# What archaic technologies do you find yourself wistful for? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851 "2013-11-13T20:03:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/41 "2013-11-14T15:45:41Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Indulge me in some musings on my own archaic technology. > > Walking in the Austrian mountains with wife and young children. I had a set of nice, metal, spring loaded walking poles but the kids were pestering me for a go on them and so I gave them one each, just to see how they get on with them. > They liked them but it left me sans-pole. “no matter” I thought “they can have my old ones and I’ll manage until I buy some more”. > As it happens we passed through a high pine forest on the way down and picked up a random, rather manky-looking stick, a quick crack and it was roughly the right length with a nice V at the top so it remained with me all the way to the bottom. > > A lovely evening on the veranda followed with beer, a thunderstorm, a swiss-army knife and some judicious whittling. That thinned it down and exposed the white wood and beetle-larvae tracks, cleaned up the knots, the base and trimmed the V (and I put in a little notch to Hang it on a coat hook). > It looked good and the final touch was to use the reamer to drill a hole through the top and a pair of leather laces from the local shoe-shop gave me a strap. > He has no shock-absorbing springs and is not adjustable in any way (it is a he as my children christened him “bernard the stick” for no good reason) but he has done me proud throughout the holiday and came home with me. > He has now been sanded down a little (but the larvae-tracks remain) given a light wax and some metal washers screwed to the bottom. He will be accompanying us next year and the kids are already pestering me to find something similar for them. > > I suspect that they wouldn’t feel quite the same attachment to their shop-bought metal poles. I’m childishly proud of him, I’m a useless woodworker but even I have managed to make something useful and with the minimal sanding and waxing he has retained a rugged, knarled, natural beauty. I love this. 🙂 I’ll add another vote to real telephones. Having a fluid conversation on a cell phone is damn near impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/42 "2013-11-14T16:27:43Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > When I was a kid, my mom had a plastic, non-electronic calculator that she used to figure out how much she was spending on groceries. It’s probably still lying around somewhere in her house. It was lots of fun to play with. Oh, and it only went up to $20.00, because why on Earth would you need it to go higher? 🙂 I think that defines a similar gadget we used, but it went up to 9999 (4 digits), and the decimal point was up to the operator. We used it to tally kids test scores at school and for other household and tax stuff. It would add and subtract, but multiplying was not practical. It wasn’t any faster than an abacus, but the abacus/soroban required more training, because the math is actually done in the brain; the abacus is just a storage device (think RAM). The plastic calc did the work, not the brain. I can’t say I am wistful for it, however. I was glad when the first 4-banger calcs came out (Bowman?) and could be purchased for $65. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/43 "2013-11-14T16:51:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Specifically, wooden pencils. I never did learn to trust mechanicals. I won’t say I don’t TRUST mechanical pens, but wood pencils are tied with ballpoint pens for being the best damn writing implement ever devised. Mechanicals are lacking in heft somehow. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/44 "2013-11-14T17:15:36Z")
I keep a phone book and a paper atlas in the truck. People who claim they never need anything more than their GPS and/or a cellphone to look up stuff away from home must never leave the city. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/45 "2013-11-14T17:17:07Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > 😕 > > _Hand_-shaped? > > I’ve always thought they were more of a _finger_ shape. > [@WordMan](#): > > You’re whooshing me, yes? I mean the profile of the neck - what you grip - is shaped by hand vs. by a computer tool. > > I’ll see what I can come up with tomorrow, start a thread in Cafe Society, and come back with a link… There’s no need for me to be cruel, I suppose. Yes, I was making a (feeble) joke. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/46 "2013-11-14T17:23:39Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I really miss…knobs. > > Remember when things had knobs? > You could change the volume on the TV, or rotate the dial on a transistor radio, or turn up the bass on your stereo, etc. > > A knob is the best user interface ever invented. > > Intuitive, simple to use. You don’t have to read the manual to do the simplest tasks. I have a knob for volume on my car stereo, but it’s not a **real** knob. I can turn the volume up or down, but only through predetermined values. I usually have the volume at 4 or 5, but sometimes I’d like it somewhere around 4.5. That’s not possible. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/47 "2013-11-14T17:28:44Z")
Video game cartridges. Damn discs get scratched or beaten up so easily. Plus you can’t write to them! Need a memory card to save games. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/48 "2013-11-14T17:32:25Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > …I have never been diving in my life, but I miss the old [standard diving dress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_diving_dress) (you know, the one with the canvass suit, the brass helmet, and the lead shoes). Yes, I know that the aqualung is a vastly superior technology. But the old hard-hat divers looked cool. cool… yes! But, GAD, they’re uncomfortable, difficult to maneuver, and hard to work. Sure, it’s a bragging right to have been underwater in one; but I’m not gonna do it again!. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/49 "2013-11-14T17:47:00Z")
You can add me to the list with the phones. I don’t like talking on the phone at all, and I can only call my dad on his cell. And the landline is no better. I remember when phones were crystal clear. Pencils: You CAN find mechanical pencils that have the heft and the weight of a good wooden pencil. I use pencils a lot because I am taking a Discrete Math class. Traditional mechanical pencils - the lead was too thin and I was breaking them every third or fourth press. (I like to press hard). #2 pencils never sharpen enough, and the lead often falls out of the wood bit while you’re sharpening. Incredibly frustrating when you’re trying to do homework. I found some 7mm mechanical pencils that don’t break, stay sharp, and they are nice and heavy, too. I highly recommend. And I found them in the grocery store! My vote for things I miss? I still miss cassette tapes. Oh, I love mp3s and I love the convenience of having hundreds of songs on my nano, but I just liked having that feel, and the sound of rewinding, forwarding. **JohnT** I leave my city all the time and I still use GPS way more than I use an atlas. For one thing, an atlas is inconvenient. For another, it really doesn’t have the detail I need, nor does it update by itself. Paper maps are horrible and I don’t ever want to use them again. Who wants to open up those huge things? Remember that, and you literally had to pull over because it would take up the whole car, practically? Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/50 "2013-11-14T18:23:45Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Paper maps are horrible and I don’t ever want to use them again. Who wants to open up those huge things? Remember that, and you literally had to pull over because it would take up the whole car, practically? Ugh. After the Cormac Apocalypse, when you and the mister and that little kid from across the street (whom you picked up 'cause he looked so pathetic and you’re softhearted) are making your away from the Northlands to somewhere warmer, dodging cannibals and slavers and liberatarians all the while, you will mightily regret having thrown out all your gas station maps, 'cause that GPS ain’t gonna be working no more. And if you think I’m going to send somebody from Rhymer Enterprises to save your ass from your own folly – Okay, I will. But I will also be all shirty about it and not let you have any pudding. ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/51 "2013-11-14T18:25:40Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > That’s [easily](http://dx.com/p/qisan-p100-anti-radiation-retro-telephone-style-handset-for-iphone-cell-phones-red-3-5mm-plug-227981) [solved](http://www.entertainmentearth.com/item_archive/items/Retro_Cell_Phone_Handset.asp). I have tried these. They are pieces of crap. Both you and the caller sound like you are talking to each other inside barrels. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/52 "2013-11-14T18:31:46Z")
78 rpm records. You can’t play CDs or iGadgets with a fingernail. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/53 "2013-11-14T18:33:00Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Paper maps are horrible and I don’t ever want to use them again. Who wants to open up those huge things? Remember that, and you literally had to pull over because it would take up the whole car, practically? Ugh. I have one of these spiral bound map books in my car and one for my city. They are awesome. All the mappage you need without the unweildiness. [http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html](http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/54 "2013-11-14T19:03:17Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I have one of these spiral bound map books in my car and one for my city. They are awesome. All the mappage you need without the unweildiness. > > [http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html](http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html) Yes, [this](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listing/2690666016156?r=1&cm_mmca2=pla&cm_mmc=GooglePLA-_-Book_25To44-_-Q000000633-_-2690666016156) is what I was talking about. And paper maps can be easily folded. You just have to know how. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/55 "2013-11-14T19:23:51Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I have one of these spiral bound map books in my car and one for my city. They are awesome. All the mappage you need without the unweildiness. > > [http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html](http://store.randmcnally.com/2014-rand-mcnally-easy-to-read-midsize-deluxe-road-atlas.html) > [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > ter the Cormac Apocalypse, when you and the mister and that little kid from across the street (whom you picked up 'cause he looked so pathetic and you’re softhearted) are making your away from the Northlands to somewhere warmer, dodging cannibals and slavers and liberatarians all the while, you will mightily regret having thrown out all your gas station maps, 'cause that GPS ain’t gonna be working no more. > > And if you think I’m going to send somebody from Rhymer Enterprises to save your ass from your own folly – Lest everyone think I will be completely lost, I still have maps in my car. Up until this year, I had a full size atlas, but finally got rid of it as all the pages were falling apart. I have a plastic-y map of my city and a paper map of the surrounding environs. BUT, that doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t used them in years! As to not having a map at all, well a) there’s no guarantee in that scenario I’ll even have time to get the maps out of my car, and b) if I have my mister with me, the man has unerring directional sense and I’ll rely on him. If he is dead I am fucked in more ways than just not knowing which direction to go! I thought of another thing I really miss, but it’s not a technology. I hope it’s OK to mention…heavy car doors. I watch the show Supernatural a lot and while I don’t love the Impala (nice car but not my style) I do love the creak as the heavy metal doors shut. Now all the doors are crumply and safer but they don’t have that lovely sound. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/56 "2013-11-14T23:21:11Z")
Cars that were actually comfortable and rode smoothly. Modern cars have sacrificed ride comfort for some nebulous aspect called “handling”. If I wanted something with tight reactions and road feel, I’d buy a race car. I miss my old ['73 Duece and a quarter](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r1tY5wzQ4tI/T1OSsUVT7vI/AAAAAAAAOnE/akIqGsaPg74/s1600/1973-Buick-Electra-225-4-door-hardtop-C-Body-455-350-cu-in-cid-V8-Th-400-3-speed-automatic-transmission-Made-in-Flint-Michigan-designed-Bill-Mitchell-General-Motors-4.jpg) (Buick Electra). I prefer gliding down the road with little or no awareness of the road’s surface or condition. I like wondering whether that muffled “crunch” under my tires was a beer can or a Camry. 🙂 I loath modern cars with their road feel transmitted via the wheel. I have no interest in the road or its condition, the car’s job is to isolate me from it. And while I’m on about it, I miss having 7+ liters under the hood. Nothing like that sound… And also… Crap. There are kids on my lawn. Back in a second. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/57 "2013-11-15T00:18:23Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Answering my own question: I miss typewriters. Oh, I’ll concede that modern word processing programs are more efficient in many ways (though I still contend that Word 2007 was written by evil monkeys). But the tactile and olfactory experience of using my Smith-Corona was simply more satisfying, and the relative difficulty of editing made me more productive, I think, as I had to commit to what I was doing sooner than is necessary when using my laptop. [/QUOTE] In my 20s and between jobs, I decided to write a novel. Being a young romantic, I had to use a real typewriter like my heroes, so I went to a thrift shop that was swimming in them, bought a very nice portablefor $20 and off I went. Here’s what your rose-colored glasses don’t tell you - typewriters are LOUD. The keys clacking, that bell dinging at the end of every line, that zipping sound when I hit the carriage return - drove my neighbors nuts, and hampered my writing as well since when inspriation struck at 2 a.m. I didn’t want to start up with that racket. I bought a laptop about 100 pages in. > [@jayrey](#): > > Definitely “real” phones. I’m thinking about wired phones with a handset that was curved (like the side of your face) so the ear piece was by your ear and the mouth piece was actually by your mouth, instead of these silly straight little boards we use now. I’ve got one in the apt right now. Again, the issue is noise - it has ringer on and off, no volume setting, and you can hear my phone ringing 2 floors away. I live with it because it’s not worth getting a new, electric phone, but every time it rings I think “Damn, I’d forgotten how loud these are.” > [@pullin](#): > > Cars that were actually comfortable and rode smoothly. > > Modern cars have sacrificed ride comfort for some nebulous aspect called “handling”. If I wanted something with tight reactions and road feel, I’d buy a race car. Big time. I don’t get why every single car made has to be tested at the Nurburgring. I had an old 1966 and it was a freaking cloud on the road. Sure, I had to slow to a walking pace for turns, but in that car I didn’t mind as it let me keep wafting. Following on, mine is car-related - I miss tires with actual sidewalls. Not just for the softer ride, but not worrying about curbing my alloys whenever I park because my wheels have an inch of rubber to work with. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/58 "2013-11-15T00:36:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Specifically, wooden pencils. I never did learn to trust mechanicals. > > And I’ll add slide rules. I don’t use one every day, or even very often at all, even though I have some quite nice ones. But even if they don’t use them often, students should still learn how, because understanding how to use a slide rule carries with it understanding of many mathematical concepts which are still important: You can’t use a slide rule without understanding order-of-magnitude estimates, or justified precision. Slide rules are a good tool. I learned to use one in high school by asking my physics teacher to show me how to use the one he kept on his desk - it had not actually been part of the curriculum for some time. Slide rules give you a respect for real-life precision and why the correct answer is _not_ 5.3578854423232323 meters. They also teach you a very important lesson in the _meaning_ of logarithms. Too many kids go through school doing functions involving base 10 logs and natural logs but fail to understand _how such equations might occur in real life_. I have a slide rule sitting about three feet away from me. I haven’t used it recently, but it’s there, and I can use it. No batteries required, works great in a storm or the wilderness, and never needs to be rebooted. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/59 "2013-11-15T05:47:47Z")
Heavy smooth luxurious paper and a fountain pen with that really solid inky black ink and a really great nib. There is nothing like writing anything from a poem to a shopping list like that. Also that ink has a very specific smell to it that always brings back really great memories. I also always loved prepping my own canvases from stretching them to laying the perfect coat of gesso over the sizing. The wait until it was dried perfectly was agonizing in a great way [if you are into that sort of thing, and have this incredible idea for a painting…] Playing around with both hands in a bin of tesserae and spending hours laying them out to get the perfect set for a mosaic, and even messing around with clay, glazes and a kiln making your own tesserae. The smell of machine oil and that unique smell of hot metal shavings. I really miss my old machine shop and am seriously bummed that the chemicals developed into migraine triggers. It was worth going down into Machinery 1 on the various subs mrAru was on to get a part of that smell… ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/60 "2013-11-15T12:09:05Z")
Automobile engines that a shade-tree mechanic (or teenager) has a chance of repairing himself. I did plenty of repairs on my first vehicle, an early 70s Ford. Easy to identify parts, plenty of room to maneuver. Lifting the hood of my current car makes me feel as though I’m gazing upon an aircraft engine. mmm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851.md?page=4)