Obsolete technology we still use, love and play with

Re: Obsolete technology we still use, love, and play with

I love geek toys, but I also keep stuff a long time, if it works.

I love to cook over an open fire in cast iron skillets and dutch oven.
I prefer to read books than stuff on a computer screen (though I do enough of that, too)
I listen to the radio. Free airwaves. Usually a low-power FM station with no commercials.

Oh, and our laptops are IBM Thinkpad T23s... pretty obsolete, but they work!

 

A 1968 Volkswagen Bug.
A 1974 Lawnboy, lawn mower.

 

a 2000 and FIVE prius. Yes, thats a 5 not an 8. Out of date, but <3 it.

 

Very old HP calculators. Two to three decades old. I have several, and they're all a) still working perfectly, and b) much better than the junk out there now, including current HP's.

Oh, I also have a 1978 Super Beetle. However I like the Prius better. I wish the Prius was a convertible though.

 

Me too. I have an HP-45 and an HP-28S, both in working order. My HP-28S is my main calculator.

I also have a 1916 Edison phonograph in perfect working order (it was my grandfather's), and a SuperBetamax BetaHiFi VCR that I sometimes use. Our boat has a ten year old engine, but the engine design has been unchanged since the 1940s. It is a single cylinder ten horsepower diesel monster that weighs in at 500 pounds. I think that qualifies as old but not obsolete technology. I have a VTVM (vacuum tube volt meter) that I saved for nostalgic reasons. How about big speakers? I have a pair of Heathkit monster speakers from the early 1980s. Each one is as big as a coffin. I just recently re-foamed the mid-base and subwoofers, so they are as good as new and are my main speakers. It's hard to get sound like that out of tiny boxes. I still have one computer running Windows; does that count?

Tom

 

My main mailserver is a 486...
.
_H*

 

Most older versions of wordprocessing software.

I would even prefer WordPerfect Dos over any version of Word.

 

My favorite was Amipro, but Lotus ruined it. That's not entirely true; Lotus Wordpro wasn't too bad, but then they let it die.

Have you tried OpenOffice? I like that pretty well, and it isn't Microsoft bloatware.

Tom

 

No, not yet, although I have it downloaded onto my computers.

I'm not much of a techie, so I'm not sure I'm expressing this right: I think my preference in wordprocessing programs is for character driven software (like the original WordPerfect and its earlier versions of WordPerfect for Windows), as opposed to paragraph or page driven software like Word. It just seems to me that the former is for writers, and the latter is for wordprocessors (not that there's anything wrong with that).

 

I use OpenOffice, too... must say, I haven't been disappointed or missed anything from MS Office.

About the obsolete technology, how about a needle and thread!! I darn socks, knit, needlepoint, etc.

Or how about an outdoor clothes dryer... Here in Northern California we get so much lovely sunshine almost year-round. We only use the indoor (gas) clothes dryer for about 3-4 months a year. I love snuggling into crisp sheets that have dried on the line, fresh with the smell of spring.

Still have a cassette player and many cassettes... just haven't converted them to digital. Still regularly use VCR player (don't have a DVR).

Fun thread :thumb:

 

Little Miracle can opener.

Treadle sewing machine.

I have a Sunbeam toaster from the 50s. It lowers the bread, toasts it and then slowly raises it when done. No "popping".

Darning egg. (Reminds me, I have a sock to darn.)

In these days of store bought, machine made everything I have knitting needles and crochet hooks I use.

The most archaic thing I'm using right now is the Cutter's Practical Guide to robes, gowns and surplices of 1898. I'm making my own academic regalia. This was the only source I could find on proper academic regalia including patterns and directions. I want cartridge pleats! It is a PDF of a tailor's book from 1898.

Try to find a recipe on how to make your own crackers.

 

At work, I have a bunch of old 386 and 486 computers used to control solder paste and epoxy dispencing machines. They all run DOS.

I modified one of the dispencing machines (Camalot) into a hot air soldering station that uses N2 gas heated to ~ 460°C to reflow solder paste. That machine uses a IBM (not compatible, an actual IBM) 386 computer with a greyscale video card, DOS and a trackball made by MouseTrac that uses little slotted wheels and an optical sensor to move the cursor. Way obsolete.

We also have some K&S Wire Bonding machines that were originally designed in the 70's, built in the 80's. They are completely obsolete as well but used almost every day.

At home I have a Band Saw, Table Saw (Delta) and Jointer (W&H?) that were all built in the 50's, but I don't get to use them nearly as much as I would like to.

My GF is a garage sale addict, so our house (built in 1958) has a lot of garage sale furniture and other odds and ends from the 50's and 60's. My GF has gotten into collecting old glass vases and other "valueable" glass, so we have a bunch of that stuff in a teak china cabinet that was made in the early 60's, again a garage sale acquistion.

 

Pushrod engines with 2 valves per cylinder. Not me but some people seem to like em.

 

I got one of those, too.

 

My first car was a 1968 Bug!


I still use my original Game Boy; you know, the tanish colored one, the size of a brick. My original Nintendo. My N64. A Record player; in fact, I am listening to David Bowie, Aladdin Sane on it right now.

I love old stuff. I have five old phones in the house, you know, connected with wires and buttons you push, with no speed dials...that sort of thing.

 

Buttons? I have an old bakelite rotary dial but don't use it often. The sound quality is pretty bad.

I've got licorice pizza- records. Vinyl. I bought a usb turntable and plan on spending my summer converting them to digital. I've got some out of print that will never be released on CD and I miss hearing them. I need to learn Audacity to take out the pops and make the tracks.

 

Well, yeah, buttons in a rotary style way.

But by today's standards, having phones that need no batteries, or that don't have speed dial, or a flash button..they are old. Heck, I even have a working pay phone in my house.