Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Rare Collectable posted:

The Nokia N-Gage was one of the first attempts to combine a cell with mobile gaming. It was also a spectacular failure. Does anyone know anyone who bought one of these? Seen one in the wild? I doubt it. You had to hold them sideways and speak into the rim to use it like a phone and they were apparently just awkward all around.

I knew someone who had one of those. It looked dumb as hell when they talked into it. Wasn't the N-Gage the one where you had to remove the battery to change the little game cards?

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 05:26

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:37

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

kopiko posted:

Who remembers Electronic Organizers?

Back in the days before mobile phones, these were all the rage for storing friends' phone numbers and dates and times of appointments. Except they weren't. Since there were no mobile phones the few phone numbers of the pitiful amount of friends you were on calling terms with could easily memorized. If you did need to take down someones number, finding a pen and piece of paper was less hassle than powering on your electronic organizer and fiddling clumsily with tiny buttons through the slow archaic process of entering the name and number, and getting it to save properly. The interface was always so unintuitive just about every model of had reminder instructions printed inside the lid. I had one of these things for none other than the fact it was a thing with an LCD screen and lots of buttons. I'd be interested to know if anyone owned one and actually found them useful.

These were really massive at my school when I was about 11/12. Christ knows why, we were kids and had nothing except school to remember. But it was still cool because you'd compare who had the most numbers and was therefore the coolest kid.

The special edition of Foo Fighters 'There Is Nothing Left To Lose' came with a VCD of all the videos. Took me weeks of searching for software to play it. Never saw another one.

Creature has a new favorite as of 01:10 on Jul 18, 2012

# ¿ Jul 18, 2012 01:01

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Bonzo posted:

My cell phone from 1998 to early 2000

Motorolla StarTec. I think the only reason I liked it was because I felt like I was on Stark Trek or something.

This was my phone in 2004 because I accidentally put my lovely LG mobile in the washing machine. I tried intentionally breaking it but the bastard refused to quit.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2012 00:11

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

TurboTax posted:

Not completely obsolete yet, but what about wooden escalators?

The only time I've ever been on one was three or four years ago in the Paris Metro - apparently it was in the La Motte-Picquet station and still exists. Google also just told me that there's one at the original Macy's in New York.

There's one at Wynyard Station in Sydney as well. It has a peculiar rumble that you just don't get with regular escalators.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2012 07:34

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

My girlfriend has no idea how to use a normal can opener, because she grew up in Finland where they use those weird little blade things as standard. They seem to be more efficient than a can opener, as long as you know how to use them.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 05:03

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Dick Trauma posted:

Hand scanners were horrible pieces of poo poo.

I got into advanced computer classes at school by demonstrating my control of a hand scanner. I scanned a mousepad then inserted the image into another obsolete product:

Creature has a new favorite as of 08:00 on Dec 6, 2014

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 07:58

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Jedit posted:

... he said, while describing how to commit a crime.

I don't know if it's technology, quite, but I found myself thinking the other day about those cheap music compilations mail order companies used to advertise on TV. Totally obsolete in this age of MP3s and YouTube, but the adverts have a certain nostalgia value. "Remember - 50 Golden Grindcore Melodies is not available in the shops!"

I saw one of these ads while I was off sick from work recently. For half an hour this strange old couple told me all about an amazing 5 CD collection of golden 1950s/1960s love songs. All your old favourites, so many memories! Only $89.95!

Even my parents know how to use iTunes. Is there still an audience for these things?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2015 12:41

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Ultimate Mango posted:

Man that belongs in a PYF Ban thread.

I wonder with 4k TVs coming out if we will see more web browsing on the TV instead of a phone, tablet, or traditional computer.

My mother in law browses news sites on a smart tv. She used to use the tv's remote, but recently upgraded to a combined keyboard/trackpad. It makes entering URLs even clunkier.

As for obsolete tech, my father in law doesn't bother with the tv's browser at all - he prefers to use teletext which somehow still exists.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2015 11:03

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Mercury Ballistic posted:

Kind of surprised grocery stores don't yet have carts that scan the cargo so the persons items are tallied upon arrival at the checkout so they just pay after reviewing the tally. All the tech to do that exists, probably not worth the effort yet.

In Sweden they have supermarkets where you can pick up a handheld scanner at the door. You scan your groceries as you go, then pay at the end. Seemed like a good system, although I didn't get a chance to try as I couldn't read the instructions. So I assume that's how it works.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2015 06:16

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

I used to buy a lot of CD singles as a kid. Most were in those single jewel cases, but independent/smaller bands just used cardboard slip cases. That should have been the standard as single jewel cases are horrible cheap little things.

As for proper CD albums, digipaks are the king. Solid, relatively environmentally friendly, and artwork looks nicer.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 22:48

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

My problem with DAB is that they advertise it as �CD quality audio� but unless you want to spend obscene amounts of money on equipment, standalone digital radios only have one mono speaker.

I�ve had four different digital radios over the last decade (yes, I am a sucker) and the audio quality hasn�t gotten any better. Pretty much the only difference between the model I have now and the one I bought in 2008 is that the new one has a colour screen and Spotify support.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2018 05:44

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Pham Nuwen posted:

I was working an internship on Maui in the summer of 2007 and, near as I can tell, somebody rented the house that shared a wall with ours for the weekend and spent the whole time 1. loving and 2. playing Orinoco Flow on repeat.

They seemed to take an occasional break from the loving but Enya never stopped

How the hell do you gently caress to Orinoco Flow?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 22:59

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

3D Megadoodoo posted:

Same except around 200?

Spring-loaded and voice-operated

e: Must've been before 2002 because I paid for it in marks.

I had this exact same phone around 2003. I had a habit of repeatedly flipping it when bored, so the springs died and only stayed closed with the help of a rubber band. It was much less cool after that.

# ¿ May 22, 2020 05:31

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Pretty good posted:

Asked for a 10GB third gen ipod for my birthday in 2003, received this

It was... okay? I got a hand me down discman for a birthday in 2000 and this thing was technically a step up from that in that it supported mp3 CDs, but around the same time my home life fell apart and the family computer with the CD burner + my mp3 collection got sold off so by the time I finally got to gently caress around with burned discs a year and a half later it was embarrassingly obsolete.

At least it had good skip protection so I could walk around town clutching it in one hand listening to Dream Theater without it cutting out every ten seconds, unlike the piece of poo poo it replaced.

I loved this Discman. I had this exact model for a few years before upgrading to a 4th gen iPod for Christmas 2004.

I didn�t go anywhere without the discman and a folder of CDs back then, so I saved space by making MP3 CDs of my favourite bands. It was the best. The only downside was how long it took to rip CDs and manually tag each file and folder so that they�d display correctly on that teeny little display.

# ¿ May 25, 2020 02:49

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Humphreys posted:

That thing is amazing!

EDIT: OK so here we go:

In my 'I really don't have a problem but maybe I do' collection of The Matrix pretty much an example of the film on all released formats

(except VCD as my copy was apparently out of stock from the dodgy Thai warehouse that was sending it to me)

Whoever decided to change the artwork for the UHD release is a moron.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2021 17:21

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

my turn in the barrel posted:

While it did work the main drawback was the sensors could pickup light from other sources so placement of the TV in you room required some finesse. Otherwise headlights of a car passing by or sun coming in a window etc.. could cause random inputs.

Our brand new tv started turning itself on at around 6pm nightly one summer (early 00s). We blamed ghosts until one day when I moved the window curtains and it switched on. Turned out that the sun was coming in at just the right angle to hit the remote sensor.

At the time I had no idea how remotes worked, as my only experience of them was dunking our old tv's remote into a glass of milk when I was 4 and dooming us to a decade of manual operation.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2022 05:21

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

90s Solo Cup posted:

Primo stuff. Nearly all of the local thrift stores pick over the good stuff well before it hits shelves, so you end up with all the junk they couldn't toss on eBay or disappear into their own homes.

Assuming that this place is like the other flea markets I�ve been to here in :finland:

, that isn�t really possible. Individuals rent a spot in the store and fill it with whatever crap they want. The store just sells it on their behalf. That�s why you see weird poo poo like piles of old keyboards still in boxes, or a collection of old power cables and computer magazines from 2003. Sometimes there�s some good stuff, but most of the time it�s just trash which someone�s convinced themselves is worth a few �.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2022 05:47

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

KakerMix posted:

Yeah I'm getting confused by the line of thinking that spinny hard drives have to be a specific orientation to spin. They don't, just don't move them when they are spinning. Stack them horizontal or vertical it doesn't matter.
CRTs are a solid state radiation gun pointed at your face and thus don't care if they move even when on.

I�ve always wondered, considering how fragile they were, how did HDDs in iPods and other full-size mp3 players not get hosed up from being moved around while playing? My old 4th Gen iPod stopped working because it no longer held a charge after years of use, but the disk was still completely fine.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2023 06:33

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Thanks to last week�s video from Techmoan I came this close to spending 80� on a DCC of Diamonds & Pearls by Prince.

I�m glad I came to my senses in time but dang

# ¿ Sep 11, 2023 14:01

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Humphreys posted:

Not crude, but up until last year when my grandma died, she would always bring out 'my' Snoopy glass for any drink I was being offered. I've been drinking from that thing since I was 4. I'm 40 now.

lol, every time we go to my in-laws' place my wife uses the snoopy glass she�s had since she was a kid. She doesn�t even like snoopy.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2024 15:24

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

namlosh posted:

This post is funny as all hell

Wut?
I honestly didn�t know there were Snoopy haters
Is your wife the cat next door? Or Spike?

I mean, as in I�m not sure if she�s even thought of forming an opinion on him.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 12:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:37

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

teen witch posted:

Well she best start

�I guess he�s fine�.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2024 14:02

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology