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Old 9th Dec 2015, 11:08 pm   #1
'LIVEWIRE?'
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Exclamation 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Did anyone see the above programme, broadcast at 10.00PM yesterday? Part of it was devoted to things such as the early, large & chunky mobile phones, 1980s Computers including the ZX Spectrum, SONY Walkman's, and a record player I'd forgotten about, called the 'Soundburger!' This latter could play 12" LPs, although it only had a small turntable, so most of the disc's surface was unsupported. Not something to play treasured records on, either then or now, methinks. The Headphones supplied with Walkmans and the like appeared to be, and almost certainly were, better than the 'in-ear' type supplied with MP3 Players, etc. now. 'That's So Last Century' will be repeated on 4seven at 11.05PM tomorrow, 10th. December.
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Old 9th Dec 2015, 11:37 pm   #2
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I'll have a look but the mention of "celebrities" doesn't enthuse me in the way the producers probaly hope it will. One look at Goggle box however demonstrates an easy sell if that's anything like a typical audience sample

Guardian Guide Quotes-

"In an age when technology can squeeze our music, book and film collections into a small oblong that also makes phone calls and records video, it's easy to forget how we got here." Too right. It's also easy to forget/throw away the oblong
ALSO
"Warning:prepare to feel old on discovering text messaging is now officially nostalgia" No prizes for guessing the age of the reviewer here

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Old 9th Dec 2015, 11:54 pm   #3
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I liked the bit on TV's, lots of clips of tomorrow's world etc. When it came to the home computer they managed to find plenty of period tvs and microvitec cubs to display on. Oh and a nice clip of a rediffusion man delivering a tv in a vauxhall viva estate
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Old 10th Dec 2015, 1:39 am   #4
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Like Dave I find this sort of 'wasn't the 80s quaint' programme a bit tiresome. I suppose I'm not the target demographic though.

Genuine Walkmans and copycats from the 80s did come with quite good headphones. They weren't throwaway devices and cost a significant amount.
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Old 10th Dec 2015, 5:14 am   #5
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Sony MDR7 headphones were rather good and were an early application of samarium-cobalt permanent magnets.

I had a pair which I used with a home-made luggable (not-portable) cassette player I'd made around a surplus Tandberg/JVC mechanism. I left them in the lab at work over lunch one day, plugged into my Revox which I was re-heading, and got back to find some wag had made some labels re-branding it as "Sony Staggerman"

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Old 10th Dec 2015, 11:42 am   #6
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I believe mine were a pair of MDR3's and the cobalt magnet was one of the features along with the new 'open' design. The audio quality was also good compared to what I could afford at the time, but mine seemed to have a slight rattle/distortion on some passages of music. Never quite figured out why although it didn't necessarily seem to be related to the volume. Eventually got fed up with this and replaced them with a pair of Senheiser headphones.

Incidentally, I hate that phrase 'that's so last...' because its a cliché that suggests not only outdated, but also inferior. By inference it also suggests that the person owning or using whatever is referred to is inferior in their outlook and aspirations and as such the phrase seems to be condescending. I have always wondered where it came from? Was it coined by the advertising industry by any chance?

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Old 10th Dec 2015, 12:13 pm   #7
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Not old enough for me I'm afraid.

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Old 10th Dec 2015, 12:22 pm   #8
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Re the title 'that's so last century'

I suppose somebody in 1910 would have thought the 1980s stuff as science fiction. So I wonder what the TV programme producers would have made of showing a programme comprising 1910 stuff ? To a youth audience something from mediaeval times
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Old 11th Dec 2015, 12:51 pm   #9
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I'm in my early 70s, and wondered why they didn't go back a bit further, say to the 60s & 70s, with things like the Philips EL3300 series early Cassette Recorders, Reel to Reel tape machines, and Music Centres amongst others. What was interesting, though, was to see the likes of Jimmy Carr and others demonstrating 80s gadgets to their offspring, and watching the youngsters reactions to the devices.
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Old 11th Dec 2015, 2:48 pm   #10
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Quote:
Originally Posted by WaveyDipole View Post
Incidentally, I hate that phrase 'that's so last...' because its a cliché that suggests not only outdated, but also inferior. By inference it also suggests that the person owning or using whatever is referred to is inferior in their outlook and aspirations and as such the phrase seems to be condescending. I have always wondered where it came from? Was it coined by the advertising industry by any chance?
I couldn't agree more!
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Old 11th Dec 2015, 5:07 pm   #11
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I believe that the expression was originally 'So last week', and applied ironically to the rapid changes in garment fashion.
Although I haven't yet seen the programme, I agree that it hardly seems to have represented most of the 20th Century - but in the spirit of the expression, I suppose that's the point: that the 'tech' of a decade or two ago seems (to some) antediluvian.
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Old 12th Dec 2015, 2:58 pm   #12
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

It could have been very good if it had been presented by a historian with an interest in technology. Unfortunately all we had were the "celebrities" poking fun at the creations of visionaries and engineers far more capable than they were.

One object singled out for criticism was an early 2G phone, made by Nokia. Well, Nokia still make phones like this, for people who only want to make calls and send texts - and who like a battery life many times more than a smartphone can offer. As we recently learned from Ofcom, they tend to be better at making calls in weak signal areas, as well as being far more secure.

Another item they chose to ridicule was the BBC microcomputer, conveniently forgetting that it filled a niche for home-computer enthusiasts that is only now being addressed by the Raspberry Pi and its ilk.

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Old 12th Dec 2015, 4:25 pm   #13
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I missed this, although I do occasionally try to watch programmes of this kind to gain insight into popular and media-friendly views of vintage tech from the outside. If the programme was ridiculing anything, then it places itself squarely in the entertainment category rather than historical. However if it focused on the last few decades of the 20th century, its contributors might well have fallen into the conceptual gap between comparing an obsolete technology with its current equivalent and looking back on it as a worthy phase of development in its own context.

For example, a 20MB hard disk from a 1st-generation IBM PC, might be considered 'amazing' for being a technological breakthrough, while a 20GB disk, 1000 times larger, is 'stupid' for being so small because it's sufficiently like a modern-day equivalent to invite the more demanding comparison. People are familiar with the nuisance of a computer too slow or storage too small for the task in hand, but they have forgotten or are too young to remember using an original PC-XT. I was alerted to this phenomenon at an early age having read the background to Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha; his friend and colleague Sam Patterson observed that its qualities 'would have been lost on the typical Harlem audience that was sophisticated enough to reject their folk past, but not sufficiently so to relish a return to it in art.' Immediately I started finding examples in technology - my old record players were just lo-fi, but wind-up grams were already vintage. 25 years on, the Dansette is vintage and desirable, but the music-centre is in the doldrums.

Hopefully the programme also included positive observations?
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Old 12th Dec 2015, 6:04 pm   #14
dave walsh
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Just to follow on from Lucien's analogy [sophisticated enough in itself] there was an obit in yesterday's Guardian re Gene Amdahal "Farmer's boy who changed the world by creating the IBM mainframe computer". He has died aged 92.

Re Paul's BBC Micro comment, these were still being used in the Jodrell Bank dish guidance system up until a couple of decades ago and for programming drug regimes in Cancer treatment at Christies Hospital [my friend was a technician there]. In both situations this was on the basis of proven reliability and "if it ain't broke don't fix/replace it"

Everything becomes "surplus" in the end though I suppose [referring to another current thread]-including ourselves

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just do what you think you should do!"

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Old 13th Dec 2015, 6:07 pm   #15
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Hello

I've just got round to watching this on catch up.

It's mildly diverting light entertainment, I should think aimed at those who are "new century" themselvs.

I don't think I'll be bothering with the other episodes to come.

will
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Old 14th Dec 2015, 2:24 pm   #16
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

Quote:
Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?' View Post
a record player I'd forgotten about, called the 'Soundburger!' This latter could play 12" LPs, although it only had a small turntable, so most of the disc's surface was unsupported. Not something to play treasured records on, either then or now, methinks.
Actually, there's nothing wrong with a Soundburger. It has a good quality AT magnetic cartridge and a decently low tracking force, and sounds surprisingly good.

I've had a few pass my way for repair in the last year and I have never had a second's hesitation about playing any of my LPs on them - precious or otherwise. On the other hand, I wouldn't let any of them near one of those horrible modern Crosley things!
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Old 15th Dec 2015, 10:32 am   #17
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I admit to never having seen, or handled a 'Soundburger', so I didn't even know what Cartridge it used. Obviously with a MM Cartridge tracking at a low weight, the fact that most of a 12" record is unsupported by the turntable is less of a problem than it would be if a heavier, less compliant arm/headshell were used.
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Old 17th Dec 2015, 11:27 am   #18
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

There are plenty of turntables which don't support most of the record, the Sony PS-Q3 / PS-Q7 (small "hub" platter") and the Beogram 1200 (record supported by 5 small pegs) being two examples. Having used both extensively I can report no record wear issues if they are set up correctly and in good condition.

The Soundburger is OK but really it's just the poor man's Sony PS-F9...
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Old 17th Dec 2015, 3:14 pm   #19
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Default Re: 'That's so last century' (Ch.4 Tuesday 8th. Dec)

I used an Acos Regs with it's three-podded turntable without any detectable issues for many years.

There's a lot of twaddle spouted about how to play records, but in the real world, it's amazing what you can do and not hear any difference.

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