I like pencils. They’re still around, of course, so maybe they don’t count as “archaic,” but it seems to me that most writing happens on a keyboard these days, and that scratchy, wonderful feeling of pencil on paper is becoming less and less familiar.
Hand-shaped?
I’ve always thought they were more of a finger shape.
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.
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…
Cursive. I miss cursive. Some old letters were a work of art.
Technology. We don’t have cell phones so I guess we’re Luddites. It’s Ernestine-assisted or nothing for us. I can hear if I want to listen or I can hang up. We usually let the answering machine get it. (Remember those?)
We had cell phones once but never used them because we didn’t give the numbers out because we didn’t want people bothering us.
And that’s the twoof. phhht
Does “Autumn” count? Even the schools use “Fall” now. But that’s not really technology so. . .
I miss the bells in the old telephones. My biggest frustration with the cell phone is that nobody seems to make a fully realized bell-ringing ringtone.
Fuji makes an instant camera series called “Instax”. The film is relatively cheap and available- last time I looked, my local Wal-Mart carried it.
The pictures are 2.5x3 I think, but big enough to fit in scrapbooks, etc… and somehow, despite the prevalence of digital photos, a LOT of fun at parties, weddings, etc… My wife and I took one to a wedding in the Netherlands where literally everyone had a digital camera- either a real one, or one on their phone, and everyone was clamoring to take pictures and fool around with “the polaroid”.
Got to agree about telephones. Hell, even if you use a landline, the cordless handset that you have to use with it is crappy compared to the handsets of even the 1990s. Time was I’d call up a friend in another state and talk for an hour, and enjoy every minute of it. I can barely stand to talk ten minutes on the phone anymore.
But I wasn’t particularly keen on typewriters, pencils, or cursive even before I had my first PC, and I’m more glad than I can say to deep-six the lot of them. Being able to type on a WYSIWYG computer setup has made all the difference in the world to me, because now my words on the screen can almost keep up with my thoughts. Back in the bad old days of 20+ years ago, writing was so dreadfully slow, and frustrating as hell.
If I’d known that computers would enable me to write, I’d have gotten one about 10 years earlier than I did. Going back to the days of handwriting and typewriters would be nearly as painful as having an arm amputated.
Tractor paper. I miss tearing the edges off.
Analog phones with ROTARY dials, of course!
I remember having something like that. It had several little rotary dials that resembled miniature phone dials (remember those?), and you carried a stylus with a point to turn the wheels.
Real fucking long straight skis.
Nothing shorter than 204cm, with a sidecut of 8.3mm (K2 KVC’s. TRC’s had a 7.8, which was pretty good, too). 207cm preferred. I buy all I can find. Getting real scarce.
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.
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.
I have never been diving in my life, but I miss the old 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.
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.
+1
I raced on a pair of Spalding Squadra Corse’. 203cm. Most stable skis I ever clicked into. I miss them.
Okay - for you and Skald, waaayyyyy too much geekery on guitar necks: Guitar Necks - Shaping them Back in the Day (by hand) vs. Now (computer) - some Geekery - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Oh, and while I don’t do a lot of recording myself, I agree with your post preferring analog recording, as a listener. Something about the using analog seems to help in terms of the sound, and in the approach to recording. You can’t tweak it afterwards as easily, to you need to plan more and get it right at the time - that’s a good thing in many cases.