|
I volunteer for a technology museum and we have most of the stuff you guys are posting. http://pcmuseum.ca/ ChlamydiaJones posted:Yeah, Capacitance Electronic Disk system, I had one and around 100 movies for it. I kept that drat thing working for years and years. I had to take it apart every 3 or 4 movies to adjust the bits that removed the disk from the carrier since they bent incredibly easily. Other than them being VERY temperamental they were INCREDIBLY HEAVY. One copier paper sized box of them would rip the bottom out of the box if it wasn't reinforced with duct tape. They produced a VERY nice quality picture and the sound was great as well. Also if the disk got scratched or the player got bumped it would skip in audio AND video which was a fairly cool effect! We just found a collection of 5,000 discs and 150 players. http://pcmuseum.ca/story_ced.asp The quality was just a hare better than VHS. Testing the players is a bitch because they use the old RF connectors for video. A few of them use composite but we can't get any of those units to work yet. We've been using old C64 monitors to view the discs.
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2012 21:35
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:23 |
|
|
mystes posted:Surely it can't already be that difficult to find a device with an NTSC tuner? Or is this some sort of special different RF connector? We could but we pretty much like to work with what we find laying around. You would not believe some of the stuff we get on our ewaste drop off days.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2012 21:55
|
|
|
I'm remembering a technology from the early 90s but can't remember enough details to do a good search on it. It was for audio cassettes and was supposed to be a sound quality that was between a normal cassette and DAT. I remember seeing it advertised in Playboy and Bon Jovi was releasing a album in that format.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2012 16:29
|
|
|
Kidney Stone posted:You might be thinking about the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)? Yes, I'm pretty sure that was it! http://www.amazon.com/Introducting-DCC-Digital-cassettes-Original/dp/B0047HY54Y http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bon-Jovi-These-Days-DCC-Digital-Compact-Cassette-Tape-/380260038490
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2012 16:40
|
|
|
The best thing about DIVX players is that they also played standard DVDs. So when the format died Circuit City had a massive clearance sale on them and I picked up two for the price of one normal DVD player.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2012 14:56
|
|
|
Breetai posted:A friend of mine grew up in Poland and told me that there were ham radio stations that would play a signal that comprised a computer program and that you could record it onto an audio tape and then use in your computer in this fashion. Interesting. A friend and I tried to rip a program on cassette to .wav format to see if it would work. Out of 10 tries the program only loaded once.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2012 15:32
|
|
|
Leon Einstein posted:Businesses use fax machines all the time since you can get a delivery receipt. We have moved over to mostly scanning and emailing documents these days, but the fax machines aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Sales departments live and die by fax machines in any place I've ever worked.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2012 16:06
|
|
|
Reminds me of a place I worked at in 98. We made stuff like buttons and keychains and at least once a week we would get a rush order and they would say, "If you fax you the cheque can you start production today and ship them?" Our answer was, "Sure. We'll take the fax cheque to the fax bank where we will get fax cash and then fax you your order."
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2012 17:59
|
|
|
We talked about those CED discs a few pages back. Here is pic of the Godfather running. http://pcmuseum.ca/gallery/0612-11-750.JPG Also It seems that on Godfather was released, and not Godfather II which is interesting seeing as how they both predate the technology. Oh! And we have Canabalt running on a C64. http://pcmuseum.ca/gallery/0712-01-750.JPG Bonzo has a new favorite as of 18:42 on Jul 18, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2012 18:38
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2012 15:06
|
|
|
Athenry posted:They bought their only competitor and are still in business though? Sirius was beating XM but both companies merged because they were both loosing money pretty quickly. XM had really great channels and Sirius got rid of most them when they took over. The company is run by people who made a career in radio so of course they are applying to same business model which makes it a horrible service. There are a few really good channels but most are what you'd expect from your local FM. Three songs are played then the DJ talks for 30 - 45 seconds about why you should listen to one of the other channels. Since services like Pandora and Last.fm are around plus unlimited data plans, it really makes Satellite radio pointless.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2012 19:35
|
|
|
If you ever want to scare the hell out of yourself, turn to the trucker channel and listen to the call in shows.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2012 19:54
|
|
|
JediTalentAgent posted:Does satellite radio presumably have enough technical power to maybe introduce a mobile satellite video service in response to that? Sure, you'd have fixed schedules and programming, but I could maybe see something like that having an audience who would be interested in a little box that hooks up into the portable DVD player in their backseat or family van that gets something like Sirius XM Nick, Sirius XM Disney Channel, Sirius XM ESPN, etc. if HD and on-demand wasn't an issue. They wanted to include video content but could never get compression to match the quality of the audio.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2012 01:06
|
|
|
brain739 posted:Sat radio had to have some level of popularity based on just how lovely terrestrial radio is. I'd love to add regular radio into the list of doomed technologies, but I think there will always be a place for mediocre top 40 crap and the idea of paying for satellite radio to hear a Nicky Minaj song is just horrible. I haven't even used my iPod since better cell data coverage made Pandora a possibility almost everywhere I ever go. I'm in Canada where unlimited data plans barely exist and data rates are laughable. Plus if I got up north I won't get a cell signal to the sat radio came in handy then.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2012 16:27
|
|
|
ZanderZ posted:I hope to god we can quote this in 10 years and all have a laugh about "limited data plans," but I feel like it's gonna go in the opposite direction. Yes. Also I nominate the CRTC as a failed and obsolete technology.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2012 16:40
|
|
|
DirtyWorker posted:What about this baby? Tim Berners-Lee just used on of those in the Olympic ceremonies. He invented the World Wide Web on one of those but never got to show Steve Jobs. quote:BeOS You could play two videos at one AND format a floppy!! Had the guy that was in charge of this not held out for more money from Apple, this may have been the MacOS for many years.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2012 16:36
|
|
|
Farbtoner posted:If Google has their way we may be laughing even sooner than that. I play with one of these at least once a month in the museum I volunteer at. It is so loving huge.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2012 19:28
|
|
|
Spent many, many rainy afternoons with this right here. 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2012 16:40
|
|
|
Now I feel old. The CPU is a Pentium II and what you are seeing is more of a cartridge. From Wikipedia quote:The Pentium II microprocessor was largely based upon the microarchitecture of its predecessor, the Pentium Pro, but with some significant improvements. Also this just reminded me of how big "MMX Technology" was and how hard they pushed it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2012 20:49
|
|
|
Totally Reasonable posted:As I recall, somewhere north of 25. At the time, a CD-ROM drive was well over $800. 26. It took at least 2 hours too, or at least it felt like it. The shop I was working at soon started doing installs without the games because that saved about half an hour.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2012 01:23
|
|
|
iPhones are not he only ones that won't let you use external storage. The Nexus series from Google don't have this either.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2012 20:46
|
|
|
Viewmasters have been around since the 60s but yeah....I think I need to take a geritol.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 14, 2012 15:19
|
|
|
thedouche posted:I'm sure you can get a single cup coffee maker that would do this. It seems like a lot of the cheaper drip coffee machine have this feature. Nearly every hotel I've been to in the last 5 years have these.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2012 00:27
|
|
|
I actually save any Zip drives I find because they will interface with some musical equipment made in the late 90s. Also the one I bought in 1997 still works just like the day I took it out of the box.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2012 15:34
|
|
|
I have an old Sony BD player that I bought a few weeks after HD-DVD was officially declared dead. Anyway, I rarely use it anymore but the last time I did it was to watch Dark Knight. I put the disk in and then went to microwave popcorn. By the time I sat down the movie had finally loaded and was ready to play. I also could not update the firmware or use any Blu Ray live functions without shoving a USB stick in the back of it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2012 16:20
|
|
|
I had a disk camera and have a picture of my friend with one in his hand that was taken in 1988. As others have said, it was easier to load than 35mm and I think was a little better than a 110 camera. The negatives seemed easier for me to manager when they were all on a disk. I think the only draw to having the camera was that it was new and different looking and gadget junkies like me got it for that reason.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2012 19:28
|
|
|
That's funny. I ran a video store from '93-95 and we used tape rewinders all the time. We didn't charge customers for not rewinding (although that was a huge thing in the 80s) so we used those because they were faster than using a VCR. Maybe some of the rare Disney tapes we didn't use it on. Our store rented porn so those tapes were the ones that always came back needing to be rewound. Guys would watch a scene or two, jerk off, and hit eject I guess.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2012 18:53
|
|
|
Yes, people were worried about burn in.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2012 20:32
|
|
|
Ahh the old knob and tube wiring. I live in an older part of Cambridge Ontario and they are quit common. Most of the houses with them are being updated now as gramma and granpa move out and new families move in. If you want to run central air or be able to have the TV on while you run the hairdryer you'll need to upgrade your electrical system. The house I live in now was built in 1920 and just had the electrical updated before I moved in a few years ago. These also used aluminium wiring I believe.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2012 18:19
|
|
|
My walkman had auto reverse. And was it me but did the tape not sound right when it was in that mode? Oh wow...I just remembered that I dropped that Walkman one day and something happened where if you used the auto reverse feature it would play the tape backwards. This was in the era when everyone thought there were satanic messages in music so we had lots of fun with that.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2012 21:02
|
|
|
There used to be catalog stores like Service Merchandise. It was a Costco type building but all you could see was a limited show room the floor. In the store where stalls where you could browse the catalog for something you needed and then gave the clerk the catalog number. You'd drive around to the back and pick it up or they would bring it to the counter for you.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2012 18:03
|
|
|
Jedit posted:I'll see that and raise you flexidiscs. These were single-sided records printed on a thin vinyl sheet that would bend without damaging the groove. They were used in the pre-CD era as a way to include music or other audio content with books or magazines. CDs obsoleted them and they went out of production in 2000, but apparently there's recently been a resurgence of interest in them from the indie scene. I used to have a lots of these from Modern Drummer magazine. It was a way for drummers or drum companies to have the reader experience the sound of a new product line or how to use certain techniques. I think they choose this format because everyone had a record player. Some musicians at the time didn't like cassettes or CDs. And then you'd get stuff like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdIyv8swK9k If you've ever seen a Rush concert in the last 25 year, you'll know that song.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2012 00:14
|
|
|
Nah...the scanner will just measure how far away the ring on your finger is from your rear end in a top hat.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 2, 2012 01:33
|
|
|
Veotax posted:I'm pretty sure they don't build vaults with the door closed. They built it, he walked in, they closed the door. The vault was empty when it was built so there was no reason to have it guarded. So you built the vault, place the person inside, then fill with money. My wife worked in casinos for 10 years in Ontario. The surveillance people were not really allowed to socialize or interact with other employees and were always hired outside of the organization. They were afraid that people would not turn in people they were friends with.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2012 22:15
|
|
|
Low Desert Punk posted:^ Yeah. I suppose the point is so dust and other things like that don't actually touch the disk (or touch it as little as possible) because the discs look like they could fail if you look at them the wrong way. I don't own a player for them unfortunately, but the picture from what I can gather is pretty awful even on sealed, seemingly perfectly intact carts. A friend of mine purchased a collection this a year and in that were about 100 players. Most of them don't work because the rubber belts have liquefied over time
|
|
#
¿
Jan 1, 2013 17:57
|
|
|
DrBouvenstein posted:Welp, off to eBay I go. Holy poo poo....I forgot all about these. I had the scorpion one and one other that I can't remember.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2013 13:41
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:23 |
|
|
The "uh-oh" sound was also used in WS-FTP to tell you your download was complete.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2013 12:37
|
|