What old technology are you surprised is still in use today?
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They should get rid of the windows too.
No, they should make those transparent hologram displays from sci-fi shows to make them more "futuristic"
I mean we all know the golden rule of: Hologram = Future
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It surprises me how little stick-built houses have changed in the last 50 years or so, at least in the USA.
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A decade ago, I thought phone numbers would soon die out. Instead, the most popular messaging apps use them as identifiers and adoption of those in North America is poor.
Phone numbers are the new ICQ number
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there's still new passenger airliners which use old fashioned control cables over fly by wire
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Steam turbines.
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Mirrors on cars.
I mean, logically I know why, but it just feels so weird and out of place in the 21st century.
Like you got this high tech vehicle with a bunch of computers inside and a lot of screens/displays, radios, GPS, âassisted drivingâ, then you see this mirror thatâs thousands of years old and not some advanced 360 radar system.
I know that a mirror isnât gonna fail like electronics do, so its better reliability, but still feel odd seeing old tech and new tech merged.
Kia/Hyundai uses cameras and screens instead of mirrors in South Korea but that technology is illegal here in the US so we get mirrors. Its not too different than adaptive headlights which can adjust themselves to not blind other drivers. Legal in Europe but illegal in the US.
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An Ikarus 256 was used as a train replacement bus in normal traffic in Hungary yesterday
For the uninitiated, Ikarus was a Hungarian bus factory that produced buses to the Eastern block, some of those are probably still running somewhere in Mongolia. The Ikarus 256 was produced between 1974-2002, so in the best case that thing was at least 23 years old.
But even better, someone got to travel on an Ikarus 55 on the same day (1954-1974), which used to be great in their time, but definitely weren't made for 36C summers, the lack of air conditioning combined with the sunshine roof that used to increase the feel of comfort in 1958 created a living hell for the passengers packed into that rolling museum with barely openable windows.
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned jack plugs yet. Basically unchanged since 1877 when it was invented for phone switchboards, roughly as old as safety pins or modern hairpins (give or take a few decades)
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An Ikarus 256 was used as a train replacement bus in normal traffic in Hungary yesterday
In Germany they'd charge extra for riding historic vehicles
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there's still new passenger airliners which use old fashioned control cables over fly by wire
How did it go again?
If it is Boeing, I ain't going!
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Air traffic control still uses floppy disks, windows 95, and a plastic board of paper tag numbers to keep track of shit instead of a computer.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Not all of them, most of ATC in EASA airspace is Linux based and use electronic strips instead of the plastic paper strips.
But the foundation of the ground/ground communication is still AFTN based on x400 network (Europe used to have an X.25 network for its CIDIN communications).
The latest and newest tech for international data exchange is AMHS based on X400, often it is x400 over IP ok, but still a 50 years or so tech.
The main idea behind ATC and aviation tech is reliability and compatibility with countries with less money to upgrade tech.
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Interesting, how is eFax any more secure than email? The advantage of fax is it's one machine to one machine, no possibility of interception without physically tapping the POTS line.
It's not. Information is secure at rest and encrypted during transfer, but once it reaches the part where it is sent over voip using a telecom provider, it has the same issues as it always did. We use it because its the best way to send this many faxes, as well as automate things using our internal applications to send faxes through it as well as other applications that we leverage its API to use the service. One advantage that makes it semi more secure is if we send a fax to another client that also uses the same service as we are then then it's actually a secure stream for the entire path.
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Microsoft Windows
If some of the stories are to be believed, some of the code dates back to 3.1/dos too
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The Wheel. We should've graduated to antigravity by now, don't you think?
we dont posess the knowlegde of how to do that, that isnt done by magnetism. maybe if aliens come to earth than maybe.
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Toilet paper
70% of humans dont use toilet paper, so it might be a new tech instead of an old one.
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If some of the stories are to be believed, some of the code dates back to 3.1/dos too
Oh you can clearly see that this is true when you launch certain programs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/o1x183/the_famous_windows_31_dialogue_is_again_in/
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Mirrors on cars.
I mean, logically I know why, but it just feels so weird and out of place in the 21st century.
Like you got this high tech vehicle with a bunch of computers inside and a lot of screens/displays, radios, GPS, âassisted drivingâ, then you see this mirror thatâs thousands of years old and not some advanced 360 radar system.
I know that a mirror isnât gonna fail like electronics do, so its better reliability, but still feel odd seeing old tech and new tech merged.
I spend a fair bit of time on construction sites, and cameras have one huge issue compared to mirrors: They're one-way.
With a mirror, I can see the driver in the mirror. I can make eyecontact and confirm that they've seen me. With a camera, I have no idea if they've seen me. Maybe they can see more, but if they happen not to be looking, I have no way to tell.
And our stupid road regulations don't allow for both.
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Oh you can clearly see that this is true when you launch certain programs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/o1x183/the_famous_windows_31_dialogue_is_again_in/
Oh that's tremendous, I don't run windows to see this.
But come to think of it I have come across some ancient screens doing odbc/data connections ancient popups in excel at work! -
A lot of production industry still runs on PLC from the 90s or older and uses DOS supervision systems. They would continue using it but are usually forced to upgrade once they run out of spare parts and / or staff that can maintain it.
Yep, my most important tool at work is controlled by DOS software running in a 386. Plenty of Windows XPâs around too.
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned jack plugs yet. Basically unchanged since 1877 when it was invented for phone switchboards, roughly as old as safety pins or modern hairpins (give or take a few decades)
That can't be the actual name of those, is it?
I've always kinda wondered, and generally call them TRS or something (I'm audio engineering background, American, millennial), so looked it up:
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio) under the "other terms" section:
The 1902 International Library of Technology simply uses jack for the female and plug for the male connector.[3] The 1989 Sound Reinforcement Handbook uses phone jack for the female and phone plug for the male connector.[4] Robert McLeish, who worked at the BBC, uses jack or jack socket for the female and jack plug for the male connector in his 2005 book Radio Production.[5] The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, as of 2007, says the more fixed electrical connector is the jack, while the less fixed connector is the plug, without regard to the gender of the connector contacts.[6] The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1975 also made a standard that was withdrawn in 1997.[7]
The intended application for a phone connector has also resulted in names such as audio jack, headphone jack, stereo plug, microphone jack, aux input, etc. Among audio engineers, the connector may often simply be called a quarter-inch to distinguish it from XLR, another frequently used audio connector. These naming variations are also used for the 3.5 mm connectors, which have been called mini-phone, mini-stereo, mini jack, etc.
RCA connectors are differently shaped, but confusingly are similarly named as phono plugs and phono jacks (or in the UK, phono sockets). 3.5 mm connectors are sometimesâcounter to the connector manufacturers' nomenclature[8]âreferred to as mini phonos.[9]
Confusion also arises because phone jack and phone plug may sometimes refer to the RJ11 and various older telephone sockets and plugs that connect wired telephones to wall outlets.
