# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/61 "2013-11-15T12:47:08Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > 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 Gotta agree on this one. When I was a lad we bought old beaters and you could do most of the repairs in your parents garage. The thermostat would go out every winter - no problem, I know how to fix that. The fuel pump would fail every 3-4 years - no problem my brother knows how to fix it. The muffler would fall off every 5 years - no problem, the guy down the street can weld, and while we at it let’s change the pads. Pay for an oil change? Are you nuts?! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/62 "2013-11-15T12:51:34Z")
Audio cassettes. Of course back in the day the first play of your vinyl LP was to make your cassette copy. Making your own mixed tape was a blast. You’d pile up some LPs, hit the record/play/pause levers, cue the song you want, unpause, wait for the song to end, hit pause, cue another song… Then toward the end you’d wonder if you could squeeze one more tune in or flip the cassette. Watching sports without continuous displays of the score, time left, time outs left, down and yardage, etc. We even watch football without yellow lines to tell us where the first down was. Imagine having to pay attention to the game. Horizontal and vertical hold knobs. For that matter, color and tint. Now the picture is always perfect without our help. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/63 "2013-11-15T13:47:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Horizontal and vertical hold knobs. For that matter, color and tint. Now the picture is always perfect without our help. I remember vertical control knobs, to keep the picture from flipping, but\* horizonal \*hold knobs? Were there such things (I honestly don’t remember)? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/64 "2013-11-15T14:17:59Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I remember vertical control knobs, to keep the picture from flipping, but\* horizonal \*hold knobs? Were there such things (I honestly don’t remember)? Sure. When hour horizontal hold was off, there’s be a diagonal black bar cutting your picture in two. The further it was off, the more horizontal it would be. You’d turn the knob until the bar became more vertical until it finally disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/65 "2013-11-15T14:21:32Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > 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 still use fountain pens. Fortuantely, they seem to be in vogue again, and there are so many shops that sell good pens and wonderful inks. Some real, physical shops, and several online, and great choices of nibs available. I do miss the heft and the sounds of typewriters…the clack of the keys, the zip of the carriage return, and, most of all, the sound of the bell. I love those sounds. However, I do not miss messing with carbon paper and white out at all. I did think more thoroughly when it was a hassle to edit or fix mistakes. I wrote more with typewriters and primitive word processing programs (wrote my doctoral dissertation on a KayPro, no WYSIWYG, embedded commands) than I do now. Now, I do more creative writing with fountain pens and paper notebooks than I do into my supposedly more convenient laptop or tablet. Doesn’t make sense, but there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/66 "2013-11-15T14:22:14Z")
It seems to me that the whole area of entering text into computer devices has gone backwards. Time was, any decent computer system came with a mechanical keyboard, some of them of very high quality. Even laptops had them. I know you can still buy mechanical keyboards today, but virtually all computers come with rubber-dome-switch keyboards. Some of them are bearable but they all suck compared to a good mechanical keyboard. And don’t get me started on the ergonomic horror of typing on a phone or tablet. Another thing I miss is old stereo equipment, especially tuners/receivers that had that heavy tuning knob that you would spin and watch the needle glide smoothly across the dial. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/67 "2013-11-15T17:31:27Z")
Manual drafting. T-squares, triangles, scales, the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil (although I did prefer to use a mechanical), all of it. I do fully appreciate the developments in CADD, trust me (it’s what I do for a living) but sometimes I miss the hands-on nature of drafting on the board. ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/68 "2013-11-15T19:36:57Z")
Not quite yet, but within my lifetime, almost certainly: manual transmissions on cars. ---
**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, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/69 "2013-11-15T20:41:02Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > 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 Somewhere I have a picture of mrAru more or less sitting in the engine compartment on my scout 2 doing something [I think he was changing the plugs or something tune uppish] We will probably get another scout eventually, we have the service manuals for them. It was funny, we were hooked in with the guy that managed the parts department for the International dealer in Norwich - so many times he would hand over some part or another and tell us it was the last OEM \ in the East coast system … I can remember getting the last OEM driveshaft, though I understand some company managed to get licensed to make parts for scouts again as they are getting to be popular for hobbyists to play with. I would like a 74-79 scout 2 ragtop with the OEM air conditioning. It was always a blast being able to banzai around with the roof off, and having the rag top would be nice if it started raining suddenly 😛[DROOL!](http://www.lockinghub.com/?p=875) ---
**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, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/70 "2013-11-15T21:21:11Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > 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. This comes up all the time on car forums, especially vintage car forums, and it’s starting on the motorcycle forums now that almost everything is fuel injected, but this is really just a matter of what you’re used to. Today’s young tinkerers are as comfortable with modern cars as we were as kids, but they tune and repair them using iPhone apps with their phones plugged into the OBDII port or similar gadgets. One generation’s inexplicably complex is another’s ridiculously simple. To me, the chief difference is with older cars you’re looking for wear, failed parts or loose/clogged hoses while with newer ones you’re looking for loose/frayed wires and dirty contacts. What the younger generation will miss with OBD-scanners is parts inspection. Most dealer shop manuals tell you how to replace parts for various trouble codes, and I did a couple of swaps before I realized often the old part was just dirty, loose, or something similar, rather than broke. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/71 "2013-11-16T01:47:13Z")
We we first got cable TV, the “remote” was a box that was _wired_ to the TV. If you were lying on the sofa & wanted to change the channel, just reach down, grab the wire & follow it to the end. Never, _ever_ misplaced or lost the remote. I know the modern one is on the sofa (or the floor) with me somewhere, but I don’t wanna have to sit up to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/72 "2013-11-16T06:31:24Z")
Briefing pointers that collapse into pencil size. 10 years ago I had to search to find one. Everyone was using ‘laser pointers’. I’ve been giving on average one formal brief a week for decades, laser pointers are for amateurs. People wave them around, and because they’re physically light they move the light too quickly over the screen, and people don’t use proper arm and hand control because they don’t have to be conscious of the stick waving around, so what the viewer sees is someone flapping their arms and yakking about something they’re pointing at that no one can see. That metal pointer I bought a decade ago is still with me. I have a case for it so it doesn’t get lost. After I give presentations there’s always people who come up to me afterwards talking about how the pointer made it easier to see where I was pointing. Oh, and I miss busy signals too. Busy signals meant someone was on the phone and I could hop quick like a bunny down to their office and catch them. Now I have to IM them, but they could be logged out so it’s not like the busy signals used to be. Busy signals never lied. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/73 "2013-11-16T18:15:36Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > 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. Memory Cards! Talk about your obsolete technology… ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/74 "2013-11-16T19:19:50Z")
Not quite archaic, but way past it’s prime, I’d have to say the [5ESS switch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5ESS_switch). Having responsibility for running one in a central office was the best job I’ve ever had. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/75 "2013-11-17T01:55:23Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Back in the early 1990s, my company used a version of Microsoft Word that did exactly what I needed it to do. Every time they upgrade, they add a bunch of new features, none of which I ever use, and make a bunch of cosmetic changes that serve no purpose except to confuse me for a few weeks. Do you need to do something that Windows’s bare-bones word processor WordPad can’t do? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/76 "2013-11-17T02:54:40Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > 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. Can’t say I’ve ever needed a calculator of any sort in a storm or the wilderness. ---
**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 17, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/77 "2013-11-17T08:34:08Z")
I am rather wistful for my old Amiga 500 with the cute little hard drive - though I don’t miss dial up [and I still have the original 1200 baud, 9600 baud, 24000 baud and 56K baud modems tossed into a box in the barn] The whole 2 floppy operating system was nice - even after storing the OS on the hard drive it booted up amazingly fast. And my first PC, with windows 3.1, where Outlook wasn’t actually part of the operating system [I still have an unopened box with win 3.1 and outlook 1.0 demonstrating that outlook was not always a requirement in windows, and an original netscape still in its box. _sigh_ it is amazing to me that I have a tiny sd chip the size of my little fingernail that has more storage space on it than all 3 of my earliest computers combined. I can remember looking at a 1 gig hard drive in the Computer Shopper for $1200 and being laughed at by the people at my hangout computer store for wanting something with so much storage that I would never use it [it was designed for businesses.] I have a 1 gig Sd chip in an old phone that our roomie uses as an ebook reader… ---
**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:** [November 17, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/78 "2013-11-17T08:48:31Z")
A console tv. Remember the ones that looked like nice furniture? [http://boxcarcabin.com/packard-bell-console-tv-crw.jpg](http://boxcarcabin.com/packard-bell-console-tv-crw.jpg) this just isn’t the same. > **[Rustic Solid Wood TV Stands & Consoles | Oak For Less®](https://oakforless.com/collections/rustic-tv-stands)** > > Give your home a rustic flare with one of our solid wood TV stands and consoles. These TV centers are available in different sizes and color finishes. I’d love getting a console tv with a modern LCD widescreen built-in. I like this stand. Has a retro 50’s modern, geometric look. Not a console but its pretty nice looking. [http://fortikur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IKEA-TV-Stands-For-LCD-TVs-With-Beige-Walls.jpg](http://fortikur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IKEA-TV-Stands-For-LCD-TVs-With-Beige-Walls.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/79 "2013-11-17T11:59:09Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A console tv. Remember the ones that looked like nice furniture? > [http://boxcarcabin.com/packard-bell-console-tv-crw.jpg](http://boxcarcabin.com/packard-bell-console-tv-crw.jpg) > > this just isn’t the same. > [Rustic Solid Wood TV Stands & Consoles | Oak For Less® – Oak For Less® Furniture](http://www.oakforless.com/uimages/product_images/entertainment/tv-carts-consoles/rustic-tv-consoles/lg-oc1254-48w.jpg) > > I’d love getting a console tv with a modern LCD widescreen built-in. > > I like this stand. Has a retro 50’s modern, geometric look. Not a console but its pretty nice looking. > [http://fortikur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IKEA-TV-Stands-For-LCD-TVs-With-Beige-Walls.jpg](http://fortikur.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/IKEA-TV-Stands-For-LCD-TVs-With-Beige-Walls.jpg) Your last link doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851/80 "2013-11-17T12:43:16Z")
> [@TheFaerie](#): > > Manual drafting. T-squares, triangles, scales, the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil (although I did prefer to use a mechanical), all of it. I do fully appreciate the developments in CADD, trust me (it’s what I do for a living) but sometimes I miss the hands-on nature of drafting on the board. I feel lucky to have watched my husband “twirl” a line before they went on to this, that, and the other way. Many years later I helped out at the company, data entering their files. Months into the job I opened one drawing and knew it was my husband’s before I ever looked at the legend, although he only had a couple in the thousands I processed (it wasn’t his department.) That wouldn’t happen with CADD. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-archaic-technologies-do-you-find-yourself-wistful-for/673851.md?page=5)