Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Sentient Data posted:

In FL the registration stickers just go directly on the license plate itself. I don't see why that wouldn't work in any other states, maybe they thought there would be an epidemic of license plate theft/swapping?

True that there's no smogging here, but why does that even need its own sticker? Just get paperwork from whatever agencies saying that your car passed the various inspections, then bring that to the DMV when it's time to renew your car (or sign an affidavit if your car is non-operable and get a different color registration sticker so the police know there's no valid inspections). That way if you don't have your inspections, you don't get your registration renewal.

Yeah, in Kansas we just put the sticker in the corner of the plate. Usually people have a fun stack of about ten (or more) by the time a new plate is issued. And yearly inspections aren't even close to a thing.

# ¿ May 9, 2016 21:58

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 14:02

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Pilsner posted:

Something I've noticed for a long time that's just godawful: American light switches and wall plugs. Example:

Unnecessarily big, visible screws, hard to toggle (relatively speaking), old fashioned in a bad way.

Sometimes it's okay to leave things alone. Also, you can hit an American light switch easier in the dark. Just wipe your hand on the wall. Lining up the screws on the faceplates is also a good way to impress people with your OCD.

Our wall sockets are in fact garbage, but there's no feasible way to overcome the inertia on those.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 17:32

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Flipperwaldt posted:

But can you elbow it when you've got your hands full?

I know I certainly can and do.

Magnus Praeda posted:

What's wrong with American wall sockets? They're polarized, grounded, and backwards-compatible with older two-prong devices. With current code updates mandating tamper-resistant shutters, they're even hard for little Timmy to electrocute himself without REALLY trying.

My biggest issues are usually plugs finding a way to come out just a little bit exposing live conductors or the polarized part causing wall warts to always be in the wrong orientation. The incremental improvements over time have definitely helped.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 17:52

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

When I was in high school, a couple of my friends and I were student aides for the tech department (in no small part because my mom was in said department) and we would occasionally use Remote Desktop to see what kids were up to on school computers. One day, we found a kid with a bunch of windows open on horticulture. Our reaction was basically, "Wow, this guy is actually doing something productive! That's amazing!" It was then followed by him going back to another window that was more or less "How to grow weed." We got a really good laugh out of it as my mom went and busted the kid when we locked his screen.

It was also fun knowing the ins and outs of how FoolProof (there's some obsolete technology for you) worked and being able to bypass it as we wished.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 21:12

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Shai-Hulud posted:

I encountered one of those one or two years ago while working for on of the biggest shipping companies in the world. Made me laugh cause, sure I get it dear IT department, why throw it away when it still works, but come the gently caress on.

One of the best things lost after ball mice died was the simple feeling of satisfaction when you got one perfectly clean after years of neglect. Including washing the ball so it would stick better.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2016 17:02

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Pham Nuwen posted:

I had blunt forceps (usually used to assemble surface-mount PCBs) that were perfect for pulling the stuck-on gunk off the rollers on a ball mouse. You'd get a grip on it and usually the whole strip of gunk would come off all at once, kind of disgusting but very satisfying.

These days I use an optical trackball at work, but being a trackball it still has 3 little "points" that the ball rotates on, and those gunk up eventually, so I still have to clean my pointing device.

I always just used my pocket knife with extra care because it was possible to drop the gunk strip down into the internals.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2016 17:46

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Collateral Damage posted:

I guess one of the things you'll learn is what a pain in the dick it is to solder almost 3000 points.

I love big solder jobs. I find them incredibly soothing, so this sounds like a wonderful project. If it would have been possible to find a career soldering, I would have done that. Instead, I have to put up with all the bullshit engineering that goes alongside it.

I'm also assuming they're all through hole components, because gently caress soldering surface mount by hand. Hard to tell from some of the pictures.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2016 19:14

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Pham Nuwen posted:

My first internship out of high school involved lots of PCB-population, and I too found it rather relaxing.

I enjoyed surface mount more than through hole, though. Through-hole is all about flipping (the board) and clipping (the leads), while with surface mount you strip 5x 100pF caps out of a reel, then grab them one at a time with tweezers, position them, dab of liquid flux, and a quick touch of solder. It was so fast, and I felt like a loving craftsman

For one project in school, we had to take a relatively complicated project (spanning three small breadboards) and transfer it to one single layer prototyping PCB. We had a small competition as to who could manage it with the fewest jumper wires (I was second with three, one jerk had one). I felt like a pro after three hours of planning my layout and even longer filling drat near the entire backside with solder pseudo-traces. I still have that thing saved somewhere because I can't bear to lose it.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2016 22:06

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

I always thought "9-5" was weird because everyone pretty much works 8-5 with an hour for lunch. At least around here.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 21:33

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

I did a little bit of work at a place back around 2009 or so that had a punch clock that just stamped your time card. My current work requires hourly workers to punch in/out of the system at dedicated computers or their own stations if they're clever enough to remember how to navigate there.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2016 07:33

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Last Chance posted:

I like seeing CRTs used all of the time in "the future" in movies/TV shows.

Especially when they were a wall of CRTs to make one mega "futuristic" big screen with lots of wasted space. Basically, I'm thinking of the OCP board room.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 20:04

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

Americans in the past were cool with buying more stuff with coins. A dollar in the early 50's bought you about what $9 buys you today. Imagine buying everything that costs under $9 with coins. People did it! American people!

I would buy more things with coins today if we had chunky coins like Euros. Those things are just fun to fling around.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2017 18:17

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

KozmoNaut posted:

So yeah, Spotify is pretty great, CDs are pretty much obsolete. I'm not sure locally stored MP3 etc. music is obsolete, but streaming is a drat good replacement for most people. If I can save $40-50/month for the $9.99 Spotify Premium costs, I'm definitely down with that.

For me, having my music on an iPod plugged into my car for highway travel is the only reliable way to get music I want on the go. Long stretches of rural highways in the Midwest aren't nice to internet connections. But that does sound pretty great overall.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 18:54

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Kelp Me! posted:

Anyone who recommends an FM transmitter has never tried using one in or around a major city

My old 2000 Suzuki Esteem was perfect for FM transmitters since I could just shove the antenna all the way down and ruin my ability to pick up radio outside the confines of my car.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2017 23:58

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Krispy Kareem posted:

I'm reasonably certain Best Buy makes all its money off phones and service plans. In that sense they are a more successful version of Radio Shack, but without all the batteries.

And Microcenter is a loving shrine to all that is good in electronics retailing. It's still packed every time I go there so the world is a just place.

You're probably pretty close on Best Buy, given their little cell phone shops in malls.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 21:57

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

JayKay posted:

I see your CompUSA and raise you a ComputerCity. Growing up I had the best of both worlds as they were only 15 minutes away and approximately 5 miles down the road from eachother.

We bought both our Packard Bell Pentium 60 and a Custom Ordered ComputerCity PII 350mhz system from that location. The ComputerCity location closed in 1998 when they were purchased by CompUSA. The CompUSA held on for a few more years before they too were closed. Lots of memories at both stores.

Luckily where I am now, there's a Microcenter in driving distance and it's awesome.

I loved my infrequent trips to Computer City. Mainly because they were like the only place I could ever find games for my Mac (outside of shareware on MacAddict CDs).

It was also the first place I saw a black computer (Acer Aspire?). I remember thinking it was weird and cool.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 22:35

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Keiya posted:

Man it is impossible to find beige cases anymore. I want an ugly beige box! With a turbo button!

Or even for Apple's totally not-beige "platinum" color. Turbo buttons ~~are~~ were the tits.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 16:28

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Gromit posted:

A raster arcade game from the late 70s was Space Wars and was top-down where you fought a triangular ship against an Enterprise-looking ship. Must have been based on that.

I'm suddenly reminded that for as old as it is, Netrek was still being played by a handful of people last time I checked.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 14:57

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Trabant posted:

Basically, if a design isn't suitable to human use, it's probably because it was cheap and/or made sense to an engineer. And I say that as an ex-engineer.

Yeah, sometimes an engineer is too focused on the trees to see the forest. I had a guy ask a simple question about something on my HMI the other day and I had to reply with "I didn't even think about it, I was too busy getting [x] to work. I'll fix it before I leave today."

# ¿ Mar 29, 2017 17:45

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Kelp Me! posted:

He's right though, even Barnes & Noble has a whole vinyl section now where you can pay $39.99 for a remaster of London Calling or a picture disc 40oz. To Freedom or the latest Chainsmokers garbage

A lot of the metal bands I like always release their stuff on vinyl too and I really just don't get it

What I loved is recently Alestorm was promoting the vinyl version of their upcoming album with a facebook post that was basically "Did you know we have to use a special lovely mix on vinyl just to try to overcome how terrible it is? Oh well, it's trendy so go ahead and buy it!"

ninja edit: Also yeah, the best feature of vinyl is giant cover art.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 15:41

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

In my industry, comms over RS485 are more common, but we still have some controls talking via RS232

# ¿ May 19, 2017 16:05

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Kwyndig posted:

Pass through was how all the models I've ever seen with that feature did it.

I think Macs of the same time did the same thing. That is a hell of a sexy computer interior, though.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 00:38

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Iron Crowned posted:

I grew up with an Apple Laser Printer we got at an auction. That thing was solid, then again we were also using Macs at the time, so that probably helped with them always working.

Where I used to work circa 2003, one of my main duties was cleaning the printers and such. Some of those LaserWriters were absolute beasts that would just go forever, especially the 810, as long as you replaced a plastic gear every so often as it liked to melt.

One time I had to call HP about an issue on a Laserjet 4500 and had the best tech support experience in my life when they kept apologizing profusely for making me wait 5 minutes. That was the moment they won my brand loyalty and I really haven't been let down since, to be honest.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2017 14:52

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Kelp Me! posted:

Yeah that was a big deciding factor in picking up the Moto X2, it's about as close as you can get to a Nexus as far as the "pure" android experience. The original Moto X was similar, I loved that phone as well.

Hell, I'm pretty much a Motorola fanboy, my cell phone history was Nokia candybar->Samsung Alias 2-> Motorola Razr -> Treo 650 -> Motorola Q -> Moto Droid X2 -> Moto Bionic -> Moto Razr Maxx -> Moto X -> Moto X2. I've never had a single issue with any of them, and some of them (the Q and the Bionic, notably) were pretty far ahead of the pack for their time.

Shame the Moto Z and Z2 are supposed to be pretty meh.

I went from Motorola cheap flip phone (T720?) -> Razr v3m -> Moto Droid -> Moto Droid Razr -> Moto Droid Maxx -> Moto Droid Turbo 2 -> Google Pixel

I loved the original Droid because it weighed a ton and you had no fear of breaking the thing.

The only truly bad experience I had was with the Turbo 2.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 21:08

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Rough Lobster posted:

Dead malls!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOlffr73fuM

One of my favorite things to do when I'm out on the road for work is look at different local malls (and seeing how dead they are). It's always amazing how one will stay open even if it only has about 4 stores in it.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2018 15:30

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:

Laser pointers are kinda cool, the high ish power ones.

Only mentioning because there's a crossover between laser pointer and flashlight fans.

I know someone who recently came back from China with a purple laser pointer that can (at minimum) burn paper.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2018 17:31

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Vic posted:

My ringtone is the Metal Gear Solid codec ring for years, and since most of my incoming calls are about somebody's internet not working again, it's like "Snake be a dear my metal gear has no internet again."

That's what my notification tone is. Regular ring tone is whatever video game music I want to hear for a while. Right now it's Simon's Theme from Super Castlevania IV.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2018 17:20

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Kanine posted:

a friend of mine had the national anthem of the ussr as his ringtone and it went off during a job interview, he still got the job tho lmao

It's a pretty great anthem, so I'd hire him, too.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2018 08:16

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

Just off the top of my head, my phone could have

Right side:
Power on/off switch
Bluetooth on/off switch
WiFi on/off switch
Volume wheel

Bottom:
Landscape/portrait switch
Regular power usage/low power switch

Left side:
Flashight on/off switch
Scroll wheel
"End call" hangup button

All these would barely stick out of the phone. You would hardly notice them. And in a week you would be able to memorize the location of all of them.

Just for reference, the other reason buttons are going away is you probably just increased the size of the phone 10-20%.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2018 17:59

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

My naming scheme used to be out of Spaceballs. Mr. + Description.

Later I switched to only naming computers and using the Sinistrals from Lufia. Main computer is Daos, laptops are Gades or Amon, and I've never had to use Erim (yet).

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 16:34

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Metal Geir Skogul posted:

Man, I miss CD caddies. I always loved them.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2018 20:20

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

T-man posted:

I'm left-handed but I use computer mice with my right hand, is that not normal for lefties?

I've always seen the majority of lefties use their left as the mouse hand. If I were a lefty, I would probably just leave it on the right (I can mouse fine with my left hand as a righty, so I figure the inverse would be true).

On the topic of puck mice, I never really cared about them one way or the other. I could use them fine with a delicate thumb and pinky grip I never had to think about. One thing that was great with them was how well you could feel the ball movement when they were just a little dirty.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2018 19:55

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Lazlo Nibble posted:

The RF adapter for the Atari 5200 could sense when the console powered up and switch between antenna input and console input automatically. Unfortunately the joysticks were nowhere near as cleverly designed.

The downside of that design was that you also had to plug your power into the RF box, leading to some serious restraints in organizing stuff around the TV

# ¿ Apr 28, 2018 15:11

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

ryonguy posted:

I never got the gimmick with ultra-thin laptops. I've got a cheap lenovo right now and it feels all

to me. It's thin and lightweight, sure, but...

LGR has a pretty good video describing what led to the butterfly keyboard, at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRVJCtREW38

# ¿ Apr 30, 2018 15:55

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

ElwoodCuse posted:

Advertising. The difficulty is advertising. Merchants can't advertise a price if the same item costs a different price everywhere. It's why everything from fast food to cars says at the bottom "additional sales tax may apply" or something.

You advertise that the widget is $4, so regardless whether you really sell it at $3.51 + tax or $3.88 + tax doesn't really matter except for fiddling with the margins on the widget you put on the shelf at $2 a pop. The customer sees and pays the same price at all locations.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 14:31

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Krispy Wafer posted:

I have a set of Apple developer songs. I think one extolled the virtues of the Apple II in all it's 80's sync glory. It's so bad.

I like some of the goofy poo poo they did just because. I have a particular attachment to I Think We're a Clone Now

# ¿ Aug 24, 2018 17:31

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

mystes posted:

That reminds me of the TI Viewscreen for showing the screen from a calculator on an overhead projector.

I saw one of these in a calculus class at a funky dink community college

# ¿ Jun 23, 2019 03:16

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

The only computer program worthy of being in awe of was Kid Pix. :colbert:

# ¿ Aug 17, 2019 19:05

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

I have, tucked away somewhere, a Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro joystick. It was the best joystick I've ever used, with the only limitation being that it used gameport. Playing Crimson Skies with that was the best experience as each different size of gun had a different level of kick to it. My strategy of using .70 caliber guns on everything was extra fun.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2019 22:24

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 14:02

Explosionface: May 30, 2011; We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.

Buttcoin purse posted:

I think the instructions for my microwave say that if I'm heating water in it, I should rest a spoon in the container so it doesn't do that thing where it suddenly explosively boils when you disturb it. Apparently this is really important because there's an illustration of this inside the door. I've never tried it, I just use a kettle. No, not in the microwave.

It's really only an issue if you put pure water in there. Strangely enough, pure water doesn't like to boil, but it boils very rapidly if you introduce some sort of contaminant (like a spoon or w/e)

# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 16:09

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