# Technology that died in your generation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888 "2010-04-04T04:27:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/122 "2010-04-06T02:17:33Z")
8-tracks Reel-to-reel recorders LPs 45s 78s CRTs Console radios Console TVs Slide rules Leaded gas Aspirated engines Large propeller-driven aircraft Dial phones ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/123 "2010-04-06T03:07:58Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Cigarette machines I saw a cigarette machine in Germany (“ZIGARETTEN”, which is easy to translate into English) on the side of a building outside on my way to school. I can understand why they took them out of hospitals though. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/124 "2010-04-06T08:30:45Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 8-tracks > Dial phones Speaking of dial phones - when was the last time you heard the message: “Press zero to speak with an operator, or if you have a rotary phone, stay on the line…” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/125 "2010-04-06T09:24:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Large propeller-driven aircraft [Don’t tell Putin](http://www.fyjs.cn/bbs/attachments/Mon_0911/27_130008_a8b9d721287c8aa.jpg). You’ll just piss him off. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/126 "2010-04-06T14:12:02Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I drive a 2006 Hyundai, which has both a cigarette lighter and a electrical port, and I really doubt they’ll be phasing them out completely. People still smoke, and they serve a double function. I drive a 2008 car–lighter thingee, but no ashtray. 🙂 Or maybe it’s not a lighter thingee, maybe it’s a charger port. Anyway, I don’t see ashtrays in newer cars. People who still smoke have to put a container in there. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/127 "2010-04-06T14:16:27Z")
I hope electric typewriters don’t totally disappear. They are useful for filling out forms. Especially important stuff like Social Security and medical claim forms. I like to type important checks. Especially big purchase items like to a contractor for remodeling or buying a car. I feel stupid giving someone a $10,000 check in my bad handwriting. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/128 "2010-04-06T14:21:50Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > I don’t know if I ever saw them in the US, but elsewhere I used to see public phones that would accept a prepaid phone card with a magnetic strip. You could see how much time you had left on the card after it popped out of the slot by the physical scratch the phone had made on the mag strip. I’m pretty sure those have all been replaced by IC cards. These are still common in much of Mexico, especially in small towns where few have cell phones (or there is no cell phone coverage). However, even there, the tipping point in favor of cell phones was passed a few years ago. Before then, if you asked for a “phone card” in a store, they would assume you meant a public-pay-phone card, unless you specifically said “for my cell phone”. Now, it’s the opposite – they’ll assume you mean a cell phone card (the kind you scratch to reveal the number, which gives you a certain number of minutes when entered into your cell phone), unless you specifically say “for the public pay phone” – and the latter is becoming less available altogether. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/129 "2010-04-06T14:22:52Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I drive a 2008 car–lighter thingee, but no ashtray. 🙂 Or maybe it’s not a lighter thingee, maybe it’s a charger port. > > Anyway, I don’t see ashtrays in newer cars. People who still smoke have to put a container in there. Or just open the window! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/130 "2010-04-06T15:08:17Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > …Anyway, I don’t see ashtrays in newer cars. People who still smoke have to put a container in there. Hence the market for ashtrays that fit in cupholders. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/131 "2010-04-06T16:13:31Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 8-tracks > Reel-to-reel recorders > LPs > 45s > 78s > CRTs > Console radios > Console TVs > Slide rules > Leaded gas > Aspirated engines > Large propeller-driven aircraft > Dial phones Console televisions: it’s more a matter of style than technology. The function of a television as an article of furniture faded away in the late 1980s. I blame the VCR; console televisions faded away at about the same time as television stands designed to accommodate VCRs, stereo receivers, and small tape libraries became more commonplace. Consoles live on in the form of DLP display televisions. Console radio: again, a victim of the dying “electronics as furniture” trend. Console hi-fis sounded terrible by today’s standards. They were extremely bassy, which made AM radio sound richer and smoother, but FM broadcasts or media with a broader aural range sound stifling. Reel-to-reel: From what I understand, they still have a strong following among a subset of audiophiles, and there’s some performances (mostly older classical concerts) that are available only on reel-to-reel. The format is also still used in professional recording. It was never really widespread among the general public, although there were small, affordable reel-to-reel machines available in the pre-cassette years. Wire recorders lived and died before my time, but I remember Elcaset cassettes. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/132 "2010-04-06T16:43:27Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Console televisions: it’s more a matter of style than technology. The function of a television as an article of furniture faded away in the late 1980s. I blame the VCR; console televisions faded away at about the same time as television stands designed to accommodate VCRs, stereo receivers, and small tape libraries became more commonplace. Consoles live on in the form of DLP display televisions. > > Console radio: again, a victim of the dying “electronics as furniture” trend. Console hi-fis sounded terrible by today’s standards. They were extremely bassy, which made AM radio sound richer and smoother, but FM broadcasts or media with a broader aural range sound stifling. > > Reel-to-reel: From what I understand, they still have a strong following among a subset of audiophiles, and there’s some performances (mostly older classical concerts) that are available only on reel-to-reel. The format is also still used in professional recording. It was never really widespread among the general public, although there were small, affordable reel-to-reel machines available in the pre-cassette years. > > Wire recorders lived and died before my time, but I remember Elcaset cassettes. Regarding console stereos: my late great-aunt had on eof the weirdest TV-stero consoles I have ever seen. It was made by a long-gone company (“Muntz”)-it was the only one of its kind I ever saw. This monster was a huge TV console, with a turntable and radio section, the funny thing was, each section had its own amplifier-you could watch TV, turn down the audio, and turn on the record player-listen to music while watching TV. The utility of this always escaped me. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/133 "2010-04-06T16:45:50Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I drive a 2008 car–lighter thingee, but no ashtray. 🙂 Or maybe it’s not a lighter thingee, maybe it’s a charger port. From what I’ve seen, it’s almost always just a charger port. You generally have to pay extra (and I’m guessing an aburd amount extra) to get the actual thingy that you press in that heats up a metal coil you can use to light a cig. Same for ashtrays. You pay a relative ass-load for them to put a little plastic thingy in one of the random storage compartments in the dash, cause otherwise if you don’t get it, you can’t get the ashes out of there. And like previously said, hence the market for cheap ones that fit into cup holders…or people just using a cup, or (from what I’ve seen what most smokers do) use the window. And someone mentioned flopies for RAID, but most motherboards made inthe past few years can support this natively, or lat least load the drivers from a USB or CD/DVD drive. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/134 "2010-04-06T17:46:15Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > the funny thing was, each section had its own amplifier-you could watch TV, turn down the audio, and turn on the record player-listen to music while watching TV. > The utility of this always escaped me. There’s one reason I can think of; having the TV tuned to a sports event, with the play-by-play coming from a local radio broadcast. Many people 'round these parts watch a football, baseball or hockey game, mute the television sound, and place a cheap transistor radio on top of the TV to listen to the play-by-play on AM radio. Otherwise, I remember most of those all-in-one TV/hi-fi consoles couldn’t “multitask”, for lack of a better word. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/135 "2010-04-06T18:13:14Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Reel-to-reel: From what I understand, they still have a strong following among a subset of audiophiles, and there’s some performances (mostly older classical concerts) that are available only on reel-to-reel. The format is also still used in professional recording. It was never really widespread among the general public, although there were small, affordable reel-to-reel machines available in the pre-cassette years. LPs are making somewhat of a comeback as well, but the technology has certainly been replaced for most folks. I had a reel-to-reel in the 60s-70s, as did many people I knew then, but as part of a home system for the general public, they’re as dead as the dodo. **Rahchoth:** I forgot all about the Russian Bear. I was thinking of passenger aircraft like the DC-6 and the Super Connie, both of which I travelled on. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/136 "2010-04-06T20:03:37Z")
I thought of a great example of one of these a couple of days ago, but damn if I can remember what it was. Something that went out in the early 70s maybe, and has no chance of coming back, ever. And no, it wasn’t how we’d turn on a TV by pulling out the volume knob. But I saw a clear sign of the times just a couple of years ago. Granted, I was a wee bit behind the times myself. I was away for a few days and my only connection with the outside world was the phone in my hotel room. I called a cab to take me to the beach. When I arrived, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get back. I went up to the concession stand and asked the slack-jawed teen taking orders if they had a phone. He said “I don’t know. Hey, did anyone turn in a cell phone?” It took me a minute or two to explain what I meant, and he looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. He finally pointed out a piece of antique technology that he didn’t really understand, over by the side of the concession stand. It had buttons like a cell phone, only big and metal. It would be really hard to use two thumbs to text on it. And it took coins. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/137 "2010-04-06T20:24:15Z")
Rabbit ears or antenna on TVs, period. Hell, analog TVs. Mechanically powered (that is foot pedals to pump) player pianos. My grandmother had one, as did a neighbor when I was a child. I loved them–the electronic ones are no fun at all (another neighbor had one when I was an adult). Urine testing kits for sugar for diabetics. I used to play mad scientist as a kid with my sister’s urine kits–man, those test tubes could get hot. The apothecary measuring system for meds. I had to learn drams, minims etc in nursing school, as well as their medical symbols. That is unheard of now. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/138 "2010-04-06T20:58:48Z")
Clay skateboard wheels. Hell, _steel_ skateboard wheels. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/139 "2010-04-06T22:07:05Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Clay skateboard wheels. Hell, _steel_ skateboard wheels. OMG, you just gave me a huge flashback of the rollerskates I had as a very young girl. Steel platforms with wheels–I had to wear my own shoes and the skates had straps that went over your foot to hold them on. Those things sucked. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/140 "2010-04-07T01:13:49Z")
> [@belladonna](#): > > OMG, you just gave me a huge flashback of the rollerskates I had as a very young girl. Steel platforms with wheels–I had to wear my own shoes and the skates had straps that went over your foot to hold them on. Those things sucked. And they had those weird steel caps over your toes. If your shoes were canvas (like gym shoes), those steel caps could (and did) dig into your toes and hurt! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888/141 "2010-04-07T01:17:33Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Clay skateboard wheels. Hell, _steel_ skateboard wheels. And skateboards made of a plank of wood with wheels taken from some old rollerskates. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/technology-that-died-in-your-generation/534888.md?page=8)