Old/obsolete technology you're glad to see the back of

Sgt Hartman · 30-07-2019 07:55AM #1

For me its floppy disks. Many a time where I lost important college work because those stupid things got corrupted.

What are you glad to see the back of?

dmc17 · 30-07-2019 07:57AM

Dial up internet!

boombang · 30-07-2019 08:03AM

Noisy dot matrix printers with poor perforated paper.

trigger26 · 30-07-2019 08:10AM

Backup tapes and the possibility of a full restore!

daheff · 30-07-2019 08:12AM

minidiscs

overpriced vs tapes. cds saved us from them

u140acro3xs7dm · 30-07-2019 08:12AM

The A500 anal sex doll

gozunda · 30-07-2019 08:13AM

I kinda miss the older TVs tbh. I mean the ones back in the day that were 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep because of the cathode ray tube used. That had only two dials and no remote and weighed a ton and a half...

When they were mainly available in B&W and the Irish TV stations only came on just before six o'clock and ended the day with religous programme. And many people kept the TV set covered with a fancy tea towel or similar to protect it...

champchamp · 30-07-2019 08:19AM

WAP. Touted as the internet on your phone it was rubbish. Teletext was better.

Trigger Happy · 30-07-2019 08:21AM

Video players with their clunky tapes, poor quality and 'tracking adjustment'.
You needed a degree to set the time on them. So most video players in the country had the time blinking at 00:00 like some technological cry for help.

Beanntraigheach · 30-07-2019 08:22AM

Video tapes/VCRs.

While I'll often feel a twinge of nostalgia for the era of video tapes (I still have a large collection of TV programmes & films recorded on tape) they were utter crap.

Apart from the inferior picture and audio quality (remember fumbling around with 'tracking'? *sigh*), the VCR frequently needed cleaning, tapes would get tangled up in the bloody things (the horror! the desperate race to try to salvage the tape), rewinding and fast forwarding was a tedious pain in the arse, things recorded on one machine wouldn't play back clearly on another, etc. etc.
And the cassettes seem to degrade pretty easily. Mould has grown on some of my older ones meaning I've lost some great programmes.

So, VHS = shìte!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 30-07-2019 08:23AM

Slide Rules. I hated them and could never just fully get the hang of them.

jester77 · 30-07-2019 08:25AM

USB mini/micro

Go to plug it in, nope wrong way
Turn it around, still doesn't fit
Turn it again, ah now it's taking the piss
Turn on light, look at device and cable to get right orientation
Curse the damn cable

Tell me how · 30-07-2019 08:29AM

daheff wrote: »

minidiscs

overpriced vs tapes. cds saved us from them

Yeah but they didn't ever take off enough so that they couldn't be avoided.

In fact, CD's were on the market first and mini-discs never challenged.

whisky_galore · 30-07-2019 08:32AM

gozunda wrote: »

I kinda miss the older TVs tbh. I mean the ones back in the day that were 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep because of the cathode ray tube used. That had only two dials and no remote and weighed a ton and a half...

When they were mainly available in B&W and the Irish TV stations only came on just before six o'clock and ended the day with religous programme. And many people kept the TV set covered with a fancy tea towel or similar to protect it...

Thankfully we don't have to watch b/w Tv sets the size of a minibus anymore. RTEs programme schedule has improved marginally since.

ILoveYourVibes · 30-07-2019 08:34AM

Madilyn Tart Drummer wrote: »

The A500 anal sex doll

NOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She is my soulmate!

El_Duderino 09 · 30-07-2019 08:37AM

gozunda wrote: »

I kinda miss the older TVs tbh. I mean the ones back in the day that were 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep because of the cathode ray tube used. That had only two dials and no remote and weighed a ton and a half...

When they were mainly available in B&W and the Irish TV stations only came on just before six o'clock and ended the day with religous programme. And many people kept the TV set covered with a fancy tea towel or similar to protect it...

You miss the TV or you miss the time from which the TV came?

30-07-2019 08:38AM

daheff wrote: »

minidiscs

overpriced vs tapes. cds saved us from them

I was given a minidisc player:mad:

_Brian · 30-07-2019 08:39AM

Manual choke on petrol car.

Hector Savage · 30-07-2019 08:41AM

Film, loading it was such a pain in the ass, and it was expensive, like 4/5 quid back in the early 90s for 36 exposures!!

Maybe 2/3 quid for 24.

El_Duderino 09 · 30-07-2019 08:44AM

Tell me how wrote: »

Yeah but they didn't ever take off enough so that they couldn't be avoided.

In fact, CD's were on the market first and mini-discs never challenged.

I loved my mini disc. Spent ages potting all my cds on mini discs. Recorded shows from the radio like the top 40 and spent ages to cut the brakes between tracks to create a complete play list without and filler. What a pain in the hole.

Mp3 blew it out of the water which was fair enough.

whisky_galore · 30-07-2019 08:45AM

Not having to buy a guidebook for every country or city you want to visit, anything you want is on the phone now. Books take up valuable luggage space and the info goes out of date quickly.

JohnnyFlash · 30-07-2019 08:46AM

I run a small business and we always had local installs of office software and a file share/small business server etc. Now using Office365 and cloud email and teams and and all that jazz. It’s such a leap forward in convenience.

30-07-2019 08:49AM

Loading computer games from cassette tape:

Using a ZX Spectrum always expecting the dreaded
"R Tape Loading Error" after waiting 6 minutes to try and load a game.

In retrospect too, the game publishers used very poor quality cassette tapes, with bits of scrap plastic rattling around inside the tape. This affected my Fighter Bomber game.

30-07-2019 08:50AM

daheff wrote: »

minidiscs

overpriced vs tapes. cds saved us from them

GTFO

Minidiscs were far superior to cds in every way.

Westernyelp · 30-07-2019 08:57AM

Soda streams. You had to be a chemist to get to taste anyway decent. And those loud fart noises it made when fully carbonated would frighten the bejaysus out of a young child. Those little gas tanks looked like something dug up after WWII. Thought I was going to blow myself up every time. I'd be sweating after it. You'd be full of bubbles after it for the day too.

Think they are still around for the niche market

blackbox · 30-07-2019 08:57AM

Vinyl records. They were such rubbish with all of the noise from the dust etc. And they got scratched so easily.
I had a Lou Reed album that was wrecked on its third play.

Cyclepath · 30-07-2019 09:11AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Loading computer games from cassette tape:

Using a ZX Spectrum always expecting the dreaded
"R Tape Loading Error" after waiting 6 minutes to try and load a game.

In retrospect too, the game publishers used very poor quality cassette tapes, with bits of scrap plastic rattling around inside the tape. This affected my Fighter Bomber game.

My very first game of ping pong on the ZX had to be typed in by hand from a magazine. Only took 3 goes to get it right. :mad:

Tell that to the young people today...

w/s/p/c/ · 30-07-2019 09:24AM

Westernyelp wrote: »

Soda streams. You had to be a chemist to get to taste anyway decent. And those loud fart noises it made when fully carbonated would frighten the bejaysus out of a young child. Those little gas tanks looked like something dug up after WWII. Thought I was going to blow myself up every time. I'd be sweating after it. You'd be full of bubbles after it for the day too.

Think they are still around for the niche market

Seen them on sale in Lidl last week! Thought they were long gone.

Explosive_Cornflake · 30-07-2019 09:28AM

BrownFinger wrote: »

GTFO

Minidiscs were far superior to cds in every way.

Apart from audio quality.
I say that as a big mini disc fan.
Mini disc used compression, ATRAC, cd is raw pcm

bunderoon · 30-07-2019 09:32AM

Cyclepath wrote: »

My very first game of ping pong on the ZX had to be typed in by hand from a magazine. Only took 3 goes to get it right. :mad:

Tell that to the young people today...

God, it was so BASIC back then.

Stevieluvsye · 30-07-2019 09:36AM

Fax machines, shirley these things aren't round anymore?

Old/obsolete technology you're glad to see the back of

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