In radials? mostly refinements and optimizations. from steel belts to a combination of steel/Kevlar, and some incredibly low aspect ratios which would have been unthinkable when radials first came out. and a lot of work has been done optimizing tread patterns and compounds for specific jobs.
Socks. It used to be, toes were always poking through the ends, and the heels would wear through as well. Nowadays, the socks remain intact for years . . . unless you’ve got sharp toe nails.
Heh, trying being overweight, and walking 8 miles a day to be healthier. Plus a tendency to develop calluses that could polish diamond. I throw out about 2 pairs of socks a week with holes in the balls and heels.
Well although I have a certain nostalgia for cleaning NES cartridges and the system by blowing, I don’t really miss it and am glad we don’t have to rely on physical contacts. Some people say that it’s a placebo effect but they’re full of crap. I think the biggest weak point was the system itself and less the game (did the SNES style top loaders they made later work better in this respect?).
There are a couple of solutions which may help. They work very well with flat or “oval” shoelaces and I haven’t double-knotted in years. With thick boot laces, double knots might be a good failsafe as they come apart easier regardless.
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Tie the knot with a square knot, not a granny knot. Do it both ways (left over right and right over left vs. l-r then l-r, or vice versa on all these). If it’s tied wrong, the bow will naturally align towards your toe and heel.
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When forming the bow, put the loop through twice. I am one of those weirdos who do the “bunny ears method” so it is easier to visualize that way.
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Some shoes, especially boots, have extra holes which you can use. I haven’t tried this one (video).
Not true. New printers come with “starter” cartridges that aren’t full.
Did you really think that HP didn’t protect themselves against this loophole?
That’s not so much that batteries are better than they used to be, but rather that alkaline batteries are ubiquitous these days, while 30 years ago, they were definitely not the “standard” battery.
I don’t think alkaline batteries have really improved too much over the past 30 years, but they’re the standard now, while back in the day, they were definitely the “premium” option.
A 10-year-old car won’t have LED lights. Bulb technology has indeed improved. But in the newer cars, even the running lights are LEDs and will almost certainly last the life of the car. The only bulbs to be found will be the main headlights.
Recorded music. LPs would scratch, 8 Tracks would stretch and get caught within the player, causing you to pull a long line of tape out. Cassettes did the same thing or eventually just wore to the point of the music sounding like crap. CDs scratched causing skips, especially if you weren’t diligent about storing them in the case when not in use. Nowadays digital is clear and, if there’s a problem, usually you can download a new copy instantly and for cheap.
It seems like the yard tools were constantly conking out, especially 2 cycle leaf blowers, chain saws, edgers, etc. You’d pull and pull trying to start them, adjust choke, cleaning the plugs, whatever. Very frustrating. Now all mine start on the 2nd pull, need little maintenance, etc.
Two things: one is technological leaps. In the late 1980s and through 1990s, cars made many leaps in aerodynamics, but the technology slowed down in the 21st century, probably because there is an upper limit to the technology vis a vis practicality (making a usable interior compartment for passengers), and also because there’s a speed limit, so there’s no use making a car that gets great mileage at 200mph, because you won’t ever be driving that fast. Look at cars from the 70s, and how different they look from cars in the 80s, but cars from about 1986 through the 1990s don’t look all that different from current models. There were also lots of gains in safety in the 80s and 90s. People were buying a new cars every couple of years, if they could afford to, because they wanted the more economical, environmentally friendly, safer car, and there was a trickle-down effect. Lots more relatively new cars were being traded in, so that people who’d normally drive a rustrod until it fell apart, got to by a “new used” car every few years (I was one of them). I got the new technology too, just a little later.
The second is improved reliability. People weren’t demanding an end to planned obsolescence (which may or may not have been a myth-- I don’t know), but commuting was very much on the rise in the 90s, with a huge rise in people driving more than an hour to work each day, or driving on the highway, or both, and more people putting miles on their car during the work day. You really needed for your car not to break down, or your whole work day could be ruined.
A side effect of improved reliability is better longevity. A car doesn’t go for three years without ever so much as stalling out at a light on a cold day, and then suddenly break down and need to be replaced. The cars that ran for five years without needing anything but planned maintenance (brakes, timing belt, oil changes, etc.) ran another five with just minor problems, and then another five, with maybe something like needing a starter or a clutch, and the AC recharged, and possibly shocks, but still way cheaper than buying a new car). They could have anywhere from 120,000 to 270,000 miles by then, and if they had the low miles, they were good for five more years, as long as you didn’t live somewhere that was conducive to rust. Even the one with 270,000, if you were really careful about routine maintenance, you could probably squeeze 300,000, easy.
I have a 21-year-old Acura Integra with just over 135,000 miles. It has had all its routine maintenance on schedule. It’s on its second clutch, and I did have to replace the gas tank, because it spent it’s first 15 years in Chicago, which is notorious for rusting out cars. I also had another big expense which was that I couldn’t recharge the AC when the fluid leaked out, because the fluid it took had been outlawed, so I spent $900 to retrofit it with a modern AC system, but it was so worth it, not just for hot summers, but foggy winters. I still spend way less than $100/month in repairs, when you add them all up each year and divide by 12.
The body is going to give out before the engine does, I’m sure. Then I’ll sell it to a collector for $400, who will pull it, and have the body towed to a junk yard.
Technological advancements that are more reliable than what came before isn’t quite what the OP’s asking for, I think.
For example, CDs are still just as fragile as they’ve ever been.
OTOH, a lot of the improved reliability and endurance of cars is due to improvements in fluids- specifically the coolant, motor oil and transmission fluids. All 3 have undergone drastic changes in the past 20-30 years which translate directly into better cooling system, engine and transmission life, all else being equal. Another place where things have got better is due to tighter tolerances due to CAD/CAM machinery and industrial robots. A third place is in computer engine control- more tightly controlled engines have less fuel blow-by into the crankcase, thereby diluting the oil less, which translates to less wear in the long run. All of these things were implemented sometime in the 80s and 90s, which explains why cars of the 1990s through today seem much more reliable than cars up to the 1980s.
Some things sort of straddle the improvement/replacement line. Flashlights are a prime example- the relatively recent switch to high-output LEDs has meant that flashlight bulbs effectively never burn out, and they put out 10x or more of the light that older incandescent flashlights did… and for a lot longer time period. But it’s not that the bulbs got better; they got replaced with something new.
You might want to try running socks. They’re more expensive but the ones I’ve gotten have been pretty tough. Plus they wick the moisture away from your feet.
Heh. True that. I’m quietly amused at how reliable my lawn equipment is, compared to the stuff my parents had, and especially compared the to the old rusted stuff that my father-in-law seemingly spends all his free time maintaining.
A case in point is the gas-power edger he gave me. Nothing will get that piece of crap to work, but because he gave it to me I can’t just throw it away, making it something of a white elephant, eating up valuage garage storage space. Someday, after he passes on, I’ll drag it out to the curb on trash night and leave it for the scrap metal scavengers.
Altho’ my leaf blower still requires the arm strength of a major league pitcher to pull-start it. You’d think electric starters would be ubiquitous by now, with the pull cord being a fall-back in case the starter malfunctions or the battery is dead.
That would be more weight to be swinging around on the damn thing. 
We have a TV that is going after about three years. If you turn it off, it doesn’t want to turn back on. We’ve ordered a new one.
Where can I get some of these more reliable socks for Mr. Neville? Every time I see him wearing socks but no shoes, there are holes in his socks.
Using my assumed definition of the first post on landline phones, I think my wall phone that connects wirelessly also qualifies. I have a 10 year-old Uniden 2.4 something or other.
Electronic ignition.
Many times did I have to set points on a badly or not running engine.
Of course everybody has already said cars, but I was just thinking the other day that it’s very rare to hear about cars stalling on railroad tracks anymore. Because cars just don’t stall often.
Maybe you’re tieing them wrong. Seriously.
Also, home forced air furnaces, especially the natural gas versions. It seems that they used to require a lot more maintenance, but now it’s seldom that the blower motor seizes or the control board fries. Clean up the fire sensor once and a while and they seem to keep ticking along.
I know my parents seemed to have to deal with something on theirs at least once every two years.
They are certainly more complicated. We replaced the furnace and A/C last year. There is a controller board for the fan. Other furnaces I’ve seen turn the fan on with a thermostat in the combustion area. I had to have the guy come back out because the board took out a small fuse.