Old tech you just DO NOT miss.

[JohnnyDelRay]

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

I know tearing the sides off those papers was a royal pain in the ass, but I still think those dot matrix noisy printers were a hell lot more reliable than the shitty inkjet all-in-ones of today. Nothing but continued grief from them.

The company I work for still uses those printers, and they are not reliable at all let me tell you. The damn things require stripping down and cleaning on at least a weekly basis and even then they still struggle to print off more than 4-5 pages at a time without either overheating or losing the paper alignment
.
I guess it doesn't help as they are older than I am and you can't get parts for them any more, the company has to salvage parts from various broken printers so you end up with a frankenprinter in most cases. Thankfully though they are getting replaced with laser printers in the next 18 months or so.


These are the offending printers. [http://www.oki.co.uk/printers/dot-matrix-printers/9-pin-sidm/detail.aspx?prodid=tcm:122-4157-16]

Oh shit man my sympathies. I mean I thought they were okay back then, but if you're still using them up till today I imagine they must be a freakin nightmare. I don't know about Oki, but the Epson ones we had when I was a kid were great.

Singe-function laser printers are the way to go nowadays, I have an HP 1020 series that has been chugging along for about a decade now without a problem, cheap toner refills too. I think I'll shed tears if it ever gives up.

 

[Olas]

It's funny, I have more trouble thinking of old tech I DO miss. I guess maybe I'm not old enough to be nostalgic about stuff, although I do have nostalgia for other things from my childhood like TV shows etc.

I just don't really see technology as something you build an attachment to, it's there to serve a purpose, and generally the more time you spend thinking about it, the worse it's doing at filling that purpose.

I'll update this comment if I think of anything I actually MISS.

 

[Zipa]

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

I know tearing the sides off those papers was a royal pain in the ass, but I still think those dot matrix noisy printers were a hell lot more reliable than the shitty inkjet all-in-ones of today. Nothing but continued grief from them.

The company I work for still uses those printers, and they are not reliable at all let me tell you. The damn things require stripping down and cleaning on at least a weekly basis and even then they still struggle to print off more than 4-5 pages at a time without either overheating or losing the paper alignment
.
I guess it doesn't help as they are older than I am and you can't get parts for them any more, the company has to salvage parts from various broken printers so you end up with a frankenprinter in most cases. Thankfully though they are getting replaced with laser printers in the next 18 months or so.


These are the offending printers. [http://www.oki.co.uk/printers/dot-matrix-printers/9-pin-sidm/detail.aspx?prodid=tcm:122-4157-16]

Oh shit man my sympathies. I mean I thought they were okay back then, but if you're still using them up till today I imagine they must be a freakin nightmare. I don't know about Oki, but the Epson ones we had when I was a kid were great.

Singe-function laser printers are the way to go nowadays, I have an HP 1020 series that has been chugging along for about a decade now without a problem, cheap toner refills too. I think I'll shed tears if it ever gives up.

Yeah the Oki printers were pretty reliable back in the day, the ones we have though have been used so much that the mechanical parts are all worn, and as I said before there are no spares any more. Thankfully though the company is getting rid of them in favour of laser printers, they just have to come up with a replacement for the 3 ply paper we use. That and they have to re write our internal software so that a modern printer will work on it.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Yeah when it comes to ancient technology CRT's are it.

Seconded. I don't at all miss those bulky, heavy, eye-strain-inducing things. Though it was funny that you could brag to the tech-unsavvy that you had a particle accelerator on your desk!

eye strain inducing? Are flatscreens easier on the eyes? I have been getting eye problems lately