Discussion on:

Tech gadgets we once loved but since abandoned (Photos)

I'm a decade behind you, and while I can still hear the horizontal oscillator in our old CRT television, it's not nearly as loud as it used to be...

I'm delighted that you researched this so well, resolving that question for most of us. I think the author should have titled the article "Tech gadgets I once loved, " causing a lot less heated disagreement.

But CD's have other advantages over vinyl, such as portability and ease of copying. So many of us have compromised by playing vinyl at home and CD's on the go. .

since my car won't play my 45s
of course it won't play MP3s either, but i'm not going to give up my off-brand ipod either. it's a matter of convenience. I cringe at the idea Ford had to put a record player in there cars. It pretty much sucked. Vinyl needs a fairly restricted environment with as little vibration as possible, whereas CDs and other digital formats are much less vulnerable, at least to external forces. This makes them far more convenient for me...but if i'm in the man-cave, i'm hearing vinyl or tape when i can.

You don't remember the record players in the 70's that played vertically? You could give them a good shake without skipping, better than most CD players actually. Of course crappo tone arms and cartridges but they played all the same.

I absolutely shudder at the whole concept of MP3's, no way I'd own an iPod for music. Work gave me an iToy phone but I don't use it fr tunes either, even 320 bit rates make me cringe and want to hear the real song instead. I don't mind FLAC of course, especially when ripped from my Thorens table, I've got a few old AC/DC LP's where people can't believe the audio quality, they never believe me when I say it was from an LP either. Bit rates in the 4000's, so dynamic and yet not too forward with great sound staging for a CD file.

They do put DVD players in cars too though, made for when you are stopped (of course you wouldn't be able to watch while driving), I always laugh at idiots who say they put a lockout bypass on their in-car DVD player, WHY?

It's for when you are parked, just like the Ford record player.

"No, I haven't gone digital. I'm still on vinyl."

Digital what's that? I use 1/4 Inch Tape on 3,600 Foot reels and get much better sound.

Though I still Miss my Pioneer Tape Deck that they couldn't repair when some Ampex Tape melted in the heat.

Col

I wouldn't normally have purchased an X-1000R, but it was on sale and I'd just gotten my re-enlistment bonus!

Doesn't stop me looking out for another Pioneer RT909 that works on 240 V though.

Col

It's a Dual CS-741 that was supposed to be dual-voltage, but was hard-wired for 220 VAC. To use it here in the States, I had to disassemble it and physically re-wire the input transformer.

Strangely, though, it came with the 50/60Hz sync switch...

I bought a nice Akai Reel-to-Reel on eBay this year for $50 (+ $40 shipping!). It works great, though not sure I trust its 40-year old electronics enough to leave it plugged in all time.

the 1 mil tape is much more forgiving.
(Uh, oh, i might have started a "Stereo Review"-type debate here...)

3600' on a 10-1/2" reel is still 1 mil tape.

i have only recently acquired a useable Tascam 32 and a handful of 10-1/2 inch reels...I'm still accustomed to 7 inch 1 mil acetate for its relative resilience.
Now my problem is my collection is mostly 1/4 track and my Tascam is 1/2 track...

My experience says you will need to obtain a quarter-track deck to transcribe your collection.

Now, let me ask y'all - Mac or PC, hmmm, maybe even Linux. It all comes down to whatever turns ya on. Digitizing LPs takes a lot of time. Then, sometimes, ya gotta clean them up and so on. Even semi-audiophiles (like me) who couldn't afford to rebuild their collections, still listen to LPs 'cause they're there. CDs are going out of style and it is hard to find stuff you might want in many many places. The good stuff is almost as much as vinyl. Some countries, it's hard to afford streaming music without paying a whole lot extra. I sometimes think folks spend more time on buying and setting up and adjusting the tech stuff than listening (or watching). For my tastes, TV is a relative waste of time. But then, everything justabout has been dumbed down so revolutions won't start because few can think anymore. LIke the ideas about ears being dumbed down too. But, Love Ya All just the same.

Many doctors still use pagers since they can give the doctor urgent info with out producing RF emission unlike cell phones. heck if you watch House you see they have pagers that go off like 10 times in an episode.

no cell phones in the hospital or on airplanes!
Most is just a myth.
Most of the medical equipment is designed to work with some degree of interference, not as bad as they claim, yes do not want to risk it of course but been in those areas with the signs that state no cell phones and the doctors and nurses are using them and when asked say sure go ahead no problem. I have been to some places seem more strict than other though, But really, may be possible but would have to get the cell phone right near the body-probe contact area for the pickups on the medical equipment.
At one point a lot of devices were being wireless connected using standard WIFI AP's and maybe could be a potential to clog those channels from all the WIFI ready devices but hardly interference. Today they are using special purpose wireless devices operating on a specific reserved frequencies in more places.


And Aircraft avionics is supposed to be hardened against such interference, should be against an EMF blast, I know ,military aircraft is. Today's digital cell phones unlike the analog predecessors, are very low power, The cell towers however operate at much larger wattage outputs and are not out of range of aircraft. How about this, those setback phones that were on most aircraft at one time, they used the same equipment as cell towers, sometimes sharing same or adjacent land cell frequencies and had to operate at much higher wattage. So if anything was going to interfere would be those towers, not the phones, and much higher power mega watt transmitters for other purposes has not brought down an aircraft yet, they all operate there avionics on different frequencies that other devices so there is no interference.

it isn't just the WiFi, but how about all those security guards and support staff that use 3 watt walkie talkies all the time? and what hospital doesn't rent space on their elevator penthouses to two-way companies and how about there own H.E.A.R. systems?

As any crime writer/detective knows, you have to follow the money. How could hospitals make money from renting a phone ($10 day) if you could bring your own cell phone. And for TV, how about $15 a day for an old mini-TV? No EMF? Ha. I imagine the same thing happens on planes. It's the cell service providers who'd have a problem with routing your calls or calling for 911 if folks like Mitt felt the need for oxygen and couldn't open the window. The lack of education among people never ceases to amaze me, nor the vulgarity. I don't really want to share the seatback program of the guy next to me or the use of the seatback phone either. But its a good argument that EMF'll be a problem. Scary even if someone were to use a 3 year old phone which might be a problem. They should just buy a new one or pay to use the "approved" one. As I say, follow the money.

I resent the "dork" comment, unless you mean those own and wear one by choice. They are still cheaper than cell phones, so companies still prefer them as an electronic leash for their employees. An added benefit, and one reason I'm pretty sure I've got one on my belt: they tend to work where cell phones won't. Simpler one-way signal means longer range and deeper penetration into buildings.

Very useful devices these pager thingys. When your iPad sets fire to the iPod and you have to use your iTouch to Skype the fire services, the volunteers will respond to their pagers beeping. Same with the Ambos (although they get more details on their truck screen) and other emergency services.

Should I leave my pager at your front door next call or you ok with fire fighting dorks? Oh, does your iPad (currently billowing smoke at 3am) allow you to reply you are turning out, even if there is no wireless/mobile signal? Hmmm Hmmm???

I too resent the "dork" comment. I look at myself as a pretty cool guy and look nothing like a dork. My "JOB" forces me to wear the leash. If you work at a company or the government that has sensitive data in the area, they flat out will not allow cell phones or other devices that transmit data. The pager is the way to go. Also, I don't care to look at every email that's delivered into my Companies email inbox at all hours of the day. I'll wait and come back to my desk or if its an emergency then I'll get paged.

I'll bet there were times (like me) when you would love to see how many times it would skip across the lake...

Glad to see all the pager comments out there. I resent the "dork" comment. In my company we share On-Call duties with multiple people so passing the pager is easier then expecting the people doing the call out to remember who to call any given week. 1 number - 1 solution...Pagers still the best way to go!

It must be that the author has no life!

Many restaurants that allow walk-in dining without a reservation have short-range private paging systems. They hand you a pager when you check in, and you give it back when your table is ready. Many hospitals have similar systems for surgical waiting rooms; the next-of-kin is given a pager that goes off when the surgery is complete or the staff has a message.

These systems are much nicer than "JOHN SMITH, PARTY OF 10, YOUR TABLE IS READY!" or "PLEASE COME TO THE DESK" announcements continually blaring over a public address system.

Pagers still have a niche; like all technology, the role has evolved.

looking desperately for your charger is not a problem...and one AA will last you a month on many pagers.
Thank God I'm retired and have retired my old Motoroller alphanumeric to the antique collection in my man-cave, but if my code were still active, i'll bet a fresh battery would prove it still works very well...and the news and weather messages were handy, too

The POS paging service is an entirely different animal to a regional, national pager.
POS paging is local, not carried by land lines to towers (as in a local pager) or sat to tower as in a National paging service. But coaster pagers, which you are referring to, are a good, viable technology that is still making it's foothold in the industry.

You blame the decline of the slide rule on the PC, then follow the slide rule with the true cause of its decline, the pocket calculator.

As for modems, they're still out there, but possibly not for much longer. Every major retailer I've supported over the past years still has at least one 56K modem, either as the backup connection during network outages (although some are starting to use 3G or 4G for the backup) or for remote access by net ops.

I needed to send a signed contract out to a new client.
I said I was going to the Post Office to fax it.
Client responds: "Ok, but do it this week - we're moving next week, and after that we don't have fax machines."

Went to the Post Office, "Hi I need to fax a document"... "Sorry, we don't have a fax machine".
"Any idea who does?"
"Um... not really".

I decided to get a scanner.

Except the only scanner available was an industrial-strength one which could scan 250 pages a minute. For just as many Euros.

So I got a "multipurpose device", even though I already had a printer and rarely needed a photocopier.

Just a big clash of obsolescence all round.

The new avatar caught me by surprise.

Your mistake was in printing the contract for signature. A 'stamped' signature is just as acceptable legally. You could have embedded your signature in the electronic document, converted to .PDF, and e-mailed it to the client.

so, well, I guess it had to be scanned.
That was the instruction, anyway.

Maybe a digital photo would have sufficed... anyway, back to the point, does anyone have faxes anymore? And is it me, or is the sudden faxlessness of the world sort of non-publicized?

Believe it or not I still get requests to either snail mail a document or fax it back to the government agency, they are funny that way. Gotta have proof positive in the file that it was signed by me. Some business still ask if I can fax it rather than snail mail because they want that document, like yesterday. I know all about the pdf signature on doc's but alot of business don't accept them, I guess they feel they are to easy to forge a signature that way.

Do they accept that? After all, it's as good or better security as the faxed copy (not to mention, has better resolution)...

but if it's sent to a fax machine, it still is transmitted at the standard 9600 baud 1200/800 rate and printed on their fax machine, so your improved resolution will probably make very little difference on the rx end.

I had to look in the closet to find it but it does the job.

Last time I had to fax something was in 2009. I scanned the document into my computer, printed the scanned pictrure to the Microsoft Fax printer driver that asked me for a phone number and faxed it off. Fax capability was added into some dial up modems back in the 9600bps days but became a standard feature in most of the 14.4kbps and higher models. Its amazing how many people did not know their computers could send a fax using their dial up modem. As a good percentage of the old dial up modems also have voice capabilities, I found them very handy with the right software installed to have my old computer act as my answering machine while I was out.

We still get faxes on my job. They're sometimes like adware...popping in all the time when you don't want them (daily specials at the restaurant we never go to comes to mind). But in my line of work (auto parts sales) we use them for rapid image transmission to and from auto manufacturers for system illustrations and such. Actually much faster than snapping a pic on the phone, formatting with important notes, and sending to the recipient (after you call them to find out the appropriate email/number to send it to). 8)

I travel the world to countries where sometimes even electricity is a luxury. My boss still insists on getting scanned receipts at the end of the month and it use to drive me nuts because I could never find a scanner ... until I realize a digital picture of the document works just as well

Scan the document into a word processor on your computer and email the docs.

...not to mention UPS and FEDEX shops still offer "faques" service for a very small fee...i just sent some legal documents with my signature to my bank at their request...
so just because it's not so common anymore doesn't mean it's going away soon (remember when it was called "telefacimile" and used a rotating drum for scanning?).
and as for the pots modem, many small stores still use them, they are much cheaper than dsl or satellite links, albeit painfully slow...
Oh, yeah, the Publix store near me just got a brand new phaques machine, so apparently somebody is still making them.

But there are many-many that make the MFP systems: Océ, Konica, Ricoh, Xerox, Lexmark, HP, etc.

I would like to see "Tech gadgets we once loved", but even in this day and age not everybody has super fast and unlimited Internet. We live out in the country, and it is either modem or satellite - no DSL. It is REALLY frustrating to try and read an article such as this, only to find that every picture has a new page with a new video (or videos) on each page to download. Each video has to download before the (small) picture for the article appears. I realize whoever designs these sits in an office with unlimited everything, but please try and remember not all readers have that luxury. I also realize each page allows new or more advertising, but they don't have to be videos!

of having to load all those pages, only to find the last one is ... the dial-up modem.

I'm surprised the Floppy Disk and its drive is not on the list. For a while I replaced them with CD-RW Disks but just use cheap 4GB USB sticks for storing data on these days. Year before last I was using 1GB and 2GB USB sticks and as the price of 8GB USB sticks is starting to drop soon I will be using more of them. I still have a draw full of old floppy disks but have hardly opened that draw in years. I only opened it the other day as I wanted a book I had sitting on top of the Disks.

but none of them are 5-1/4's.

My wife used to think the 5-1/4's were floppy disks and the plastics ones were the 3-1/2's were "hard disks"