16th Mar 2018, 3:38 pm | #61 |
Dekatron
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Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Some of the recent posts are obsolete technology, but not useless items.
Al Skywave's pumping engines could still be used (the Kennet and Avon Canal actually do, a few days of the year, fire up their two beam engines and keep the canal water level up, switching off the modern electric pumps which normally do the duty). And the Roneo and Gestetner machines will still work, it would be possible to make stencils even at home. Eight-track players still work - the cartridges are reusable, obviously. And the time is not far off, surely, when it would be possible to 3D print new shells and hubs, and make new cartridges. The 1/4" tape exists in huge quantities. Whereas Polaroid cameras really are useless without a supply of the consumable film! To make this at home you would need a particularly well-equipped laboratory. Telex - it's well over 30 years since I sent a telex. Even a fax, it's 2 years easily, and the number of faxes in the last 10 years must be in single digits. But fax machines will still work, whereas the telex service, is it still offered? |
16th Mar 2018, 4:02 pm | #62 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
The NHS still use fax machines and are likely to carry on until the government gets round to supplying them with computers that actually work.
They just need a phone line at each end and a pair of them will work fine. |
16th Mar 2018, 5:26 pm | #63 | |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Quote:
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16th Mar 2018, 9:30 pm | #64 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
The place I was working at before I retired used to send anything important by post, email and fax. There are legal advantages in using fax, because the handshaking protocol means that you positively know you have a direct link to the recipient. Therefore even if something goes wrong at the receiving end, if you can produce your fax receipt, that can be legally admitted as demonstrating that what you sent was received. In my last job it was sometimes the case that documents had to be submitted by inextensible deadlines, and for last minute things, fax was absolutely essential.
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16th Mar 2018, 9:42 pm | #65 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Telex services.
http://empiremessaging.com/telex-services.php Still in use by the look of it, the company I worked at had the Telex removed around 1988.
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Frank |
16th Mar 2018, 10:22 pm | #66 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Well I still use a Filofax & I had an 8-track in my '79 Cadillac a few years ago. Worked well, too but I only ever had a couple of cartridges for it.....
Mark. |
16th Mar 2018, 11:30 pm | #67 |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Manchester, UK.
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Until a year ago, I had a minidisk player in my '97 Skoda
I only had one disk, a compilation a friend lent me after a few years when I wondered if the player worked. It was a bit heavy on Bruce Springsteen, but track 5 was 'Purple Haze', so it wasn't all bad. |
17th Mar 2018, 7:52 am | #68 |
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Location: Resolven, Wales; and Bristol, England
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
I still use a minidisc player in my car. I have a hundred or so discs for it.
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17th Mar 2018, 8:14 am | #69 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Why American foolscap? Was it a special finish paper or pre-printed with a logo? I'd have though it cheaper for those quantities to buy in Britain.
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Richard Index: recursive loop: see recursive loop |
17th Mar 2018, 8:28 am | #70 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
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17th Mar 2018, 8:36 am | #71 |
Nonode
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Now and again!
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17th Mar 2018, 8:39 am | #72 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Typewriters?
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17th Mar 2018, 8:52 am | #73 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
American Foolscap (Legal size) paper is effectively a sort of hybrid between traditional Imperial Foolscap and A4, and was readily available here for a while during the transition between sizing systems. Useful as it allowed documents prepared for Foolscap to be reproduced on near-A4 width as a stopgap, it's also quite a convenient size for single-fold leaflets etc.
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17th Mar 2018, 8:55 am | #74 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
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17th Mar 2018, 9:03 am | #75 |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
How about 'Stenode reception'?
David
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17th Mar 2018, 9:14 am | #76 |
Hexode
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Location: Royal Berkshire, UK.
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Viewdata?
The terminal I had was based on a late 1970's Ferguson 14" portable, in white. I cannot remember the model number, I do remember the power switch at the rear required a key! I also remember incorrectly entering a phone number & a rather snooty message from a travel agent popped up about computer hacking being illegal. The terminal was in use up to early 2005, the company I worked for changed the phone system making my Viewdata terminal redundant. I gave it to a friend around 5 years ago, it still powered up ...! Fondly remember ordering parts from WVE, SEME, Panasonic et al ... Mark |
17th Mar 2018, 11:14 am | #77 | |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Quote:
Equally, faxes are not encrypted, so anyone with access to the receiving fax-machine can read what's been received, and even take it away, with no kind of audit-trail. A few years back there was brief but potentially hazardous confusion over my medical-records when it turned out that a fax relating to someone else had been received by my GP only minutes after the fax relating to me, and both had ended up in my case-notes! I'm glad to see the back of fax. |
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17th Mar 2018, 11:17 am | #78 | ||
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Quote:
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17th Mar 2018, 4:58 pm | #79 | |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Quote:
I must admit that I did wonder after powering it up whether I was in breach of frequency use regulations by doing so.
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Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley) |
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17th Mar 2018, 5:04 pm | #80 | |
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Re: Bygone Technology and Useless Items.
Quote:
A friend of mine, Keith G3RTU worked on the approval of Rabbit, or CT2 as I think it was officially known.
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