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What old tech do you still have or use around the house or at work?


Wally Fairway

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Going to have to disagree with you there chief. By the late '70s there was a lot of tech going into high end bikes.

 

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57 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

Bicycles were invented in 1817. They are not "tech"

Tell that to someone who lived in 1816.

Same story with my cello; its design was obsolete in the 18th century, but was a new design compared to the viola da gamba of the 15th century or mid-16th century bass violins.

Believe it or not, "technology" doesn't have to require circuits. Any novel invention is tech. While people point to the savagery and mobility of the Huns, Genghis Khan's success was really due to his adaptation and advancement of technology. He would capture, learn how to use, and improve upon the weapons of places he conquered. The English longbow was critical for English successes in Europe. Sextants helped navigate the oceans. And so on.

But the key element here is, unlike Khan's siege engines, the Longbow, the laufmaschine and sextants, the key aspect of OP's question is do you still use it? And yeah, I still use my cello. I perform on it, record with it... And after I'm gone, someone else will, just as someone else played it before I was even born.

I'm a chapter in its story. Which is really fuckin' cool.

Edited by Rimbo
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2 hours ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

Going to have to disagree with you there chief. By the late '70s there was a lot of tech going into high end bikes.

 

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Depends. How many hdmi ports did it have?

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7 hours ago, Rimbo said:

 

Tell that to someone who lived in 1816.

Same story with my cello; its design was obsolete in the 18th century, but was a new design compared to the viola da gamba of the 15th century or mid-16th century bass violins.

Believe it or not, "technology" doesn't have to require circuits. Any novel invention is tech. While people point to the savagery and mobility of the Huns, Genghis Khan's success was really due to his adaptation and advancement of technology. He would capture, learn how to use, and improve upon the weapons of places he conquered. The English longbow was critical for English successes in Europe. Sextants helped navigate the oceans. And so on.

But the key element here is, unlike Khan's siege engines, the Longbow, the laufmaschine and sextants, the key aspect of OP's question is do you still use it? And yeah, I still use my cello. I perform on it, record with it... And after I'm gone, someone else will, just as someone else played it before I was even born.

I'm a chapter in its story. Which is really fuckin' cool.

By that logic, anything man made is "tech". So a 5,000 year old wooden spoon is "tech".

We can all brag about still using our great-great-great-grandmas wooden spoon instead of the fancy new ones at Walmart.

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5 hours ago, rage-a-holic said:

By that logic, anything man made is "tech". So a 5,000 year old wooden spoon is "tech".

We can all brag about still using our great-great-great-grandmas wooden spoon instead of the fancy new ones at Walmart.

Almost exactly right. The key element here is that the old tech has to be made obsolete or improved upon since then. A wooden spoon could count, because nowadays we use steel, silver, etc. OTOH people still use wooden spoons for cooking all the time, so... depends on if it's cookware or tableware.

So, for example, my Mom's guitar does NOT count, because the design hasn't changed. Neither does my electric bass. The synth absolutely counts, because you can get the same exact thing but better in the successors to it, the SD-1 and TS-10. The bass amp is obsolete for sure.

The reason the cello fits is because it's actually obsolete, not just because it's old.

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On 5/3/2024 at 11:23 PM, 0xdeadbeef said:

Going to have to disagree with you there chief. By the late '70s there was a lot of tech going into high end bikes.

 

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I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you’re riding your bike on the streets of Houston neither it’s’ aerodynamics, your spandex unitard, nor your streamlined helmet are going to make a shit.

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I still listen to CDs and watch DVDs. And still buy both on occasion. I have a good working VCR and still have some VHS tapes. I still have some cassette tapes and a boom box that can play them. It rarely happens but I can play them if I want. I still have a couple old unused Maxell II-S cassette tapes still in their wrappers that I can’t bring myself to throw out. I’m pretty sure I still have one unopened blank VHS tape too. 

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3 hours ago, troph said:

The original “personal” massager. Plugs into an outlet. 

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Well, there's a detail about you that I didn't know until just now.

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23 hours ago, Elvis said:

You VCR bros are gonna flip.  This thing is badass.

 

 

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Nice. Not just VHS, but Super VHS.

Dad bought a SVHS VCR, camcorder and. SVHS tapes.

It made zero difference in picture quality. But we were cutting edge.

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5 minutes ago, honolulu horn said:

My car is on the right, still holding its own against new tech. Absolutely nothing digital in that car whatsoever. Glorious. 

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They sure are fun to drive around in Texas in August.

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10 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

They sure are fun to drive around in Texas in August.

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4 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Benefits of a wet sauna:

https://www.saunaadvisors.com/wet-sauna-benefits/

 

 

I had one my senior year of HS. I was in a work program at a law firm and they kept me on through summer. Had to drive 20-30 minutes each way in that fucking bug, May-July, wearing a fucking suit. I had to bring a towel with me to dry off before I walked into the office.

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9 minutes ago, rage-a-holic said:

I had one my senior year of HS. I was in a work program at a law firm and they kept me on through summer. Had to drive 20-30 minutes each way in that fucking bug, May-July, wearing a fucking suit. I had to bring a towel with me to dry off before I walked into the office.

My first car had a broken AC.  It was a piece of crap I bought for $1,000 in 1992.  Was a 1984 Honda Civic.  Thing did run great and had no mechanical issues.  But no AC in Houston was tough.  It really sucked when it rained and was hot outside.  

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11 hours ago, rage-a-holic said:

They sure are fun to drive around in Texas in August.

You'd be crazy to drive it in the Texas summertime! Fortunately I don't have that issue, so I can enjoy the amazement in my kids as they experience a roll start, the solitude of a car without any alarms or beeps, and the constant smiles and shakas I get whenever I take Blue Steel out on the road. It's a great ride. 

It's also pretty cool how many conversations it starts -- usually along the lines of "I used to drive one of those" or "my uncle had one back in 1968" or whatever. People take pictures of it all the time, sometimes just the car and sometimes smiling and posing next to it. It just seems to brighten peoples' days to see it. Low tech still delivers.

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On 5/3/2024 at 6:53 PM, Armybrat said:

 

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Major props for the slide rule; I wish I could find one like they had in the school when they taught how to use them. It was about 6 foot long and at least 2 foot wide, that would be a cool garage/techcave addition.

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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

Major props for the slide rule; I wish I could find one like they had in the school when they taught how to use them. It was about 6 foot long and at least 2 foot wide, that would be a cool garage/techcave addition.

I was just old enough to have seen slide rules before I was old enough to use them, but also to see the first pocket calculators with red LED displays. By the time I was old enough to need to help doing computation, the calculator had completely taken over.

Edited by Rimbo
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