Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

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mjp28
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Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:19 am

Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers
Old tech friends we used for years are now deceased or on life support. Remember shrieking modems, paper phone books, and the C:\ prompt?
JR Raphael, PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/article/169863/o ... nx_h_crawl

HERE'S JUST 10 OF THE 40:

1. Playing Video Games at an Arcade

Status: On life support

Once a favorite activity of geeks worldwide, going to the arcade to play video games began fading away in the mid-1990s, just as going to the arcade to play pinball had done a decade before. A few arcades survive, but the days of gamers lining up to toss quarters into Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat are long gone. It's easy to see why: The advent of advanced gaming systems allows you to experience the same action at home, minus the dungeon-like lighting, the deafening game noise, and the premature exhaustion of your lunch money for the week.

2. Running Out of Hard-Drive Space

Status: Deceased

With terabyte-size drives now selling for less than $70, hard drives that exceed your storage needs aren't exactly hard to come by these days. But remember when an 80MB drive was the pinnacle of luxury and a 1GB drive would have seemed as spacious as Carlsbad Caverns?

3. Getting a Busy Signal

Status: Nearly deceased

Thanks to advances in voicemail and call-waiting technology, you rarely hear that annoying broken tone any more. Unless, of course, you're voting for American Idol or listening to Pink Floyd.

4. Going on a "Blind" First Date

Status: Deceased

What with Google, dating sites, and a slew of social networks, it's not difficult to get to know a person digitally before choosing to interact with them in a brick-and-mortar environment. Heck, you might even get to know them intimately before ever meeting. Or instead of ever meeting.

5. Needing to Be 18 to Have Access to Porn

Status: Deceased

It may sound crazy, but in the old days a fella had to be 18 to get his hands on prurient materials--either that or have an easily bribable older brother. Or a friend with such a brother. Or a dad with an obvious stash. Not that I know anything about such matters.

6. Chatting With the SysOp

Status: Deceased

The SysOp--short for system administrator--was a figure of power beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1990s. As the creator and overlord of the local bulletin board system (BBS), the SysOp watched over the users who dialed into his pre-Internet electronic communication system. He chatted with visitors, kept the system running smoothly, and occasionally hit the disconnect button when someone remained logged in for too long.

7. Paying for Long Distance

Status: Nearly deceased

Once upon a time, people had to pay expensive per-minute fees for long distance. Then, the big bad cell phone came along and blew those charges away like a straw house. The end.

8. Getting Fuzzy TV Reception

Status: Deceased

When the United States flipped the switch on an all-digital broadcasting system this summer, it also effectively sent the fuzzy "white snow" to the graveyard. So long, annoying static; we always loathed you.

9. Hearing the Sound of a Modem Connecting

Status: Nearly deceased

How a familiar series of sounds could simultaneously be so grating and so gratifying is a mystery that man may never unlock. Jonesing for a fix? Try the 56K Modem Emulator.

10. Shooting Polaroids
Status: Nearly deceased
Polaroid plans to stop selling its signature instant film at the end of this year.

SEE ARTICLE FOR 11-40.......
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rusticdog
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:23 pm

Heh.
21. Dialing on a Rotary Phone

Status: Nearly deceased

The ease of touchtone dialing has made active use of rotary phones a novelty, though it isn't clear whether those old Bell Telephone models will ever become truly rare, since they were built to withstand thermonuclear attack. In any case, mimes may never let the motion go from their repertoire.

Our only landline phone is still a rotary phone :thumbsup
davews
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 5:59 pm

Errr..

I still quite frequently go to a DOS prompt, often pick up my paper phone book, have a huge box of floppies that I occasionally refer to (and no slot anywhere to take one of these fancy memory cards).

re: 8, Getting Fuzzy TV reception. That is in the US only, and I was not aware that your digital switchover had gone that smoothly. Here in the UK it will be 2012 before analogue is turned off, and for those who do receive digital it often breaks up and pixellates because of the weak signal. The rest of the world, there are still many who countries who have no plans for digital switchover.
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mjp28
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:38 pm

davews wrote:Errr..


re: 8, Getting Fuzzy TV reception. That is in the US only, and I was not aware that your digital switchover had gone that smoothly. Here in the UK it will be 2012 before analogue is turned off, and for those who do receive digital it often breaks up and pixellates because of the weak signal. The rest of the world, there are still many who countries who have no plans for digital switchover.
In the USA they were talking about this for a decade or more, there were disagreements over specs, timing, you name it.
Dates kept getting pushed back, 2005, 2006 even the 2009 date was pushed back at the last minute for months.

A lot of people, government officals, tech groups thought when HDTV was coming around everyone would run out and get a new HDTV......did not happen.

Basically if you have cable or dish it was no big deal but there were still ~20,000,000 households with just over-the-air TVs. Remember too the USA is over 3,000 miles wide much harder to do than a small country or island nation.

Some areas still have no cable or broadband available. Too costly to reach everywhere.
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Pierre
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:54 pm

Remember too the USA is over 3,000 miles wide much harder to do than a small country or island nation.
We are an island nation bigger than the US and in a bigger mess mainly with ADSL and TV. We only have total population of 21 million but spread out all over the place. The farmers want ADSL but they will be whistling Dixie till the cows come home. :rant
IF IT AIN'T BROKE - DON'T FIX IT

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rusticdog
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:13 pm

They also missed a real piece of junk that really should be taken out back and given the 'Old Yeller'



























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mjp28
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:04 pm

Pierre wrote:
Remember too the USA is over 3,000 miles wide much harder to do than a small country or island nation.
We are an island nation bigger than the US and in a bigger mess mainly with ADSL and TV. We only have total population of 21 million but spread out all over the place. The farmers want ADSL but they will be whistling Dixie till the cows come home. :rant
Funny you mention that I was chatting with a guy on my (OHIO STATE) BUCKEYES 24/7 board who lives in the boonies, upper Minnesota near Canada I think, he went from 3 to 1 good OTA station after the conversion.

Had to finally break down and buy cable TV.....I guess we're all just customers one way or another.

*EDIT - just think there are also places in the USA without cell phone coverage. Some newer developing countries have better high tech, fiber optic, etc. because they can start new from scratch.

INFORMATION is power and freedom!! ;)
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AlphaCentauri
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Re: Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers, floppys anyone?

Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:07 pm

mjp28 wrote:just think there are also places in the USA without cell phone coverage.
When we first got a cell phone, we entertained ourselves on long car trips seeing where there was coverage. And yes, Bucksnort, Tennessee and Toadsuck Lake, Arkansas, both had a signal.

When we visited Death Valley, we didn't realize no one goes during the summer. It was 130F (54C) in the shade. As we were driving through, a French woman flagged us down because her husband had walked off into the dunes to take photographs without wearing a hat or bringing water, and he hadn't come back. She was in a panic. Of all the places on earth that need a cell phone signal, Death Valley ought to, but there's nothing. (He was ok, just too stupid to know she was right to worry.)

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