Old tech you just DO NOT miss.

Arnoxthe1

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Dec 25, 2010
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Dial-up. Definitely dial-up. Even when there wasn't any broadband, me and my entire family STILL hated how slow it was. Quite frankly, I think that crap should be absolutely free now. My dad also swears he's never ever going back to dial-up. Ever.

CrystalShadow said:
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)
Well, even a halfway modern Linux CLI nowadays will prevent you from doing anything bad to your system accidentally unless you're doing your usual day-to-day activities in the all-powerful root account, in which case, WHAT ARE YOU DOING FIDDLING AROUND IN ROOT? Out, out, out!
 

Creator002

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Aug 30, 2010
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As mentioned VHS and Dial-Up Internet. Also, old computers. I had a 386[footnote]I'm positive it was a "Something" 386. It had a 500MB HDD and 32kB of RAM. So great compared to my now computer with a 128GB SSD, 2TB HDD and 16GB of RAM.[/footnote] with Windows 98 Plus installed well into last decade until my dad decided to get a Pentium III. We still had dial-up until 2008/2009.
 

laggyteabag

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Mice without scroll wheels. How did people even function efficiently on a computer without scroll wheels?

Dial up internet. Nothing kills an online gaming session like "I need to use the internet, can you come off your game?". Many games of Halo were missed.
 

Parasondox

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Jun 15, 2013
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The bulky huge TV and computer monitors. If you moved homes a lot, you would understand they were heavy as hell, overheats like a mad man. And that squeaky high pitch noise some models had when it was on. THAT DAMN NOISE!! Remember you had to hit some just to get the picture to stop rolling/fuzzing? My old Grundig had those problems. Yeah, GRUNDIG TVs.
 

Not Lord Atkin

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I remember dragging one around with me when I was a kid. It ate 4 AA batteries within a couple hours, I had to drag around a folder with all my CDs if I didn't want to keep listening to the same album over and over and when the clasp holding the top cover closed inevitably broke, I had to use a piece of selitape.

The cassette players I used before had most of these issues (in fact I would often have to take the cassette out and rewind it manually just to save battery - but at least you could do that) but at the very least they weren't quite as huge.
 

Mir Teiwaz

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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.
 

lacktheknack

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Jan 19, 2009
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FalloutJack said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
FalloutJack said:
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

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Sep 25, 2012
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CrystalShadow said:
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

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Jan 23, 2013
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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.
 

kasperbbs

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Dec 27, 2009
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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

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Jan 6, 2012
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Parasondox said:
Recusant said:
Parasondox said:
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

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Jun 15, 2013
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beastro said:
Parasondox said:
Recusant said:
Parasondox said:
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

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Sep 9, 2013
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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

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Jan 29, 2015
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Plinglebob said:
Story said:
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

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Jan 6, 2012
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Parasondox said:
beastro said:
Parasondox said:
Recusant said:
Parasondox said:
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

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Jun 15, 2013
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beastro said:
Parasondox said:
beastro said:
Parasondox said:
Recusant said:
Parasondox said:
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

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Oct 17, 2012
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Pfft. You kids and your modern problems. Now this, THIS I do not miss:
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

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Jun 29, 2008
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I don't miss incandescent flashlights, SCART cables, satellite TV, floppy disks, fax machines and those fucking projector things.