# Museum of the recently obsolete... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 5, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874 "2007-05-05T12:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/21 "2007-05-05T15:45:10Z")
Considering how many of the items listed I still have and use, I’m feeling a little obsolete, myself. Got a place for me in that museum? No? How about an ice box, then? My grandfather spent a few years delivering ice. I have a couple of old ice industry newsletters promoting the superiority of ice cooling over those newfangled, but less hygenic, refrigerators. Pointing out that refrigerators dry the food in them and mix smells, whereas ice boxes do not. There were doctors quotes and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/22 "2007-05-05T15:45:38Z")
The Dewey Decimal system. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/23 "2007-05-05T15:59:09Z")
My wife has suggested regular sex, now that I have discovered “the Dope”. I remind her that the concept of “quality over quantity” was obsolete years ago. FML ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/24 "2007-05-05T16:29:22Z")
[QUOTE=Booker57] Ignition points and Carburators [/QUOTE] > [@Carnivorousplant](#): > > Manual chokes On automobile engines this is all mostly true, but small engines are different story. Points and condensers, while I doubt anyone makes them anymore, are still pretty common on small engines used in tractors, tillers, log splitters, and so on. Eventually they’ll disappear, but for now I still deal with them pretty frequently. Carburetors _are_ still made and ridiculously common on small two- and four-cycle engines from Kohler, Tecumseh, Briggs & Stratton, Honda, Robin, and so on. Kohler make one model that uses an EFI system, and I believe Briggs and Honda do as well (I only work with Kohler and Tecumseh primarily), but Tecumseh and Robin both still use carbs exclusively. And I doubt you’ll ever see EFI on two-cycle engines. It’s just too expensive. Manual chokes are still very common, too. > [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Rotary push mowers I’m not sure I understand this one. While I suppose there are are a lot of people who own riding mowers, they’re not nearly as common as push mowers, and trimmers are only good for edging around places ordinary mowers can’t get at. You can still get both electric and gas-powered push mowers practically everywhere. They’re a lot cheaper. > [@Boyo Jim](#): > > dot- matrix printers Still very common in the workplace for invoice and work orders because lasers and inkjets have no impact component that allow them to print on multipart NCR forms in one pass. They’ve completely disappeared from the home, though. > [@Photopat](#): > > Modems I’d qualify that with “external land-line modems.” (“land-line” because cable and DSL still use modems, they just don’t connect to the phone line, and Bluetooth-enabled cellphones can usually be used as a wireless cellular modem.) Lots of people still have internal phone modems, especially those with no cable, DSL or satellite internet alternatives. External phone modems though – man, I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since the mid-late 90s. My contributions: - Video game cartridges (died with the Nintendo 64 – and even when new the N64 was criticized for not going with CD media) - Instant-booting computers with the OS in ROM (died with the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga.) - Bulletin board systems (killed by them thar Intarweb tubes) ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/25 "2007-05-05T16:36:26Z")
[QUOTE=Full Metal Lotus] Imagine a museum featuring items (not drawn from pop culture) that were common a generation ago but have more or less disappeared today… my offerings: Rabbit Ear style TV antennas FML [/QUOTE] Haven’t you heard? Rabbit ears are “in” again, because over-the-air digital signals are generally superior to the compressed versions offered by cable and satellite: HDTV perks up old-fashioned rabbit ears ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/26 "2007-05-05T16:57:04Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] I’m not sure I understand this one. While I suppose there are are a lot of people who own riding mowers, they’re not nearly as common as push mowers, and trimmers are only good for edging around places ordinary mowers can’t get at. You can still get both electric and gas-powered push mowers practically everywhere. They’re a lot cheaper. [/QUOTE] I think they meant [these](http://www.greenthinkers.org/blog/lawnmower.jpg) The ones with the rotating (rolling, not spinning) blades that you push forward. Totally manual, not powered at all. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/27 "2007-05-05T17:13:52Z")
adding machines that use paper carbon paper ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/28 "2007-05-05T17:15:32Z")
Annie: I agree with you about both of those things, but have an odd observation. I haven’t seen much “business” use of carbon paper in AGES but recently having gone back to school for my art degree, I’ve found that it’s actually used quite a bit in the art world. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/29 "2007-05-05T17:20:56Z")
[QUOTE=Oregon sunshine] The Dewey Decimal system. [/QUOTE] As I librarian I can tell you the Dewey Decimal system is in no danger of being phased out. Practically every public library and elementary-school, middle-school and high-school library still uses it. Most college libraries use the Library of Congress system. Special libraries (e.g., those belonging to corporations or art museums or scientific institutes) might use one, the other, or something else. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/30 "2007-05-05T17:23:22Z")
[QUOTE=Booker57] A lot of automobile stuff Ignition points and Feeler gauges to set them Carburators Front drum brakes. [/QUOTE] Don’t forget clutches and stick shifts. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/31 "2007-05-05T18:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Don’t forget clutches and stick shifts. [/QUOTE] I buy a car every 3 to 4 years and have never owned an automatic transmission. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/32 "2007-05-05T18:45:51Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] Slide rules. Though I still have one. [/QUOTE] In the same vein, drafting tools. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/33 "2007-05-05T18:51:24Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] I think they meant [these](http://www.greenthinkers.org/blog/lawnmower.jpg) The ones with the rotating (rolling, not spinning) blades that you push forward. Totally manual, not powered at all. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah, those things! Actually, I’ve actually come across a few people who still prefer those when their lawn demands that fine manicured look, and you can still buy them some places. (They’re absurdly expensive though, just about as much as a gas-powered mower.) But yeah, outside of the hardcore landscaping-types, they’ve gone the way of the 8-track. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/34 "2007-05-05T19:03:20Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] I buy a car every 3 to 4 years and have never owned an automatic transmission. [/QUOTE] Yeah, they’re still made, but the percentage of modern cars with a stick shift is something like 10%. Most modern car models don’t even have an “auto/manual” option, and if they do, then the manual often doesn’t have as many option available to it as the automatic. It’s mostly sport cars and ones designed for car enthusiasts that are _designed_ to be stick shift. Re dot matrix printers: the thing is…these places really don’t need them. They _think_ they do, cause how else can we all get a copy of that invoice? Well…just have the laser printer print off two-three copies (or just print off one, and the store copy is stored electronically.) I’ve been to many a place that does this now, as in the long run, it is probably cheaper than the dot-matrix version, since there are only a few companies still making and servicing them (since the market is so small,) and the paper must cost more than regular letter-sized white paper. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/35 "2007-05-05T19:07:05Z")
Televisions and radios with vacuum tubes inside. Stand-alone word processors. OK, they never got really popular. In fact, they just about became obsolete as soon as they were introduced because of computers with word processing programs that could do a lot more. Still, for someone like me, who just wanted to write and didn’t want a lot of complicated bells and whistles, it worked out well. I still have my Brother HP-55, bought in the early '80s with one of my first income tax returns for just over $500, and I’m rather sentimental about it. Someone who typed faster than me, say, 40 wpm, would probably have stronger feelings though. It had to stop every 30 lines or so to save whatever was in its temporary memory, meaning whatever you typed in the meantime, you’d have to type over again. Fortunately for me, I never managed to get past 30 wpm. Remember when car dashboards were art forms in themselves? I loves me a beautiful dashboard, with chrome and fancy dials and two tones of enamel or vinyl and maybe some fake wood and hard ledges you could easily split your head open on if you were in an accident. Today’s dashboards are certainly safer but they don’t have an iota of the style or class as their predecessors did. ---
**Author:** ![wendigo1974](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@wendigo1974](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wendigo1974)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/36 "2007-05-05T19:22:30Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] Yeah, they’re still made, but the percentage of modern cars with a stick shift is something like 10%. Most modern car models don’t even have an “auto/manual” option, and if they do, then the manual often doesn’t have as many option available to it as the automatic. It’s mostly sport cars and ones designed for car enthusiasts that are _designed_ to be stick shift. [/QUOTE] That would only apply in the US chapter of the Museum of the Recently Obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/37 "2007-05-05T19:30:33Z")
Awhile back, I wondered who was the poor guy to buy a Palm-like device without a phone inside, just before finding out about the BlackBerry-like devices. My BIL told me that old-style pipe wrenches were obsolete because nobody uses iron pipe anymore. He’s wrong. You still have to take apart the miles of iron pipe still out there. My wife’s a CPA, and she does most of her work on computers, but there are things you need a calculator with a printed paper output for. There was a mechanical analog alarm watch called the Vulcan Cricket, IIRC. It was expensive, and now you can get a digi-watch with several alarms on it, rather cheaply. Now that everyone’s cell phone tells the time, watch sales are down. Is there a portable digi-camera that can quickly print a picture you can hand to the subject, on the spot? If not, the Polaroid is not quite obsolete. When everybody comes to their senses, tanning beds will be obsolete. Have you had to explain to someone what the pointy end of a bottle opener is for? _I culled out 5 items that are obsolete, but not recently so._ ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/38 "2007-05-05T19:32:30Z")
The Apple IIe. MS-DOS Slide Projectors The 2007 Vancouver Canucks. Tripler And a forecast: After Nov 2008, the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/39 "2007-05-05T19:36:55Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] Have you had to explain to someone what the pointy end of a bottle opener is for? [/QUOTE] I still use that end all the time. Opening cans of chicken and beef broth is a lot easier by just using the pointy-end (it’s called a church key, ya?) Plus, Juicy Juice still comes in big cans that you have to open with it. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874/40 "2007-05-05T20:08:47Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] Oh yeah, those things! Actually, I’ve actually come across a few people who still prefer those when their lawn demands that fine manicured look, and you can still buy them some places. (They’re absurdly expensive though, just about as much as a gas-powered mower.) [/QUOTE] Home Depot has a reel-type lawn mower for about $30. We also have a regular push mower. The reel mower is easier to use, but has a tendency to push over tall weeds and grass rather than cut them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/museum-of-the-recently-obsolete/402874.md?page=3)