Old (lack of?) technologies that are just frickin' better than the new tech

[Shalmanese]

@MeanOldLady

Am I missing something? Why is it taking you so long to change the channel?

Analog signals were sent uncompressed. That meant that the millisecond your TV locked onto the signal, it could start displaying useful data. Digital signals are sent compressed, instead of sending the entire frame every time, most of the time it sends just the difference between the current frame and the previous frame. Every couple of seconds, it sends a “keyframe” which is a full uncompressed frame. When you change the channel on a digital TV, it can’t display anything until it hits a keyframe.

On the plus side, it’s allowed us to cram many more channels of much higher resolution on the same bandwidth but on the minus side, changing channels is intrinsically slow.

Also in the same vein, it seems like cellphones take much longer to start dialing a number than landlines. I’ve sometimes sat staring at my cellphone for a full 30 seconds as it negotiates the various protocols and finally starts dialling.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@panache45

Every single packaged food product does not need a zip-lock and/or “tear here” instructions. Same goes for “press thumb here for E-Z spout” or “lift corner here for E-Z open.”

Give me a plain bag or box, and let me decide the best way to open it.

And LP packaging was a lot easier to open than CD packaging.

I was just in the hospital, and the TV remote had one button. Tap it to go to the next channel, hold it down for ON or OFF. The problem was, there was no other way to get to a channel. To go back just one channel, you had to keep tapping the button hundreds of times.

I remember the 60s, when Woolworth’s didn’t box everything in plastic, but just used big, glass-walled display bins.

[GreasyJack]

@scratch_llll

I can sit on a book or throw it across a room without worrying about breaking anything expensive. I can flip to a part I want to reread quicker. If I leave it somewhere then I can buy another for a small fee. Months later I can glance at a book on a shelf and decide to flip it open to an inspirational passage. I can forget it in a hammock during a storm and just dry it in the sun to continue reading. I can love it as a thing to touch and smell and admire visually. Never will a book be replaced by anything else in my heart.

Ummm the new nightlight Kindle screens are convenient though.

I actually had the complete opposite attitude-- with my current job situation an actual physical book would end up all grubby and beat up if I carried it around with me, so I bought an E-reader that has (so far) taken quite a bit of punishment in stride. If the prices keep coming down on them, they’re going to be downright disposable soon.

[oreally]

@MeanOldLady

I think there may have been a similar thread once before, but fuck if I can find it.

So everyone these days has their iWhatnots, can check the weather via text message, can book reservations at an uber chic restaurant by clicking a few buttons on their phone, which is way fucking good, but what old ways of doing things do you think are just plain better than the new ways? Note: this is not the thread where you out-retro everyone with tales of still communicating via telegraph, or how you wish gas stations had attendants, or how cool you think your rotary phone is. While rotary phones are indeed very cool, my point here is there are still some very low tech ways of doing things that you may not just find to be preferable (perhaps out of habit?) than the newer and fancier high tech ways, but just think are all out better.

For example, I keep track of my calendar on an actual calendar. I agree to events, or make social plans weeks in advance that I won’t remember off the top of my head, so I scribble on the actual calendar on my wall the dates of shit I need to do. To me, that’s just easier than having to consult my phone or computer or whatever to remind myself what’s going on. I just look at the calendar on my wall, et voila, there’s my whole month in front of my eyes in black and white. Could not be easier.

I’ve also found mincing food by hand with a knife is simpler and easier to clean than using food dicing gizmos.

So those are my examples. Yous guys?

So how are things in Philly?

@Arrendajo

Anything with a volume knob that is an actual dial on the hardware itself.

Yep.

@BMalion

And for that matter, photo albums, I still prefer mine over having to squint at a little tiny phone screen or stare at a computer screen. You wanna see my photos? Come to my frickin’ house.

AMEN.

Wait…come actually see you in person? Dude that’s so all like 20th century. You dinosaur.

@lost4life

Resumes. In the old days, you would see a job listed in a newspaper, then write the address on an envelope, plop in a resume and BAM, you’re done. Then Al Gore invented the internet and things got easier for a while. You could apply for jobs with one or two clicks. Then some assclown invented Taleo. Not only is it shitty, bug-ridden software, now you have to fill out like a gazillion pages of info including references’ name/address/email/phone, reasons for leaving, starting/ending pay, supervisors’ name/email/phone/address, grade school, high school, gpa’s, etc. I don’t mind eventually supplying this info, but now it takes like 45 minutes to initially apply. You can set up a resume with them to import (sort of), but most companies I hit don’t seem to have this feature activated.

TRIPLE AMEN. Don’t forget how you have to fill out the same info like name, address etc 3 or 4 times. Wheee what funnn

:smack:
Also analog recordings over digital. With digital you “lose” some of the sound. I really hate that everyone records in digital now.

PC games where you HAVE to have the CD in the drive to play it, which they all effing do now.
Hell, PC games at all for that matter. They’re fading fast and it’s all “video box games” now.

[RTFirefly]

@Rich_G7subs

Gas cans… I hate the new plastic safety cans with the “push down to dispense” nozzles. I’ve broken 3 of them in the last year. What’s wrong with just a regular pour spout and a cap? I still use the old style can (circa 1989) and it’s a thousand times easier than the new ones.

@ugly ripe tomato

Oh Hell Yes. The new “safety” ones are evil. I don’t get how trying to hang onto a heavy container of gas, trying to finagle the spout into the lawn mower gas inlet, trying to push down, and end up soaking your shoes in gas because something either wasn’t tightened enough or popped loose is safer than a few escaping gas fumes from an old-school can.

I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one! The new ones call themselves ‘spill-proof,’ and all I can say is I spilled far more gasoline during the year or so I tried to use one, than during the entire rest of my life.

I think you need 3 hands to use the damned thing: you’ve got to hold the can as you forcefully pull the nozzle back towards yourself far enough that you can twist the safety part, and do all this pulling and twisting while keeping the end of the nozzle pointed into where the gas goes into your mower.

It just can’t be done without getting gas all over the freakin’ place, AFAICT.

Eventually my 1994-vintage plastic gas can will wear out, and when that day comes, I will shed bitter tears.

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor

Screw synthetic fabric winter jackets–gimmie a wool peacoat any day.

You are very wise. And I say that without irony, though admittedly I am only talking about the above statement.

@Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor

Nope.

Wool stays warm when wet.

Well, and this one too.

[oreally]

@Shalmanese

It used to be you could change a television channel in milliseconds. Nowadays, it takes multiple seconds. When you were bored, you could flip through channels one by one, spending a few seconds on each channel until something caught your eye. Trying to do that now is a painful process.

Outstanding post. Fortunately I rarely even watch TV so this isn’t much of an issue, but it has annoyed the beegeebees outta me.

@CanvasShoes

Computer games with their wonderful graphics. I was a teen when “Pong” came out, and BELIEVE you me, “The Sims” blows “bloop BEE bloop, BEE BEEE bloop” RIGHT out of the water..

Well it’s silly to compare them now. And as I recall, most people were far more jazzed about Pong or other early computer games then they are now about most any game coming out (except the hard-game gamers would would rather play video games than eat of course).

@Gagundathar

Every time I see an idiotic gadget, I think of what P. T. Barnum said oh so many years ago.

Yep. And the people at Apple, Samsung, Verizon etc are laughing all the way to the bank. People with their iBlahs are like little kids with tinker toys. Worse even; at least kids eventually tire of their latest toy and go play ball outside (um they still do that don’t they?). The obsession is downright scary.

@silenus

I refuse to help the Universe Borgify me. When I become God-King of the World, some of the first people recycled are going to be those wearing Bluetooth headsets/earpieces.

Wow and you live in southern Calif? You have my vote.

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

Speaking of film, being shown actual, projected, reel-to-reel films in school was way the hell better than a VHS tape shown on a 19-inch TV at the head of the classroom. OTOH, modern DVD and LED screen tech may have surpassed the old films, by now.

Yeah but there was something cool and even soothing about having to have the lights out and that gentle whirring sound I miss that.

@panache45

And LP packaging was a lot easier to open than CD packaging.

And it was about 100 times more fun, ie the whole album cover thing in general. They had all kinds of big splashy graphics, even different textures, sometimes there were posters/etc inside, and of course the lyrics all printed out and credits so you could sit there and listen and…ahhhh man that was back when buying an album was truly fun. Now CDs (or worse, online) are all so vanilla and dehumanized and blah…sigh. Why don’t we just make ourselves borgs and be done w/it.

[Sally_Mander]

Electric can openers probably don’t qualify as “new technology” but I’ve never had one that lasted or really worked worth a darn.
Give me a hand-operated Swing-A-Way can opener any day.

[oreally]

@Sally_Mander

Electric can openers probably don’t qualify as “new technology” but I’ve never had one that lasted or really worked worth a darn.
Give me a hand-operated Swing-A-Way can opener any day.

Agreed. I haven’t had one for a long time and I think a lot of people have given up on them (course not nearly as many cans to open nowdays might be helping). Ditto corkscrews. Give me my manual one any day. I’ve tried these fancy ones, ones with a motor that automatically blah blah, IMO don’t work as well or as quick.

[BMalion]

@Sally_Mander

Electric can openers probably don’t qualify as “new technology” but I’ve never had one that lasted or really worked worth a darn.
Give me a hand-operated Swing-A-Way can opener any day.

I agree.

Unless you no longer have the physical strength to open cans the way God intended, and you have to go electric.

[zoid]

You know what? FUCK remote controls! Put the GOD DAMN buttons back on the front of my TV, DVD player, and cable box!
Every fucking time my kids lose the remote I’m screwed untill I find it, can’t even check the fucking score or watch the God damn news.
:mad:

[wolf_meister]

Well it is good to see that some folks said the manual can opener is far superior to those electrical contraptions.

Yes, I have a Swing-A-Way™ and it does a good job especially on big cans such as peaches (29 ounce). Ever try to open one of those with an electric? Almost impossible.
Also electric can openers last about 6 months. Yes, electric can openers are cheaper but I’ve had the Swing-A-Way™ for 7 years now with no replacement. (So much for the “savings”).

And yes, the audio quality of a cell phone really sucks. Ever talk to someone using a cell phone and notice that your voice starts echoing? Where the Hell does that come from? Equally bad are cordless phones. Are those still being made now that cell phones have become so rampant?

I used to think those Verichron™ electric clocks (110 volt) were quite superior to the modern technology. Remember you could set one of those and it would be accurate to about 1 second per month? Now it seems those digital clocks synchronized to WWVB are constantly accurate.
By the way, those 1.5 volt battery clocks that tick once per second are really bad.

[Dano83860]

@NoiseBomb

I see the two as having different purposes. Mapquest, etc are good for finding the most direct way from point A to point B. I use them then I have a specific starting point and a specific destination.

What paper maps are much better for are, say a vacation where you only want to know where a road generally goes and what else is vaguely in the area. The electronic maps are difficult to zoom in far enough to see the roads that you want to see, but still show enough area to see what else is there.

Except the route from point A to point B doesn’t exist. In my first case it’s a real pain in the second it cost someone his life.

[oreally]

I’m not sure this really qualifies, but wtf is up with alarm clocks now? I can hardly find just a plain old retangular-shaped clock that fits nicely on my nightstand. It’s all this goofball “mini-stereo system” BS in all kinds of weird shapes and 50 buttons and stuff sticking out and 800 places to plug in your iBlah etc etc. Good grief. On/off, Sleep mode, AM/FM switch, a volume and tuner control. That’s ALL I want/need.

[carlotta]

I totally agree with everybody about the maps. And the volume knobs. And Ima get me one of those retro phones to hook into my phone.

But I came here to complain about the poor quality of men’s shorts these days. In the old days they pleasingly revealed men’s lovely manly muscley thighs (well, some men’s) and they don’t do that at all nowadays.

[oreally]

? That has nothing to do with technology. Fashion rants are down the hall.

[Maserschmidt]

I miss light bulbs that are at full brightness the moment you flip the switch.

[oreally]

@Maserschmidt

I miss light bulbs that are at full brightness the moment you flip the switch.

They don’t sell those where you are? wow.

[johnpost]

@Maserschmidt

I miss light bulbs that are at full brightness the moment you flip the switch.

LEDs do.

[johnpost]

@Tastes_of_Chocolate

Analog over-the-air TV signals.

Digital is fine, as long as you live in a populated area, and it’s not raining or snowing.
But as soon as you are in the boonies, or stuff is falling out of the air, the signal deteriorates, and then it’s gone. Sure, the old analog signals would get snowy, but you could still watch it.

plenty of people get DTV at 50 and 70 miles. quality of antenna and its installation is very important. quality of tuner is important too.

that is not to say that some might have individual bad situations of low elevation, surrounded by trees or have mountains, channels that are less used with DTV (VHF LO) worked good for some situations.

TV Fool

is a good help.