Old tech you just DO NOT miss.

[Mir Teiwaz]

I own a CRT TV for my older consoles because I believe the games just look better on there?it's mostly just a personal preference. I also can't play my lightgun games (the Time Crisis series, mostly) on any other kind of TV so I may as well get some use out of the behemoth. Aside from that I'd never go back to a CRT PC monitor. It wouldn't even fit on the tiny desk they give us in the dorms at the college I'm currently studying at.

I'm having a hard time thinking of anything from the 90's that I would miss that I don't already own. I was primarily a console gamer back then, but I have very little nostalgia for those consoles. It's difficult to say I'd miss anything about computers from back then when I own one now that is several orders of magnitude more powerful.

 

[Pyrian]

These Time Warner DVRs (plural because they outright die regularly) make me kind of miss VCRs.

 

[lacktheknack]

I dunno... I'm an old-schooler. There may not be much for me to miss. I won't miss dial-up connections either, though. Non-electric razors with shaving cream or gel can go to hell, though. If it isn't furiously zipping off beard when I decide to cut it off, I don't wanna hear about it.

Eh, not with you on this one. Electric razors are great in that they give you a basic shave quickly and without hassle, but manual razors with actual razor blades give you a much closer shave, and straight razors even more so.

I love my electric razor because of how convenient it is, but whenever I have a special occasion I always go old school with blades and shaving cream because it just gives you a better shave.

I'm not interested in being a baby's butt. I'm interested in being shaven when I want my beard off, bearded when I want to be bearded, and I don't like shaving cream or gel, period. That's just how it is.

I also don't like shaving creams and gels.

So now I just shave with a manual razor and water. Because hardcore.

OT: I do NOT miss phone dial-up internet. Mom was forever ruining my attempts to connect to the world outside. ;____;

 

[ForumSafari]

Perhaps... But I can't stand it. You need to know a bunch of often cryptic commands by heart (or have extensive documentation to hand)
And you'd better hope your commands have no unfortunate typos in them. (especially on unix systems. ugh. Ever seen the weird things you can do with a unix prompt? Some of those are really scary, and can happen due to seemingly trivial typos)

Actually on anything Nixlike you can just open the manpage and find useful documentation, most programs ship with well written manuals, there's really no need to remember everything.

man $PROGRAM

Powershell, for all its sins, is actually more informative for built in commands.

get-help $PROGRAM
get-help $PROGRAM -examples
get-help $PROGRAM -detailed

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I don't miss VCRs, floppy discs (thank God I was too late to see 5.25" or 8" floppies in common use), CRTs (the consumer grade particle accelerators that they were), dial up, parallel/serial ports (still have to use par port for my mill's stepper controller, though), AT power connectors (Before ATX, you could blow the mobo if you swapped the near-identical connectors.), 5th and 6th gens' proprietary memory cards, and CDs as a music platform.

Also, to add to the list:

DPL TVs - Not the external projectors (Those are still being made.), the fully contained TV sets that need to be fed $100-150 bulbs every 6 months. These are finally antiques, as the last manufacture to hold onto their product line finally discontinued them maybe a year ago. I got one in the garage taking up oodles of space.

Contact Breaker Points, Distributors and Carburetors Let's jump away from electronics for a second (and back into them, as you will read). Who remember's having to adjust a carb or points on an engine, or replace the cap and rotor on a distributor? (Luckily, I've only done points a couple times when I was young.)

Electronic ignition and fuel injection and an array of crankshaft, camshaft, O2, mass airflow, air temp, coolant temp, vehicle speed and (the list goes on) sensors all help the engine computer adjust fuel delivery and ignition timing on the fly. Even if you have no idea what I'm talking, you still benefit from it, as you don't have to bring you car to a mechanic for a tune up every few months. (You still need to get preventative maintenance like tire rotation, oil changes and brakes done, but the list is shorter.)

You'll still find these marvels of engineering (marvels for the 1920s, that is) on some small equipment (especially carbs), and points on 2 or 4 stroke planes (mostly for reliability), just because they are simpler and cost less. Though, I still can't wait for a spring spent cleaning out some carbs, because people don't listen when I tell them to put the proper amount of fuel stabilizer in the tank and run the engine for a few minutes. Ugh.

 

[Alcamonic]

Libraries. That would be all.

 

[kasperbbs]

I don't miss casettes and audio cd's, those things fit only around 20 songs and it was a pain in the ass to actually buy one that has more then a few songs that i would actually like. I remember sitting next to my bommbox listening to the radio with my finger on the record button so that i could save something good onto my casette, i knew most popular songs just by a few first notes back then..

 

[beastro]

This, however, just baffles me. The only difference I've noticed between USB and PS/2 cables is that you can tell at a glance (or by feeling) which side is up, and thus which way it's supposed to go in. Oh, and most operating systems are a lot more reluctant to read USB devices before the machine's finished booting up. What are you talking about?

Most times, for me mostly, when trying to fit the male into the female of the ps/2 connector, the inner bit of the male would break. My fault really. Due to how my old PC was set up in a small room, I had to go in blind and find the connection with my fingers. Also meant the wired keyboard and mice in general too. For those who confused when I said "male into female", those were just tech terms for connecting two things together. One with a hole and other with a... erm... you know. Like a plug into a wall socket. Don't go all Tumblr on me now. It's nothing sexual.

They were?

They still are.

 

[Parasondox]

This, however, just baffles me. The only difference I've noticed between USB and PS/2 cables is that you can tell at a glance (or by feeling) which side is up, and thus which way it's supposed to go in. Oh, and most operating systems are a lot more reluctant to read USB devices before the machine's finished booting up. What are you talking about?

Most times, for me mostly, when trying to fit the male into the female of the ps/2 connector, the inner bit of the male would break. My fault really. Due to how my old PC was set up in a small room, I had to go in blind and find the connection with my fingers. Also meant the wired keyboard and mice in general too. For those who confused when I said "male into female", those were just tech terms for connecting two things together. One with a hole and other with a... erm... you know. Like a plug into a wall socket. Don't go all Tumblr on me now. It's nothing sexual.

They were?

They still are.

They were and still are what?

 

[Mutant1988]

Tapes.

Any tapes. I don't miss them in the slightest.

I can't wait to not miss DVDs either. Easily scratched pieces of crap that they are.

Solid State Disks is the way of the future. As is digital distribution. Download it, put it on a card, play it in read only mode - Practically indestructible (Or non-degrading and durable) storage.

I do wish that memory cards were physically bigger though. Tiny cards are easily lost or dropped and it's just silly to have a large case for a very tiny card. Thinking specifically of Playstation Vita games.

 

[HankyPanky]

I don't miss dial-up internet.

I miss that sound. I don't miss paying per minute of use and tying up the phoneline though.

I second this. I hated hearing the sound every freaking time. And then how slow it was.

Floppy discs were also annoying. In their later years, you couldn't fit a thing on them. And the tray was huge and was very prone to being screwed with by children or older adults who thought it was something else.

Gah I mean I second the first thing. Phone, cold.

 

[beastro]

This, however, just baffles me. The only difference I've noticed between USB and PS/2 cables is that you can tell at a glance (or by feeling) which side is up, and thus which way it's supposed to go in. Oh, and most operating systems are a lot more reluctant to read USB devices before the machine's finished booting up. What are you talking about?

Most times, for me mostly, when trying to fit the male into the female of the ps/2 connector, the inner bit of the male would break. My fault really. Due to how my old PC was set up in a small room, I had to go in blind and find the connection with my fingers. Also meant the wired keyboard and mice in general too. For those who confused when I said "male into female", those were just tech terms for connecting two things together. One with a hole and other with a... erm... you know. Like a plug into a wall socket. Don't go all Tumblr on me now. It's nothing sexual.

They were?

They still are.

They were and still are what?

Male and female connections.

 

[Parasondox]

This, however, just baffles me. The only difference I've noticed between USB and PS/2 cables is that you can tell at a glance (or by feeling) which side is up, and thus which way it's supposed to go in. Oh, and most operating systems are a lot more reluctant to read USB devices before the machine's finished booting up. What are you talking about?

Most times, for me mostly, when trying to fit the male into the female of the ps/2 connector, the inner bit of the male would break. My fault really. Due to how my old PC was set up in a small room, I had to go in blind and find the connection with my fingers. Also meant the wired keyboard and mice in general too. For those who confused when I said "male into female", those were just tech terms for connecting two things together. One with a hole and other with a... erm... you know. Like a plug into a wall socket. Don't go all Tumblr on me now. It's nothing sexual.

They were?

They still are.

They were and still are what?

Male and female connections.

Oh right. I get you now. They still do yeah.

 

[Frezzato]

Pfft. You kids and your modern problems. Now this, THIS I do not miss:

Spoiler: Do I change the channel to 3 or 4?

Great, so now I get to plug the VCR into the TV at the same time as my old ass console! Oh, but the picture gets real fuzzy and I'll have to route the antenna through the VCR. Does the VCR have to be on in order to watch television?
[/spoiler]

I also find it very odd that rabbit ears [http://egotvonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/rabbit-ears.jpg] have come back. In order to receive the fancy new digital over-the-air signal we had to jump 30 years into the past.

Hmm.

 

[Major_Tom]

I don't miss incandescent flashlights, SCART cables, satellite TV, floppy disks, fax machines and those fucking projector things.

Spoiler: Ugh

 

[Hoplon]

I don't miss CRT's, bulky pieces of shit that made me short sighted. (yes really)

 

[Armadox]

I don't miss incandescent flashlights, SCART cables, satellite TV, floppy disks, fax machines and those fucking projector things.

Spoiler: Ugh

Hey now, I still use those projectors! Anytime I have to convert a 8.5"x11" image to a wall mural, it's my first tool at bat.

I dunno... I'm an old-schooler. There may not be much for me to miss. I won't miss dial-up connections either, though. Non-electric razors with shaving cream or gel can go to hell, though. If it isn't furiously zipping off beard when I decide to cut it off, I don't wanna hear about it.

Eh, not with you on this one. Electric razors are great in that they give you a basic shave quickly and without hassle, but manual razors with actual razor blades give you a much closer shave, and straight razors even more so.

I love my electric razor because of how convenient it is, but whenever I have a special occasion I always go old school with blades and shaving cream because it just gives you a better shave.

I'm not interested in being a baby's butt. I'm interested in being shaven when I want my beard off, bearded when I want to be bearded, and I don't like shaving cream or gel, period. That's just how it is.

I also don't like shaving creams and gels.

So now I just shave with a manual razor and water. Because hardcore.

Been using the same ivory handle straight edge for years, and god knows how long it's been around before me... Custard might have been still doing his thing. Thing is, if you take care of your stuff, you never have to buy another blade again. A bit of practice though. Honestly, shaving isn't meant to be a hassle, it's meditative. The soft tap against the basin as you clean the edge, the way your wrist flicks to get the neck. I recommend it as a skill to pick up, if only in case you have to shave without power. It beats a bootknife.

On topic though, manual use coffee makers. I'd just retired my French press a while ago (putting it away to do salad dressing and stuff instead), and picked up a new model coffee maker. I ignored them for a while, because if I was going to have to get up anyways to push a button to start it, it wasn't any easier then setting my press on the stove while I cooked other stuff. But this, this thing has a clock, and with it I can set it to brew before I get up, set the strength of the brew, even a delay so I can have a cup right off before it handles the rest of the pot. This, this is the future...

(No, K-cups are terrible, and not the future. A cup when ever you want at the cost of being able to grind your flavor how you want it? Bah! My wash clean coffee filter is by far the better technology.)

 

[geK0]

I really really really HATED ball mouses. Coming from the cheap family that I did, I had to use one until around 2008! Those things would always get jammed up with lint and dust and you'd have to open them up, clean off the wheels, give the ball a good scrub and pop the ball back in. This would ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS happen in the middle of being hit by a Zerg rush, during a critical moment in a raid boss fight where you had to avoid acid erupting from the ground, while you had your sights on an enemy sniper and were just about to pan over their head and pull the trigger, while you were in the wilderness with a skull mark above your head and you're being jumped by a group of PKers with poisoned dragon daggers and you need to quickly hit your teleport to Varock spell. It was always pretty sudden to! you would be scrolling around just fine and suddenly your cursor slows to a crawl while you frantically slide it across your mouse pad repeatedly in an attempt to reach the other side of the screen. You'd have to choose, "Do I power through it, or can I quickly disassemble, clean and reassemble my mouse in time?" I'd imagine myself as some sort of extremely unprepared secret agent or assassin who suddenly needs to pop open his brief case and assemble a rifle before his target leaves his line of sight.

FUCK BALL MOUSES!!!!!!

(maybe keeping a cleaner desk would have helped)

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Non-digital cameras.

I do NOT miss the days of having all cameras use films. I remember going on vacations years ago with disposable cameras that only had 24 shots, so you had to REALLY make sure your pictures counted. Nowadays, you push a button and your smart phone can take 50 high quality photos in about 2 seconds, and if you don't like them you just erase them instantly and start over.

Then, of course, you had to take all your disposable cameras and get the photos developed, and you had to make sure you didn't lose them or you'd have to do it all over again. God bless digital cameras.

 

[Username Redacted]

I don't miss CRT's, bulky pieces of shit that made me short sighted. (yes really)

I don't miss CRT TVs because as the one person in my circle of friends who exercises regularly I've been tapped too often as the primary "help people move" guy and objects as large and cumbersome as say a 27" Sony Wega can fuck right off.

-Any Windows OS before XP (especially 3.1 and ME)
-Those printers that had to have the special paper with holes on the sides.