• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

12 outdated technologies that refuse to die - discuss and how many do you use?

I still have a landline.
Use a fax machine at work because, believe it or not, some things require it.
And, well, vinyl records of course.
 
Rabbit Ears...

Ironically, my LCD TV has WiFi and can access the Internet, but it is still connected to Rabbit Ears.

Think of the technology, a TV station can transmit dozens of audio/video channels up to 50-60 miles (or more) through the air :thmbsp:

One of the major telecommunications providers has been advertising wireless video like it is a new thing :dunno:
 
We are a mix of a lot of the old stuff with a bunch of the latest. Never gave up on records and still play and collect them no different than ever. If something works and you like it why not use it? Have iPhone and yet still have my original candle stick phone from my youth.
 
IXLR8 said:
...Never gave up on records and still play and collect them no different than ever...
Click to expand...

I neglected to mention records. I still have my thousands. I may have given away a few duplicates, but I've otherwise never parted with one. Where for many years I had only one good table, then one and a spare, I think I've got 8 or 9 these days, so I'm more invested in them than ever.
 
VHS

Vinyl

Lawn mower from 1965
(picture in my album)

Bakelite telephone from 1954

etc. etc.

I am surrounded by a museum ;)
 
On the vintage or supposedly obsolete side I use:

Vinyl records, of course.
Cassettes, lots of them, and several decks.
Reel to reel -- I still have recordings of my dad and aunt (both pianists) from the early 50s that play nicely.
A manual transmission in my car -- and I'll keep choosing to shift for myself until I truly can't find a car with a manual.
35mm film, cameras, and projectors -- although my main camera is a DSLR.
8mm movies, camera, and projector -- these mostly belonged to my grandfather.

I have no cable TV -- I watch a few things via Netflix, etc.

On the up-to-date side:

I do have fast Internet via cable modem -- haven't used dialup since 1998.
I've had a cellphone since about 1999 and a smartphone since 2011.
My manual-transmission car (Scion tC) is otherwise very modern and well-equipped.
I have a fairly recent computer and OS.
 
Still have a CRT TV it's one of the HDTV versions with a built in ATSC tuner. Very few new TV's have good internal tuners. Also has a signal gauge which makes aiming the antenna easy.
VHS tapes work great. although not the best looking. It can start recording in a few seconds. Unlike my DVD recorder.

Records, I own a hundred or so. Been loving the well done remasters.




Dial up is the only option in many areas. other areas suffer from price gouging due to limited options. I've read some are still paying for dial up despite not using it. being a Auto billing thing in some cases.


jn229 said:
Next: someone will be trying to tell us they have hand crank windows!
Click to expand...

Last two cars had hand crank windows always worked. current car the driver side electric window has failed. stuck in the up position. Would fix. Just a bugger to get to the inside of the door


bentpencil said:
I also have a TV antenna on my house.
Click to expand...

The amount of channels you can get is amazing. pick up around 30 unique channels . over 40 if I count the duplicates.
 
Last edited:
I drive a manual transmission car, use a 1940s telephone, and a my stereo is all tubes, but I do have wifi and am typing this on an ipad that I also used to caalong my huuge record collection on rateyourmusic.com and 45cat.com. And if the power goes out, i listen to 78s on a wind up phonograph. I do need to get a cellphone on of these days though, getting a bit hard to find a payphone when i need one.
 
I still use them all.

But I did buy a CD player and a 5.1 Sony system for the wife !! I'm hip.

Never had a cel phone. Never want one. Don't need one. Hate them actually.

The only thing harder than sitting down is standing up!!!!!!!!!! haha.
 
ra7c7er said:
I still shoot with film and enjoy it.
Click to expand...

I have recently sold some fancy lenses and enlargers on eBay,brands like Durst and Konica from the 60s and 70s.I could not believe the interest they generated,and what they went for.

Every thrift store I go to does a brisk business in VHS tapes.

I never had the need for a cell phone,but I on those rare occasions I need to make a call,it's next to impossible to find a pay phone.I only know of two working pay phones in a ten mile radius of my house.
 
I'm a bit surprised at the VHS demand. What pre-recorded VHS movies seem to be in demand?
 
I still use a Landline, if i didnt, we wouldnt have a phone, no service here!!

I just very recently got away from cassette, since 1972 I may add. Not because I think it's obsolete, mainly I just havent been using it as much as my Pioneer RT-909 that was beautifully restored to better then new by AK's own Rich Pustelniakr!! (miss you Rich,wish you'd check in now and again)

I started buying vinyl in 1963 and never stopped. Im betting I will keep buying and playing my records til death do us part.

VHS is in regular use here too. With hundreds of movies on this format, I have no desire to replace them all with DVD. The look and play fine so, as long as they do, Ill keep usin em!!
 
Let's see, where to begin........

We still have a landline, via Verizon FiOS. I have several vintage telephones, many of them rotary dial, hooked up at any given time. The FiOS box actually translates the pulses to touch-tones before they hit the phone line, which means that when I encounter "For English, press one", I can dial a 1 on the rotary dial, and it advances the menu. Only problem with it is that it is very sensitive to pulse speed and clarity; several of my vintage phones are out-of-commission, waiting to have their dials calibrated enough to work with the FiOS converter.

I still have VHS tapes, as well as some very nice VCRs (including a professional-grade Panasonic). In addition, I have Betamax tapes and VCRs, Laserdiscs, RCA Selectavision CEDs, and even a Panasonic reel-to-reel editing VTR which once belonged to PBS station WGBH. I don't watch a lot of movies, but it's nice to have the equipment around, and the quality is decent if done right.

I don't use cassettes as much as I used to, though I have a Tandberg TCD-440A in my main stereo, and I use a Fostex 4-track recorder to record my goofy music. I recently picked up a big box full of sealed "SCREAM'R" (made by Scotch) 45-minute blank cassettes from the early '90s. Goofy pastel colors, and stickers indicating that they were meant to be given away with the purchase of General Mills cereals. Not quite sure what I'm gonna do with them, though I might turn some of them into mixtapes full of aforementioned goofy music. ;)

I have dot-matrix printers to go with several of my early '80s obsolete computers, since that's all they had back then (well, also thermal and daisywheel, but those aren't quite as fun). There's nothing quite like the sound of an Apple Imagewriter II grinding its way through a letter-quality document. I handed in dot-matrix printouts to my teacher all throughout high school (I graduated in '01), even though we had a inkjet printer on our main computer, because I used either a Commodore 128 or Macintosh SE in my bedroom.

We still have several CRT-based TVs around the house, including the one in our living room (a 27" Sony Trinitron). I have CRT monitors to go with several of my vintage computers, and ones for playing classic video games on (including the vector monitors built into my GCE Vectrex, and my Atari "Star Wars" arcade machine). I recently picked up an oddball Sony "Vidimagic" projector which uses a rare "Indextron" CRT; it has some major geometry issues at the moment, but I'm hoping to fix that eventually.

I have a small collection of Palm PDAs, including a III, a IIIxe, a couple of Vs, a VII (stupid defunct cellular online service...), and a Tungsten E2. I also have a couple of Hewlett-Packard palmtops, including a 200LX (which sadly has a cracked screen :tears:) and a 660LX. They don't get a lot of use nowadays, though I used a Palm IIIxe as a glorified notepad back when I worked for Staples.

I haven't used a payphone in a few years, though I'm happy whenever I see one that's still in service. I'd also love to own a Western Electric "three slot" payphone from the '40s-60s someday, though they seem to be getting rather pricy. :sigh:

I don't shoot film as much as I used to, though I have an old Canon AE-1 Program SLR (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) which I'd like to get back into using. I also have several Polaroid cameras, including several SX-70s, which have been lying dormant since Polaroid stopped selling film for them (though it's still available from the Impossible Project, though I have yet to order any). I also want to get back into shooting Super8mm film, as long as it's available; several years back, I shot a few rolls, including one of a "Jar-Jar Binks" action figure being launched from a model rocket! :D

We still have a fax machine. Low-end, but for the few times we have to fax a document to somebody, it does the trick. I recently salvaged a Canon L90 laser fax machine, but the scanner portion leaves vertical lines in the scanned pages, and I have yet to figure out how to access the scanner head in order to clean it (if that's indeed the problem).

Last but not least, vinyl. It got me into this hobby in the first place, so it should be no surprise to learn that I own a couple dozen turntables, and several hundred records. :D I listen to 2 or 3 LPs a night on average, if I can help it. Need to pick up a new cartridge for my Beogram 8000 one of these days, though.
-Adam
 
Dude111 said:
Wow,very nice my friend!!!

I loved reading your reply!!!


I think we can all agree this article is rubbish!
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't quite go that far, just folks who are using tech they grew with and it remains useful. Doesn't mean that it hasn't been superseded by something eventually. Better is a judgement call.

I have probably 3 pentium to Pentium III computers still in inventory, just liked how it was to work on them (ABIT motherboards, but most need caps now). Had them in a game LAN for awhile.

Have abandoned all my CRT monitors and TV's due to space and weight considerations, much easier to have a multi-monitor setup this way, and frankly, my 54" Panny Plasma looks a lot better than my old 27" Sony XBR that had been repaired twice since 1987.

I still use a Nokia flip phone for my primary cell line because its cheap ($10 month plus no data usage) but I do have a iPhone 3GS (which will upgrade to a 5S or later soon) on another line for work. Haven't used a pay phone in decades, mostly because they always cost a lot and I wouldn't have change handy. besides, with most cell plans, you have long distance included.

I still run vinyl, cassettes, and lossless audio files. Still prefer knobbed preamps for controls although I like the convenience of a remote.

I was never much into film, although my brother was, and he gave it up for digital long ago, as did I around 2005. My son uses a DSLR now for filming purposes and stills.
 
My daughter bought 3 different kinds of film yesterday. She was all excited. She has a Nikon DSLR, but likes her Olympus OM-2n SLR, Holga and some other film camera with multiple lenses.

I still have some 8mm film that was put onto VHS tapes. A pile a cassettes and two decks. My main TV is a CRT. I don't watch regular TV, only DVDs. I'm avoiding buying a 50+ inch flat screen, because I will get addicted. I have a couple rolls of film in the fridge. And of course, piles of vinyl.
 
CKeeler said:
Okay, okay..........so who here still uses an abacus?
I don"t, just asking :D
Click to expand...

When I was in the 4th grade my mom sent me to abacus class/school. This was in Japan. It sucked, I couldn't understand wtf they were saying in Japanese. I had to fake it by doing the math in my head.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom