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 ...
The only reason it is difficult to email a signed document is because the law has not caught up with technology. I can easily create a signed document that cannot be forged, and will mathematically prove that the document has not only been signed by me, but also that it has not been tampered with in any way. Google PGP or GPG. This is not rocket science, and has existed since the mid ‘90s.
“...vinyl that went back to the 1950s. I threw it all in the rubbish...”
Oh no you didn’t! (Groan!)
I have one of those too!
Sadly it is broken, but it does look cool on display for sure!
Find a good estate sale and there are always some good AV gear that hasn’t seen the light of day in decades.
Details, please? I still use a flip phone by choice.
Lots of our European customers initial every single page of the contract and often imprint their seal as well. That’s in addition to regular signatures.
I have a 1966 Tanberg 3-head reel to reel, that uses 7” reels. The record head could stand to be replaced. Haven’t used it in several years but last time I did, playback was fine. Also have the schematics and manual. It really is looking for a good home.
Just bought a fax machine
I was just talking about my husband about this thread (it’s raining, we are under the veranda a few blocks from the lake) and even with the pleasant weather, he is not nostalgic about the reel to reel at all.
I wish you the best in finding it a good home with someone who will appreciate it and play recordings from records, Tv and what I used to do, record Kasy Kasem and American Top 40.
Your 1966 Tanberg is super cool, a spy would have used it.
It makes it a ceremony for all witnessing and pressing. Lovely.
I’ve had a combo printer, scanner, fax machine for a couple of years. Never needed the fax feature.
Understood.
Which is why essentially with small and medium practices Fax is the only way to go.
Having phones when you have kids is awesome! Text me when you get there. My wife and I text them to come home. We have 4 kids. 3 have iPhones. Our youngest is 8. We don’t give phones until they are 10. Believe it or not they are godsends.
The IRS is still in the technological dark ages.
BTTFLR
I think they are used because it would require replacement of their entire system. I suspect that the system is a mini-computer like a PDP-11, PDP-8, or any one of hundreds of systems that used 8” floppies. This is a safe bet because 8” floppies have never been supported on PCs or other more modern machines.
Those were just wonderful! It made typing easy and kind of fun. They were terrific as the console output device for the big computers as well.
Got a couple of late additions to this “Obsolete Technology” list:
1) Sliderule - Invented in the 1600’s, largely obsoleted by pocket calculators about 1974 and mine just returned to me by grandson after completion of his homeschool math project. (Really handy in remote job locations when I want to continue work after a power outage and sometimes used by grandkids to scare **** out of public school “mathematics teachers”.)
2) Adobe Flash - In use for at least past ten to fifteen years (including by the folks publishing this article) but fallen into disuse over the past two years due to security failures.
I still have my Post Versalog and its hard cover manual.
I still have his HP-67 which was the scientific calculator of the day with engineers and other math nerds. The HP-67 owners manual is as thick as the LA phone book.
Good times.
I am as ancient as days...an old fart. I have used a travel agent a couple of times for some rather extraordinary travel...Egypt, Copper Canyon in Mexico, Spain...but I have travelled the world without using travel agents. I lived in Northern Ireland three years. I have been to the Far East. I have nearly circumnavigated the globe.
My wife worked for a travel agent for a time and we got Fams...Egypt and Copper Canyon were Fams...
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