What's something that's seen as Obsolete, but isn't?
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Tape drives. They're still used for backups/archival because they offer the lowest cost per gigabyte, as long as you don't need to access the data very fast.
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Obligatory thought to cobol, which is stil the backbone of banking computers.
I would also think to the good old electromechanical relay which are still pretty common
More political, but whatever what imperator Musk thinks Privacy isn't obsolete
The latest version of COBOL came out in 2023.
Grace Hopper lives on
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Pretty much anything in a machine shop made in the last 80 years or so. So many people turn up their noses at anything that isn't computer controlled anymore. Yknow what a big old mill can do that a CNC can't? It can make every single part needed to make a new mill. It's a self replicating machine with the right know how. People don't respect that kind of quality anymore.
Can a CNC not do that for just the mechanical parts?
I know way too much about bootstrapping semiconductor production, which is viable but highly impractical.
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Because it can do something that the alternatives can't do or because they refuse to use something more modern?
"It can't be hacked"
Of course, it can, and a lot more easily than a TLS stream, but try convincing them of that.
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Secure fax is encrypted: it’s sent via https.
Technically true
Only in transit though.And at least email is ostensibly locked behind a password on a computer. Not just sitting in a paper tray ready to be nabbed by Anyone walking by.
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Fax machines. Government and medical offices would grind to a halt without them. That's just reality.
Even worse, the US military, at least, is still using teletype machines and COBOL.
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Wrist watches. Extremely convenient, even when your phone is buried or you don't want to be distracted.
I have one that shows the numbers in between chain links and it's dope.
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Eliminating an entire sense (touch) from being used to control things seems to be foolish.
I'm just waiting for tactile screens to show up in this role.
OP doesn't like them, but screens have the huge advantage they can display an unlimited amount of widgets organised any way you like.
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Developers. Yes, AI can sling a lot of code, but it can't make business decisions and it can't please a difficult customer.
Honestly, developers shouldn't be the front line for that if you're medium-sized or bigger anyway.
It's even simpler: AI can't really even begin with architecting, and will stubbornly defend nonsense code 5% of the time when you need >99% correctness for the thing to run at a basic level.
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Because it can do something that the alternatives can't do or because they refuse to use something more modern?
Because it works. Every part needed to run those machines, even line of code, every possible cause of failure is well documented and there are layers and layers of redundant protocol to ensure that if something does go wrong downtime is minimal.
The entire purpose of these machines are designed to run for as long as they’re needed. They’re not replaced or upgraded because they were never meant to be. A lot of effort went into this being the case.
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Your caveman brain. People think they're educated an enlightened and everything they do now is so well thought out. Nope, the caveman is in the driving seat for all of us. Even your most high level meetings and interviews are influenced by how hungry, horny, or hurt you are by a teasing comment yesterday. Everyone is looking to establish dominance at any cost, when you don't really need to.
Everyone is looking to establish dominance at any cost, when you don’t really need to.
You know, I see the rest, but I don't see this. A lot of people are straight-up doormats.
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Caring about your employees as if they were humans.
That implies it was ever the norm. At best it's had moments.
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Lol, might as well hang a sign out front that says "I share data with cops."
It's almost like they didn't get any training before they became drug dealers. /s
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Safty razors! Why would anyone spend 20$ on the new fangled 30 million blade razor that mighy last one shave? When you can spend pennies even if you change blades every shave.
Safety* might*
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Paper; Notebooks.
Key only physical door locks.
Manual transmission cars.
Not having any IoT appliances, and not connecting everything you own to WiFi.
Hard drive full of MP3s.
Cash.
Not being available for a call if you're not at home.Source: work tangential enough to cybersecurity.
Hard drive full of MP3s is love, hard drive full of MP3s is life.
Although ATM my folder is just 1.1GB including the music videos, so I could probably store it on a carefully-chosen dishwasher; it doesn't have to be a hard drive.
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Leeches are still used in some surgeries.
Maggots, too. And bloodletting in very niche cases.
I guess you could make the case for trephination (putting a hole in the skull), but now they put you back together so it's not really the same.
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Can a CNC not do that for just the mechanical parts?
I know way too much about bootstrapping semiconductor production, which is viable but highly impractical.
Yes, they make massive CNCs.
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Alive and... well alive in scientific computing
Just look at all these r packages! https://github.com/cran?q=&type=&language=fortran&sort=
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I want to throw a shout out to the site that cloned the old Google reader by making theoldreader.com
Thanks for this, I was so disappointed when Google cancelled Reader.
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Correlary: always test your backups and don't just assume that they will work when you need them.
If you aren't testing your backups then you don't have backups.
