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Mister Kingdom posted:My last phone was this thing. Horrible keyboard, but what do you want for $99?  Here's my current phone, which I got in 2010. Battery still lasts a week with light usage. It's mostly functional except people sending emojis will corrupt the whole text message and make it unreadable. Also one hinge broke last month so it's a little floppy. Work provides me with a smartphone so a flip-phone is all I need for my personal line. Unfortunately Verizon is shutting down CDMA at the end of the year so I'll have to get something else (any suggestions?)
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Aug 5, 2019 14:33
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Mr.Radar posted:If you want a smartphone with (relatively) great battery life and don't particularly care about having the highest performance or sharpest screen take a look at the Moto G7 Power. I have one and with light use it could last for 3 days on a single charge or all day if you literally use it constantly. It's also only $250 unlocked and supports all major carriers. Thanks. I didn't realize there were options that cheap out there for prepaid plans.
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Aug 5, 2019 15:27
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This is my dad's current phone (Samsung Convoy). I took this pic 5 years ago after he had a house fire. It melted pretty bad and the outer screen is dead, but it still works fine. If Samsung had a museum, this should be in there like the Desert Storm Game Boy.
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Aug 5, 2019 18:34
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Is it old enough that it's going to lose connection once 2G GSM shuts down this year? Yeah I'm going to have to find him something else soon. Honestly I could see lots of outcry once the networks are turned off. Verizon hasn't sent out anything to me, my mom, or my dad to warn us of the shutoff. I found out earlier this year when I tried to activate an old phone on our business plan and found out you couldn't anymore. At this point in the year I would have expected texts, robocalls, and letters from Verizon saying "YOUR PHONE IS ABOUT TO STOP WORKING!", maybe with a coupon towards whatever their cheapest 4G flip phone is.
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Aug 5, 2019 20:07
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shovelbum posted:Link?!?!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztdlg5tMQfY
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Aug 26, 2019 20:03
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Iron Crowned posted:That doesn't just happen with PBS programming, but it's to avoid lawsuits. It's fairly rare in scripted programming because props don't need to be edible, but I do remember spotting it a few times in the late 90's/early 2000's. I remember watching some Disney sitcom 20 years ago and laughing whenever I saw their can of OLGERS coffee.
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Aug 28, 2019 17:13
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Unperson_47 posted:Lot of Coast to Coast AM listened to on that thing. I use a 3rd party "OS" on it called RockBox. Rockbox was cool - I put it on my iAudio X5L. Looking back, the amount I spent on mp3 players definitely wasn't worth the enjoyment I got out of them. I think it was $250 for a Dell DJ, $400 for an iAudio x5L, and $99 for a gen 1 Zune, all within a 5 year span. It's weird to think that the ipod was released in 2001. I got my first player in 2004 and still felt like an early adopter. wa27 has a new favorite as of 21:40 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 21:37
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Jerry Cotton posted:Except in the 80s people were using carbon fibre brushes. Only old people had those things. Eh, they're kind of separate things. The carbon fiber brush is to remove surface particles and reduce static. The RCA Discwasher and knockoffs had a bottle of cleaning fluid (that's what the hole in the handle is for) that you squirt on the brush to get deeper in the grooves. Today I use a carbon fiber brush on most records I play, and only use my velvet brush with fluid on the dirtiest records. edit: although I'm sure lots of people use that thing dry, and in that case it wouldn't do any more than a carbon fiber brush would.
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Aug 30, 2019 14:24
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Never forget Zunepocalypse on December 31, 2008. When every Zune suddenly bricked itself for 24 hours. I was there, dead Zune in hand. I forgot to check if the bug resurfaced in 2012 or 2016. It was a leap year thing.
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Aug 30, 2019 17:01
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I really don't understand how Snap-On or Kirby Vacuums or any of that door-to-door salesman poo poo that costs 10 times the alternatives can exist these days.
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Sep 10, 2019 23:09
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My Lovely Horse posted:Even for occasionally household use I'd argue you should splurge for something good, ever since I got gifted a nice set of screwdrivers/bits as opposed to a cheap one. It's all I ever use anymore. I got a cheap screwdriver and bit set and it's also all I ever use.
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Sep 11, 2019 20:31
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Mister Kingdom posted:Techmoan takes a look at a laser thingy without a laser. He was dismissive about this but I think it's pretty impressive, to be honest. The light beam is surprisingly focused, and the persistence of vision makes it look like there are multiple beams of different colors. It's hard to tell the brightness from a video but it didn't seem too bad when he showed it in the light. I'm kind of surprised there wasn't a focus adjustment like a projector would have though. My dad picked up something similar at a thrift store that had an actual red laser in it. It was mic input only and the movement/brightness wasn't as impressive as this one. It also reminds me of when I was a kid, I would take a small piece of mirror (or a shattered CD or something) and set it directly on the cone of a speaker laying on its back. Then shine a handheld laser at it and watch the light dance on the ceiling.
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Oct 6, 2019 16:46
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mobby_6kl posted:Whoa, I remember arguing about those on /. back in the day and then never hearing about them ever again, so it's funny to see they actually delivered more or less what was intended but it just sucks for typing because of lovely switches lol. You could probably make a better/cheaper one nowadays but having to actually use a hundred individual displays is always going to be a bitch and not really worth it. Yeah the whole internet was talking about it in 2005. And back then the price they threw out was $200-$300. I just assumed it was vaporware. It's pretty funny that it came out years later at $1600 and/or $3000.
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Oct 13, 2019 22:15
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Nov 25, 2019 20:18
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https://twitter.com/profanegeometry/status/1222266520685834241?s=19
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Jan 29, 2020 14:42
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Johnny Aztec posted:With how cheap RAM is, corps see no profit/value in writing proper code, so it never gets optimized. I've been complaining about software bloat for laffo 15 years now. I've been hesitating to get everyone at work on Slack because its performance on lesser machines is terrible. A chat program...
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Feb 2, 2020 18:07
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LifeSunDeath posted:This reminds me of the time my gf and I were curious wtf ham radio operators even talk about...so we looked up some videos and people were either taking it way to seriously or using it for a sort of open mic comedy session, but on average they just talk about what radios their using. When I'm feeling really bored on tuesday or thursday nights, I tune in to our local ham meeting with my scanner. It's always ten minutes of check-ins and then a few guys talking about their radios and the weather.
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Feb 10, 2020 17:11
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This is the coolest thing you can do as a HAM radio guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpZqaVwaIYk
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Feb 10, 2020 20:34
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My town of 50k people is still using the same old unencrypted police frequencies so I still get use out of my old scanners. I'll also turn on the storm spotter frequencies when there's bad weather, but that's about it. The most fun thing was in the early-mid 2000's when everyone had cordless phones, I could scan the 900mhz band and usually pick up 1-2 phone calls at any time after 5:00 in my neighborhood. It's actually the reason my parents bought our scanner in the 90s. Nowadays it would feel really creepy doing that, but as a teenager I didn't really care about other people's privacy.
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Feb 13, 2020 16:44
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AMISH FRIED PIES posted:from goonskate Good to see you guys are still around. I don't ever remember people's forum usernames 
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Feb 13, 2020 17:26
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I feel like an alarm clock with an outlet would be much simpler and let you use your own favorite coffee maker.
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Apr 20, 2020 02:19
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Technology Connections' jokes and sarcasm do grate on me, but his content is some of the best out there. Pretty much everyone making videos on old technology (except Techmoan) is kind of a weirdo in some way. I think the 8-Bit Guy has shown that it doesn't matter if you have the personality of a brick wall, you can build a following just from having great content and production value.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:54
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Aix posted:hey, great idea. ive got a bunch of flexidisks around, maybe some of them will be in decent enough shape for this Laserdiscs are nice when you need a flat record, too.
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Apr 27, 2020 21:25
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I'm not one of those "phones should have BUTTONS" people, but I really hate cars with touchscreen infotainment systems. 1. Being able to adjust things without taking my eyes off the road is kind of important. 2. I tend to own cars for ten years or so, so the idea of using a 15-year-old interface isn't great. I already update my phone every 2 or 3 years - just give me a button for Bluetooth connection and be done with it. My current car has some old-rear end GPS system that you control with a joystick. The maps are all circa 2008 and the only way to update it is by inserting an update disc into a DVD drive in the glove box (that DVD drive ONLY exists to update the maps). The updates cost several hundred dollars from Mazda, or you can find someone on a forum to sell you a burned copy for less. I do appreciate cars that can tell you useful things like gas mileage, which I assume is all of them these days.
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Jul 10, 2020 16:48
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monolithburger posted:
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Aug 1, 2020 15:32
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Explosionface posted:The other day, I saw a console TV on the curb and I've never been so sad I couldn't take somebody's trash. I always loved console TVs. At work last week we tried putting a CRT on the curb with a free sign. Came back the next day and the cord was cut off. I kind of forgot that was a thing people do.
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Aug 5, 2020 14:55
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Imagined posted:For the absolutely minimal amount of copper inside, maybe. Yeah I assumed it was to sell the copper.
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Aug 5, 2020 15:55
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I have the giant Quick Shot ball joystick and I have no idea what the use case is supposed to be. People back then were just trying to make the most unusual accessories to look appealing in magazine ads, I think.
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Aug 16, 2020 22:11
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I've never understood how car radio buttons worked before digital tuning.
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Sep 5, 2020 17:48
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Johnny Aztec posted:I'm not really a hoarder, I just buy up alot of vintage items at estate auctions. You inspired me to fire up the Laserdisc player I bought a few years ago but never tested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyAFzEstico
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Sep 21, 2020 00:40
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Necrothatcher posted:Saw this and thought of this thread: Take this man's telly license away. He cannot be trusted.
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Sep 22, 2020 19:16
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I picked up a couple Zunes at a garage sale today. $15 for both.  That outer packaging is hilarious. If you rub your fingernail on it, it leave those white marks. The black one is practically new. Not a scratch on it, headphones and microfiber case still in the package, and the silicone case was never opened. The white one was used, but kept in a case so it's still in good shape. Both charged right up and played fine. I used to have a black one but the screen died on it long ago. Some day I hope to find a gen2 but I was pretty happy to find these. I think I'm going to see if they temporarily brick themselves on December 31st this year like they all did in 2008 due to the leap year.
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Sep 25, 2020 22:20
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This guy is no Techmoan but these devices are neat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVPGU9DuH-Y I especially like the "Talking books" at the end.
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Dec 31, 2020 05:45
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A few nights ago I listened to TheReportOfTheWeek's radio program on my shortwave radio. That was an interesting experience. I wish the old GBS shortwave thread still existed.
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Mar 17, 2021 18:57
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RPN for life
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Mar 18, 2021 15:32
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Explosionface posted:That's about the same model my dad used for decades. I'm sure I claimed it at some point, but I have no idea where it is now. I got this one at a Goodwill years ago. I used to think the TI-83/84 had a long lifespan but you can still buy these HP 12C's in Best Buy, for God's sake. they've been making it for 40 years with practically no changes.
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Mar 18, 2021 16:14
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Tech Tangents did a nice video on the HP 12C a while back and he explains RPN and does some programming on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot6rgGJv46E Programming calculators is something I've never had a use for, and probably never will. It's neat though.
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Mar 20, 2021 17:52
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R.L. Stine posted:Quadraphonic vinyl records! I gave up on this after replacing the power transistors and I've regretted the decision since! That's purdy
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Mar 24, 2021 21:31
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LifeSunDeath posted:GEORGE! https://i.imgur.com/OIDpId0.mp4
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Aug 3, 2021 18:27
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my turn in the barrel posted:Hi quality vintage reel to reel tape has a shelf life so the prices of NOS tapes are creeping up to the point that a $35 new manufacture cassette isn't crazy. Yeah I used to just buy up NOS chrome tapes when I saw them, but lately I've been buying boxes of Type I tapes too because even those are worth something now. Nice find on the metal tapes. I've only found one loose NOS metal tape in years of thrifting.
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Feb 11, 2022 15:20
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