Ten Technologies That Should Be Extinct (but aren't)

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
Messages
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I often ponder on why some of these outdated technologies are still on the scene at all. It is amazing that some are still alive and kicking.

Some technologies serve their purpose for a while, then either evolve into cheaper, faster, better forms or simply disappear. Yet others — such as fax machines, landline phones and instant cameras — just refuse to die, despite better digital alternatives.
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I disagree on the LandLines. Being an IT professional myself, I've seen the stuff that can handle. Oops, cable is out. Router fired. Battery in Router is dead. Everytime someone tries to sell me Voip to replace my LandLine, Its always a heated debated.
 
I'd say a few are almost gone (typewriters, telegraphs, instant cameras) but others will be around for some time to come.

As far as CB radios are concerned, I'd say "You can have it when you pry it from my cold dead hands..." because it's truly something that needs to be at least kept around, if even in storage.

In the movie "Live Free or Die Hard" one of the characters keeps a CB radio (a slightly modified one that works outside the actual CB assigned frequencies) as a failsafe in case - as he states - everything falls apart in the world, a doomsday communication device if you will.

There will be a need for such things someday, I do believe that. Let's just hope it's not sooner and turns out to be much much later... like after I've been dead for a few years. :D
 
Heck, I think there are those of us that would crave for the typewriter-esque action on key press when we type on a keyboards. Ultimately, QWERTY still rules the day.

I totally disagree with that article when it comes to landline as well. Cellular mobile has its place, but I will not do without having that physical line hooked up to a telephone that can operate when the utility line is down.
 
Vinyl will still be around for a while yet as there are a ton of people who like the sound quality of them.
 
There is a time and place for every technology. Analog should never go away and physical mediums never should either. bottom line, they are reliable. Anyone who says digital is "Better" is sorely mistaken and are uninformed.
 
Some believe that a turntable playing a record has better sound than Cds or digital music. Just as some prefer tubed amps and stereos saying that they have a warmer sound. New isn't necessarily better just sometimes more conveniant and less expensive.

CBs and HAM radios need to be kept around as they are a last ditch very survivable means of communication. They will be around when all of or so called better forms of communication have been destroyed. If it ever comes to that.

As for land lines, I need a land line. No cell will work where I live. I need at least the connection to the telephone company to get internet. Even if I were to go satellite the land line is a good back up.
 
You can get LandLine voip, but oddly we're having huge problems phasing out our TDM service. People don't want to let go of it cause well to be honest its regulated and more reliable than VOIP. We recently started pushing 4-8 hour batteries on EMTA's so it's less of an issue in commercial power outages.
 
Ice_Burg said:
There is a time and place for every technology. Analog should never go away and physical mediums never should either. bottom line, they are reliable. Anyone who says digital is "Better" is sorely mistaken and are uninformed.
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Ugh....

As most here, I work in IT. Idiots wanted to do a massive cable run. I had to explain to them why over long runs, analogue is better than digital. Morons didn't get it.

Old tech should never "go away".

Old tech I use daily....

Old watch, yeah those gears and shit still work. I'll take my tag over your casio any day. Dot matrix printer, doubt I need to explain why. Floppies, show me a sysadmin that does not have and use them, I'll show you a fucker out of a job. POTS line, it has it's uses, fuck VOIP I have to admin that server and it's not "better" in many cases. CRT monitors/tvs, still work better in many cases.
 
Shadowhaxor said:
I disagree on the LandLines. Being an IT professional myself, I've seen the stuff that can handle. Oops, cable is out. Router fired. Battery in Router is dead. Everytime someone tries to sell me Voip to replace my LandLine, Its always a heated debated.
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Yep. Ye olde land line is always the last to fail in a storm for me. But now that I'm on FIOS that's only as good as the battery in the fiber box.

But there's another reason: 911. 911 on voip is iffy. Same goes for cell. Maybe when my kids are past the "omg! he just ate a lego!" stage we'll go voip.

My neighbor has voip. He called 911 and got an operator in Canada. He had forgotten that when he moved he kept his Canadian number. Luckily the 911 folks were telco ninjas and were able to patch the call through to the local 911 call center with a mouse click.
 
sd11 said:
Ugh.... CRT monitors/tvs, still work better in many cases.
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Very, very few cases. And you need to tune those mofos to get that "better." Anyone who's converged and calibrated a home theater CRT front projector to get it a little better than he current digital sate of the art won't be crying about the demise of the CRT. I'm not.

Luckily the CRT lives on in plasma. Phosphor FTMFW.
 
Glad to see physical media (discs and disc drives) on that list. Physical keyboards on pocket devices may have been too specific for that list, but they oughtta be on there.
 
CB radios are also great out in the middle of nowhere where there is still iffy cell service. My Jeep club still uses them to keep in contact when out on the trails.

As for turntables, they will never die so long as people, like me, still continue to love the way they sound.
 
I disagree on many of them. Including the typewriter.

Anyone old enough to know enough about typewriters knows that when properly setup and used with a higher quality ink, they produce the best looking type on paper. Not that many care. It's also a lot more fun writing on a typewriter.
 
badcaps said:
Glad to see physical media (discs and disc drives) on that list. Physical keyboards on pocket devices may have been too specific for that list, but they oughtta be on there.
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really? physical keyboards? i'll never buy a phone that doesnt have a phyiscal qwerty keyboard. my fingers are too big for touchscreen input on a cellphone. i love my touchpro2. wish they would release more phones with full physical qwerty keyboards.
 
Apathy said:
really? physical keyboards? i'll never buy a phone that doesnt have a phyiscal qwerty keyboard. my fingers are too big for touchscreen input on a cellphone. i love my touchpro2. wish they would release more phones with full physical qwerty keyboards.
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I don't want to break out the measuring tape, but I suffer bighanditis also and touchscreen typing did take some getting used to; touchscreen phone makers know this and have been working hard on their software interpretation of mangled keypresses. There are also technologies like swype for physical input, and both Google and Apple are pushing for better voice activation--I hope to see much better integration of that soon.

To me, that's progress. Adding dozens, if not one hundred or more, mechanical complications to an already small and complex device seems, in my opinion, to be fundamentally bad design.

I do not, by that token, mean to suggest nobody should fill the market demand for physical keyboards--I think it's absolutely lucrative at this point, given the preponderance of touchscreens--but it is, to my mind, more of the tape deck that was thrown in with the Stereo in the late 80s and early 90s than it is the CD player.
 
Shadowhaxor said:
I disagree on the LandLines. Being an IT professional myself, I've seen the stuff that can handle. Oops, cable is out. Router fired. Battery in Router is dead. Everytime someone tries to sell me Voip to replace my LandLine, Its always a heated debated.
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I don't have a landline, but I agree completely. If you require reliable phone service, land lines are the only way to go. I've been through hurricanes. Landlines rarely go down. Cable generally goes out....often before your power dies. Cell phones aren't even close to landline service. Landline providers have very strict regulations on how much they can be down (and I believe it's measured in seconds/year). If you had dropped calls on a landlines like you get on cell phones, there would literally be FCC inquiries.

Nevertheless, I spend so little time on my phone that I'm perfectly happy with my cell.
 
Land-lines? Really? And their big compelling evidence is 25% of Americans have ditched them in favor of wireless.... what this says to me is that 75% of Americans still have landlines, and those 25% are paying so fucking much for a cell phone plan that they need to save anywhere they can.

Why I will happily stay in the "stone age" and land-lines should stay
1: They are WAY cheaper than cell phones by a king's randsom!
While yes land-lines can in fact get expensive, if you need all that crap with all the LD phone calls, 3-way, caller-id, call waiting, two-phones lines (because one is used for dialup?? btw if this is the case you don't get a fucking opinion in technology that needs to go), then sure you're small business that you run out of your home might do better for having a cell phone. But if you're like me and use basic only services $20 a month is hard to beat for "unlimited local minutes" and if you're fully loaded... then a fully loaded cell phone (or smart phone) will still cost way more than any land-line. It's so surprising people will happily pay $100+ a month for an iPhone, I'd rather having that $1200 a year to spend on other fun things.... hey look I can have a cell phone or I can plan a trip to hawaii every year with the money I save!

2. Quality of cell phones quite frankly sucks.
Maybe it's because I don't have a cell phone that I haven't evolved a sense of hearing to put words together every time a particular drop occurs throughout a conversation, or I can't decipher the digital Megatron voice that occasionally happens, but when I use my land line to call someone I got clear reception, always "full bars" and the sound quality is great... unless I'm calling someone on a cell phone.

3. I really don't like to be bothered if I'm going out.
I will admit that cell phones are useful as all hell when you're trying to coordinate something with people, but to be honest, if I'm going out and i know where I have to be, I don't want anyone else being able to bug me if it's really not necessary. My wife has a cell phone, and usually when we go out we don't actually need it to talk to people with the "where are you" bit, and christ on a crutch her mother calls her all the time when she needs something to be done... I love my mom but piss off and leave a message on my answering machine and I'll help you out when I'm free
 
If anyone wants to question whether or not vinyl is still around, I can tell you for a fact it is. At my work we've been getting at least two boxes a week of records. Some old albums some new. I'm thinking the old ones have been "remastered".
 
sfsuphysics said:
Land-lines? Really? And their big compelling evidence is 25% of Americans have ditched them in favor of wireless.... what this says to me is that 75% of Americans still have landlines, and those 25% are paying so fucking much for a cell phone plan that they need to save anywhere they can.

Why I will happily stay in the "stone age" and land-lines should stay
1: They are WAY cheaper than cell phones by a king's randsom!
While yes land-lines can in fact get expensive, if you need all that crap with all the LD phone calls, 3-way, caller-id, call waiting, two-phones lines (because one is used for dialup?? btw if this is the case you don't get a fucking opinion in technology that needs to go), then sure you're small business that you run out of your home might do better for having a cell phone. But if you're like me and use basic only services $20 a month is hard to beat for "unlimited local minutes" and if you're fully loaded... then a fully loaded cell phone (or smart phone) will still cost way more than any land-line. It's so surprising people will happily pay $100+ a month for an iPhone, I'd rather having that $1200 a year to spend on other fun things.... hey look I can have a cell phone or I can plan a trip to hawaii every year with the money I save!

2. Quality of cell phones quite frankly sucks.
Maybe it's because I don't have a cell phone that I haven't evolved a sense of hearing to put words together every time a particular drop occurs throughout a conversation, or I can't decipher the digital Megatron voice that occasionally happens, but when I use my land line to call someone I got clear reception, always "full bars" and the sound quality is great... unless I'm calling someone on a cell phone.

3. I really don't like to be bothered if I'm going out.
I will admit that cell phones are useful as all hell when you're trying to coordinate something with people, but to be honest, if I'm going out and i know where I have to be, I don't want anyone else being able to bug me if it's really not necessary. My wife has a cell phone, and usually when we go out we don't actually need it to talk to people with the "where are you" bit, and christ on a crutch her mother calls her all the time when she needs something to be done... I love my mom but piss off and leave a message on my answering machine and I'll help you out when I'm free
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How much is your landline? I'm paying $30 a month for 1000 minutes of cell service per month and unless I'm in bumfucked egypt my calls are on par with my landline. Plus if my car goes tits up while I'm out I don't have to go scrabbling around trying to find a pay phone (which have, not surprisingly, dwindled almost completely away) or walk my happy ass back home to call a wrecker.

Yeah, landlines are great for people that need to use a fax at home but they're dying away.
 
sd11 said:
Floppies, show me a sysadmin that does not have and use them, I'll show you a fucker out of a job.
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I don't. I don't even have any devices on my network that can even accept floppies anymore. I don't even use any physical media beside flash drives anymore. I mean even my network devices like switches all take usb flash drives to update their firmware.

Show me a sysadmin that still uses Floppies and I'll show you someone who needs to update their systems.
 
The thing is that a lot of young people these days are going retro. The number of people shooting with film cameras is going up(esp. with Holgas, etc.), more people are trying vinyl, and there was even a story on how a typewriter repairman is getting more business these days.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2008/sb20080925_900705.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

Also, someone in the above article wrote a really nice comment.
"Old technology doesn't die, it just finds a niche"
 
Duuuh we're going to need telegraphs when SkyNet tries to take over and we have to ditch modern technology!!!
 
I use my CB radio to communicate with members of my 4x4 club...or anybody joining our group on the trail. I know it's old school but there isn't a better alternative. I need my CB.
 
*checks and sees that disc drives are on the list*

*notes that Dial-Up internet is missing from the list*

*scrolls up and sees that it's msn msnbc.com*

*closes tab*
 
Physical media
Flash drives have dropped substantially in price, and we don't really need more than 64GB anyway
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I bet all the people who bought 128GB SSDs feel so stupid right now. Isn't a flash drive physical? I can touch it. I've always liked CD more than downloads. You can tell if a CDs a copy, its a inkjet paper cover on cdr. A legitimate download is the same as a pirate one (usually legitimate is a worse copy if the pirate one is a CD rip anyway...). ALso because there isn't instant BLu-ray quality downloads, and I don't have a giant server to put all my movies on, i'd have to wait an hour to get the film. If I hate the movie I can also sell a bluray to a stupid person. Theres also quality. There is no way a streamed film is anywhere near the same quality as a bluray. It might be fine for a netbook, but run it across a HD monitor and youll need to put vaseline in your eyes to not to see the blocks.

Turntables
I do agree with turntables. Even though I do DJ things..I don:t like turntables. The quality is worse (it's like putting filmgrain on HD footage), theres less bass (no sub 50h/z or more I forget) and it has shit all over it. A digital recording can sound like vinyl, but vinyl could never sound like digital. Plus you can break the disks and their giant. The whole analog vs digital argument is usually brought up by people who have never worked in a studio.

Fax machines.
Lots of scanner/printer combo machines include Fax as the 4th in 1. I have a fax machine. I have never sent a fax. My doctor can only be contacted by fax and phone.



Now some they SHOULD get rid of.
1) Windows XP (and any 32 bit OS). If you want to run it, work for the Smithsonian.
2) HDV. Shitty 1080i HD with interlacing as standard on a 1 hour tape. for ''professionals" (prosumers)
3) Digital IMAX (fake IMAX, ruins IMAX public image and is just a normal projector, up close)
4) crApple. Think different. more money. less power. doesn't really work in common sense...but take my money
5) Onlive. Its been like 1 month, its getting past a joke.
6) IDE Because I really really want to use my old 64GB drives on my new motherboard...
7) Laptop Fingerprint scanners clear plastic = cracked.
8) Postal Junk mail spam saves them trees.
9) Unskippable trailers and don't pirate this thing you bought films on DVD/BR I didn't pirate so now I suffer. But if I do, then I don't?
10) No mobile phones on planes and in hospitals Why would a terrorist bring a bomb onto a plane, all they need to do is bring a phone and make a call during takeoff...
 
I have to use a damn typewriter to print out individual checks. I hate that thing.

Landlines will die when the alternative is as reliable, which means for a long while it won't.
 
crazyjeeper said:
CB radios are also great out in the middle of nowhere where there is still iffy cell service. My Jeep club still uses them to keep in contact when out on the trails.

As for turntables, they will never die so long as people, like me, still continue to love the way they sound.
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Yup, I was going to point that out. Range far exceeds frs or gmrs and works without needing cell towers. I actually had to buy one when I started hanging out with an off-road group because that was their preferred method of communication.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Land-lines? Really? And their big compelling evidence is 25% of Americans have ditched them in favor of wireless.... what this says to me is that 75% of Americans still have landlines, and those 25% are paying so fucking much for a cell phone plan that they need to save anywhere they can.

Why I will happily stay in the "stone age" and land-lines should stay
1: They are WAY cheaper than cell phones by a king's randsom!
While yes land-lines can in fact get expensive, if you need all that crap with all the LD phone calls, 3-way, caller-id, call waiting, two-phones lines (because one is used for dialup?? btw if this is the case you don't get a fucking opinion in technology that needs to go), then sure you're small business that you run out of your home might do better for having a cell phone. But if you're like me and use basic only services $20 a month is hard to beat for "unlimited local minutes" and if you're fully loaded... then a fully loaded cell phone (or smart phone) will still cost way more than any land-line. It's so surprising people will happily pay $100+ a month for an iPhone, I'd rather having that $1200 a year to spend on other fun things.... hey look I can have a cell phone or I can plan a trip to hawaii every year with the money I save!

2. Quality of cell phones quite frankly sucks.
Maybe it's because I don't have a cell phone that I haven't evolved a sense of hearing to put words together every time a particular drop occurs throughout a conversation, or I can't decipher the digital Megatron voice that occasionally happens, but when I use my land line to call someone I got clear reception, always "full bars" and the sound quality is great... unless I'm calling someone on a cell phone.

3. I really don't like to be bothered if I'm going out.
I will admit that cell phones are useful as all hell when you're trying to coordinate something with people, but to be honest, if I'm going out and i know where I have to be, I don't want anyone else being able to bug me if it's really not necessary. My wife has a cell phone, and usually when we go out we don't actually need it to talk to people with the "where are you" bit, and christ on a crutch her mother calls her all the time when she needs something to be done... I love my mom but piss off and leave a message on my answering machine and I'll help you out when I'm free
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You sound old... really old.
 
Landlines work when the power grid goes down. My internet does not. Cell phones can drop calls and lose connections. Do cell towers even have backup generators? The cell phone grid in NYC was overloaded during 9/11. Ever hear that one about putting all your eggs in once basket? Let's say the Internet gets seriously hacked. All that VOIP will not work. Land lines probably still will. Also, DSL is done over land lines. If cell is out and VOIP is out, landlines might still work. Odds of all three being down means the US just took an EMP from a nuke air burst about 200 miles up and everyone's screwed anyway at that point because it would be WWIII.

Floppy disks? Sorry, but I'm not giving up my floppy drive any time soon. I may not use it often, but when I do need it I really need it.

DeathPrincess: WindowsXP should go away? Oh, because you think it's antiquated? Hmm... oh wait, I own my computer, not you. I think I'll run what I want to run on mine, and you can run what you want on yours. :)
 
brom42 said:
I don't. I don't even have any devices on my network that can even accept floppies anymore.
Show me a sysadmin that still uses Floppies and I'll show you someone who needs to update their systems.
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Not everyone has the luxury of buying new systems every couple years. Why spend money upgrading a 4 year old computer if it still does the job? I'd rather put the budget into a new server or a laptop for someone who actually needs something newer/faster.

FYI: Alot of older systems won't boot from a USB drive. CD or floppy only.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Now some they SHOULD get rid of.
Click to expand...

1) Windows XP (and any 32 bit OS).
To bad there's still software in use that won't run under 64 bit or Vista/7. Until the software gets updated or replaced, we'll be stuck with XP. See me in 10 years for an update.

4) crApple. Think different. more money. less power. doesn't really work in common sense...but take my money +1

6) IDE I just rebuilt 2 of my home systems and wouldn't buy a board without an IDE port. Why should I spend money on a new DVD burner when the IDE one I have still works great?

9) Unskippable trailers and don't pirate this thing you bought films on DVD/BR I didn't pirate so now I suffer. But if I do, then I don't? Makes perfect sense in Hollywood - punish the people actually buy your product.
 
Landlines on the list:confused:

Doesn't home DSL service relies on them?

Besides fiber optic, its probably one of the most reliable means for home broadband services. At least where I live here, wireless broadband services still cost a lot, and all of them comes with ridiculous monthly bandwidth limit.

My home DSL broadband is still unlimited and cost much cheaper than fiber optic ones, I'm not giving up on my landline anytime soon, as with the rest who relies on cheap broadband without needing the high speed that fiber optic offers
 
sfsuphysics said:
Land-lines? Really? And their big compelling evidence is 25% of Americans have ditched them in favor of wireless.... what this says to me is that 75% of Americans still have landlines, and those 25% are paying so fucking much for a cell phone plan that they need to save anywhere they can.

Why I will happily stay in the "stone age" and land-lines should stay
1: They are WAY cheaper than cell phones by a king's randsom!
Click to expand...

per line my family is right around $40 per line for our cell phones a month.


thats with unlimited data and text, 1500 anytime minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile.


you need to get more money for the kings your randsom!
 
i disagree with about half of them, but the major one i disagree on is the crts. a lot of games (fighting games, fps to a lesser extent, rhythm games) absolutely RELY on there being zero lag. most lcds in todays society have at least 2ms of delay, and at middle to high end of a lot of these games is enough to completely throw everything off and make it unplayable.
 
Now this is somewhat ironic:

"We’re sorry, this story relies on some features that aren’t currently available on your mobile device."

Thanks iPhone!
 
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