Post the very best in obsolete and failed technology

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Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I remember when I got a certificate for something in elementary school and some lady typed into an electric typewriter and then printed it onto a certificate. It was the coolest poo poo I had seen up to that point.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2019 21:06

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# ¿ Jun 1, 2024 21:22

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

VictualSquid posted:

Also, when I was in school I learned how to use those in my technical drawing course:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettering_guide
You traced one letter/number after another with your ink-pen. It was surprisingly fast with even a bit of practice.

That intermediate time where most normal text came through computers and printer, but anything unusual was made by hand and then optically copied was quite strange.

What are the red lines for?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2019 21:35

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Neato

# ¿ Oct 5, 2019 21:49

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

twistedmentat posted:

I don't know why this discussion reminds me of this, but older goons might remember having desks in school that had a hole in them for inkwells? Like how old were those desks? When the hell were inkwells last needed to be at hand? Like I know schoolls are cheap, but I am pretty sure even in the early part of the 20th century you didn't need to have an open inkwell next to you at all times when writing.

Reminds me of when I went to historic mission control at JSC a few years ago. In addition to all the "no, those aren't computers" comments the lady said, the one that stuck with me the most was "those things you've put your cell phones in on the chairs weren't made for holding a cell phone. Those are actually ash trays for cigarettes." It was crazy to think that public smoking has almost completely disappeared in the last few years.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2019 14:30

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

That book is 1980s as gently caress.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 23:19

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Makes sense. They probably set it up to move every time it got a move signal, and a rotary phone would be perfect to send the desired number of pulses.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 23:52

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Sweevo posted:

You drat kids with your CADs and your CAMs and those accursed computer things. Behold the Mergenthaler Diagrammer:

https://vimeo.com/75532300

Dang, this is neat

# ¿ Oct 9, 2019 15:19

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

FilthyImp posted:

Did that ever come out?
For a hot minute it was cool and then I realized I didn't really need 10 widgets on my keyboard aside from like a volume control.

I think they made a few. At least I remember seeing it be on sale. Though it was too rich for my blood.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2019 16:05

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Everyone on Stargate Universe seems to have one. The concept of the thing is pretty cool.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 03:32

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

My dad had one of those Journada things for work in the late 90s. It was like a tiny laptop. I remember he would bring it out whenever we went somewhere and had to wait and he did something on it. I don't know what was cooler, that tiny laptop or the palm pilot he would also sometimes have where you could memorize the weird symbols they replaced the letters with to "write" things instead of typing them.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 04:07

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I think he already did a video about them

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 05:17

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Do you think that cell phones in 30 years will have a retro "webcam" filter?

# ¿ Oct 15, 2019 19:34

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

FruitNYogurtParfait posted:

Do they not already

Yes, in the same way that polaroids 50 years ago had a polaroid filter.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2019 20:02

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

FilthyImp posted:

Need my cables to be shielded against the possibility of a neutrino storm flipping some bits in my lossless Vinyl. Upgrading to a qubit DAC to ensure maximum data integrity

No fair, you changed my music by measuring it.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2019 22:57

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

SniperWoreConverse posted:

somebody bought a bunch to chop open and found out they were packed with iron shavings between the outer cover and the inner cable

Yeah that shields the music from your friends' bad thoughts about your cool set up.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2019 17:34

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

wa27 posted:

I can smell the electronic aroma coming from those vent holes.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2019 21:43

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Pastry of the Year posted:

an obsolete graphics card isn't exactly going to set this thread on fire in terms of being interesting but I could not resist posting the world's most perfect print advertisement

I love how old expansion cards had random ports on them. Here's your sound card, also plug your scanner into it.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2019 23:04

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

After a thorough examination of the cave, researchers could only find a set of strange pictographs carved onto the wall. "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0". At the moment, no one seems to know what they mean.

Also, this all reminds me of a story from years ago (that was probably fake) that was about an underwater cave. In this cave, they found a self portrait of a giant squid made of the bones of sea creatures.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2019 21:02

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

People don't want random, they just want different songs. Spotify frustrates me because there will be days where it plays the same 5 songs each day even though there are over 200 on the playlist.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2019 03:36

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Look on my wanks, ye Mighty, and despair!

# ¿ Dec 7, 2019 06:51

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Seems risky to say your electronic device has the smallest library.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2019 17:22

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I don't think it has ever tried to tag someone I know. I just type a random word and then it pops up a useless list of people.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2020 03:53

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

It's very frustrating that, this many years on in Windows 10, the windows 10 style settings windows are basic as gently caress and you have to dig into old style settings windows to actually do anything useful that isn't just "I WANT BLUE WINDOWS". The overall lack of ability to change things I don't like is what I hate about modern windows and programs. I hate googling something I dislike, seeing that someone wrote up instructions on how to do exactly what I want, and then it turns out that Microsoft disabled being able to do that at some point.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 20:25

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Johnny Aztec posted:

Windows 7 for lyfe

*shakes cane at clouds passing by*

My Windows 7 VM just popped up a thing saying that Microsoft is giving up on Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2020 06:43

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I really wish it were possible that there was someone out there who only ever bought upgrade versions of windows. His computer crashes so he digs out his DOS disks and Windows disks and starts the process of installing and upgrading back up to a modern OS. Unfortunately, I don't think Wa wa wa Windows 386 was capable of supporting SSDs and SATA.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2020 09:18

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

For generic tools yeah, but don't bother with wrenches of specific measurement. There are plenty of videos on youtube of people restoring old wrenches and then finding out they are way out of spec after removing rust.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 21:38

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I made a program that calculates the triangular series if you want something else to run on it.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 22:55

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Armacham posted:

Absolutely! I'm only just starting to wire up and test the registers and ALU, so it will be a while before I get to the point where I can run programs.

Here is the program I made, it fits into 12 lines and uses two variables. I also implemented a few other opcodes like Load Immediate (LDI) which loads a value you provide into the A register rather than pulling it from memory. I also made Increment (INC) and Decrement (DEC) opcodes which is like add or subtract immediate. Similar to LDI, you provide a value to add rather than having to pull it from memory. I think there's enough room to write the code without these, but it was fun to implement new opcodes on my own, as there is room for a few to be added in the control logic that Ben creates.

code:

0     LDI 1 
1     STA 14 
2     LDI 0 
3     STA 15 
4     OUT 
5     ADD 14 
6     JC  0 
7     STA 15 
8     LDA 14 
9     INC 1 
10    STA 14 
11    LDA 15 
12    JMP 4

Also, when you get to the RAM part of the build and you build the RC circuit for writing memory, run the clock signal through two NAND gates (to invert it twice) before going to the capacitor. The capacitor causes weird problems with the clock signal which sometimes causes two clock pulses and messes up the program being run. Inverting the clock signal twice acts as a buffer to prevent the capacitor from messing with the clock signal for the rest of the CPU.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 23:26

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Jerry Cotton posted:

The Soviets just used an adjustable.

What's the size of a warehouse, consumes enough diesel to run 6 city buses for a week, and fits on 14.7mm bolts? A soviet wrench designed to fit on 13mm bolts.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2020 16:22

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

What if there really was a PCMCIA VHS player.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 02:55

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Neito posted:

This is probably a bit of a crossover with the "TV Episodes that didn't age well" thread, but remember when there was a huge plot point in an episode of Friends that Chandler and dinosaur divorce guy lost all the disposable cameras at a wedding, like it was just this assumed cultural touchpoint that they'd be there?

Disposable cameras at weddings is still on every "20 cool things to make the most memorable wedding ever" list.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2020 22:20

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Strichzeichnungstift

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 18:13

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

Shut up Meg posted:

If your camera came back full of pictures of cute kids, rather than a guest's dick, I don't think you should complain too much

It's an instant camera. If it was similar to the other person's experience where people were supposed to stick the pictures in an album, it would probably be annoying for a large section of the album to be used up by each individual kid.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 23:26

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I doubt people would put dick picks in it when they have to put a physical picture in the album. Anyone can take a disposable camera to the bathroom, take a picture of their dick and throw it back on a table without anyone knowing. It would take a real nutjob to do it with what is essentially a modern polarioid.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2020 23:32

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I guess there was no way to be able to do a whole page in a computer at that time? Crazy that they went from perfectly lined up metal printing plates to some guy gluing a cutout piece of paper. It's insane to me that they were doing all that lead casting to make the newspaper. Was there no other metal they could have used like tin or something?

# ¿ Jan 25, 2020 07:29

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I think it is so they can easily move lines around without having to worry about individual letters being messed up

# ¿ Jan 25, 2020 18:38

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I assume there was some sort of mechanical keying that told the machine where to sort them.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2020 19:04

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

I canceled Sirius because it was just the same music over and over again. Now I just listen to podcasts. If I want to listen to music, I just think of a song I want to listen to on spotify and let it take the wheel from there. Better than when whatever channel I want to listen to on Sirius has decided to replay some live set they had for the third time.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2020 22:30

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

It doesn't have to be. The newspaper used lead because it could be melted back down easily to be recast.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2020 16:57

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# ¿ Jun 1, 2024 21:22

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

LifeSunDeath posted:

This stuff is incredible, people have supposedly found was to screen peek computers remotely with EM interference devices but since I haven't heard poo poo about it in years I think it might not work that well.

This was a big plot point in Cryptonomicon or some other Neal Stephenson book. CRT screens update the screen by shooting an electron beam at phosphors on the screen. It sends electrons along a row, sends a horizontal sync pulse, sends the next row, and so on, until the rows are sent and it sends a vertical sync pulse to start the next cycle of rows. If you can get an antenna to pick up these signals from the monitor, you could recreate that screen on your own device. Not as useful these days most likely. While LCD screens still receive the signal this way, they don't have a big honkin electromagnet broadcasting what it's doing like a CRT does.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2020 21:21

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