4-28-20 losing your purpose...
16Yesterday we talked about things that are losing their historical context, which made me think of other tech that has virtually disappeared in my lifetime, things like:
Mimeograph machines (“I love the smell of mimeos in the morning”)
Teletypes
Dial-up modems (esp the early ones when you placed a phone receiver in a cradle)
Slide rules (Do you still think you could use one?)
Punch Cards (both for computers and time clocks)
Wall phones
Push button selectors for automobile shifters/column shift sticks.
The high beam button on the floorboard
What else can you recall that has dropped from use in your lifetime. All right all you old farts help me out here…
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Typewriters.
/image selectric
Automobile in-dash cassette players.
Soon-to-join-them: in-dash CD players.
Add-on portable DVD players and built-in entertainment consoles. Remember the mini-vans with the flip-down screens for the kids or the over-headrest strap-ons?
@mike808
I have a van with a flip down screen!
@mike808 I’d say cassette players of any kind, and dvd players not far behind…
Multi-disc CD (and later DVD) changers.
The thing I miss the most that has disappeared from pretty much everything?
Demonstrable Craftsmanship.
Got anything for that, giphy?
/giphy demonstrable craftsmanship
Videotape.
/giphy vcr
@mike808
/giphy betamax
@mike808 @tinamarie1974 my parents had voted for the betamax over the vhs… they lost that gamble
@amehzinggrace @mike808 @tinamarie1974 I think we still have a player somewhere.
@amehzinggrace @mike808 @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG Beta was better quality. We could copy VHS movies onto Beta without much quality loss. I still have a player.
@amehzinggrace @callow @mike808 @tinamarie1974 @ybmuG @callow Yep, people opted for the additional recording time of the VHS over the quality of Beta.
@amehzinggrace @callow @DrWorm @mike808 @tinamarie1974 Yep, as it often does, the market makes a nearsighted choice.
Electric knives. Now there’s a Meh item!
/image electric knife
@mike808 well how do you cut the Thanksgiving Turkey without one of those!
@mike808 @tinamarie1974 a regular knife?
Last year was the first time in probably fifteen years that I saw an electric knife in person.
@mike808 @RiotDemon really? Nope, my dad breaks out the electric knife every year for his carving duties. I think he uses it 2x a year max (Turkey day and sometimes Christmas)
@RiotDemon @tinamarie1974
RealMen™ don’t need motorized enhancement.
People have been carving animal carcasses with regular knives for many thousands of years.
@mike808 @RiotDemon I disagree, most real men I know want to have the biggest toys or best sports car, etc. So a “powered knife” seems right up the “more power” alley. And for the record, my daddy is amazing!
Pre-emptive time-traveller posting from the year 3020 for the
/image Emeril Air Fryer Pressure Cooker.
@mike808 Emeril himself!
Judging from the current social and political climate in social media (particularly Facebook) I’d say that this has become fairly obsolete…
@Pufferfishy Who needs one of those with such sound advice from the oval office?!?!?
@Pufferfishy @zinimusprime
What a great example…
/image 8 track tape
@cattylaq No love for 4 track?
@blaineg @cattylaq WTH is a 4 track?!?!?!
@cattylaq @tinamarie1974 It’s much the same size and shape as the 8 track, but the pinch roller is part of the player, not the cartridge. That’s the bottom of the cart, and when you pull a lever, the roller pops up into the big hole.
It’s older than the 8 track. The only reason I know about it is one of my Dad’s friends had one installed under the dash of his camper.
@blaineg @cattylaq thanks, I learned something new today!
@blaineg
You lost me at pinch roller.
@jst1ofknd The pinch roller is the large rubber roller, as opposed to the small metal drive roller. The tape is pinched between them.
/image laser disk player
/image station wagon
@cattylaq I had a station wagon. I had a caprice classic. But I never had a caprice station wagon. My life will never be complete.
@cattylaq when we had to get a junker for the teens to learn driving (don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s too costly so let them drive your 1yr old 20k car, so when they wreck it, ins doesn’t cover the loan, you now need to quick buy a car for you to get around, …), we got a station wagon because we wanted something a bit bigger for them to have to learn to maneuver. Secretly it made me happy to have a station wagon again: nostalgia.
Only thing missing is wood paneling. 
@cattylaq @mollama Peak station wagon has to be the Vista Cruiser. I still remember fighting over the skylight seats.
@blaineg @cattylaq @mollama
You poor lost soul.
The 1983 Ford Wagon Queen Family Truckster is peak station wagon, my friend.
@blaineg @mike808 @mollama
I want one, for Demolition Derby in August.
/giphy demolition derby
@cattylaq @mike808 @mollama
But can you buy one?
/giphy movie rental store
@zinimusprime I was unpacking a box the other day and found my Blockbuster card! Think I can still use it?
@zinimusprime hahahahahaha, i don’t know why giphy picked that… Let’s try this again.
/giphy blockbuster rental
@tinamarie1974 I mean, it never hurts to try. Let us know what movies you get!
@zinimusprime I just checked and I think the commute to Bend, OR may be a little far.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/business/last-blockbuster-store.amp.html
@tinamarie1974 I just saw on a bit on the local news last week that they are doing great business during the quarantine.
@macromeh @tinamarie1974 I used to work at a local chain here in Massachusetts. Oh those were the days. I think I can recite Aladdin and Ice Age because I had them playing constantly. That and LOTR.
Fax machines, while they absolutely should die, are still in use somehow.
@PocketBrain doctors offices and pharmacies I think
@PocketBrain @tinamarie1974 And lawyers.
Faxes are legally acceptable authenticated documents, and used in real estate closings, for example.
That’s also why forging the fax identification info is also a federal offense.
@mike808 @PocketBrain yup, yup
@mike808 @PocketBrain @tinamarie1974 true… but it’s been at least 10+ years since they started with the “digital signature” on PDFs, and its everywhere now. Real estate, courts, loans, etc. So, no clue why anyone clings to the fax machine other than traditionphilia or technophobia. Big shock for me is that even notarizations can be done remotely in some places now!
@PocketBrain I work for city govt. we still use them all the time. Often because no one has one generic company e-mail. So if I need info from the county office I can send my stuff via fax and whoever isn’t busy gets it. Otherwise I’d need a specific person to e-mail to. And honestly the office I fax with the most has a lot of employee turnover.
Pocket calculator?
@blaineg the Curta! Way ahead of its time.
@PocketBrain My Dad brought one home from work one day, when we were kids. Someone had left it in a conference room, and he was never able to track down the owner. He figured they’d “lost” it so that they could replace it with one of the newfangled electronic calculators.
Utterly amazing piece of mechanical engineering!
Blackberry phones. In February, TCL (the current global licensee for Blackberry branded phones) announced that it “will no longer be selling” BlackBerry-branded phones as of August 31st, 2020.
/image blackberry bold
@mike808
Re blackberry
: (
@mike808 the one I had was the worst phone I’ve ever owned. It liked to lock up all the time.
Going, going, soon gone?
/image US penny
@f00l hopefully. It costs 1.6 cents to make a penny.
Um, … too soon?
Speakerdocks
/image cassette answering machine
/image portable CD player
Not a piece of technology, but here you go
Penmanship
@robson
My kids can’t read cursive at all. That’s actually okay because I can’t write cursive…
@jst1ofknd @robson
/image cursive practice book
Floppy disks
@robson Floppy dicks.
/image viagra
@shahnm
Glad that works for you. BTW, make sure you don’t take any nitrates (like nitroglycerine tabs) for about 24 hours after.
/image slide rule
@Kidsandliz sorry, no points…mentioned in the OP…
@chienfou Say what? You expect me to read carefully?
Cigarette machines. For the most part.
@lordbowen I’ve seen those repurposed as “Art-a-Matics”, vending machines for little art pieces, mini-sculptures and stuff.
I have a drawer with some film cameras and about a dozen rolls of film, and one really short-lived product, a Kodak “FunSaver Panoramic 35.” It’s a one-time use disposable carton camera that gives you extra-wide panoramic photos. Also a red-eye correction pen to touch up flash photos.
@Kyeh yeah, I miss 35mm and B&W darkroom time…
@chienfou @Kyeh me too
@chienfou @robson You can still get 35 mm B&W film… what I really don’t miss is coming home from a trip with a dozen rolls of film, taking it to be developed, and then throwing out a bunch of pix that didn’t come out well.
@Kyeh @robson I remember at trip to Peru that included a climb up Huayna Picchu to overlook the site at Machu Picchu. I shot about 25 rolls of film on that trip and then had a shit-fit to get it hand checked so it wouldn’t go thru the x-ray machine…
Helicopter cameramen
TV Guide.
Arcades.
Coca-Cola made with sugar (in the U.S.)
Prank calling.
Dressing to the 9s for an airplane trip.
Car repair manuals.
Slide projector (and slide film).
Printed road maps.
Calculator watch.
Sharp Wizard electronic organizer.
Radio Shack.
Handshakes.
Dine-in restaurants.
Fully-revealed faces in public.
Balanced budget.
@readnj
All or almost all 18 wheelers still have them and use them. They’re a necessity in many or most loading yards/docks.
That means they’re also still quite useful to normal drivers on the highways in an emergency. If a trucker is in range, odds are decent of getting a response.
Also, LEO officials still monitor them.
@f00l Good to know. I thought that cell phones totally overshadowed the SSB CB
@readnj Breaker, one-nine!
@readnj
In loading yards/docks, the logistics people, dispatchers, etc can talk to the truckers without needing cell numbers.
I have an old primitive one in the trunk. Sometimes I mess w it. Was useful to me on an icy night a few months ago. By listening to the trucker chatter, I knew where the problem areas were.
I’ve never had a chat; I don’t know the conversational customer.
@PocketBrain @readnj @f00l
Hey, looks like we got us a convoy!
I was one of the last holdouts that I knew that was still taking a daily newspaper. I would probably still be subscribing if my local paper hadn’t been consumed by Gannet media and essentially “punted” on any attempt to cover local news.
@DrWorm My little town actually has a weekly newspaper. It is delivered by the nearly bankrupt post office.
Wonder how much longer this will be a thing…
@DrWorm I started getting it again on Sunday, Groupon had a deal for Seattle times, with full online access. It’s been nice to have
@DrWorm I still get one, even though it gets skinnier every year and they keep replacing the features with car ads. Just today I put out a bag of papers for someone whose daughter is making a a papier-mâché model of the solar system.
@DrWorm @Kyeh I fall in both categories. I get the (ever shrinking) newspaper delivered daily , and once a week (today in fact) I get the local weekly in my mailbox.
Call me a Luddite!
Punctuation and grammar…
Granted, much punctuation has in recent years been repurposed into emojis, but that just isn’t the same…
@shahnm
And spelling.
@f00l @shahnm
Wot? Who U tryna f00l?
@mike808 @shahnm
/giphy wut?
/giphy I Kant speel.
Instant on, that come on hot, car heaters. I know for sure 1940 Packards had one as my dad had that car (my sister has it now). He bought it as a really old used car from a little old lady who proverbially only drove it to church on Sundays. That car came with a really nice, thick, blanket for the back seat too.
Got tired of finding photos
Paper phone books and maps
Overhead projectors
Adding machine
Incandescent lights
telegraph
dot matrix printers
steam locomotive
computer punch cards
analog TV’s
oilcloth raincoats
canvas back packing tents
non-scoopable cat litter
@Kidsandliz film cassettes make me nostalgic.
@robson Yes. And I have a Kodak slide projector and a bunch of slides too. The color on those was so rich.
@Kidsandliz Some of that stuff I don’t miss at all! Also, remember that waffle-knit long underwear? It would get baggy after an hour or so - I hated it.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh
I know a serious photog hobbyist who still uses film. He has a 5x7 view camera and tripod, as well as some old leicas, nikons etc.
(The original of that photo of a Leica is v likely digital)
@f00l @Kidsandliz Nice! I have my father’s old Leica that he brought back from Germany when he got out of the army. It’s the simplest tourist version, but I treasure it. I actually learned 35mm photography on it, which was challenging, because you have to use a separate light meter and set all the f-stops manually. This was for a college photo journalism class and all the other kids had fancy automatic DSLs. I got an A in the class, though!
@f00l @Kyeh I still have an Olympus OM 1 with a number of lenses. It was/is a nice camera. Haven’t used it in a long time though. I guess I need to sell it to someone who still uses film.
With manual settings you can do all sorts of things that auto everything can’t do. My OM1 is manual settings.
@f00l @Kidsandliz Yes, for sure. The Leica also has the nicest lens - such great detail. But I do love the convenience of my iPhone camera!
Reel-to-reel tape recorders.
/giphy reel-to-reel tape recorder
@PocketBrain Hey I have a tape someone gave me for one of those of some carillon concerts. I wonder if the tape is still good or if it has self destructed due to age. Nothing to play it on though so have no idea. Anyone know how long those last with respect to preserving the recording?
@Kidsandliz @PocketBrain
You might find a HS or college media lab with a reel2reel.
Or if you know anyone who works in a trad tv or radio station, or a recording studio that’s been around a while, they might have one.
My aunt had some old family recording made on one of those old wire recorders that were ancient history even decades ago. She paid someone to xfer them to then-current cassettes.
@f00l Thanks for the idea. It’s worth looking into. The only other thing I though about was see if anyone who is interested in carillon music wants it on the condition that they make me a CD or mp3 file of it in exchange for me giving it to them.
@Kidsandliz That reel tape might still be good. How old exactly is it? I still have some old cassettes from the 1980s that have sound on them. Also, two reel-to-reel recorders that I intend to refurbish.
@PocketBrain Late 1976