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If you were ever curious about the other end of the rotary phone system, you can actually see it in person if you are in the Seattle area. There is a museum run by retired AT&T employees where they maintain and show off old Bell System equipment. You can watch all of the switching equipment move and connect in action as you dial. http://museumofcommunications.org/ They also have some crazy old proprietary stuff that still works. http://museumofcommunications.org/?page_id=118 Here is one of their old interactive dial-up teletype terminals in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MikoF6KZjm0
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 08:55 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:12 |
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WebDog posted:
This was a fantastic CD player. I remember it seeming not exactly exciting but very appealing next to the new 2nd generation iPod. It was kind of like what the iPod would become--portable CD players could finally be not lovely just a few months before they became unpractical.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 09:41 |
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cowtown posted:Ours was one of these, with a single slider for all the channels. It was really easy to get to channel 2 quickly! old post, but it took me surprisingly little time to google up a picture of the cable dial I grew up with: My parents were relatively early adopters of cable, my earliest TV memories involve using this on their old Zenith 18" tube back in 84-87. I still remember rapidly spinning it to make the TV spaz out and sound like a Cthulhu cultist on speed. Here's (someone else's picture of) my first laptop, the Toshiba Portege T3600CT: My uncle gave me his in '96 (actually a T3400)- it ran Windows 95 just barely, I ended up laboriously putting Slackware on it as it had a janky external floppy and no modem/ethernet card. It ran a 486-SX/66 with (I want to say) 4MB RAM. Came with a 4GB drive that I replaced with a 20GB model. I broke the screen dropping it one day, but managed to find a half-working T3600CT for cheap on ebay, and frankensteined them together into a slick 486-DX/100 machine that I just put FreeDOS on. I used this machine all the way through college, at a time that doesn't seem that long ago but when school laptops were pretty rare in the liberal arts. It ran beautifully (still does, if I could find the power cable), and it was TINY for the time- smaller than and about as thick as a textbook, I wouldn't see a full-powered laptop smaller than this until netbooks were A Thing. Its best feature was that it'd last for ~8-12 hours on one charge, making it an ideal campus computer. I used it for writing and Sid Meier's Colonization well into the 2000s until I replaced it with a Celeron-based Dell. I really want to find a use for it, since it's just taking up space in my old computer box, but aside from gutting it and putting netbook parts in, I can't think of a purpose for the old beast.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 09:55 |
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I had a Toshiba Satellite 100CDS in high school - Windows 95, Pentium 100, 16MB of RAM and a passive matrix 800x600 display. Pretty tough little system though, and it actually had the power supply built in (no need for an external brick)
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 10:04 |
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My parents at one point had a laptop that was terminal only, with a blue-or-off LCD screen. By the time I got to it it was pretty dead, no backlight, battery long since lost. But I remember the keyboard was a dream to type on. The keys had just the right travel distance and just the right amount of click. Of course, my fingers have gotten longer since then, so it might be a lot more like a standard laptop keyboard then I remember.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 10:37 |
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These wonderful places
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 11:09 |
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PYF obsolete and failed places of conception.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 11:12 |
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Sir_Substance posted:My parents at one point had a laptop that was terminal only, with a blue-or-off LCD screen. By the time I got to it it was pretty dead, no backlight, battery long since lost. But I remember the keyboard was a dream to type on. The keys had just the right travel distance and just the right amount of click. Like IBM Model M's? I really gotta get around to buying a decent keyboard with cherry keys.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 11:48 |
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Humphreys posted:Like IBM Model M's? I really gotta get around to buying a decent keyboard with cherry keys. Nah, wasn't buckling spring on a laptop. Some kind of scissor switch system, I think.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 11:53 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places The largest still-operating drive-in cinema in Europe is 20 minutes from where I live. I make a point of catching a movie there every once in a while, because who knows how long before they're all gone.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 11:57 |
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Captain Trips posted:I have to use a fax machine at least every other day at work. I literally just mash buttons until something happens. There are still various regulations especially in the finance sector that says a signed document isn't legal any more if it's been scanned and sent through email, but fax is ok. Of course, a lot of companies just use them because they don't know any better.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 12:06 |
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Collateral Damage posted:Short answer: Regulations. I'm an insurance biller for a big hospital and I use a fax machine everyday. The insurance companies (who all suck donkey dicks) won't accept documents if they aren't faxed or mailed. Even faxing is limited to 25 pages. There's only one I can fax certain things to via secure email (and by secure, I mean password protected PDFs).
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 12:44 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places My parents took me to see Dirty Harry at the drive-in, and other kid-inappropriate movies like Death Wish. Since you had to hang the speaker in the window mosquitoes always got inside. Drive-ins were grubby and not much fun, particularly the "playground" they all seemed to have right in front of the screen which was more like a one-stop shop for getting tetanus.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 12:45 |
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Did anyone have a Scandiphone? The brief rotary phone chat reminded me of it. I had one growing up in the 80s before we replaced it with contemporary digital desk phone. It had a rotary dial at the bottom along with a big red button you pressed to hang up. You lifted up the entire thing to answer it. Out of the blue earlier this year my mother asked me to get one for her off eBay. It turns out they still make it; same old design but with new modern features like a choice of ring tones. And as you can see in the pic below, push buttons instead of the rotary dial.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 12:48 |
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I like it. That's some pretty and timeless design.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 12:53 |
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mrkillboy posted:Did anyone have a Scandiphone? The brief rotary phone chat reminded me of it. The root of the term "butt dialing" right there.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 13:00 |
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mrkillboy posted:Did anyone have a Scandiphone? The brief rotary phone chat reminded me of it. The original Ericofon was common in hospitals because of the one piece design. That's the only place I ever saw them. For a little while in the 1970s the '20s and '30s became popular, so you saw goofy retro stuff like the candlestick phone making a comeback. My aunt had one and they were annoying to use. An art-deco font similar to this was everywhere. Dick Trauma has a new favorite as of 13:10 on Apr 19, 2014 |
# ? Apr 19, 2014 13:06 |
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mrkillboy posted:Did anyone have a Scandiphone? The brief rotary phone chat reminded me of it. My parents had one like this as a bedside phone. It was great until you set the phone down mid call to retrieve a pen or whatever.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 13:12 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places They still have one of those near me. Never been.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 13:31 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places The last time I went to a drive-in was in 1979 to see Star Trek - The Motion Picture.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 14:19 |
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The last time I went to a drive-in was to a movie premiere. The on-set stories fluttering around during the drinks were better than the film that resulted.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 14:25 |
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mrkillboy posted:Did anyone have a Scandiphone? The brief rotary phone chat reminded me of it.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 14:52 |
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HonorableTB posted:I used to have an old Magnavox, like this but the screen was maybe six inches bigger: This was from a few pages back, but I dropped one of these on my foot when I was a teenager I was moving it from a shelf to another shelf by myself. It had convenient grips on the back, so I essentially was clutching it in a bear hug. My back twinged and a hand slipped. I'm lucky I don't have a metal plate in my foot. I snapped a corner off the bottom trim with my metatarsals. Now my TV is a 22" Planar monitor. Never forget.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 17:12 |
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I thought I had it bad moving this beast: 32" Sharp.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 17:25 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places I'm planning to hit the closest one in a weekend or so. There is one about 20 minutes from here and two or three more within an hour drive.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 17:49 |
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Dick Trauma posted:For a little while in the 1970s the '20s and '30s became popular, so you saw goofy retro stuff like the candlestick phone making a comeback. My aunt had one and they were annoying to use. I have a 20s candlestick without a dial, you were expected to use the operator, another obsolete technology.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 18:06 |
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Captain Trips posted:I have to use a fax machine at least every other day at work. I literally just mash buttons until something happens. Geoj posted:Ugh fax machines I manage the VoIP network for my company and faxes are an ever present thorn in my side. Faxes don't always play well with VoIP systems and it's not always easy to figure out why. Some times it's as easy as a codec issue or a signalling problem. Other times it's just some evil spirit haunting the phone lines and you never can figure it out. We had a branch office that could not fax our headquarters office for 6 months and we never were able to figure out why. Nothing had changed on either end to start the problem, and both locations could send a receive faxes to other locations with out issue. I was able to wait out the problem. The remote location was upgraded to be a member of our Cisco Call Manager phone system, and then I was able to route their faxes on our internal network: Problem solved. We have to keep faxes for 2 reasons: 1: The HR department has special requirements for a lot of forms that have to be sent in to them. The have a fax machine in a secured office that they use. They won't use email because of the electronic copies and for other legal reasons I won't pretend to know. 2: My company sells products to a lot of smaller mom-and-pops stores and small organizations. Many of them place their orders through fax.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 18:17 |
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We gave up on running faxes through the VoIP system and just have POTS lines for the two faxes we('re forced to) use.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 18:26 |
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Ensign Expendable posted:Are radio contests still a thing? I can't imagine anyone listening to a radio these days unless they're in a car, and it's not like you're going to be dialing a phone while driving. Humphreys posted:These wonderful places
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 18:29 |
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On the portable Sony Discman subject, they had some ridiculous options in the interface. Like programmable track order which seems pretty pointless looking back.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 18:50 |
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EatMySpork posted:Speaking of Walkmans, I just found one of these in a old box not to long ago. My aunt had that exact yellow Walkman in the mid 1990s, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I also remember getting this Discman DNS 505 in the early aughts from my parents for my 13th? birthday: smackfu posted:On the portable Sony Discman subject, they had some ridiculous options in the interface. Like programmable track order which seems pretty pointless looking back. That may have been handy if you had a burned CD and you didn't like the track order on it; kind of like a CD based playlist function Ron Burgundy posted:Hah, you guys and your modern CRT televisions. drat, that is one beautiful TV. Love the sunburst dials! Would you be able to tell us more about it, and what year it's from? For content: On the subject of retro appliances, Philco had a really neat model in the early 1950s: the V-Handle The door on this fridge was hinged on both sides- pull the V to the right, and it operates as a left hinged fridge. Pull the V to the left, and the left hinge releases and the door operates right hinged. Looks awesome, and saved the need to make a left and right hinged model. There was one major drawback, however- pull the handles the wrong way, and both of the hinges release, and a heavy fridge door falls forward on you. Also, if you want a 1950s style fridge, without the CFCs, stratospheric electricity consumption or having to worry about your kids locking themselves inside it, Big Chill makes one. I believe it's an Amana with a custom casing.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 19:27 |
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Humphreys posted:These wonderful places We still have a drive-in here in Pueblo, Colorado. It's one of 5 still operating in the state. With 3 screens, it's the largest one. They just upgraded all 3 screens to digital projection this year. They use low-power FM transmitters for audio, no more speakers hanging off the window.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 19:35 |
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smackfu posted:On the portable Sony Discman subject, they had some ridiculous options in the interface. Like programmable track order which seems pretty pointless looking back. That was a standard CD player feature at the time, but yeah, pretty pointless. It was really just so they could put "programmable" on the box. Speaking of lost CD player features, I still miss in-track index points. :-(
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 20:05 |
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Lazlo Nibble posted:That was a standard CD player feature at the time, but yeah, pretty pointless. It was really just so they could put "programmable" on the box. I dunno, I used the CD track program function fairly often. It was great when an album had an annoying song that I didn't want to listen to or a long, wanky instrumental or something.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 20:18 |
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Collateral Damage posted:We gave up on running faxes through the VoIP system and just have POTS lines for the two faxes we('re forced to) use. We do that at any remote location that already has pots, but a lot of facilities have PRI or T1 cas service. Cisco has better support these days for fax over IP in the form of T.38 but even that is a pain in the rear end since times.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 20:21 |
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The Ape of Naples posted:I dunno, I used the CD track program function fairly often. It was great when an album had an annoying song that I didn't want to listen to or a long, wanky instrumental or something. On the players I had it was always way more trouble to program than it was worth, especially given that you could always just use the remote to skip over stuff you didn't like. Later-gen players could treat it like a playlist and use it automatically whenever you played the disc afterwards, though, which makes it more useful.
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 20:53 |
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The Ape of Naples posted:I dunno, I used the CD track program function fairly often. It was great when an album had an annoying song that I didn't want to listen to or a long, wanky instrumental or something. Same. I could just program it to the songs I liked on the album, possibly repeating my favorite song in between all the others, and just go about cleaning my room without having to think about what was playing
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 21:08 |
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Sunshine89 posted:On the subject of retro appliances, Philco had a really neat model in the early 1950s: the V-Handle Philco (credit: wipikepdia user Visitor7) made is awesome and all of it obsolete as hell (unless you consider the digital-analog TV converters made under the Philco name recently, but those don't really count.) I really want a Predicta
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# ? Apr 19, 2014 23:39 |
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WebDog posted:Aware of size Sony eventually came up with the D88. Which also played the new Mini-CDs. Holy poo poo, all these years I've thought that was just an ill-conceived cyberpunk prop cooked up for Johnny Mnemonic.
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# ? Apr 20, 2014 00:52 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:12 |
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Der Luftwaffle posted:Holy poo poo, all these years I've thought that was just an ill-conceived cyberpunk prop cooked up for Johnny Mnemonic.
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# ? Apr 20, 2014 03:02 |