Top 10 Tech We Miss - What Would You Add?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around nostalgic technologies and products that participants feel have been lost or are no longer prevalent. The scope includes personal reflections on various types of technology, from consumer electronics to traditional tools and methods, highlighting both emotional connections and practical aspects.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express nostalgia for the Atari 2600 as a significant gaming console.
  • One participant reminisces about Tilley Lamps, emphasizing their engaging use and the magical ambiance they create.
  • Another participant misses green-screen monitors, associating them with a sense of adventure.
  • Steam trains are mentioned as a beautiful technology, appreciated for their sensory experiences.
  • Manual chokes in cars are noted for making driving feel more significant, with some participants sharing personal anecdotes related to them.
  • Non-safety matches are recalled for their thrill and unique usage experiences.
  • Casio Keyboards from the 1980s are remembered for their lo-fi sounds and fun features.
  • One participant misses the ability to work on cars with a reasonable toolset, indicating a preference for older automotive designs.
  • Old stock tickers are fondly remembered for their nostalgic value and childhood experiences.
  • The Commodore 64 is highlighted as a beloved early computer, with participants sharing fond memories of learning programming on it.
  • Real space exploration is mentioned as a technology that many participants wish had continued to evolve.
  • Napster is noted for its role in expanding music access and exploration.
  • Slide rules are appreciated for their tactile experience and mathematical utility.
  • Some participants express a desire for clacking keyboards, contrasting them with modern "squishy" keyboards.
  • Writing letters on paper is recalled as a special experience compared to receiving emails.
  • There is a discussion about the impact of cars on travel experiences, with some participants lamenting the loss of adventure in modern travel.
  • Old steam-powered tractors and hand-powered ice cream makers are mentioned as nostalgic technologies that participants miss.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of personal preferences and nostalgic feelings towards various technologies, with no clear consensus on which technologies are most missed. Multiple competing views exist regarding the value and significance of different technologies.

Contextual Notes

Some contributions reflect personal experiences and emotional connections to technologies that may not be universally recognized or valued. The discussion includes a mix of subjective nostalgia and practical considerations, with no definitive conclusions drawn.

jma2001
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From the article:
"Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo."

http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-6259955-1.html

What would you add to this list?
 
Computer science news on Phys.org
atari 2600
 
I miss Tilley Lamps. They're not really from my time (and you can still get them!), but I've had the joy of being able to use them once or twice. Their use makes you feel important. You have to prime them, pump them up, light them properly, oil them, and generally look after them. It's so much more exciting than just flipping a switch. Also, the light they give off has a kind of magical feel to it, especially when you're out on a calm sea, late at night, on a big sailing boat, watching the stars. Blissful.

I miss green-screen monitors. They always used to make me feel like I was at mission control for a space adventure.

I miss steam trains. Again, not really from my time, but the smell, the smut, the sound, all so beautiful. The way that you can see all the working parts, and the way that you have to wait for hours while it steams up before you can go anywhere.

I miss having a manual choke in my car. Having to open the choke to start a cold engine made driving feel more important. Almost, urrm, again, like driving some kind of space ship...[/size]

I miss non-safety matches. Can we still get them? The thrill of being able to spark up using only the stubble on your chin was pretty special.

I miss Casio Keyboards from the 1980s, when the sounds were so lo-fi that they were legendary. Keyboards today sound like real instruments, where's the fun in that? I miss the drum beats like "Samba" and "Bossa Nova", and tones like "Human Voice" and "Tuba", which blatently sound nothing like either.
 
I miss cars that can be worked on with a reasonable toolset.
 
I miss my Dad old stock ticker, as a kid it was a great honor to be the one asked to turn it on, and watch the paper snake slither its way to the ground.
 
The Commodore 64... my very first putter :cry:
 
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From CNet's list, real space exploration is a good number one choice. Those were exciting times, when each new accomplishment was actually leading towards something great.

Napster was a good choice for the list, as well. Living in a town that offered nothing but mainstream music choices, Napster offered a chance to explore something new. If an individual popped up on 2 or 3 of the searches for one of your favorites, there was a good chance he had a lot of good music in his library that you hadn't even heard of yet - and Napster offered the capability to browse his library and download songs at random.

From the other suggestions here...

Man, how could they let the Commodore 64 die. I learned Basic on that thing, even had MetaBasic, plus several programming software aids and was even moving down the road towards learning assembly language. And the games were classics - there was nothing better than playing full-contact Jeopardy with a gathering of drunk friends.

And I miss non-safety matches. I'd never be able to recreate today the feat I achieved as a kid - I lit an entire book of matches in my pocket on the upsweep of my yo-yo. ( :rolleyes: okay, that wasn't exactly planned)

Other technology I miss -

The slide rule (okay, it's probably not fair to say I miss them when I still have a good working collection of them). There's nothing quite like the feel of a Hemmi bamboo slide rule - it takes math to a whole new level.

The 60 foot, 80 foot, 85 foot satellite dishes that could only track one object at a time. Tracking satellites gave you a much more macho feeling when you did it with an 85 foot antenna - especially if you slewed the antenna so fast pieces flew off. Nowadays, you have 20 foot, 14 foot, 10 foot dishes that do the same thing and phased array radars that can track dozens of objects simultaneously without the antenna having to move at all.
 
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Ahhh, Bob and his slide rules.

I really should get one and learn to use it, the amount you go on about them!
 
Kodachrome
 
  • #10
Oh god yes, good keyboards!
 
  • #11
Funny to see "clacking" keyboards on the list. I was just out this weekend looking for a full-size keyboard to plug into my laptop for when I'm using it at home, and after testing all the keyboards I came across, they all have that same "squishy" feel that I hate. I was really missing those "clacking" keyboards. I think I type better on those too, because I can really feel every keystroke, and there's just this satisfaction you get from hearing yourself going *clackity clackity clackity clackity clackity* as you're typing something important.
 
  • #12
brewnog said:
I miss having a manual choke in my car. Having to open the choke to start a cold engine made driving feel more important. Almost, urrm, again, like driving some kind of space ship...[/size]
Just how old are you? Manual choke? What were you driving, a Model T?

I miss writing letters, on paper, with ink. It felt special to get a letter from a friend in the mailbox; there's nothing special feeling about getting email.
 
  • #13
Moonbear said:
Just how old are you? Manual choke? What were you driving, a Model T?

lol "im sick of these new things called windows"
 
  • #14
Moonbear said:
Funny to see "clacking" keyboards on the list. I was just out this weekend looking for a full-size keyboard to plug into my laptop for when I'm using it at home, and after testing all the keyboards I came across, they all have that same "squishy" feel that I hate. I was really missing those "clacking" keyboards. I think I type better on those too, because I can really feel every keystroke, and there's just this satisfaction you get from hearing yourself going *clackity clackity clackity clackity clackity* as you're typing something important.
Funny how many people liked those clackity keyboards. I always hated them because they made so much NOISE and I always felt self-conscious using them in libraries and quiet offices. Even now, when we all have "mushy" keyboards, you can sometimes hear people typing during teleconferences, and occasionally someone will complain about the noisy typing.
 
  • #15
Moonbear said:
Just how old are you? Manual choke? What were you driving, a Model T?
Manual chokes were used into the sixties in America until they were outlawed. People would accidentally leave them on and hence cause excessive pollution.

However, it was also possible with V-8 automatic-choked cars to drive around all day with the choke on. The choke stayed on unless the accelerator pedal was touched, but I found it was possible in my Camaro to drive around at 30+ miles per hour as well as come to a complete stop and accelerate without ever touching the accelerator pedal. Even though it had plenty of horsepower at high idle, the torque converter had enough slip at high idle to allow the car to come to a complete stop with the brakes applied.
 
  • #16
Hand-to-hand warfare.
 
  • #17
Cars have probably deprived us of the real adventure, long journies and nights. I miss how people used to travel from one place to another without knowing where they were heading to , and when the night comes, they used to rest in tents or someone's house.And now when you need to reach a place , first of all biggest discourgaement is that you know where the place is , and secondly , you just sit in the car and travel to that place , and then you think that you deserved that place.
 
  • #18
In addition to the commodore 64 I always liked the old steam powered tractors and the old threshing machines. Or how about the hand powered ice cream makers, what a workout that was.
 
  • #19
Townsend said:
Or how about the hand powered ice cream makers, what a workout that was.
But, so worth it. I almost forgot about those.
 
  • #20
none, i like all the new technology better muahhahahahaha!
 
  • #21
I also miss the original CAD software. It used to feel so cool drawing up architectural plans on those primitive green screens.
 
  • #22
Moonbrr said:
Just how old are you? Manual choke? What were you driving, a Model T?

Ha, no! I'm only 21, but I remember driving my mum's 1985 Metro with a manual choke when I was about 14. Suppose the standard of driving is so much better over here that they didn't see fit to outlaw them! :-p
 
  • #23
brewnog said:
Suppose the standard of driving is so much better over here that they didn't see fit to outlaw them! :-p

Are you serious? I mean you could be...I wouldn't actually know anything about it, I just find that idea very surprising.
 
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  • #24
I miss my parent's Cobra arm Hi-Fi, electromagnetic speakers, and most of all, vacuum tubes. Ah, I remember those long nights standing over the tube tester at Thrifty Drug Store with dad. Now that was quality time.

Thermal printer paper

And seriously, reel to reel tape players. I loved those things!

TV remote control units that were wired to the set.

Black and white TV...and fuzzy prize fights from Madison Square Garden.

Cinemascope

Big wings on cars named after planets; though I never did figure out the true purpose of the vertical stabilizers.

Fuel line magnets for cars. They didn't work, or course, but it sure sounded neat.

Leaded gas. Cars never ran better. But, okay, maybe they had a point about the poisoning thing... :rolleyes:

Coffin bells that allowed one to signal if buried alive by accident.

Hats with propellers. I think Beanie Boy was the last to wear one.

Wind-up toys. Does anyone remember when the key to power was a good spiral spring? I had toys like this that had belonged to my dad.

Slot cars

The 1950s and 60s were filled with all sorts of nutty inventions. Most were either silly, strange, incredibly expensive, impractical, or absolutely impossible to ever use. I remember one unusual car that was designed to drive on three wheels in the event of a flat tire. I saw a guy on TV that had one. He loved to drive around with one wheel missing.

RADAR ovens

Magnetic refrigerators. Whatever happened to that idea?

Here is one for Russ; ammonia and sulphur dioxide refrigerators. Refrigeration work was once a very dangerous job. A leak could be deadly.

Telegraph machines. That morse code that I learned as a kid has come in real handy. :rolleyes:

Multimate; the ultimate word processor.

DOS
 
  • #25
Ivan Seeking said:
Coffin bells that allowed one to signal if buried alive by accident.

This is one thing we need to keep...
 
  • #26
Imagine the carpal tunnel problems that telegraph operators must have had.

Oh yes, employers once had a technology available to them not allowed today: Whips. Now those were the days.
 

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