Good Riddance: Technology Items Nobody Misses

[HCHTech]

New Really? Who would have a thought that?

It does explain a few things....

 

[MichaelBits]

Here's one for the list...

Network Hubs.

I remember long ago when switches were expensive and if you needed more ports you got a hub instead.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The writer looks like he's probably too young to appreciate the fact that everything he lists was a huge improvement over the alternatives available at the time.

Exactly!
Every single one of those things in the list, was "normal" back then, some..even cool.
I remember every single one of those...even used to do quite a bit of token ring, we had a contract for some local American Express offices and they had to use IBM workstations with Token Ring networking. We had the newer type though, not the coax. Although I do remember coax networks, used to do a TON of Artisoft LANtastic networks back in the day. T-bars and terminator caps..ugh!

I don't miss cassettes and punch cards for storing data!

 

[Mick]

One little useless fact - Fax is still widely used in France - for sending legal documents around. Why? Haven't a clue.

It's because the recipient can't alter it/them. Anything else - including PDFs - can be fiddled around with. Still used a lot here in legal practices...and hospitals, too.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

One little useless fact - Fax is still widely used in France - for sending legal documents around. Why? Haven't a clue.

Still WIDELY used in the US by any companies that need secure methods of transmitting information. Fax is secure from point A to point B. Still very common in healthcare. Documents sent via fax are widely accepted to be legally binding. Can't say that about email.
https://www.scrypt.com/blog/why-fax-is-more-secure-than-email/

 

[tasonis]

ZIP drives were really helpful for a short while. It's amazing how quickly they became obsolete—that was a tool I carried around everywhere!

 

[sapphirescales]

ZIP drives were really helpful for a short while. It's amazing how quickly they became obsolete—that was a tool I carried around everywhere!

I still use them a lot on my vintage systems. When all you have is a floppy drive and a CD-R drive (no USB ports), a ZIP drive is a lifesaver! I have two drives - one USB for connecting to newer computers - and an older one that connects via the printer/parallel port or whatever it's called. You know, the freaking pink one.

You'll have to excuse me. I was like 2 years old when most of my vintage stuff came out so I don't know the terminology. I didn't have anyone to talk to about computers back then. The only reason why I know the modern technology terminology is because I talk to people about it online, and I want to say things right when I talk to clients so I don't sound like an idiot.

I started collecting computers in my garage when I was 5. I'd screw around with them all day, breaking them, fixing them, upgrading them, whatever. I read computer technician books and tried my best to learn how to fix and upgrade the stuff. Unfortunately since I never talked about computer stuff with people, I never got the terminology down. I still have that old computer dictionary somewhere. I'd have to look up just about everything when reading those books because I didn't know the proper terminology for stuff. Good times.

 

[allanc]

I do remember coax networks, used to do a TON of Artisoft LANtastic networks back in the day. T-bars and terminator caps..ugh!

I remember Lantastic also.
Specially - one of my client's Golden Labs chewed her way through a cable in the owner's office.
Whadya mean that your network is down?!

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Who remembers lightscribe?

 

[Porthos]

I made a couple of disks with that back in the day. I hated 2 things, blank disk price at the time and the time it took to "burn" the label design.

I just used a sharpie, Quicker and cheaper.

 

[sapphirescales]

Who remembers lightscribe?

I never used that technology because everyone said it was a pain in the a$$ to use. Instead I labeled my disks using labels I printed out with my printer and a plastic label thing that helped me press the label onto the CD so that it went on straight. I forget who made it, but I bought it at K-Mart for like $20 (which was a lot of money back then). Still better than Lightscribe though.

 

[GTP]

Who remembers lightscribe?

Light what? Lol

...and that little piece of malware that LG used to install with their burner software.

a plastic label thing that helped me press the label onto the CD so that it went on straight. I forget who made it, but I bought it at K-Mart for like $20 (which was a lot of money back then).

"CD Stomper." I still have mine buried here somewhere.