I found my old calculator (an HP-48SX) and got it up and running again. I got it in 1990 when I entered college. My alma mater offered a special section of calculus courses which required either the HP48 or HP28 which I took. They were taught by professors who spoke fluent English, while the regular sectors were taught by TAs who did not. The professors were enthusiastic about this cutting edge technology.
Professors of mathematics are a peculiar breed; one of profs who taught these courses had an upper case sigma (Σ), made with yellow duct tape, on his briefcase. At first we thought it was an "M" (the first letter of his last name) or (as unlikely as it seemed) a remnant of his fraternity days. As it turns out it was the mathematical symbol for summation; something which he valued greatly - in fact he thought it was nearly integral.
Sorry about that, in any event the HP-48 series was discontinued in 2003. Playing around with it has been a bit of fun, though; with the big keys I never have to worry about hitting the wrong piece of the iPhone. The Reverse Polish Notation (that is 2 2 + rather than 2 + 2) takes a bit of getting used to; but I find it easier on long formulas. I don't really need a calculator capable of doing calculus or linear algebra anymore, and even if I did I'm sure there are smart phone apps for it; still I find myself using it rather than the iPhone or Windows calculator when I need a calculator.
So do you have an obsolete technology that you still use; or one that you would want to bring back into our modern era?
a phone with an actual dial you need to move in order to call - no butt dials possible.
That's funny Sav - I still have my old scientific calculator that goes back to at least my undergrad BSc days, if not to high school.
I'm embarrassed to admit I've completely forgotten all the higher level functions it can do, but it still works to do addition / subtraction. It's still on my desk at work and I still use it. It's not a fancy graphing calculator like your HP-48 but 25+ years old it still works.
I do miss when there was variety in mobile phones. Comparing them wasn't just about simple tech specs or build quality. It was about actual features. Do you want the one with the built in TV or the one that folds up?
Hell. The same for computers too. Bring back amiga and riscos. In theory at least. I know in practice that would suck.
What do I still use... All my consoles are a few generations out of date. And my speaker system attached to my computer is an old analogue beast. I have meant to replace it with something modern and digital for years but it seems so complex and I just hate piling up tech. Throwing it away is forbidden.
CRT monitors. My cat liked to sleep on my monitor when I was using the computer.
I had an old rotary phone in my cellar until maybe 8 to 10 years ago. Still worked! It was there just so we wouldn't have to run upstairs if the phone rang. I got rid of it when the cable company did some upgrades on my wiring. Not that I'd want to bring that tech back though.
I also still remember the phone party lines from my childhood. Those had several households on the same line. If you picked up the phone and a neighbor was using their phone then you had to wait until the line was free to make a call. I guess back then there weren't enough phone lines or the technology hadn't caught up yet. :)
Light switches.
Mostly, I'd like to see more things made out of metal and wood and less out of plastic: phones, fans, buckets, brooms, vacuum cleaners, cameras, etc. Better-lasting and better for the environment.
Shoes that could be re-soled (i.e. stitched rather than glued) were better, as well.
I would like to return to a time before My Pillow.
The old-fashioned forum software like the one Languish still uses. Since the invention of social media, it seems like forum functionality has been mostly regressing rather than progressing.
Polaroids were cool.
Quote from: DGuller on September 15, 2021, 11:08:06 PM
The old-fashioned forum software like the one Languish still uses. Since the invention of social media, it seems like forum functionality has been mostly regressing rather than progressing.
Depends on what forums your on I think. Some of the larger, nerdier ones I'm on have definitely improved way beyond Languish in functionality over the years.
Porno mags. more tactile.
Quote from: PDH on September 15, 2021, 10:15:31 PM
I would like to return to a time before My Pillow.
That was a glorious era.
Does anyone remember that David Hogg was going to stick it to Mike Lindell and start his own pillow company (https://goodpillow.co/)? He even wrote a manifesto:
QuoteTo The Future, Seven days ago they said it could not be done. Seven days ago we joked online about just how powerful a pillow company could be. To the believers - those who dared to imagine a pillow company could be about more than just pillows - thank you for turning our wildest dreams into reality. Rest assured, Good Pillow is well underway :^)
From day one we've set out to create a pillow company that is, simply put: Good. This seemingly straightforward idea stems from the mindset that everyone deserves a Good night's sleep, coupled with the belief that we deserve to feel Good about the brands we choose to support. Good Pillow's commitment to being a quality, ethical, and sustainable company exists at the forefront of all our business decisions large and small. Why? To inspire a new generation of Americans to live the American Dream by giving back and supporting causes you believe in, to create a true conscious consumer movement– all while getting a Good night's sleep. Here's what we mean when we say "Good":
●Good Pillow pledges to support charitable organizations working to improve the lives of everyday Americans & people across the world.
●Good Pillow pledges to have an active dialogue with its customers regarding which causes it will allocate a percentage of profits to.
●Good Pillow pledges to be sustainably sourced and to be environmentally accountable.
●Good Pillow pledges to employ well-paid, unionized manufacturers.
●Good Pillow pledges to be Made in America.● Good Pillow pledges to place a strong emphasis on hiring those who have traditionally struggled with seeking employment, including: veterans, refugees, people with disabilities, and people who were formerly incarcerated.
●Good Pillow pledges to fill our Board of Directors with people who actually represent America. We've seen companies and leaders rely on symbolic gestures as a substitute for real change. We commit to ensuring our actions demonstrate the depth of our commitment.
●Good Pillow pledges to appoint a Chief Progressive Officer to its executive team, whose sole purpose is to ensure we stay true to our vision.
We'll be honest - this isn't going to happen overnight, and that's because we're committed to doing this the right way. Though we've spent ⅓ of our lives on pillows, we can't say we know everything about pillow manufacturing. That's why we're not sacrificing quality for time. We must invest in our foundation to make Good on our promises.
At present, Good Pillow is in the midst of negotiating and solidifying key details with our Board of Directors, manufacturing partners, employees, advisors, and an exciting influencer network with a combined reach of over 250 million people and counting. Before we launch, though, we must take some time to put our heads down, out of respect for the three year anniversary of the shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14th. While we step back to honor those we lost on that horrific day, we remain fully committed to delivering on what we've promised.
We couldn't be more thrilled to share more important updates immediately following our blackout period. Thank you for embarking on this journey with us to prove that we can turn Good dreams into reality : ) ~ David & Will
Now, with such a solid business plan, you would think there's no way he could have failed and that by today whole rivers of gold would be flowing into his hands. Tragically he made a textbook mistake, he didn't write his manifesto in Courier Font; (my version is an improvement.) Consequently he left the company after two months and bad pillows continue to dominate the market. :(
Quote from: Barrister on September 15, 2021, 04:38:41 PM
That's funny Sav - I still have my old scientific calculator that goes back to at least my undergrad BSc days, if not to high school.
I'm embarrassed to admit I've completely forgotten all the higher level functions it can do, but it still works to do addition / subtraction. It's still on my desk at work and I still use it. It's not a fancy graphing calculator like your HP-48 but 25+ years old it still works.
What brand?
Did anyone ever use the hyperbolic functions that many scientific calculators have (sinh, cosh and tanh)? I'm curious what sort of discipline would use that. (I know a hanging cable is a hyperbola so maybe architecture or civil engineering? :unsure:)
Quote from: Savonarola on September 15, 2021, 04:22:50 PM
So do you have an obsolete technology that you still use;
paper, at work. :yuk:
Pencil
Quote from: viper37 on September 16, 2021, 07:04:39 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on September 15, 2021, 04:22:50 PM
So do you have an obsolete technology that you still use;
paper, at work. :yuk:
Paper won't be obsolete as long as electrical power can fail.
Quote from: 11B4V on September 17, 2021, 01:18:09 AM
Pencil
This.
I still occasionally use them, I vividly remember the orange/yellow oval one with the softer 'lead' that my old man used when he was doing building work/chippying.
I've been thinking about this on and off the last few days, and I have to admit I can't really think of something to bring back except for nostalgia's sake.
I'm personally somewhat surprised how quickly some consumer electronics have come and gone. As a kid, portable cassette players were just becoming common (early 80s). Besides music tapes, audio plays for kids were super popular. But I wouldn't want to go to the hassle of rewinding tapes, fixing messed up, unspooled tapes with a pencil, or the slow death of batteries heralded by increasingly slurred playback. (I did enjoy recording my own audio plays or "radio shows" as a kid, though.) My favorite player would automatically switch playback sides at the end of a tape and had a built in AM/FM radio.
Then the portable disc player - better, but oh so prone to skips if you moved, like, at all. Next up was a disc player that could read data disks that you filled with MP3s. Yay!
Then the MP3 players. I had a few - a cheap Chinese one with 120 or so MB, about the size of a cigarette lighter, then an Archos brick that stored tons of MP3s, and had an LCD screen to watch videos (but the battery life was garbage, and it was picky about video formats), and finally an iPod with 150 GB (GB? is that right?) which I disliked, because most of my MP3s weren't properly tagged as iTunes would want them to, leading to my neatly arranged folders turning into an unmanageable mess, and the player died a little after 2 years of use. <_<
Since then my phone has been my portable media device, not least thanks to Spotify that keeps me going with pretty much anything I need in music and podcasts. The last change I made was moving to wireless headphones which I was long reluctant to do, but my Sennheisers are quite nice. (But they suck for making calls.)
I was about to say vinyl, but that's already happening right? Nowadays the vinyl section at my local entertainment store is larger than the CD section (note: neither is very large). I always loved my mom's vinyl collection, with those large covers and luxurious album art. CDs were so tiny in comparison, even if more practical. And with digital you don't have even that.
I still have old consoles (modified for playing imports and 60 Hz mainly), from the 16-bit era to the PS3 (retro now). No CRT unfortunately, too bulky and I lack space, but I also a Japanese device for scan lines on a flat screen for the retro experience.
I had a AM/FM/SW radio CD-cassette player (recently disposed of), then a portable CD player, but even the anti-skip system would end up scratching the CDs in time.
Switched to iPod, but following Mac OS X evolutions I could no longer transfer music from my Mac, so all through my smart phone now.
I am still using physical media though I would not call blu-ray and 4K blu-ray obsolete technology. Maybe DVD? :D
Some HD audio formats such as DVD-Audio or SACD, could be termed as obsolete with little to no new releases (DVD-Audio).
Surviving in classical music but not really elsewhere, with some jazz perhaps and classic rock.
I still use Roman numerals in writing, with a pencil. :P