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When Radio Shack closed down, my first reaction was "Oh no, now where will I get four of the six capacitors I need"
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Sep 16, 2016 18:33
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The 3 or 4 Radio Shacks in this area stopped stocking electronic parts in the early 2000's. Of course, all of those stores are now closed.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:40
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drunk asian neighbor posted:lol people rant and rave about how terrible their in-store supply of parts are, not how good it is. idk man maybe i'm hanging with the wrong people but around my arduino and raspberry pi inclined friends, pretty much all the poo poo they get is from radioshack. i've even had a couple dudes take a drone in for repair and actually got it fixed by the dude at the store. ymmv i guess
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Sep 16, 2016 18:47
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Turdsdown Tom posted:idk man maybe i'm hanging with the wrong people but around my arduino and raspberry pi inclined friends, pretty much all the poo poo they get is from radioshack. i've even had a couple dudes take a drone in for repair and actually got it fixed by the dude at the store. ymmv i guess I worked there for years and made every effort to have the most organized and well-stocked store and we still didn't have what people were looking for more than half the time. Lucky for me there was an actual privately-owned electronics and hobby shop 20 minutes away that I could refer people to. We did have a great Arduino shield selection though!
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Sep 16, 2016 18:54
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There is only one reason for Radio Shack to exist:
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Sep 16, 2016 19:03
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For a while in the 80s/early 90s, I thought Radio Shack batteries were considered as good/better than most of the big Alkaline brands of the time. I still probably have some of those classic gold and black AA laying in a drawer or eating away a tape player somewhere.
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Sep 16, 2016 19:31
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JediTalentAgent posted:For a while in the 80s/early 90s, I thought Radio Shack batteries were considered as good/better than most of the big Alkaline brands of the time. I still probably have some of those classic gold and black AA laying in a drawer or eating away a tape player somewhere. they pretty much are; I've got stacks of them hoarded from when I work there and they're just fine. Pretty sure they're all made in the same factory anyway. (Actually the fact that they were called Enercell for years and didn't get sued by either Energizer or Duracell is more evidence of that IMO). Also the watch batteries were in Enercell packaging but varied between 3 different brands, one of which was literally Energizer. e: I also have a shitload of Ikea-brand AA's from one time when the cashier there rang up a master carton (20 10-packs) with the SKU on the side of the carton, which happened to be the SKU for a single 10-pack. Didn't want to get ultra-greedy so I only grabbed another carton. 400 AA's for like 
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Sep 16, 2016 19:48
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Not quite, Sprint bailed em out pretty heavily, and as a result Sprint owns the leases and such to a good chunk of the stores, and they only sell Sprint and its prepaid subsidiaries now instead of the big three providers, but sadly Radio Shack as a corporate entity keeps on chugging somehow (IIRC they went from a 4-building office complex to half a building's worth of offices down at Corporate That is because when cellular phones were moving from bag phones to handheld units they paid me thousands of dollars to sell people phones and crazy high dollar plans. During the prime time of the market radioshack was making poo poo loads of money from carriers for selling contracts. Then they shoved all their eggs in that basket and the market died off as people got phones and it was no longer a gold mine. RS failed because they paid me (and others during the time) too much money and they didn't save any.
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Sep 17, 2016 00:41
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In Australia we had a few Radio Shacks that I vaguely remember (bought my first mp3 player from there) but the best was original Dick Smith Electronics. Those stores were great! I worked part time during university at one of the last privately owned stores and the first task I had was converting all the part numbers from DSE standards to Jaycar standards as we were moving over to them. That first few weeks gifted me with an almost Rainman type memory of every single component in the parts books. The old radio blokes loved it as they would spew out a bunch of part numbers they needed that they had written down from their 20 year old parts book and I would know exactly what they were referring to, and what that part changed to with the new system. This series is mainly for Australians but also I guess interesting for most of you folk too. It interviews some of the big hitters including Dick Smith and Gary Jonson (of Jaycar - who was very very ill at the time and I was amazed he actually agreed to be part of it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwF8y9ejDZw
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Sep 17, 2016 03:33
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Gay Weed Dad posted:
Nice! I'm jealous, my OS/2 Warp 3 isn't "Connect" so I can't put it on a LAN I think  I doubt it was a time traveler, I think it was just "that guy" that every office had that pushed OS/2. Yes, we know it's superior but there's no software for it. Humphreys posted:In Australia we had a few Radio Shacks that I vaguely remember Wikipedia says they were "Tandy" branded, were there Radio Shacks as well?
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Sep 17, 2016 03:56
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osta mKW QIEKD GI RIYND
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Sep 17, 2016 04:04
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I used to pore over the Radio Shack catalog as a kid. Walkie talkies, RC cars, horrendously expensive computers, audio equipment, electronic games, electronics kits... that store was both the distillation of everything cool and interesting to me and a bridge of fascination between me and my dad. http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/
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Sep 17, 2016 04:14
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Logitech now owns Saitek
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Sep 17, 2016 04:15
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Well, hmmm. I like the Logitech stuff I have, and I like the Saitek stuff I've played with in stores that I can't afford, so I think I'm okay with this. Logitech, go raid all those flight sim parts bins and make me a proper battletech cockpit that'll no doubt cost thousands of dollars, tia
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Sep 17, 2016 04:18
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I wouldn't mind if they took a whack at making a bank of simple switches and/or buttons a heck of a lot cheaper.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:32
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doctorfrog posted:This makes me feel bad. It's also part and parcel how I feel about console games and any kickstarter. "you poor idiots." And then...it went back to being Kickstarter.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:49
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Buttcoin purse posted:Wikipedia says they were "Tandy" branded, were there Radio Shacks as well? Actually you are right - I guess my brain is hardwired to Americanizing everything.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:51
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Tandy was a subsidiary of Radio Shack which was sold to Woolworths which turned them into Dick Smiths which were then sold off to Anchorage Capital who proceeded to run the business into the ground impressively fast and now there are none. The only store like that we have here in Australia anymore is Jaycar.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:59
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doctorfrog posted:I used to pore over the Radio Shack catalog as a kid. Walkie talkies, RC cars, horrendously expensive computers, audio equipment, electronic games, electronics kits... that store was both the distillation of everything cool and interesting to me and a bridge of fascination between me and my dad. Same, I still have some of those catalogs from various stores, I think they have Z80-based computers in them 
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Sep 17, 2016 05:10
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SwissCM posted:Tandy was a subsidiary of Radio Shack which was sold to Woolworths which turned them into Dick Smiths which were then sold off to Anchorage Capital who proceeded to run the business into the ground impressively fast and now there are none
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Sep 17, 2016 05:37
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SwissCM posted:The only store like that we have here in Australia anymore is Jaycar. There is Altronics which I have never had experience with, although from memory their part number standards are similar to original Dick Smith. I generally use Farnell which is now Element14 or RS Components. The Because-Australia Tax is huge though so only use them if I need poo poo a day or two after ordering, for all else it's Aliexpress. If it's a 'I need it now it's Jaycar and luckily I still have a trade card and a staff card plus the manager is trying to suck up to me constantly after I quit and dragged him through the mud for dealing drugs on site. When the national HR manager calls you about it when she is on a beach in Fiji - it must be important (but not enough to fire his rear end 2 years after the fact).
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Sep 17, 2016 05:55
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doctorfrog posted:I used to pore over the Radio Shack catalog as a kid. Walkie talkies, RC cars, horrendously expensive computers, audio equipment, electronic games, electronics kits... that store was both the distillation of everything cool and interesting to me and a bridge of fascination between me and my dad. The DAK catalog was even better.
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Sep 17, 2016 05:58
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monster on a stick posted:The DAK catalog was even better. I remember those. And also the old Sharper Image catalogs before they basically became the "As Seen On TV" marketplace.
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Sep 17, 2016 06:09
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SwissCM posted:Tandy was a subsidiary of Radio Shack which was sold to Woolworths which turned them into Dick Smiths which were then sold off to Anchorage Capital who proceeded to run the business into the ground impressively fast and now there are none. There's a few others but Jaycar are the only ones with a national presence afaik, though Altronics has enough presence to justify publishing one of those nerdgasm catalogs.
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Sep 17, 2016 08:11
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Can we add cable television as a dying relic that relies on the diminishing baby boomer generation?
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Sep 17, 2016 19:58
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ColoradoCleric posted:Can we add cable television as a dying relic that relies on the diminishing baby boomer generation? No, because cord-cutting is vastly overstated and cable TV isn't going anywhere for a long time.
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Sep 17, 2016 21:15
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I keep wondering how streaming full-season-dump shows like Bojack Horseman and House of Cards can possibly achieve the same returns for the distributor as the ad-driven cable or broadcast model. Can they really recognize a tangible amount of subscription revenue gained or retained just on the basis of original content that drops once a year or so?
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Sep 17, 2016 21:26
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:No, because cord-cutting is vastly overstated and cable TV isn't going anywhere for a long time. Cable-cutting only works for nerds like myself who don't give a single poo poo about sports. However, it kills me that in TYOOL 2016, our local video store is never empty and packed around dinner time on the weekends like it's 1986.
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Sep 17, 2016 21:27
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Data Graham posted:I keep wondering how streaming full-season-dump shows like Bojack Horseman and House of Cards can possibly achieve the same returns for the distributor as the ad-driven cable or broadcast model. Premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime have basically been using this business model since the 70s.
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Sep 17, 2016 21:32
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The_Franz posted:Premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime have basically been using this business model since the 70s.
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Sep 17, 2016 21:37
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Dirk Squarejaw posted:Cable-cutting only works for nerds like myself who don't give a single poo poo about sports. However, it kills me that in TYOOL 2016, our local video store is never empty and packed around dinner time on the weekends like it's 1986. This is a good thing, imo.
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Sep 17, 2016 22:43
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Casimir Radon posted:Without the annoyance of having to bundle it with anything else. Original content is the only thing Netflix streaming has going for it, the movie selection is pretty garbage. I've mentioned before, but the golden age of streaming video seems to be done and gone. I don't know if it will ever come back, either. Then over the last few years, it feels like the streaming arena has been fractured and diluted too much. I don't know how much of this is the case or not, but about 6-7 years ago it felt as if everyone who held the rights to movies just figured having Netflix streaming their stuff as a good deal. Then they saw how popular it was becoming and realized they needed more money for their content from Netflix or that they could run their own paid streaming service. The sort of sad thing is that despite all the complaints about Crackle, I can turn it on and there seems to be a lot more recognizable films on it at first glance than Netflix/Amazon despite having just a fraction of the content. I do have to say, though, I get antenna for most my TV and there's a lot of content on there if you have an interest in older TV and movies. One station is even showing reruns of MST3K, and another plays old Johnny Carson Tonight Show episodes.
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Sep 18, 2016 13:08
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It's funny how the streaming industry is so fragmented and hosed you even have game services like Steam and GOG trying their hand at selling movies.
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Sep 18, 2016 15:37
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You are starting to see Netflix and Amazon attract more viewers with exclusive content (House of Cards, Daredevil, Man in the High Castle, etc) instead of relying on older content from other sources. This is probably a smart move on their part since it means they are able to control this contents availability more than they can with some movie or show that gets popular and then the original copyright holder wants more money for it or wants to start their own streaming service.
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Sep 18, 2016 15:43
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JediTalentAgent posted:I've mentioned before, but the golden age of streaming video seems to be done and gone. I don't know if it will ever come back, either. i just watch the occasional thing on sketchy streaming sites because its the easiest thing in the world and always has what i want 2 see
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Sep 18, 2016 16:04
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JediTalentAgent posted:I do have to say, though, I get antenna for most my TV and there's a lot of content on there if you have an interest in older TV and movies. One station is even showing reruns of MST3K, and another plays old Johnny Carson Tonight Show episodes. Comet and Antenna TV really are the best. It's like having a never ending supply of B-movies and classic sitcoms. I saw the final episode of Newhart for the first time in decades the other weekend. Oh, and they also play everyone's favorite, Small Wonder, as well. Troll 2's on now.
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Sep 18, 2016 17:26
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Amazon is usually just like renting something from the video store minus having to go somewhere. They might even have it free on Prime for free. Sometimes movies that aren't wide release get an iption to watch them while they're in theaters for ~$6, so that's not a bad deal either.
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Sep 18, 2016 17:26
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Dirk Squarejaw posted:Cable-cutting only works for nerds like myself who don't give a single poo poo about sports. However, it kills me that in TYOOL 2016, our local video store is never empty and packed around dinner time on the weekends like it's 1986. This sounds wonderful. Installing RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi led me to installing Kodi on it as well and now I'm watching Seinfeld before bed on Crackle, which when played through Kodi is commercial-free. I'm livin' the dream. Every time I look up something on Netflix, even if it's something I've saved in a queue, it's almost never there. I wonder if that's what motivates their dumb flashy interface that blankets your screen in random crap you can't mark as "never show me Ashton Kutcher's loving face ever again, please," or, "I already saw this and hated it." The interface is more about "look at all this stuff!" than, "what would you like to see today?"
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Sep 18, 2016 18:28
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Good grief just steal all those stupid TV shows and movies you goody two shoes
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Sep 18, 2016 18:43
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All this arcade talk makes me interested. I have a ultra wide screen monitor. Are there hacks to emulate the ultra long screen in the X-Men machine that worked by outputting to three different monitors and then relying on physical mirrors (or something) to merge them together?
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Sep 18, 2016 19:17
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