Defunct technology....

[Warped9]

Can you recall a technology that was once widespread not that long ago and is now defunct? Bonus if it's something perhaps the young'uns today might not even recognize. Extra bonus if you happen to know if it's still being used somewhere even though it has disappeared from widespread use.

Share your knowledge and your memories.

Starting off.
CRT TV. It's less than ten years ago that the death bell rang for CRT televisions. Mind you there are businesses still using some CRT computer displays, but they're not televisions. Are tube TV's even manufactured anymore?

VHS. I remember when video rental stores were crammed with VHS tapes. Now I know you can still buy blank cassettes (if you can find them), and some are still used for security monitor recordings, and there are still some DVD/VHS combo players in stores. But isn't this pretty much toast? Mind you the porn industry owes its breakout growth in the mass market to home VHS.

Vinyl records. Long gone...well, not quite because there are still some turntables available for what few records are available on the market. But I wouldn't even know where to go to buy a new vinyl album.

8-track. Do young'uns today even know what 8-track is? This is a relic of the early '70s before compact audio cassette took over.

Audio cassette. I think you can actually still buy audio cassettes. Before MP3 and before CD's the audio cassette ruled for about twenty years. If you wanted your own music to take with you portably or to play in your car then this was the way to do it. It was also the way of choice to make your own playlists. The real cost was investing the time to record individual tracks from different vinyl records onto audio cassette. A 60 minute tape could take you hours to put together. Today an audio CD or an MP3 playlist takes you only minutes.

Reel-to-reel. Before audio cassette ruled the mass market there was the bulky reel-to-reel, which remained for awhile for the discriminating few. How many can recall having to thread your own tape?

Film projectors. Image projectors are still around, but if you're under a certain age how likely are you to recall the film projector that was a staple in every school and classroom?

Typewriter. They're everywhere...in office scenes of old films. Any still around since they've been resigned to museum relics because of the modern PC?

Anyone else?

 

[sojourner]

Sliderules
Joysticks for computer games seem to be endangered.
floppy drives

 

[Sky]

The Concorde. Fast but expensive. Would've loved a trip on one.

Minitel. What France had long before the Internet.

Minidiscs. I still have two minidisc players but what for..

Laserdiscs.

 

[Spot's Meow]

You mention CRT tvs, but all of the tvs in my house are still CRT. Until they stop working, they do just fine. I think they are still pretty widespread. Few people I know go out and buy nice flat screen tvs without their current tv breaking first. So I think it will be a few more years for this one still. I also use 2 VCR/DVD combos and 1 VCR right now.

But something I haven't seen in a very long time was standalone VHS tape rewinders. I remember we had one that was shaped like a red sports car. It was exciting putting the tape in that thing and listening to it go so fast!

 

[auntiehill]

Talk about defunct technology:

We were going through some of hubby's junk that he has stashed away in boxes, and he found his old Polaroid camera. You know, the big, boxy thing lots of us had 25 years ago. They don't even make film for it anymore, I don't think. I wanted to give it to Goodwill but I doubt they would be able to sell it. We have no idea what to do with this thing.


Typewriters? I held onto my old typewriter until about '99. I was very sentimental about the old thing, but there was no reason to keep it anymore.

We still have piles of VHS tapes (which hubby keeps insisting he's going to convert to disc---and TONS of cassettes he was determined to convert to audio files....but 6 years later, they're still sitting there. We also have lots of vinyl LPs in boxes---probably all warped from being in the hot spare room all this time. I'm tempted to haul it all off to Half Price to see if I can get lunch money for it all.

 

[Count Zero]

Vinyl records. Long gone...well, not quite because there are still some turntables available for what few records are available on the market. But I wouldn't even know where to go to buy a new vinyl album.

Try amazon. Or any other big internet retailer that carries music. Also, there are many small record shops (often dedicated to a certain range of music) which mostly sell vinyl. Hell, at least one of the big electronics retail chains in my country also sells vinyl. Actually, many new albums also come out on vinyl, though the percentage can vary greatly depending on the genre. Sure, vinyl has become somewhat of a niche, the domain of djs, collectors and audiophiles mainly, but it's far from being dead.

 

[Warped9]

For a long time my parents still had an old Kodak brownie or box camera. I remember using it decades ago to take shots of my first AMT model of the TOS E.

I wonder whatever happened to that camera.


Oh, yeah: the dot matrix printer. And carbon paper.

 

[Cloud William]

Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes:

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm

 

[RobertVA]

Dot Matrix Printers - Might be a few left in profesional offices for multi-part claims forms, but the insurance industry should update the software to print multiple copies, including the form background, on a laser printer. Even better they should be updating the software to file claims electronically.

Usenet newsgroups (rapidly fading) - A format that functions much like a forum but can often be accessed by a two pane reader application that works in a manner similar to an email application. In fact, some email readers, including Outlook Express and Thunderbird, include Usenet newsgroup reading/posting functions. Partially due to the minor task of configuring the server settings (little more than entering a server name and networking port number) but also subject to law enforcement pressuring ISPs to block some disturbing files on an extremely small percentage of the news groups. The ISPs and web based sites may also have lacked enthusiasm about promoting Usenet Newsgroups because they don't offer the revenue opportunities of distracting and bandwidth hogging advertisements.


3D slide viewers - Most had at least a vauge resemblence to binoculars. The most popular brand had seven image pairs on a disk, but another had rectangular cards with the image pairs down the sides. toy departments used to have a sizable rack of media for these viewers with at least a hundred different titles. There were even souvenir packages sold at many popular tourist attractions. There was even an original series "Omega Glory" set.

 

[Warped9]

The fountain pen. Until modern pens with a built in ink supply and particularly the cheap disposable pen (popularized by Bic) this was the way to write...unless you used a pencil.

T-square, set squares, french curves, compass, mechanical pencils and pens. Today everything is designed and drawn up or modeled on computer. But before that for the longest time were the tools to draft things by hand on multiple sheets.

 

[Sky]

Usenet newsgroups (rapidly fading) -

There's an old saying... Imminent death of Usenet predicted, film at 11. However, now it might be really dying. Which kinda breaks my heart, as I started my geek career as a Usenet admin, the moderator of plenty of groups, and the coordinator of one large Usenet hierarchy. (Also, I met my husband on a Usenet newsgroup.)

Polaroid film.. I still use it for checking the light etc. on a technical or medium format camera.

 

[FPAlpha]

Public phones - killed by mobile phones

Turndials on phones - do most of you even remember such things existed?

Cassette data storage - i remember my kid days when we had to load games from a cassette. It usually failed at the last moments so we had to rewind and start all over

Acoustic copplers (and in extension 56k modems) - boy.. those were the days. No DSL modems or wirelesss technology at all. I still cringe at the sound a 56k makes when connecting.. that was some evil stuff

 

[Australis]

CRT TV. Still have 2. And CRT monitors for 23 PCs, rest are LCD.

VHS. Yep. DVD recorders ar still jsut a little too expensive to justify getting one.

Vinyl records. Long gone...well, not for audiophiles.

8-track. Yeah, not missed.

Audio cassette. I still have a bunch of these, can't see thee need to get the albums. Don't play 'em much, but nice to have.

Reel-to-reel. Mate of mine had 2 for his home stuidio. We're going to need them to retrieve a bunch of srtuff we recorded in the 70s.

Film projectors. My Dad has one for all the home moves he recorded of us kids in the 60s (see below).

Typewriter. Yeah, I've heard of a few writers that prefer them, but as a writer myself, they're jsut too damn easy to edit and rewrite on.

Projectors reminds me of...

The Super 8. Very popular in the day, non-existent now

 

[Canadave]

Vinyl records. Long gone...well, not quite because there are still some turntables available for what few records are available on the market. But I wouldn't even know where to go to buy a new vinyl album.

Try amazon. Or any other big internet retailer that carries music. Also, there are many small record shops (often dedicated to a certain range of music) which mostly sell vinyl. Hell, at least one of the big electronics retail chains in my country also sells vinyl. Actually, many new albums also come out on vinyl, though the percentage can vary greatly depending on the genre. Sure, vinyl has become somewhat of a niche, the domain of djs, collectors and audiophiles mainly, but it's far from being dead.

Indeed. If anything, vinyl is making a comeback. Tons of my friends have record players.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, I think vinyl has made a bit of a comeback. Newbury Comics sells vinyl records.

I still use my VHS recorder to tape shows. That's probably the only obsolete technology I still use (unless you count my old-fashioned phone that I've had since '89). I still have my 8-Track player and tapes in storage (it was never a good technology, but I'm nostalgic), my old typewriter (I don't use it, of course) and my ViewMaster (I haven't had it out in years, but I love that thing). Oh, yeah, I have a CRT TV.

 

[Holdfast]

The fountain pen. Until modern pens with a built in ink supply and particularly the cheap disposable pen (popularized by Bic) this was the way to write...unless you used a pencil.

Far from defunct, and if anything, currently experiencing a revival.

Fountain pens have a tactile quality that is entirely different to other forms of writing implement, and the script is also differently visually, so they will always have a niche. Just as vinyl's auditory quality means it retains a musical niche, so fountain pens will retain a writing niche.

Also, they have a status role that will also ensure their ongoing usage. Many people switch from rollerballs to fountain pens as their career progresses, and there's a similar image/cachet associated with high-end fountain pens as with high-end mechanical watches (which is why they can't be considered defunct technology either).

 

[SVD]

....

Starting off.
CRT TV. It's less than ten years ago that the death bell rang for CRT televisions. Mind you there are businesses still using some CRT computer displays, but they're not televisions. Are tube TV's even manufactured anymore?

VHS. I remember when video rental stores were crammed with VHS tapes. Now I know you can still buy blank cassettes (if you can find them), and some are still used for security monitor recordings, and there are still some DVD/VHS combo players in stores. But isn't this pretty much toast? Mind you the porn industry owes its breakout growth in the mass market to home VHS.

Much loved devices in this 23 year old's childhood!

Vinyl records. Long gone...well, not quite because there are still some turntables available for what few records are available on the market. But I wouldn't even know where to go to buy a new vinyl album.

8-track. Do young'uns today even know what 8-track is? This is a relic of the early '70s before compact audio cassette took over.

Audio cassette. I think you can actually still buy audio cassettes. Before MP3 and before CD's the audio cassette ruled for about twenty years. If you wanted your own music to take with you portably or to play in your car then this was the way to do it. It was also the way of choice to make your own playlists. The real cost was investing the time to record individual tracks from different vinyl records onto audio cassette. A 60 minute tape could take you hours to put together. Today an audio CD or an MP3 playlist takes you only minutes.

Reel-to-reel. Before audio cassette ruled the mass market there was the bulky reel-to-reel, which remained for awhile for the discriminating few. How many can recall having to thread your own tape?

I've seen the first of those technologies in person and in operation a few times in my adult life. I think I found and 8 track tape among the stuff we put in our barn for storage, condition unknown.
Both of those could be played on an old, wood-case stereo in my grandparents old house that was about (6x4x4) feet

The thrid I know about, but is not special to me.

The fourth of those I've seen depicted on M*A*S*H reruns used by Charles.

Film projectors. Image projectors are still around, but if you're under a certain age how likely are you to recall the film projector that was a staple in every school and classroom?

Typewriter. They're everywhere...in office scenes of old films. Any still around since they've been resigned to museum relics because of the modern PC?

I've seen both of those working, the former is still used in the Butte College ceramics department. I used a 70's Daisywheel-type of typewriter to fill out some schollarship apilications in my senior year of highschool. Noisy and fun to use with the new-to-me sounds from the keystroks!

Talk about defunct technology:

We were going through some of hubby's junk that he has stashed away in boxes, and he found his old Polaroid camera. You know, the big, boxy thing lots of us had 25 years ago. They don't even make film for it anymore, I don't think. I wanted to give it to Goodwill but I doubt they would be able to sell it. We have no idea what to do with this thing.

We (grandpa and I) still have ours from the 90's. His Advantix film Minolta camera is fast going by way of the dinosaurs too.

 

[Spot's Meow]

My grandma LOVES her Polaroid camera. She isn't technologically savvy enough for digital cameras but doesn't want the hassle of going to get film developed, so she feels like the Polaroid camera is perfect.

 

[Sky]

Reel to reel: My very first job was tape editing at a local radio station. I think I'd still know how to splice tape.

 

[Rett Mikhal]

Paper printed media seems to be on the way out. Specifically

Newspaper. Quickly dying, though still very prevalent due to convenience. It will all be electronic soon.

Phonebooks. Good god, does anyone WANT these anymore?

Reference Media. When's the last time someone used Encyclopedia Britannica versus using Wikipedia?