Obsolete stuff

[KarlMonster]

You know what? The phone books look all 'old school' and pre-historic, right?

Well, the online versions don't seem to update, or validate their information as often as the 'obsolete' yellow pages. Someone called me once; to poll me as to whether I would prefer to get the phone book information online, or on CD or DVD. I answered skeptically. "You're going to create a new system to press/burn new data onto disk every year? Telya whut - when you get the online part (less overhead costs) updating properly, then you can branch out to new media."

 

[Craorach]

Alot of things that people think as obsolete are only so when the technology and infrastruture we depend upon increasingly, works.

Phonebooks? Wait for your net to go down or your power to be out, you'll need it.

Home phones.. wait till you drop your mobile, or it gets stolen, or you can't find it because the powers out at night.

Kettle? Again, power outage is all that's needed to deny you hot water unless you have gas.

Some "better" tech also takes control of situations and machines from the people who need to be in control of them. When something goes wrong with an automatic transmission vehicle it can be much harder to stop than a manual.

Technology is great but its important we don't forget the more basic, less interdependant, options.

 

[onewheeled]

That one Apple product you bought six weeks ago. *badumtish*

EDIT: Hey, it's onewheeled999's 999th post! Cool!

 

[killcheese]

manual transmissions. man those things irritate me. we don't freakin' need them. WHY do they keep making them!?

Because they're better. You don't have to hope that the machine spirit is in a good mood and will actually give you the change of gear when you want it; with a manual you make that machine spirit your ***** instead of gritting your teeth and bearing it, waiting for the shift.

Americans, tuh.

I completely agree. I hate driving down the road and pumping the gas to try to edge the car to maybe change its gear, if i had made the required goat sacrifice within the past 2 hours and the moon is properly aligned... I think the dual clutch system is the future though, because of faster shifts and the ability for people who dont want to deal with gear changes to set it to auto while letting everyone else enjoy control over their shifts.

 

[Dags90]

I use a tea kettle to make tea.

Strange, I use mine to boil water. You actually make the tea in the kettle? I'm not sure that's entirely kosher.

I'm gonna go with Tori Spelling. Why is she still around?

 

[Greatjusticeman]

Noticed that VHS is mentioned a lot on here. I, myself, still use one. My parents have alot of VHS's, and with them making the change to DVD's awhile ago they kind of gave it to me.

They have pretty much every awesome movie on VHS till they stopped using them, and I'm not willing to pay 15 dollars to buy that movie reprinted on DVD.

Newspapers will have to go eventually. The amount of paper they consume, even if recycled, is just astounding. It'll be sad, but whatever.

Even though it's a little hypocritical because I refuse to by a Kindle or a Nook. I'll only read a book if it's printed on paper.

 

[lord.jeff]

I use a tea kettle to make tea.

Strange, I use mine to boil water. You actually make the tea in the kettle? I'm not sure that's entirely kosher.

I'm gonna go with Tori Spelling. Why is she still around?

Yes I do make it in the kettle, boil water put leaves in, I thought that's how your supposed to make tea.

 

[Smerf]

my laptop.

but in all seriusnes id have to say alot of stuff isnt obsolete, just older. i love to play a record every now and then. i suppose watches are pretty obsolete, who doesnt have a phone? (other then me)

 

[Thundero13]

PC's, all we really need are laptops since they're easier to carry around, I think PC's may have a bigger storage but i'm not sure... I don't think we need them anyway, correct me if i'm wrong

 

[Xelt]

Two things, really.

- A video tape player (You know, the one where you have to insert the black boxes.) Seriously, who has a video tape player anymore? I do. I believe mine is a VHS.
- A record player. Again, who owns one? Everyone can get music/videos on CDs now. Thank God I have an HD TV and and Xbox 360.

The Lion King is on VHS, without that stupid 'Morning Report' song, so, VHS will never be obsolete.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I agree, CD's themselves are not obsolete, but I would argue that portable CD players are(discman, etc.)...

I would agree, definitely, and for a long time now. I put a pickaxe through mine when it broke several years ago and I got tired of fixing it every couple months, and I never replaced it. Haven't missed it once. My mom's the only person I know who still has one and she's...well, let's just say that I'm older than at least 95% of people on this site, if not more. Heh.

 

[HardkorSB]

- A record player. Again, who owns one?

DJs.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Honestly, I barely use pen & paper any more nowadays. Sure it's not absolute in a broad sense, but it seems to be going that way in my own life.

Also, I reckon MP3 players will become absolete pretty soon, with phones intergrating that stuff more and more these days.

3) and if driven correctly, a manual transmission will cause the car to be more fuel efficient and more oil efficient (thats transmission oil and engine oil)

My current driving instructor is telling me that that was indeed the case until a few years back. He says that nowadays, car computers are advanced enough to shift gears a lot more fuel efficient than your average driver.

Driving an automatic, you don't have to think beyond Stop and Go.

How is that not safer? You don't have to take your hand of the wheel and it eliminates a couple of pretty precise actions making your mind free to focus on things like the traffic around you.

And if you're like me and you just can't combine so many tasks in a couple of seconds. *sigh* Now I probably have to buy my own car if I want to drive after I get my driver's license, if I go through with my instructor's idea to get an automatic license.

 

[tigermilk]

Fucking RADIOS, man. Pollutin' the airwaves with their useless, random noise. Don't they realize walkmans have been around for like 30 years? Seriously.

Things that are obsolete... hmm... Walkmans! Cassettes have very few redeeming features in my opinion, yet audio and video tapes can still be bought on the highstreet (well in poundstretcher).

 

[Shirastro]

The standard automatic transmissions are shoehorned for one style of driving, most people don't care as long as the car moves, but some are more anal and like a bit more flexibility.

Instead of more anal try less American?

 

[Llil]

Wristwatches. Personally, I love watches because I think looking at your wrist quickly is just more graceful than pulling your phone out. Also, watches are just cool! ^_^

I still use a watch that's hand winded. Far cooler than those battery powered watches.

And about manual vs. automatic gears, I've always thought that saying you can drive a car when you can only do it with automatic gears is like saying you can ride a bike when you can only do it with auxilary wheels. Sure, automatic is easier, but I think people should at least learn to drive with manual. That way they can drive both.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

manual transmissions. man those things irritate me. we don't freakin' need them. WHY do they keep making them!?

Because they're better. You don't have to hope that the machine spirit is in a good mood and will actually give you the change of gear when you want it; with a manual you make that machine spirit your ***** instead of gritting your teeth and bearing it, waiting for the shift.

Americans, tuh.

Is that last line a tut or a response to the OP?

How about the Roman Catholic church? Unless its purpose all along was putting gold in the Vatican, it's been obsolete for most of two millennia, hasn't it? Even if it's not obsolete, why is it still around?

...

The Captcha thing just gave me musical notation to type. Er, no.

...

I don't think I've met anyone, old or young, who uses tea kettles for tea or anything else.

This may be a case of us being divided by a common language.

Here, the kettle is the thing that boils the water, and the teapot is the thing in which that water and loose tea or teabags are combined and left to brew, sort of the equivalent of a cafetiere.

I haven't seen a teapot in use anywhere it wasn't brought to the customer's table in a long time.

 

[loc978]

The standard automatic transmissions are shoehorned for one style of driving, most people don't care as long as the car moves, but some are more anal and like a bit more flexibility.

Instead of more anal try less American?

...that's a really annoying stereotype. Try less yuppie. Americans with technical aptitude tend to prefer manual transmissions. I prefer them because they give me choices, and they're easy to fix. I can replace a clutch or a synchro... but... have you ever opened the pan on an automatic? All those hydraulic channels, it's ridiculous! With cars, simpler is generally better. My 19 year old Suzuki gets better fuel economy than a Prius, with far better acceleration and roughly equivalent storage space. I say new cars have generally devolved, in the realm of daily drivers (sportscars are a different story, of course)... wow, that was a tangent, huh?
That said, you're actually right to make the stereotype, annoying as it is. Automatic-only drivers in the US tend to be roughly equivalent to people who just don't drive in Europe (I say this confidently, having lived three years in Deutschland).

Oh right... on topic... uh... 386 processors. I still have one laying around. It's a DX2 40MHz.

 

[Vie]

I've still got a parallel port scanner on a shelf, and I'm fairly sure none of my computers actually still have a parallel port on them.

 

[mandaforever]

I use a tea kettle to make tea.

Strange, I use mine to boil water. You actually make the tea in the kettle? I'm not sure that's entirely kosher.

I'm gonna go with Tori Spelling. Why is she still around?

Yes I do make it in the kettle, boil water put leaves in, I thought that's how your supposed to make tea.

ummm seconded.