Posted on 08/06/2016 1:34:34 PM PDT by PROCON
Have you had to write a rent check lately? Or maybe fax some important documents? Despite things like Venmo and email that normal people use every day, these ancient bits of tech and culture just keep hanging on. There's clearly better technology, it's just that not everyone is using it.
Here are nine outmoded technologies that just won't disappear.
Fax Machine
When they were invented: 1843
Purpose: Sending copies of physical documents over phone lines
Where they're still used: Doctors' offices, lawyers, the CIA (which demands the FOI requests be faxed, rather than mailed or sent online), people in Japan
Why they're still used: Sometimes you have to send a paper document, and sometimes you have to send it where there is a phone line but no internet access. Faxing can also be more secure than email; faxes are hard to intercept because they are a direct communication from the sender to the receiver, while emails get moved through a central server. That means you need physical access to a specific phone line at just the right moment to intercept a fax instead of being able to just access the main server everything goes through. Though if it's just left on the machine, a fax is particularly easy for any random person in the office to pick up. Nowadays, fax machines are most widely used in Japan, where 1.7 million fax machines were purchased in 2013 for use in for business transactions, restaurant orders, and other communication.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
I wish I had a reel to reel player; loved that clunk-clunk sound and that you could physically watch the tape go round and round. I wouldn’t have it inside a console stereo though. I like the ones that were set up on a wall.
I would be a cool cat. I already have the sunken living room.
I am weeping with nostalgia now. I miss my portable electric typewriter in its vinyl case.
Good luck finding the ribbon. Those people on the other end of recieving must be fascinated by your typewritten checks. I know I would.
I believe in paper. Libraries who had microfiche , how are they faring? Everything has to be re-recorded with every new innovation.
Years from now, someone is going to be able to read whatever it is on paper, no intermediate or obsolete intermediate medium needed.
Hurray for paper!
Just bitter clingers .....
I watch Korean dramas, they have seals for their signatures. Cool.
Feels like more than a lifetime. Feels like more than a lifetime.
My typewriter is a portable electric Smith Corona Coronet Super 12. I still can get the nylon ribbons (at least as of a couple of years ago), but they're poor.
I bought a similar system from Circuit City in the 80’s right down to the JBL speakers made in the San Fernando Valley; the Grado cartridge had great base.
I bought Yamaha stereo with an S tone arm. It had a beautiful wood base. I bought it for my boyfriend, who later dumped me a few months later.
When he courted me 11 years ago, I asked him, where that stereo went. He doesn’t remember. I married him anyway.
You are an elegant man.
Yes, there are more carousels than there are projectors.
The Kodak Carousels have a fatal flaw—two plastic pieces in the automatic forward/reverse assemblies that actually become brittle over time and disintegrate.
There is a kit to fix it, but you have to take apart the entire unit to replace them.
So, the Carousel 750 I bought for a whole $6 in its original box was about 40 years old and worked perfectly.
For about 300 slides—then the automatic advance stopped working, and I knew it had succumbed.
So I just advance the carousel manually by hans. Takes a little co-ordination.
The projector was practically brand new, so I’ll keep it and look for another one.
Always include the automatic winding wristwatch.
I try, but it’s harder with the nylon ribbons ;^)
Absolutely fascinating. Good for you.
For some reason, during two moves ago, I gave away my movie projector.
Oh time, you are a cruel mistress.
No, I am not kidding.
Prior to that it was wax.
Just for starters, mine ain't for sale.
Akai reel-to-reel with a 8-track cassette slot in the side purchased in '67 and currently residing in the corner bookshelf. (Had Jarhead littlest brother pick it up during one of his stops in Japan and ship it to me.)
I believe that there are still some of those old 8-tracks in a box someplace, but the sound quality on those things was **** fifty years ago and I'm sure the storage hasn't made any improvement at all.
What I mostly use it for is a training aid for my homeschool history and science classes for the grandkids and their buddies. (One tape is the ENTIRE Apollo 11/Neil Armstrong Moon Landing feed....)
Not much stereo, but good stuff.
You are very forgiving and shouldn’t be subtle about reminding him how lucky he is.
Not as much as I am. I have never owned a cellphone. Fang
has one; and I’ve answered it for him a few times when I’m
in the car. - It’s like talking into an Oreo cookie. I
have to move the thing around between my ear and down to
my mouth. - Also, having someone walk up behind you yakking
is scary. I think they’re talking to me and answer them,
only to have them run past me and scurry on down the street
still yakking. :o(
“Akai reel-to-reel with a 8-track cassette slot in the side purchased in ‘67 and currently residing in the corner bookshelf. (Had Jarhead littlest brother pick it up during one of his stops in Japan and ship it to me.)”
I know the one! You have a prize. Thank-you for keeping it and giving it a place of honor.
He didn’t understand that it was a precious gift. Thank-you.
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