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brain739 posted:i miss you, kodak advantix. they still make the film and most places that do 1 hour processing can run the film because its C-41 process and became ingrained enough that most film scanners can run it in addition to regular 35mm... Also about half of the disposable film cameras in circulation today use APS. Geoj has a new favorite as of 04:23 on Jul 14, 2012 |
# ? Jul 14, 2012 04:20 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:08 |
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I ran a photo lab for 4 years. Advantix film deserved to die and should stay that way. It's a terrible, terrible format. Most of the cameras that took the film were awful, the resolution of the film was low due it's size and the cartridges were prone to a ridiculous amount of mechanical problems.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 04:26 |
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The Smith Corona Wordsmith. A typewriter - with spellcheck! These things had two modes. One was standard typewriter where it would print the letters as you typed like normal, or you could attempt to set margins and type a line at the time and then commit it to paper. There was a tiny display screen that allowed you to make corrections as you typed in this mode. If you misspelled a word, it'd make a very loud and annoying beeping sound. There was a slightly less annoying, but no less loud sound if you made it to the perceived margin. Perceived as in, the margin recognition was horrible. I used this thing for essays for a bit as though we had a decent computer at this time, the printer was awful and my parents didn't want to spring for another printer that also wasn't going to work (plus being the mid-1990s, it wasn't easy to find a printer for a Mac). Speaking of that Mac, it had eWorld. I know next to nothing about eWorld, as Dad was the only one curious enough to set it up and that experiment didn't last long as he found out about long distance internet charges. No local number existed until 1996. This is a photo from the first digital camera I ever toyed with. It's from 1999. We had the camera in technology lab and this was our school gym. No display on the back, no video capability and it used 3.5 floppy disks.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 06:41 |
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People were discussing HD-DVD before. I found it interesting that they developed the format so that they could retrofit DVD making equipment to make HD-DVD. Sounds like a good idea but it probably just hamstrung what they could do with the format.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 07:51 |
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RC and Moon Pie posted:The Smith Corona Wordsmith. A typewriter - with spellcheck! These things had two modes. One was standard typewriter where it would print the letters as you typed like normal, or you could attempt to set margins and type a line at the time and then commit it to paper. There was a tiny display screen that allowed you to make corrections as you typed in this mode. If you misspelled a word, it'd make a very loud and annoying beeping sound. There was a slightly less annoying, but no less loud sound if you made it to the perceived margin. Perceived as in, the margin recognition was horrible. Behind me on a cabinet is a Xerox 645 Memorywriter, a sort of niche device called a "Desktop Typesetter"; it's basically a highly advanced work processor that uses a Diablo Wheel to make "perfect" characters. It has two 5 1/4" disk drives and a tiny monochrome monitor, and two distinct modes of operation, one that emulates a basic typewriter, and another where the rest of the electronics are powered up and you can do all the "computer" tasks like composing documents on-screen, spell-checking them, format the type and save files and templates and such to disk, etc. I have LaserDisc! One of my earliest memories of recognizing superior technology was when I went to the shop with my parents to buy a copy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and I saw the giant cover art for the LD version and picked it up, and was amazed that it had chapter stops. Disk media is non-linear, which makes it very convenient, which is why it shows up a lot in education. You'll find tons of second-hand LD players with RS-232 ports on them to interface with computers, and the odd barcode pen interface to scan codes out of a textbook. They also saw limited use as data media, although my knowledge of them as such is second-hand so I'm not sure how that worked out; i.e. were they storing actual digital data or images encoded as NTSC frames (LDs have two "speeds", CAV (Constand Angular Velocity, except it's really Constant Angular Acceleration) and CLV (Constand Linear Velocity). CAV allows 30 minutes a side and perfect still frame and smooth speed changes are possible, they are only possible on CLV discs on players with a frame store), and if it's encoded digitally weather or not it was done as something akin to a data CD or something akin to PCM recording on videotape. I have CED! It's exactly as bulky and crazy as prior posters have made it sound, and unlike LaserDisc, it doesn't have vastly superior picture quality (a GOOD LD pressing looks almost as good as a DVD); picture is about as good as SuperBeta (An improvement on Betamax; didn't look as good as S-VHS but doesn't need special tapes, wasn't restricted to high-end decks). Also a shitload of the players were real bottom-end units without A/V outs or, peculiarly, the random access that makes disk media so tempting. There's a story to it, though. RCA went through a change in management while it was in development and it got set on the back burner and revived much later on; it's thought that if development had carried on as intended it would have captured the market because it was slated to come out in the 70s, instead of 1981, by which point VHS and Beta were duelling for the mass market and LD had the high end. It couldn't record like tape and didn't have LDs quality, so it sunk. Given what's involved, though, it's amazing that it works at all. Iomega, the people behind the Zip and Jazz drives, made something called the "Clik!". It was a miniaturized disk drive that fit in a PCMCIA cardslot and took silver-dollar sized disks which held 40 MB each. I bought mine right before inexpensive flash memory made it obsolete. Of course I also bought an Mp3 player that used the disks... It was horrid and slow and the less said of it the better.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 09:04 |
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ChlamydiaJones posted:These are obsolete but I don't know that they actually failed per se; You can still use chainmail as a wearable faraday cage, to swim with sharks, and on your hand if you are a butcher
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 10:13 |
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What were those "mini records" called?
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 11:24 |
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People have probably seen or head of the Harrier, the iconic jump jet. However, in the '70's the Yakovlev Design Bureau of the Soviet Union developed it's own jump jet: Yakovlev Yak-38, NATO Codenamed "Forger" When originally seen by Western observers, it was suspected of being an attempt to copy the original Hawker Siddeley P.1127 (Forerunner to the Harrier) but then regarded as an original design once it was learned to be a triple engined and faster. Indeed, the Forger was faster. It approached the sound barrier at maximum speed and could potentially surpass it, given the right conditions. The Yak-38's V/STOL capabilities differ from the Harriers in that it utilizes forward lift jets and tail exhaust nozzles. The rear nozzles are arranged in a manner similar to the American F-4 Phantom; side by side while tucked infront and below the horizontal stabilizers. These exhausts would pivot downward during the transition from level to vertical flight. At the same time, the forward lift jets would open and a large air scoop on the top would open as well. This would balance the front end of the craft. The Yak-38 also possessed a hands free landing system. The pilot would fly the fighter to an approach fix and intercept it, initiating the ILS approach. From there, the aircraft's flight computer would judge the distance between aircraft and carrier. The pilot would intercept this fix at about 220KTAS and would eventually slow to a speed barely faster than the ship. From the get go, the Forger's designers had access to some of the more important lessons learned by those that flew the Harrier: This kind of aircraft is hard to fly. For added safety, the Forger had an automated ejection system. In the event of an engine failure, the pilot would be ejected should the aircraft roll more than 60 degrees. The Yak-38 was a very advanced aircraft for the Soviets, at the time. However, it's shortcomings were numerous and crippling. The usage of Lift jets towards the front often meant that the main engine would ingest exhaust from them, causing flame outs. The aircraft itself had an abysmal useful load and, during the hottest days on the Black Sea, it meant that the aircraft would have to omit any arms all together if it were to even get aloft. It did go into production and even saw combat during the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. It was used in the same manner the USMC uses it's Harriers: As a strike craft and CAS bird. However, the heat coupled with the high altitude meant that the payload was often nothing more than a couple 100KG bombs. The final nail in the coffin was it's upkeep. This aircraft is beyond a maintenance queen. The nature of the engine arrangement meant that it required overhaul with astonishing frequency. In the end, the Forgers were relegated to land duty before retirement in 1991. Three production variants were made: Yak-38 Forger-A. The original run of 140, it first flew in January 1971. Yak-38M Forger-A. This upgraded version utilized more powerful engines, upping it's max take off weight by about 1,000kg. It was still underpowered. Yak-38U Forger-B. Two Seat Trainer.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:01 |
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I cut my teeth doing DNA sequencing on the Pharmacia ALF-express in the late 90s. It's so old and obsolete that these are the only pictures I could find of it on GIS. This machine was really modern for its time, since no radioactivity was involved, and it ran automatically controlled by a regular PC running Windows95. The trickiest part was pouring the acrylamide gel slab between the two glass panes without getting any bubbles. You had about a minute or two before it started to set. Then you loaded each lane with a different marked base. 40 lanes meant you could sequence 10 samples at a time, and get 600-800 base pairs read per sample. Really nice machine, very reliable and decent software too. But every single technology involved is really obsolete. Gel slabs went out almost 10 years ago, and Sanger sequencing is being phased out by next-gen sequencing right now.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:25 |
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b0nes posted:What were those "mini records" called? Singles?
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:28 |
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Willfor posted:You can still use chainmail as a wearable faraday cage, to swim with sharks, and on your hand if you are a butcher Look a little closer dog; http://www.retrocrush.com/archive/poptoppin/ Red_October_7000 if I locate the copy of Sorcerer I accidentally purchased on eBay I'll mail it to you; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076740/
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:37 |
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Jedit posted:Singles? Alternately, 45's, because they were played at 45RPM (as opposed to 33RPM for full-sized albums.)
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:49 |
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b0nes posted:What were those "mini records" called? 45s? Flexi discs? Fisher-Price music box record player?
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 16:54 |
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brain739 posted:
I worked for a Wolf Camera store when the APS system came out and I got one for my grandma because it was so easy to use. She loved it. APS's biggest problem really was that it came out right about the same time that digital cameras started entering the market. Digital at that time was still a fairly expensive technology and the high-end cameras back then didn't have the high megapixels like the basic point-and-shoot digitals we have now, so the image quality was somewhat lacking, but as a medium digital photography sort of exploded. What ended up happening was the people who wanted a basic, easy-to-use camera ended up going digital instead of using APS. As for me, I'm still a 35mm film purist, although I do own a couple of digital cameras. It's just impossible to get film processed anymore.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 17:04 |
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Zamboni_Rodeo posted:It's just impossible to get film processed anymore. Tell me about it. I shoot a lot of black and white film in my cameras and I have to send it off to get it developed. Quite a few walgreens around here actually have real photo labs but they can only do C-41. I remember the first time I saw a digital camera. I don't remember the exact year but it was sometime in the 97-99 range. Certainly no later than 99. The technology/computer teacher at my school had one and it totally blew my mind. You mean I can see what the picture looks like instantly? MIND BLOWN. It did have a screen on the back but it was about the size of a postage stamp. I believe it was a sony but I don't know anything else about the model. I thought the pictures were great at the time (on whatever awful blurry 800x600 crt we saw them on) but I'm sure they really looked horrible.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 17:27 |
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Have a mainframe. As you can see from one of the screens, this one is currently running. I came across this in Telecity Sovereign House in London. Note also the 3 beautiful keyboards - the one on the left is the IBM Model M that we know and love (and the same as the one this was typed on), but it looks like the other two are the IBM Model M 1397000 122-key versions. Sir Sidney Poitier has a new favorite as of 18:08 on Jul 14, 2012 |
# ? Jul 14, 2012 17:38 |
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ChlamydiaJones posted:Look a little closer dog; http://www.retrocrush.com/archive/poptoppin/
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 17:59 |
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m2pt5 posted:Alternately, 45's, because they were played at 45RPM (as opposed to 33RPM for full-sized albums.) Some were played at 78RPM, though.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 19:53 |
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My first digital camera, from late 1998: Exciting features: -Rotatable and removable lens! -"Zoom"! -4 MB SD card included! -Serial connection! -0.3 glorious megapixels! Here's a sample picture: The serial connection was the worst part. Transferring a full memory card took 20 minutes, for example. I was very proud of myself for getting it working in Debian Linux back when such a thing involved installing a kernel module.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 19:55 |
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Jedit posted:Some were played at 78RPM, though. Those wouldn't be 45s then, would they? Edit: I'm not old enough to comment properly on records since I was born in '77, but I don't recall ever seeing a commercial record that played at anything but 33 or 45.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 19:58 |
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Records that played at 78RPM were phased out sometime in the 40s I believe. Much like with movies it took a long time to standardize playback speeds.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 20:04 |
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lazer_chicken posted:The cool thing about laserdisc is that, up until the dvd release that contained the original theatrical versions, the laserdisc versions of the original star wars trilogy were regarded as the best. I'm sure true star wars fans have some argument that it's still the best. I have that trilogy. I bought an LD player in the early 90s and joined the Columbia House Laserdisc Club and that was my "introductory three disc" deal. The LD player (made by Radio Shack) still works as good as new. I also have an industrial model Pioneer player.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 20:12 |
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m2pt5 posted:Those wouldn't be 45s then, would they? Most record players I've seen are capable of playing at 33/45/78 rpm. I don't know if it's the proper term but I'm of the opinion that the smaller 7" records should be called "seven inch records" because they're not necessarily 45rpm; I have a few 7" records that are 33rpm. Similarly, I have plenty of full-size 12" records that are 45rpm. Then, there are also oddball sizes like 10", 6" and oddly-shaped non-circular records.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 21:09 |
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olaf2022 posted:Most record players I've seen are capable of playing at 33/45/78 rpm. The 7" records are generally called 45s or singles since the majority of them are 45rpm and have one song per side. There are exceptions, of course.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 21:24 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:I have that trilogy. I bought an LD player in the early 90s and joined the Columbia House Laserdisc Club and that was my "introductory three disc" deal. The LD player (made by Radio Shack) still works as good as new. I also have an industrial model Pioneer player. I don't think I've ever actually watched a real movie on laserdisc, but as Red_October_7000 mentions I did use them a lot in middle and high school. You'd watch a clip and then answer questions by scanning barcodes with a scanner on the remote and it would play clips based on what you answered. The one I most distinctly remember is "Voyage of the Mimi" which apparently had a young Ben Affleck in it. I think there was some other awful video series about biology or something too.
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# ? Jul 14, 2012 21:52 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:The 7" records are generally called 45s or singles since the majority of them are 45rpm and have one song per side. There are exceptions, of course. One of those exceptions being the single of "With or Without You" by U2. That song is Side A and spins at 45 rpm. Side B spins at 33 rpm and has 2 songs.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 00:44 |
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rockinricky posted:One of those exceptions being the single of "With or Without You" by U2. That song is Side A and spins at 45 rpm. Side B spins at 33 rpm and has 2 songs. That's weird. I've never heard of that being done.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 00:54 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:That's weird. I've never heard of that being done. I thought so as well when I bought it. My first thought was "That's not going to work in a jukebox."
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 01:21 |
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lazer_chicken posted:I don't think I've ever actually watched a real movie on laserdisc, but as Red_October_7000 mentions I did use them a lot in middle and high school. You'd watch a clip and then answer questions by scanning barcodes with a scanner on the remote and it would play clips based on what you answered. The one I most distinctly remember is "Voyage of the Mimi" which apparently had a young Ben Affleck in it. I think there was some other awful video series about biology or something too. We did Voyage of the Mimi in 5th grade. Almost no one i knew ever used LDs for Hollywood movies, but for some reason they seemed really popular in schools. Anyone know why?
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 01:36 |
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Don't ask me how we've made it four pages without these mentioned... PDAs Kind of like a smartphone, only without the phone and a whole lot less capable. Kind of a crude handheld computer that could do rudimentary internet browsing, some multimedia and mostly e-mail and scheduling/calendar functions. I never owned one but knew a few people who did and never really saw the point in dumping hundreds of dollars on one. Although they definitely were a stepping stone to the smartphone as we know it today so I guess they weren't a complete failure...
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 02:19 |
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lazer_chicken posted:Tell me about it. I shoot a lot of black and white film in my cameras and I have to send it off to get it developed. Quite a few walgreens around here actually have real photo labs but they can only do C-41. Develop B&W film your self.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 03:45 |
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Geoj posted:Don't ask me how we've made it four pages without these mentioned... The PDA wasn't a failure at all. Betamax and Virtual Boy were failures. PDAs were really useful before the technology made smartphones practical. There's lots of good, important technology that's just obsolete -- nobody would decry VHS as a failure.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:01 |
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I had a Palm Z22 for a little while. It had no wireless anything and came out when PDAs were already thoroughly obsolete, but for all its faults I think modern smartphones still haven't caught up to it in terms of convenience for actual PDA functionality. The iPhone is the worst at this; you actually have to run the Calendar app to see events you have coming up. I think on the Z22 you could just push one (physical) button and it was completely instant. Although I ended up using it for PDA functionality, I had originally bought it because it turned out it was the cheapest way I could obtain a portable, electronic Japanese dictionary, and despite the limitations resulting from only having 32MB of flash memory, I still miss that dictionary program. I could hold the Z22 and enter words into it with one hand, probably faster than I can type on a modern multitouch smartphone.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:12 |
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RyokoTK posted:The PDA wasn't a failure at all. Betamax and Virtual Boy were failures. PDAs were really useful before the technology made smartphones practical. There's lots of good, important technology that's just obsolete -- nobody would decry VHS as a failure. Thread title posted:Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology Thread is for both obsolete and failed technology...even if you don't think they were failures they still belong here. Guess its a matter of opinion but PDAs never really seemed practical or useful to me v0v Geoj has a new favorite as of 04:20 on Jul 15, 2012 |
# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:17 |
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Geoj posted:Thread is for both obsolete and failed technology...even if you don't think they were failures they still belong here. Significanly before modern handheld gaming consoles, my PDA was a way to play NES/GBC games (flawlessly) and SNES games (fairly well) on the go.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:26 |
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edit: this post sucks.
RyokoTK has a new favorite as of 04:30 on Jul 15, 2012 |
# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:27 |
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mystes posted:I had a Palm Z22 for a little while. It had no wireless anything and came out when PDAs were already thoroughly obsolete, but for all its faults I think modern smartphones still haven't caught up to it in terms of convenience for actual PDA functionality. The iPhone is the worst at this; you actually have to run the Calendar app to see events you have coming up. I think on the Z22 you could just push one (physical) button and it was completely instant. Android phones can put a "calendar widget" right on your homescreen to show upcoming events/appointments/tasks. If you have the right lockscreen app, then all you would need to do is push one button (power button) to see them. I guess what I'm saying is yes, the iPhone is the worst, but Android and maybe? Windows Phone can be as good or better than old Palm or WM PDAs were.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 04:32 |
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indigenous nudity posted:Yeah, my wife is a doctor and she uses a pager when whenever she's on call. I'm not sure why they don't just call her cell phone, but I'm sure they have their reasons. According to my brother, who is also a doctor, having a pager for your contact number helps you avoid pointless phone calls from nurses who are too lazy to read the chart. He doesn't like nurses very much.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 07:18 |
TheMadMilkman posted:According to my brother, who is also a doctor, having a pager for your contact number helps you avoid pointless phone calls from nurses who are too lazy to read the chart. It's okay, nurses don't like doctors very much either.
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# ? Jul 15, 2012 07:32 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:08 |
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Geoj posted:Don't ask me how we've made it four pages without these mentioned... Diametunim has a new favorite as of 08:56 on Jul 15, 2012 |
# ? Jul 15, 2012 08:52 |