Products You Thought Would Never be Obsolete

Relayer said:

I was a grown man when most of these were introduced, so I remember the technologies that preceded them.

I remember in 1978 I was trying to decide between 8-track tape and cassette for the player I was buying for my car (I went with a Caig 8-Track - oops).

In the mid-80s I was a technician for an alternative long-distance company. When working the late shift we'd spend half the night calling "900" porn messages (over WATS lines - anyone remember those?).

Providing long-distance service for payphones was a huge, money-making business, especially for the owners of the payphones. I traveled a lot and the first thing every business traveler did after a getting off the plane was rush to the payphones.

However, I steadfastly refuse to consider the calculator watch and the CD "obsolete" !

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Remember on 8-tracks...when you knew when your favorite song on the 4th track started, but the very point of the song playing on track 1, where you could switch to track 4 to get the beginning of your favorite song.

i was convinced it was going to be the last kitchen tool i ever bought.

How is GPS on the list? Still have to use mine some when I don't want to use up my cell phone data. That's not something I would say is obsolete just yet.

92tide said:

i was convinced it was going to be the last kitchen tool i ever bought.

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92tide said:

i was convinced it was going to be the last kitchen tool i ever bought.

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I think I know why you like that product.

AUDub said:

I still carry a pager and use a fax machine. Healthcare.

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I'm with ya Dub.

GrayTide said:

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Microwaves are still in use but the Radarange was nearly as big as a stove.

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A brief story behind the development of the Radarange. Raytheon had a division named Submarine Signal that worked extensively with microwaves for sonar applications. They noted the heat build up where the microwave was directed so they began to research commercial applications in the company's product center. Once they achieved the basic design they looked for a company to market the product. They acquired Amana Refrigeration a small Iowa company near Cedar Rapids building commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning. Once the Radarange was introduced Amana grew it to apx. $400 mil in sales. Litton was the primary US competitor. Of course the Japanese quickly came into the market with their artificially low Yen and in just a few years had turned it to a commodity market. Ultimately Amana began building only commercial microwaves and branding Asian manufactured units for sale under their brand.

Bamafaninco1 said:

I'm with ya Dub.

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There's other stuff on this list that I was still using really recently. I maintained EKG machines and X-Ray file servers with 3 1/2 floppy diskette drives routinely. Still have a ton of them laying around, too. Mementos from my earliest forays into tech. Remember my first PC, Packard-Bell 386 with 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 floppy drives. Good times.

Of the items on the list, there are less than 5 I am not familiar with at age 32.

I don’t have the patience to click through the slides. Dub, you first computer was a 386... I hadn’t heard that term in years. I remember my 286 and I believe an 8086 before?

Is a camera on the list? We spent a bunch on a nice digital camera and zoom lens when the kids were active in sports, but people just shoot with phones now.

RTR91 said:

How is GPS on the list? Still have to use mine some when I don't want to use up my cell phone data. That's not something I would say is obsolete just yet.

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GPS is still widely used. But not GPS devices like a Garmin. Most everyone I know use their smartphone in their car for directions. There's some really nice apps for that.

Ledsteplin said:

GPS is still widely used. But not GPS devices like a Garmin. Most everyone I know use their smartphone in their car for directions. There's some really nice apps for that.

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Plus, it used to be when you lost cell service, your GPS on your phone was null and void.

I downloaded maps from Google Maps before I went to Buenos Aires in December, and navigated fine down there with my phone in airplane mode.

LSUgrad2BamaDad said:

I don’t have the patience to click through the slides. Dub, you first computer was a 386... I hadn’t heard that term in years. I remember my 286 and I believe an 8086 before?

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Yes! There was an 80186 as well but it was meant for embedded systems never used in PCs. The 8086 is the ancestor of the majority of modern PC CPUs via the x86 architecture. Everything is backward compatible, even for things manufactured before the first modern PC - the IBM PC with a 286 processor - came to be.

LSUgrad2BamaDad said:

Is a camera on the list? We spent a bunch on a nice digital camera and zoom lens when the kids were active in sports, but people just shoot with phones now.

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In a sense. Rolls of film (think Kodak) and the Polaroid camera are on the list.

Displaced Bama Fan said:

I read where typewriters may be making a comeback to a certain degree.

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My grandmother had a typewriter growing up and watching her type, even more the sound of it, drew me to typewriters and computers as they became available in my last years of school.

I now own 3 typewriters circa 1923-1952. Something about nearly century old technology that I use constantly and keeps going.

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tattooguy21 said:

My grandmother had a typewriter growing up and watching her type, even more the sound of it, drew me to typewriters and computers as they became available in my last years of school.

I now own 3 typewriters circa 1923-1952. Something about nearly century old technology that I use constantly and keeps going.

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Interesting thoughts.....

Over in the DIY Videos forum I posted about improving one's handwriting (where applicable) but never thought about using a typewriter as an option when sending snail mail to friends and family.

Old school!

Bazza said:

Interesting thoughts.....

Over in the DIY Videos forum I posted about improving one's handwriting (where applicable) but never thought about using a typewriter as an option when sending snail mail to friends and family.

Old school!

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Let me know if you're interested in one. There's a shop here in the Pacific Northwest where the gentlemen guys and repairs them and the ship next follow will do maintenance. The original owner of the maintenance shop JUST retired after 40+ years. His apprentice quit his tech sector job and now does this full time. Here's a picture from the shop....



And here's a picture of my babies....

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Drivers. Cars and locomotives. It's happening during our lifetimes. Although there are bumps in the road.

https://www.railpage.com.au/news/s/...naway-train-derails-in-devonport-injuring-two

That operation is fairly simple and contained however.

The company tried to run GE's trip optimizer on my run last week. In their perfect world the program pilots the train while the engineer operates the horn and takes over emergencies and stopping. My coworker said it was a terribly rough ride, they got two miles an hour fast (brakes come on at five over the speed limit) and it finally tore the train in two at the 740 mile post ( right near the Anniston Army Depot). [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Like I said, in its infancy, but soon vehicles will be mostly computerized.


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