# Yestertech **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 25, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047 "2011-11-25T15:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/41 "2011-11-27T18:50:53Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > A rotary phone from the 1950’s that still works. Me, too. Though it has a modular jack that’s plugged into my cable modem for my VOIP line. Would a hammer be considered ‘tech’? I use one of those… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/42 "2011-11-27T22:21:20Z")
> [@Hilary\_Algar](#): > > I’d buy one or more. Check out the [Marketplace](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=632850) thread! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![missinformation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@missinformation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missinformation)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/43 "2011-11-27T23:55:04Z")
My mother has a vcr she still uses to tape her movies and programs on. We also have a dvr on the cable box (costs me $17 a month) that she only wants used in case she misses something…we have used it a total of 3 times in 2 years…so, for over $400 in 2 years…and she still cannot or will not use the timer function on her vcr. I have to make sure to set it every single day to record her programs. She tapes 2 soaps, Dr. Phil (God help me!) and every single movie on the Hallmark Channel. Personally, I am a relic as well…I can use a mimeograph machine, and use microfiche and microfilm (former library a/v geek) ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/44 "2011-11-27T23:56:38Z")
New or recently produced items that simply “represent” older technology shouldn’t count! Otherwise, the forks and chopsticks in my house beat everything mentioned so far. I can’t think of a single old thing I still have or use. I move a lot and tend to buy all new stuff each time. My laptop is from 2006. That seems pretty old! Fortunately it costs like $3200 back then, so being top of the line in 2006 has helped it keep up with newer software. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/45 "2011-11-28T00:07:43Z")
I’ve just tracked down a picture of the type of phone that my great-aunt had on her kitchen wall for fifty years, until it fell off and broke. It was probably a Nothern Electric [Model 554](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_500_telephone) wall phone, like [this one](http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokersaunders/3523832682/), except that hers was yellow. 🙂 I kind of wish I had one. I do have a reproduction of the handset of a [Model 302](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_302_telephone), one of the 554’s predecessors, but it had a battery and Bluetooth and works with my cellphone, so that doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/46 "2011-11-29T13:56:02Z")
Got an old coffee grinder and an apple peeler that I still use. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/47 "2011-11-29T15:22:29Z")
My car is a 1997 Camry, complete with tape deck and no CD player. I have both a VCR and an Atari 7800 hooked up to my TV. I still use them occasionally. I’ve been known to carry a pocket watch, though I haven’t in a while (it needs a new chain and I’ve been lazy about getting one.) I use an edition of Microsoft Office that’s nearly 10 years old (a mild example, but still…) My heat pump is probably original to my townhouse, which was built in the 1970s. On a tangential note, I love the word “yestertech” and will be getting a lot of use out of it from now on. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/48 "2011-11-29T15:55:38Z")
My car is a 1993 Saturn. My newer car is a 1999 Saturn. I still have my record player (even was able to replace the needle on it), but I don’t use it much. My furnace boiler was installed in 1947. It originally ran on coal; now it uses oil. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/49 "2011-11-29T16:24:41Z")
> **[Polaroid Instant Film Is Back!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=633033)** > > Maybe you analog kids new this, but I gave up film years ago. I did buy some of the last batch of 600 film packs for my kids to play with and see what us kids did with cameras in the '70s. Thankfully, some folks refused to give up on the 300... Self-referential link opportunity could not be passed up. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/50 "2011-11-29T16:28:35Z")
Amp and turntable in my stereo system date to around 1980; got ~300 LPs in my collection to play on that turntable. (Just bought a USB turntable, though; hoping to start converting them to digital over the next few weekends.) Got a B&W portable TV that I bought in 1986 that would still work if there were still analog TV signals out there. Got a 23" CRT color TV that dates from the late 1990s that our VHS player is hooked up to. And we’ve got a corded phone that’s probably 25 years old. It’s tone, not pulse, but it’s still pretty clunky-feeling. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/51 "2011-11-29T16:48:25Z")
I have a nice Wilton bench vice that is probably from the 60’s, and spent 3 decades being used in my dad’s auto body shop. It’s covered in dings from the guys hammering the crap out of things clamped to it, but it works a smooth as silk. I suspect this thing will outlive me. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/52 "2011-11-29T16:48:30Z")
[1947 Western Electric 302](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3297/3418531445_385f91a1dc_b.jpg) desk phone. The ringer on that sucka will wake the dead. Analog phonographs of various vintages, 1930s-'90s. I too will never give up the groove biscuits (primarily 78s). [RCA Victrola 02 acoustic, ca. 1938](http://farm1.staticflickr.com/167/390350946_3ff9a02a35_o.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/53 "2011-11-30T02:55:08Z")
I work at a small-market radio station. Although we have an (outdated) computer system to run our programming, we still use carts (think 8-tracks but with only one track) for our commercials. Last week the tape inside one broke and I had to use a “new” cart. The date on the reel inside was 9-20-91. Yeah, the \*new \*one is only 20 years old. BTW the computer I’m typing this on is running Win 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/54 "2011-11-30T02:59:41Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > the infamous “Sony Timer” product-dies-precisely-one-month-after-warranty effect. Whe I worked at Circuit City we called a particular cordless phone the Sony Boomerang because every time we sold it, it came right back! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/55 "2011-11-30T12:00:29Z")
I still occasionally use my first MP3 player - the [Diamond Rio 600SE](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rio-600SE-64MB-MP3-Player/dp/B00005I9OA) with a whopping 64MB of capacity, if I don’t want to take my iPod out. That was some pretty hot tech 10 years ago. Of course, about a month after I bought it, the iPod was announced and suddenly my 64MB looked a bit rubbish. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047/56 "2011-11-30T12:25:36Z")
I’ve got a manual typewriter that dates from the 1920’s or 1930’s…bought it at a fleamarket in Switzerland in the 1980’s, and it has a German keyboard. Still works just fine; needs cleaning and a new ribbon. The clack of the keys and the ring of the carriage return is so satisfying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yestertech/604047.md?page=2)