“Joel, do you notice anything wrong with the stereo? A preponderance of bass, perhaps?”
My stereo components (except for the cd player) are from the 1970s/80s (maybe, I was given it and am not sure how old it was when I got it). I’m not sure that new units would be better (soundwise) than what I’ve got, so why replace them?
Speaking of “old, but good”, I have a Singer treadle sewing machine from circa 1927. There are many still in use/circulation. They are unkillable, those things.
Using my education and brain to apply spell-checking of my messages, instead of relying on automated autocorrect software.
There is very little (asymptotically approaching zero) chance that my '65 Fender P-Bass or my '77 Acoustic 370 are going anywhere soon. 
The hot-water bottle. You can keep your electric blankets and heated mattress pads and bluetooth temperature control and whatnot. Give me some kind of leakproof container filled with nice steamy water to tuck into the bottom of the bed and I sleep comfy.
Yes, I agree with both of you. All my music is on CDs or MP3s, not streaming. Some of my music isn’t even available on any format but imported CDs, at least in the US. I agree with something Steve Jobs once said: “People want to own the music they love.”
I don’t even get how streaming can work in my car, where there is no broadband internet, and that’s where I listen to music a lot.
A daily newspaper, especially so I can do the crossword puzzle with pencil on paper.
My “listening room” is powered by the Sansui Quadraphonic my Dad bought back in the early Seventies. Tubes. Good. Stuff.
JBL Studio Monitors bought at the same time. You can feel them.
“Classic and traditional.” I like it, Bullitt! Much better than “old fashioned.”
That reminds me - I will never give up my push reel mower.
This.
As in, the entire message board concept in general and this and a few other message boards in particular.
Blogs and Facebook pages have their place, but for some purposes I find this format more comfortable and accommodating. One big difference is that it’s more text-based than image-based. Also, in the case of better message boards, like this one, posters are strongly discouraged from simply sharing something they found online with a mere “hey look at this!” Instead, you’re supposed to say something significant about whatever it is.
There’s a very small intersection between the GQ forum here and Quora. Quora also has its place, but the severely limited character limit on questions makes it next to impossible to elaborate with specific or personal circumstances which lead to people wanting to ask in the first place.
I still use an Ipod Video for my music. I’ve reprogrammed it with RockBox so that I don’t have to use Itunes. I also replaced the 80 gig hard drive with a SD card adapter and a 120 gig SD card. It works like a dream.
I frequently, intentionally, lock my keys in my car. I have a cheap, $5 key that will open the doors & work the accessory switch (which allows me to raise/lower the windows), but can’t start the car because it doesn’t have a chip. It’s lighter than the ‘real’ key & there’s no electronics in it. If I’m wearing running shorts w/o pockets I’ll just tie it into my shoelaces; because there’s no electronics, there’s no issue with water if I do a creek crossing while trail running.
I also won’t go to streaming. I don’t listen to music that often but frequently when I do it’s in places where one can’t stream because of lack of signal, like the rail tunnels, or the subterranean city where it’s windless & dry on nasty weather days, or in some of the remote areas we frequent w/o any cell service. I should buy a couple of more for when the current one dies while they still sell 'em.
I still have one of those…hooked up.
Wow I had a quadraphonic LP of Dark Side of the Moon when I was a teen, what wouldn’t I give to listen to that again on that set up!
Unfortunately some of the new technologies don’t work as well as the older stuff, and get used just because they’re “popular”.
One fool says “This is good, because it is old” and another fool says “this is good, because it is new”. For me, the question is “what is this?”
The tech I avoid:
Touchscreens. (Therefore I don’t have a smartphone, and if I had one, I would avoid autocorrect. My ebook reader is an old one that has buttons, although I could use the touchscreen if I were threatened by wild horses or something like that.)
I don’t like touchscreens because they’re not reliable enough for me. The touchscreen on a smartphone cannot always tell the difference between my ear and my finger (important because I cram a phone against my ear), so a phone might mute either me or whoever I’m talking to.
A higher-tech smartphone is less likely to make this mistake, but I would rather avoid the problem entirely. I have never accidentally dialed a phone number with my ear when using a fliphone.
I also don’t like “butt dialing” (while I never accidentally butt-dialed a number, I would pull my phone out of my pocket, see that it became unlocked, and was trying to sign me up for an internet service or some other weirdness, since apparently my butt is so small it can be mistaken for a finger randomly tapping icons…).
My ebook reader can handle epubs and also has buttons. That seriously restricts the range of readers I can buy, and the ebook reader will eventually die of old age, and I’ll be annoyed. On the plus side, when I press a button to go forward, the reader does not go backward instead one third of the time.
I keep a large number of ebooks on my computer, and use a USB cable to transfer books to the reader. I know I could use wi-fi instead, but I appreciate manipulating the ebooks with Calibre (yay, modern tech) on a physical keyboard with a monitor that isn’t tiny. Also, this lets me avoid using the ebook reader’s touchscreen.
I don’t like having to reorganize the ebooks on the reader. I would appreciate just manually transferring directories over (with the books already sorted into the right directories, which is how I’ve already organized them on the computer), but apparently only Luddites use this. It’s all about tags these days. Calibre exists primarily to transfer books to the ebook reader; it puts them into directories that use author names, rather than the way I’ve organized them.
That’s another reason to avoid smartphones. Unless it’s a Windows smartphones, it won’t use directories, or even come with a file manager. I didn’t know an operating system without a file manager could be considered “complete”. Windows smartphones are horribly unpopular in Canada. No company that sells smartphones cheaply sells them, and if I get one it probably wouldn’t work on the cheap network anyway. I wish there was some Windows/Blackberry hybrid. Then I’d get a smartphone.
I avoid new-fashioned browser menus. I use Firefox at home (which has an old-fashioned menu instead of three dots in the corner). But at work I must use Internet Explorer or Edge. I like IE’s bookmark system (the nested directories, found somewhere in the computer, and is easy to backup), I like navigating the directories in the browser itself, and the sensible menu. Edge, on the other hand, has an incomplete menu, the bookmarks have to be saved to some weird format, and when I try to navigate the bookmarks it’s clear that I shouldn’t try to nest directories, which is a problem because I need to use literally hundreds of bookmarks to do my job.
I looked up some people complaining about Chrome’s menu (Chrome’s menu is also new-fashioned) and Google’s remarks were frankly arrogant. They would not provide any sort of option to reorganize the menu; no extensions or plugins could accomplish this.
I still use a Sandisk Mp3 player that is now considered obsolete, but I think is way more useable than a phone. Even though it’s only about five years old, they stopped making this particular model, which is running open source Rockboxx software (and doesn’t work on new models). Unlike a phone, the battery lasts forever, it uses very little power, and the buttons are tactile so you can use it without looking (hugely valuable for driving, sports, etc.). New technology is definitely not necessarily better.
Of course I also read physical books and magazines, wear mechanical watches and use a loud mechanical computer keyboard.
There are so many advantages to these things that go way beyond mere nostalgia. With books and magazines I find that I retain what I read far deeper than reading online. (There are many studies that support this.) Of course I read a lot online, but so much is lost. And with analogue watches time is “felt” differently; I can plan time based on the physical location of the hands (eg. I know the time it takes me to walk a certain distance based on how far I know the hands will move), whereas digital time is “locationless” and merely floats disembodied —much like all things digital.
Another MP3 players user, as per the recent thread about this.
One of the oldest “tech” items I still use are my Smaller Advent speakers from the mid-1970s.
I used to use a lot of old tech regularly, but have upgraded a bunch of stuff and dumped a lot of the old things. I used to have 3 DVD players connected up, now only 1 and that’s just for Mrs. FtG’s once in a blue moon benefit. I’ve ripped the old tapes (mostly Beta!). Etc. [Egon]Media is dead.[/Egon]
My 1953 Olympia typewriter. It’s the portable, so it only weighs 37 pounds. I love the clacking and solid key feel. Sadly, I only use it to write to a friend in Germany, who replies on his 1938 desk model Olympia. Oh, and I sometimes type out the notes I’ve made on books, to pound the new info into my head.
No such thing. Saying “acoustic piano” is like saying “heat oven”. If you classify it outside of “acoustic” (i.e. electric, electronic, etc), then it’s no kind of piano at all.
Sectional maps for pvt pilot navigation.
Windows 95, then 98, then XP, then Win 7, full stop …
Real pianos