What Old Technology Has Been Replaced by Modern Innovations?

[wolram]

When dad fitted a converter to the TV so we could receive ITV as well as BBC,
2 channels wow.

 

[RonL]

I remember my first movie to watch on tv (i don't remember the name) around 1955-57, A rich man would close his home and dismiss his staff, and winter in Florida, as soon as he left, this bum, who has been living in the park, would slip in through a basement window and take on the life of the rich man while he was gone, and when the rich man returned , the bum had closed down the house and release the staff, and removed all traces that he had been there.

It was a simple, but cute movie, most likely quite boring by todays standards.

 

[rewebster]

I still have my dad's old degaussing coil.

I found one at a garage sale for a buck--I thought that there's got to be another use for it (for that price!)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, not much use these days. I've tried degaussing my wife but it hasn't helped.

 

[scorpa]

Until I was in around grade 6 or 7 or so we only had one TV channel, I remember being quite excited to have a satellite dish.

 

[rewebster]

Yeah, not much use these days. I've tried degaussing my wife but it hasn't helped.

I thought being magnetic was a good thing

 

[Kurdt]

I thought being magnetic was a good thing

Not if you have a CRT telly.

 

[turbo]

I remember when central Maine had two TV stations, both out of Bangor. They broadcast shows from about 6-7am until 10-11 pm and and test patterns the rest of the time. Most of the daytime shows were local content - locals playing instruments and singing, with call-in conversations with fans, kids shows with local talent showing kids how to cut out silhouettes, draw, etc, with obligatory cartoon breaks. There was very little network content until the national news came on after supper, and then a few evening shows.

 

[wolram]

when one could crank a car if the battery was flat, now cranks drive cars.

 

[edward]

when one could crank a car if the battery was flat, now cranks drive cars.

I remember when a car's battery was dead you could get a push either by hand or by another car a to start it.

I also remember my first few TV sets frequently had to have the vertical roll control knob adjusted. It took about ten years before the manufacturers started to put the blasted knob on the front of the set instead of on the back.

 

[Moonbear]

I remember when a car's battery was dead you could get a push either by hand or by another car a to start it.

Ah yes, I used to live on the top of a hill, and our neighbors had a VW Bug that still worked that way, and I remember many times they'd start pushing the thing down the hill to get it started.

I also remember my first few TV sets frequently had to have the vertical roll control knob adjusted. It took about ten years before the manufacturers started to put the blasted knob on the front of the set instead of on the back.

Yep, remember that too! Though, I don't recall ever having that knob on the front. I must've hung onto the old TV set long enough that by the time I got a new one, we didn't need those vertical control knobs anymore. (Then it was the "tracking" button on the VCR.)

I remember the TV being a big beast in a wooden box, with the box on the floor behind it to adjust the antenna on the roof (until it got so out of whack that Dad had to go on the roof to adjust it), and having to replace tubes in the TV every so often.

 

[D H]

11 pages, and nobody remembers party lines?? I cannot remember our ring tone, though.

 

[binzing]

We already talked about party lines, you obviously didnt read all the "11 pages"

 

[Moonbear]

11 pages, and nobody remembers party lines?? I cannot remember our ring tone, though.

Someone mentioned party lines a page or so ago. We didn't have one, but my grandmother still had one when I was a kid...party line with the house behind her. Every so often you'd pick up the phone to make a call and someone would already be on it.

 

[scorpa]

Someone mentioned party lines a page or so ago. We didn't have one, but my grandmother still had one when I was a kid...party line with the house behind her. Every so often you'd pick up the phone to make a call and someone would already be on it.

Apparently my grandpa used to get so mad when he needed to make a call to the elevator or something and the gossipy neighbour was inevitably on the phone for hours at a time so that he couldn't make his call. They also used to have a cat that would sit on the telephone line cutting off the phone for everyone on the party line, eventually someone would drive to the house to tell them to get the damn cat off the phone line.

 

[binzing]

Lol that's good.

 

[RonL]

They also used to have a cat that would sit on the telephone line cutting off the phone for everyone on the party line, eventually someone would drive to the house to tell them to get the damn cat off the phone line.

That leaves me in the dark??

 

[turbo]

Our magneto/crank phone was replaced by a dial phone in 1970. I came home on a break from school, and found a brand-new dial phone in the front room.

Change comes slow in rural Maine, and the last magneto-crank phone system was finally converted in 1983 in Bryant Pond.
http://www.privateline.com/mt_telephonehistory/iv_the_telephone_evolves/07_part_g/

 

[jim mcnamara]

Change comes slow in rural Maine, and the last magneto-crank phone system was finally converted in 1983 in Bryant Pond.
http://www.privateline.com/mt_telephonehistory/iv_the_telephone_evolves/07_part_g/

Maine got Rural Electrification when every one started to get it, as I recall. The "maine" driving force according the the NRECA archives was so folks could use refrigeration to save food from spoiling. A powerful motive down under or anywhere else.

What coop serves you guys?

 

[BobG]

I remember when you could have the students calculate the speed of a satellite (in meters/second) in a circular orbit of 12,988.259 km and then turn their calculators upside down to see the name of their favorite instructor.

That problem worked great on the old TI-25X and other 7-segment displays.

With a 31x96 dot LCD capable of displaying 2 lines of either symbolic notation and/or answers out to 10 digits or more, the problem just isn't nearly as entertaining on a Casio fx-300ES or graphing calculator.

No more designing problems to spell out cuss words when you turn the calculator upside down.

 

[turbo]

Maine got Rural Electrification when every one started to get it, as I recall. The "maine" driving force according the the NRECA archives was so folks could use refrigeration to save food from spoiling. A powerful motive down under or anywhere else.

What coop serves you guys?

Actually, we got electrified pretty early. The little town I grew up in (Moscow) had a large hydro dam commissioned in 1931. Its power was subscribed by a pulp and paper mill in Bucksport. Since the mill was completed before the dam, barges with package boilers and turbine generators were floated up the Penobscot river and moored alongside the mill to provide electricity.

Maine is a net exporter of electrical power due to all the hydro stations. Our area is served by Central Maine Power (transmission only) and Florida Power and Light (they bought all of CMP's generating capacity).

 

[_Mayday_]

This was the definition of cool.

http://www.moviecritic.com.au/userimages/user624_1168917590.jpg

 

[Kurdt]

This was the definition of cool.

http://www.moviecritic.com.au/userimages/user624_1168917590.jpg

Having a suspicious lump in your spangly pants?

 

[_Mayday_]

Having a suspicious lump in your spangly pants?

ye what is that? I meant the whole over the top image. (minus the lump)

 

[texasblitzem]

I remember you would give the cashier your credit card and she would place it under the small paper and slide the little thing back and forth to imprint the numbers onto the paper and carbon copy. I loved the sound those things made.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I remember car phones. Those were around for a good 2 weeks.
Oh yeah and beepers. Wow those are literally useless now.

 

[Evo]

I remember car phones. Those were around for a good 2 weeks.
Oh yeah and beepers. Wow those are literally useless now.

What about the bag phones?

 

[turbo]

I remember when my grandfather had a little counter-top Coke machine in his repair shop. It dispensed icy 6-oz bottles of Coke, and he used to make people drink the Coke in the waiting area and put the bottles into the wooden crate to be returned. Coke had phased out the small bottles, and he was one of the few people with one of those tiny dispensers, so he had to make sure that the bottles all got sent back to the bottler for refilling. I remember when the bottler increased the price so that he had to charge 3 cents a bottle for the soda instead of 2. He was ticked off about that one!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I remember this thread.

 

[Evo]

I remember this thread.

I forgot it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I remember when any man with long hair was considered to be either a girly man or a pinko commie.

 

[texasblitzem]

I remember taking 35mm rolls of film to get developed. This digital age sure is convenient.

 

[physics girl phd]

I remember you would give the cashier your credit card and she would place it under the small paper and slide the little thing back and forth to imprint the numbers onto the paper and carbon copy. I loved the sound those things made.

I remember that too... but SURPRISE: I also got one of those just yesterday. No kidding. It shocked the heck out of me. I think they wanted it as documentation only... since the store was calling in an order for me, they just wanted proof in their files that I was there with the card.

It reminds me of this board game too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MX2hxmfx_Q". The new commercial shows them "swiping" the credit card... but in the version our neighbors had in the 80's, you would use a carbon copier.
I'm personally surprised that game's still around. From what I remember, it wasn't that fun.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I forgot it.

Yeah, that too.

 

[Moonbear]

I remember you would give the cashier your credit card and she would place it under the small paper and slide the little thing back and forth to imprint the numbers onto the paper and carbon copy. I loved the sound those things made.

I remember when they were charge cards, not credit cards. It used to be Master Charge, not MasterCard. And I remember when not everyone had them.

 

[Kurdt]

And I remember when not everyone had them.

I don't have one. But I'm a bum.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't have one. But I'm a bum.

No, you're liquid.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Who collected Blue Chip Stamps? And what were the other [green] ones... S&H, or something like that?

Richfield oil company
Fuller Brush salesmen
phone numbers that didn't have seven digits
long distance phone rates on the order of dollars per minute
Rocket launches from Vandenberg AFB

When Frank Sinatra was THE man.

I remember when we thought Carol Burnett was funny. Looking back now it is hard to understand. I guess her form of comedy was really a variety of Vaudeville slapstick that made it well into the 1970's. At some point after that, humor of that form seems to have vanished. It is interesting that while some comedy is timeless, most is very much a product of its time not only in content, which is easy to understand, but also, style. We seem to be growing more and more sophisticated in this regard. Styles of comedy just quit being funny over time.

 

[rootX]

I remember when there was no 3g network.

 

[Evo]

I remember when there was no 3g network.

Did you know that there is a 4G network now?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Did you know that there is a 4G network now?

I remember when there was no 4G network.

 

[Moonbear]

Did you know that there is a 4G network now?

I still don't even know what 3G is. What were 1G and 2G?

 

[mgb_phys]

I still don't even know what 3G is. What were 1G and 2G?

1G is the original analogue mobile phone, 2G is GSM (or PCS in the US) 3G is GSM with internet.
They weren't called 1G and 2G until 3G came out - like WWI wasn't called WWI until after WWII

I remember almost causing a strike when 3G was being developed. Our telecoms group was developing 3G handsets before they were available and so we had to have our own 3G cell tower. It was mounted on the tallest building on site which is where all the admin/secretaries worked, this was also coincidentally the furthest point from the telecoms labs - I mentioned this in an email. Unfortunately it went out on the company wide instead of group wide list!
It took a lot of reassuring presentations and counseling meetings from the bosses to convince them that they weren't all doomed.

 

[texasblitzem]

Remember when computer mice only had one button and no scroll wheel? The scroll wheel is a great invention.
Or remember those old dot matrix printers?! I hated those, they were so noisy. and the stupid paper you had to tear the sides with the holes off. UUGGHHH

 

[BobG]

Or remember those old dot matrix printers?! I hated those, they were so noisy. and the stupid paper you had to tear the sides with the holes off. UUGGHHH

I loved dot matrix printers. I finally had to replace mine because I couldn't find ribbons for it anymore.

And I liked tearing off the sides. You could do things with the scraps, like fold them up. They were as much fun as the old pop tops on soda cans (you could make chains from them) and folding up gum wrappers (you could make chains from them, too).

That was the days when trash was art - much better than the days when art was trash.

Besides, what else could a person do to pass the time before bubble wrap?

 

[turbo]

I remember when "the computer" was hidden in an air-conditioned brick building on campus, and you had to wait in line to transcribe your (hopefully bug-free) code using massive IBM punch-card consoles. Turn in the cards, wait patiently for a day or two, and hope for a nice accordion-fold print-out on green and white tractor-feed paper. CUPL, Fortran... blah!

 

[BobG]

I remember the 5 and 1/4 inch floppies with the little hole in the disk so the computer could synch up on the positioning of the data. You could borrow someone's most precious disk full of irreplacable data, then return it thumbtacked to their bulletin board. (The key was to carefully run the thumbtack through the hole in the disk - unless you really hated the guy and wanted to cause him unbearable pain.)

I also remember Z-100's with zdos. To format a floppy, you had to input "format a:". If you were absent minded and only typed in "format", your entire hard disk was formatted.

One of my coworkers was notorious for formatting our hard drive. Since we religiously backed up our files once a month, it wasn't disasterous, but still a major pain. I finally renamed the "format" command and wrote a basic program to format floppies. The program made it impossible to format the hard drive, but, being a smart aleck about our past problems, the program output funny messages about how the hard drive was being formatted no matter what you did. The guy that had the problem with formatting the hard drive thought it was hilarious.

At least, until the disk controller died all of the files had to be restored. Since it was a spur of the moment thing out of frustration, I never backed up the program that formatted floppies. The formatting fiend was showing a new guy around the office and told the new guy to type in "format". Being computer savvy (in fact, this happened to be the guy that sold me the dot matrix I loved so much), he kept telling the formatting fiend that he shouldn't do that. Formatting fiend kept insisting, reassuring the new guy that this would be funny as hell. The new guy finally typed in "format" and the computer started formatting without any of the funny messages that formatting fiend had become accustomed to. Finally, the formatting fiend realized what was happening and screamed in horror that the computer was formatting the hard drive. The new guy had to agree that typing in "format" was pretty funny, at that - in fact, this seemed like the most entertaining office he'd ever worked in.

 

[Moonbear]

Remember when computer mice only had one button and no scroll wheel?

I remember when "mice" was only a reference to small, furry mammals.

I have a sore spot about dot matrix printers...the first time I truly felt old was when we hired a student in the lab, showed her the old computer connected to a dot matrix printer that we used exclusively to print labels, and she exclaimed, "What's that?! I've never seen a printer like that!" I actually really miss that printer and label program...when you're printing hundreds of labels for samples, there is something very appealing about just entering 4 lines of text and having the computer know to print out labels numbered from 1 to 300 with the rest of the text the same, and without having to fuss with telling it how the labels are organized on the sheet of paper, and when you're done, your labels stay in order, all the pages attached to each other, so you don't lose a page or get them applied out of order.

 

[mgb_phys]

Our grandparents were nostalgic about oil lamps and horses, our parents rembered steam trains - we have dot matrix printers and ascii art.

Even nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

 

[Kurdt]

I remember the day when people stopped remebering the day...