to do, tell me what the gently caress that is and what you're going to do with it.

Seconded!

# ¿ Mar 21, 2020 14:26

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Wasabi the J posted:

Yeah that was my introduction to Mr Blobby as well.

Same -- and that still got a laugh from me. Poor Jack. Terrified. And that clip somehow explains everything about Mr. Blobby even if you have no clue what it's about.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2020 20:22

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCpjgl2baLs

Ah, the true source of all the "le x" memes

# ¿ Nov 4, 2020 13:57

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Zopotantor posted:

ETAOIN SHRDLU

Such a good documentary

# ¿ Apr 23, 2021 16:00

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Nocheez posted:

Oh man, I used to play Gran Turismo 3 on my 42" rear-projection HDTV, and it looked pretty good when you were in the sweet spot with the force feedback steering wheel.

Is 16 years long enough for nostalgia?

GT4 was also awesome through component with its kinda-sorta 1080i mode. It actually looked fine on a 46" HDTV.

Didn't get a PS3 until like 2011, so it helped making the PS2 less obsolete.

Speaking of things being used way past its predicted death: That TV, a Samsung LE46C series, is still going strong as my daily driver. The panel has a bit of fading at the sides from sun exposure, and the lamp assembly takes a little while to reach sort-of-max brightness; the screw holes for the foot are stripped from many a dis- and reassembly due to moving, so it holds on by weight alone. But it hasn't died yet *knocks on wood*

e: for a few years it was on 8-16 hours a day, it's insane. Not a single dead pixel either.

Kinda amazed that I can now get a 55" 4K TV for 2/3 of what I paid for it back then.

F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 12:58 on May 25, 2021

# ¿ May 25, 2021 12:56

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Space Gopher posted:

this has everything you could ever want

turbo button? no, turbo slider

oh, and a second slider, for the Ren-Sha Turbo function

and a bright red floppy drive with "FDD" in giant letters, just so the world knows you're on the cutting edge of magnetic storage

Omg that's awesome. I grew up with this, from age 8 or so:

It actually had a 3.5" floppy drive too, but extremely unreliable and half our disks were unreadable whenever...

F4rt5 has a new favorite as of 23:18 on Jul 10, 2021

# ¿ Jul 10, 2021 23:16

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# ¿ Apr 18, 2024 12:59

F4rt5: May 20, 2006

Not understanding why some games didn't work was not fun, it had an MSX 2 graphics chip but too little VRAM. But I learned BASIC and it had the best Konami conversions.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2021 10:32

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