Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Mister Kingdom posted:

For those of you young whipper-snappers who collect old vinyl and notice that double albums are numbered Side 1/3 and 2/4, this is why.

I think you made a slight mistake. They were sides 1/4 on one record and 2/3 on the other, as I remember. Then the flip trick works.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2012 15:05

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 17:34

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

ladron posted:

that's kinda cool and kinda stupid. does it come with a younger sibling to change the channels for you?

Pair of needle nose pliers to grab the half-moon stem when the knob breaks off.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2017 00:47

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

I remember getting �auto tuned to one channel with no knob� radio keychains at major league baseball giveaway nights. Obviously the AM station that carried the games. Always loved those.

# ¿ May 14, 2019 02:43

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Grand Prize Winner posted:

How does that work for online purchases? Are you expected to memorize your card number or something?

Your iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac will know the number.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2019 20:07

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

mystes posted:

The magnet stripe readers where you have to manually insert and remove the card are still super common in 2019 in parking garages and gas stations even though everything is supposed to be using the chip now.

In the US gas stations got an extension for implementing chip readers until 2020.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2019 23:13

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

[quote="Code Jockey" post=""496395458"]
everything about this image is so perfect I have no idea what to tag myself as. The jorts? the CRT TV hanging off the wall? That carpet?
[/quote]
Obviously you weren�t around in 1980, which is OK. The answer is clearly the knee-high athletic socks.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2019 15:53

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Pastry of the Year posted:

when your home computer only had a 3.5" floppy drive but the game you wanted was only available on 5.25" discs but also

The flip side: I remember buying games (Earl Weaver Baseball in particular I remember) that came on 5.25 discs and the package had a coupon you could use if you wanted to buy the �upgrade� to the 3.5 version, which they would mail you.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2019 23:15

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Shibawanko posted:

"CELLULAR TELEPHONE" said in that 1920s radio voice

Now I want my phone to say something like �dialing Klondike 5, one two one two� when I make a phone call.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2019 01:46

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

That post zips me right back to college in the 80s. Every single computer engineering student had a copy of the K&R book.

The cover was blue lettering on a off-white background.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2020 19:47

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Oh and the other part of that post, here�s a hat trick of obsolete: logging into a department PDP-11 and typing in your APL programming assignments on one of these bad boys

# ¿ Mar 7, 2020 06:04

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Cojawfee posted:

Holy poo poo they are 200 dollars.

Anecdote that probably doesn�t help at all: My HP 11C brand new had the outrageously expensive price of $80 when I got it as a birthday present in 1983 before going to college (and the 16C was more expensive). 200 bucks today is actually cheaper, inflation-adjusted.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2021 03:40

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Paprika is worth spending money on. Excellent app.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2021 16:03

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Also �touch screen iPod� had never been done at the time.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2021 21:24

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Code Jockey posted:

so am I, that vga port on the front is perfect

9 pins, that�s a serial port right?

# ¿ Apr 1, 2022 21:59

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Computer viking posted:

(From a Samsung ad, but it shows off what they're trying to do.)

Um, TVs generate heat.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2022 23:32

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Computer viking posted:

60-130W in art mode, apparently depending on how bright the room is.

I'd focus more on "uses power" than "generates heat", but the balance there probably depends on where you live. (And if the heat is a big problem, you probably also use power to get rid of it, so ...)

Yes, power too, but you�re still going to end up with (at best) discolored drywall.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2022 21:33

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

It�s usually four-hour blocks, but sometimes the same block repeats on the same day.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2022 20:48

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

I�m the same in not caring for �shelf candy� but for a much more boring reason. I hate dusting.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2022 22:17

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Both a USB and an RS232 port on one device for service seems odd.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2022 00:58

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Serperoth posted:

I figure you mean in that scene, but a censor watching Blazing Saddles and being so incensed at the farts that they just don't bother with anything else in they film sounds exactly like a Mel Brooks joke

But that didn�t happen, not the �don�t bother with anything else� part.
Broadcast-safe Blazing Saddles is unwatchable, there are so many edits large portions of it make no sense at all.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2022 19:22

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Speaking of which, when I was a kid, WLW was a hugely powerful TV station, on UHF channel 19. I still remember the jingle.

Huh? WLW is an AM radio station in Cincinnati.
Channel 19 in Cincinnati was/is WXIX.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2023 03:51

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Porfiriato posted:

Yeah, it's a pretty cool clip regardless. Speaking of the Watchman, just look at that thing:

This being the "sports" version now I'm imagining someone going for a run wearing earbuds with that thing strapped to their upper arm like a cellphone (or in earlier times, an iPod).

e: hope you don't poke yourself in the eye with the antenna!

Most of them that I saw Back In The Day were people taking them to pro sports games before things like Jumbotrons were universal. Especially NFL games where people would circle around the screen to see replays.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2023 14:54

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Line current voltage, huh.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2023 00:56

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

You missed Animals, fool.

Haha, charade you are!

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 03:30

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

�Leven crew represent.

Lol I have no idea how to fix this link.

https://imgur.com/a/t4ENI95

IIRC the 11-c was $90 in the early 80s and it was a major, major purchase but I eventually caved and bought one before going to college. Probably literally the most useful purchase I�ve ever made. I dont know how many hundreds of hours I used it.

I do remember I always had subroutine A programmed to solve quadratic equations. Maybe I still do, no idea how static the memory is.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2023 23:45

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

But yeah, learn RPN. The parentheses slayer.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2023 14:11

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Yeah that�s exactly it. A stack lets you store intermediate values easily.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2023 18:55

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

3D Megadoodoo posted:

Buy?!?

Yeah. 30-40 years ago the earphones cost a buck or two.

# ¿ May 2, 2023 10:49

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

To be honest, I can�t think of many real-world examples of �keeping up with the Joneses� items even from three generations ago. Set of China, yes. New car every few years? But that will never go away.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2023 19:17

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Fork of Unknown Origins posted:

VC bought it and since they need infinite growth started trying to branch out from the one thing anyone knew instant pot for (a pressure cooker) and burned through all the money, not a small amount of which went back to the VC folk.

It�s a giant grift.

I read the parent company borrowed $450 million in Instapots name for reasons, and made them spend $260 million of it on dividends. :thumbsup:

# ¿ Jun 23, 2023 04:07

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Kazy posted:

The reason you can't buy non-smart TVs because they sell your data to offset the cost of the TV.

Except it�s very easy to never hook it up to Wi-Fi.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 21:56

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Your router's instructions?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2023 16:44

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Wayne Knight posted:

Can�t wait for the HGTV greige era to end.

Sure, but don�t hold your breath. There�s still plenty of houses sporting the early 90s oak and brass look.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2023 20:39

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

I�ve never seen any wood that could be reasonably used as flooring which was cheaper than vinyl or concrete tiles.

Related, you do know floorboards need tongue and groove sides to hold them together, right?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2023 21:56

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Wipfmetz posted:

Why did they need to rotate the antenna on such a regular basis that they've installed walljacks for it?

.
Because TV antennas are directional and in some locations the networks' transmission towers were at significantly different headings.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2023 06:32

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Also the amp was usually the only component that has any real weight to it. Things like the CD players were downright featherweight.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2023 19:01

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Cojawfee posted:

Does that at least move the needle to the record automatically or do you also have to blindly reach up and get it on the right part?

That whole stack is less than 4� tall.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2023 19:15

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

I remember the Cellerin 300a in particular being a legend because

A) you could probably find a carton of them for $30 each at a computer show and
B) you had about a 85% chance of successfully overclocking it to 450 by changing one setting on your motherboard.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 23:27

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

Forget that, give me a mini gyro meat broiler.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2024 05:42

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 17:34

WithoutTheFezOn: Aug 28, 2005; Oh no

The US has a line called Rocky Mountaineer which has similar cars.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2024 18:27

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