What old technology are you surprised is still in use today?
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Ah, so it’s the Hungarian version of the USPS Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle).
The United States Postal Service needed a vendor to produce mail trucks. They ended up signing a contract with an aerospace manufacturer named Grumman. The manufacturer retooled one of their plane factories, and started producing what they called the LLV. The company sold each truck extremely cheaply, but had an exclusive maintenance agreement to service the vehicles. Their goal was to make a profit on the service instead.
But Grumman made the vehicles too well. The LLVs were basically a thin airplane aluminum skin bolted to a pre-fabbed General Motors wheel frame, and the engines were rock solid. They skipped basically all of the modern design conveniences like AC/heating or a radio. It was basically a glorified go kart with a windshield that could do ~55MPH. It basically bankrupted Grumman, because the LLVs never needed maintenance. They spent a ton of money to retool their factory and sold a ton of LLVs basically at materials cost, then never recouped their expenses. The LLVs were produced all the way back in the 80’s and early 90’s, and the USPS is still actively trying to phase them out in favor of newer EVs. Grumman folded in the mid 90’s, after a decade of continuous losses from the LLVs.
Basically any American old enough to vote will know what a Grumman LLV looks like, even if they don’t know what it’s called:
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70% of humans dont use toilet paper, so it might be a new tech instead of an old one.
A lot of those don't use water toilets either
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Ah, so it’s the Hungarian version of the USPS Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle).
The United States Postal Service needed a vendor to produce mail trucks. They ended up signing a contract with an aerospace manufacturer named Grumman. The manufacturer retooled one of their plane factories, and started producing what they called the LLV. The company sold each truck extremely cheaply, but had an exclusive maintenance agreement to service the vehicles. Their goal was to make a profit on the service instead.
But Grumman made the vehicles too well. The LLVs were basically a thin airplane aluminum skin bolted to a pre-fabbed General Motors wheel frame, and the engines were rock solid. They skipped basically all of the modern design conveniences like AC/heating or a radio. It was basically a glorified go kart with a windshield that could do ~55MPH. It basically bankrupted Grumman, because the LLVs never needed maintenance. They spent a ton of money to retool their factory and sold a ton of LLVs basically at materials cost, then never recouped their expenses. The LLVs were produced all the way back in the 80’s and early 90’s, and the USPS is still actively trying to phase them out in favor of newer EVs. Grumman folded in the mid 90’s, after a decade of continuous losses from the LLVs.
Basically any American old enough to vote will know what a Grumman LLV looks like, even if they don’t know what it’s called:
I love the payload capacity on these. Exact in the way you expect aircraft to be.
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They should get rid of the windows too.
Oh they're trying, hiphi Z and avatr 12 from the rear:
Both rely on mirrors and cameras to replace the lack of rear glass
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Fax, still in official use in Germany.
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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.
I think those are legal where I'm at, but if you have both mirrors and cameras it should be allowed by default. Also in the case of Honda e, I wonder how much power the screens and "mirrors" are eating, in a tiny car like that it might be noticeable.
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Steam engines.
The vast majority of our power comes from making something really hot and boiling water. Coal plant? Oil plant? Gas plant? Nuclear fission plant? Geothermal plant? The grand holy grail of energy production that would be a nuclear fusion plant? All steam engines.
Yes, unbeknownst to everyone, this is what a steampunk society realistically looks like.
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Fax, still in official use in Germany.
Very common in the US medical field as well
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The sewing machine.
Like we got 3d printers than can give me whatever I want in 20 hrs but I still got to fight with a sewing machine to stitch an outfit. Like why no polyester clothes printer? -
The sewing machine.
Like we got 3d printers than can give me whatever I want in 20 hrs but I still got to fight with a sewing machine to stitch an outfit. Like why no polyester clothes printer?For one, polyester fabric and clothes are just terrible
Two, technically you can 3d print a chainmail shirt, but it'd suck to wear normally
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Legally defined as secure, not actually secure.
They are fairly insecure in practice, since they are throwing the data at misdialed numbers and they are frequently placed in shared and insecure locations in the building where lots of people can access whatever comes through.
In the US they cannot be in "insecure locations" legally. And sending HIPAA materials to the wrong number is a reportable offense.
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I think those are legal where I'm at, but if you have both mirrors and cameras it should be allowed by default. Also in the case of Honda e, I wonder how much power the screens and "mirrors" are eating, in a tiny car like that it might be noticeable.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Most cameras are around 5W when in use, and it looks like the Honda e has a 35.5 kWh battery, and real world testing of the Honda e comes to around 167 Wh/km or 270 Wh/mile, so if you assume 3 cameras (2 side, 1 rearview) to replace mirrors, every hour of uninterrupted driving will have the cameras reducing your range by around 90 meters?
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Fax, still in official use in Germany.
It's considered a secure method of document transfer over email, despite email being able to be secured and fax can be hacked with like a length of wire and a knife. Fucking irks me.
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Most cameras are around 5W when in use, and it looks like the Honda e has a 35.5 kWh battery, and real world testing of the Honda e comes to around 167 Wh/km or 270 Wh/mile, so if you assume 3 cameras (2 side, 1 rearview) to replace mirrors, every hour of uninterrupted driving will have the cameras reducing your range by around 90 meters?
Thank you. I was mostly worried about running 5 screens at all times. Every mirror replacement system I've seen in pictures uses really bright screens and the E has 3 infotainment screens on top of that.
So if we count them as 5W each (12.3 main displays are probably hungrier, but camera displays are way smaller, and they're almost certainly IPS), that's ~25W, so 150 meters by your calculation? Doesn't sound that bad tbh. And on top of that the 12.3" ones can be turned off.
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The IRS still use COBOL.
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The IRS still use COBOL.
That's not even a government thing. It's a finance/banking thing, as most major banks are still using mainframes and legacy COBOL code for most of their business logic.
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Steam engines.
The vast majority of our power comes from making something really hot and boiling water. Coal plant? Oil plant? Gas plant? Nuclear fission plant? Geothermal plant? The grand holy grail of energy production that would be a nuclear fusion plant? All steam engines.
Yes, unbeknownst to everyone, this is what a steampunk society realistically looks like.
We made steampunk a reality by developing the technology to transfer steam power efficiently over long distances through metal wires.
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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)
If it ain't broke don't fix it.
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The sewing machine.
Like we got 3d printers than can give me whatever I want in 20 hrs but I still got to fight with a sewing machine to stitch an outfit. Like why no polyester clothes printer?wrote last edited by [email protected]We have knitting machines, and automated looms (weaving machines,) we even have sergers for fancy sewing. Its just plain easier to make the finished product as a custom job since humans aren't uniform in size, and it's way easier to weave a rectangular piece of cloth than any other shape.
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The IRS still use COBOL.
wrote last edited by [email protected]So does pretty much the whole banking and credit industry. When you get money out of an ATM there's usually some COBOL code involved.
