Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[Springs Branch]

In the early days of mass-produced home video recorders (VCRs), when it apparently made financial sense (at least according to people in my orbit) to rent a VCR from the local TV or electrical retailer rather than to buy outright. Reason being they were so unreliable back then that a purchased unit was likely to develop some fault sooner rather than later and need expensive repairs by a technician. If you rented one, you just returned it to the shop, and they replaced it with a new, possibly updated model.

Presumably the unreliability was with delicate mechanical gubbins rather than the electronics and was eventually overcome.


[EDIT] Anachronism #2: Using the word "gubbins" to describe technical gadgets.

 

[Jimini]

In the early days of mass-produced home video recorders (VCRs), when it apparently made financial sense (at least according to people in my orbit) to rent a VCR from the local TV or electrical retailer rather than to buy outright. Reason being they were so unreliable back then that a purchased unit was likely to develop some fault sooner rather than later and need expensive repairs by a technician. If you rented one, you just returned it to the shop, and they replaced it with a new, possibly updated model.

Presumably the unreliability was with delicate mechanical gubbins rather than the electronics and was eventually overcome.


[EDIT] Anachronism #2: Using the word "gubbins" to describe technical gadgets.

Radio Rentals!

 

[GusB]

[PEDANT] Radio 4 doesn’t do this. It plays God Save the King [/PEDANT]

There's always one...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==

"Spitting Forbidden" signs on the top deck of buses.

"No Spitting" was sometimes modified with the "p" replaced by an "h".

 

[AM9]

Three Television Channels.
Channel 4 started in November 1982.

Most TVs from the introduction of UHF channels (BBC2 in 1964), had mechanical tuning with 4 preset buttons. By the mid-80s, when there was talk of a fifth channel using previously unusable channels between UHF bands IV & V, TVs were fitted with electronic tuning making more buttons easier to embody. In the early '80s, UHF channel 37 had become the default channel for the modulators in VCRs so by the '90s, there was the problem for many still using older sets of retuning VCR modulators as not all TVs had direct inputs, (SCART). Often the solution was to use the VCR's tuner for TV viewing except when recording.
Looking back to the dying days of analogue, it's easy to see why all terrestrial TV is now on multiplexed digital broadcasts and receivers have multiple baseband inputs.

 

[D6130]

Ashtrays and metal match strikers on the top deck of buses.

Ashtrays in the smoking carriages of trains.

 

[Bald Rick]

In the early days of mass-produced home video recorders (VCRs), when it apparently made financial sense (at least according to people in my orbit) to rent a VCR from the local TV or electrical retailer rather than to buy outright.

It was more about upfront cost. A basic VCR was about £350 in the mid 80s - that’s the same as about £1500 now. IIRC the first one we rented was £15/month, which felt much less painful to my Dad.

 

[52290]

Ashtrays and metal match strikers on the top deck of buses.

Ashtrays in the smoking carriages of trains.

Traveling to Blackpool in the 1950's in non-smoking compartment stock there would often be someone, on a crowded summer Saturday train, who would ask if it was ok if they smoked. I never heard anyone object to such a request. I myself thought, "no, can't you read?" But as a child I remained seen and not heard.

 

[dcbwhaley]

In the early days of mass-produced home video recorders (VCRs), when it apparently made financial sense (at least according to people in my orbit) to rent a VCR from the local TV or electrical retailer rather than to buy outright. Reason being they were so unreliable back then that a purchased unit was likely to develop some fault sooner rather than later and need expensive repairs by a technician. If you rented one, you just returned it to the shop, and they replaced it with a new, possibly updated model.

Presumably the unreliability was with delicate mechanical gubbins rather than the electronics and was eventually overcome.


[EDIT] Anachronism #2: Using the word "gubbins" to describe technical gadgets.

Used to be the same in the early days of television when valves and tubes were delicate and prone to failure.

Widgets is the proper alternative to gubbins

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==

Looking back to the dying days of analogue, it's easy to see why all terrestrial TV is now on multiplexed digital broadcasts and receivers have multiple baseband inputs.

Given the huge number of "set top boxes (which are, given the narrow profile of modern TVs, are usually under the TV) I am surprised that manufacturers don't offfer sets without tuners - in effect just monitors. Apart from a simpler piece of kit it woollen' need to be reported to the TV licensing people

 

[AM9]

Used to be the same in the early days of television when valves and tubes were delicate and prone to failure.

Widgets is the proper alternative to gubbins

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==


Given the huge number of "set top boxes (which are, given the narrow profile of modern TVs, are usually under the TV) I am surprised that manufacturers don't offfer sets without tuners - in effect just monitors. Apart from a simpler piece of kit it woollen' need to be reported to the TV licensing people

Because the additional hardware and manufacturing cost of a digital tuner and decoder is negligible* compared with the cost of a display, power supply, input switching including HDCP (decryption) necessary for all HDMI inputs, sound decoding and multi-stereo standard matrixing, audio amplifier, speakers, plastic case and a remote control that would be required for a monitor capable of what you are indicating. The remote control would cost no less, the only difference being the firmware within and the printing on the plastic buttons.
* TV front ends have been available for years in the form of USB sticks, and sell for less than £30. Those devices probably have an ex-works prices of under £5, Aerial input circuit and digital tuner/decoder is accommodated on a circuit board which would be there in a monitor anyway, the marginal cost difference between a TV and a monitor would be pence at the production level.

 

[GordonT]

Years ago Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton used to serve their beer in oversized pint glasses with the pint line printed on it. Then they changed to the smaller standard conventional pint glasses, saying that was what the public wanted. No it wasn’t, it was what the accountants wanted.

A friend of mine who once worked in a South London bar several decades ago recalls that a popular "pint" was a mixed beer. 'Light and bitter', 'Guinness and bitter', 'Brown and mild'. Basically a half-pint of draught beer in a pint glass with a bottled beer served with it. the 'half-pint' was measured by eye but there was no way bar staff were going to risk customer's ire over perceived short measure. So, a 'pint' of light and bitter was really a pint and a quarter.

 

[AM9]

A friend of mine who once worked in a South London bar several decades ago recalls that a popular "pint" was a mixed beer. 'Light and bitter', 'Guinness and bitter', 'Brown and mild'. Basically a half-pint of draught beer in a pint glass with a bottled beer served with it. the 'half-pint' was measured by eye but there was no way bar staff were going to risk customer's ire over perceived short measure. So, a 'pint' of light and bitter was really a pint and a quarter.

As a teenager I would sometimes have a cider and stout, (it was usually Mackeson stout and Woodpecker or Strongbow cider. Some called it black velvet, - I doubt that I could stomach it now though!

 

[D6130]

As a teenager I would sometimes have a cider and stout, (it was usually Mackeson stout and Woodpecker or Strongbow cider. Some called it black velvet, - I doubt that I could stomach it now though!

I thought that Black Velvet was a mixture of Champagne and Guinness?

 

[AM9]

I thought that Black Velvet was a mixture of Champagne and Guinness?

Maybe, - champagne wasn't covered by my teenage funds.

 

[Bald Rick]

I thought that Black Velvet was a mixture of Champagne and Guinness?

Correct.

In Birmingham, I was introduced to the concept of a pint of ‘Mickey Mouse‘ which was half lager half bitter. I tried it once, didn’t see the point of it. Just had one of each instead!

 

[Lewisham2221]

Correct.

In Birmingham, I was introduced to the concept of a pint of ‘Mickey Mouse‘ which was half lager half bitter. I tried it once, didn’t see the point of it. Just had one of each instead!

Not forgetting "Snakebite" - half lager, half cider - with varying rumours as to it's ability to get you more drunk more quickly and pubs/bars being banned from serving it

 

[Jimini]

Not forgetting "Snakebite" - half lager, half cider - with varying rumours as to it's ability to get you more drunk more quickly and pubs/bars being banned from serving it

Indeed! Or even "snakey and black" with a dash of blackcurrant cordial to add to the mix. Used to be infamous in the Walkabouts of west London 20+ years ago where a lot of Aussies reside. The sticky floor in the Shepherd's Bush bar was often ridiculously bad!

A friend of mine who once worked in a South London bar several decades ago recalls that a popular "pint" was a mixed beer. 'Light and bitter', 'Guinness and bitter', 'Brown and mild'. Basically a half-pint of draught beer in a pint glass with a bottled beer served with it. the 'half-pint' was measured by eye but there was no way bar staff were going to risk customer's ire over perceived short measure. So, a 'pint' of light and bitter was really a pint and a quarter.

My old man used to drink that aye. I worked the odd evening or weekend shift down his local (Hammersmith) as a young'un, and it was always a toss up between p*ssing him off by only pouring the correct half pint into the pot, or risking the ire of the landlord who watched us all like a hawk to make sure we weren't being overly generous!

 

[GordonT]

I worked the odd evening or weekend shift down his local (Hammersmith) as a young'un, and it was always a toss up between p*ssing him off by only pouring the correct half pint into the pot, or risking the ire of the landlord who watched us all like a hawk to make sure we weren't being overly generous!

Sounds familiar. I can remember a pub of the distant past whose landlord watched over staff like a hungry predator. Until that stage in the evening when he used to disappear behind the gantry window to count his takings and put himself outside a bottle of Teacher's. (Then his wife took over the predator duties. Not easy being a gin-soaked buzzard but she took her duties seriously. Not easy to watch over two bars while wobbling on top of a barstool pretending to smile and laugh with the punters).

 

[Ken X]

Guinness and bitter was known as a pint of "Mother-in-law" round our way. (Stout and Bitter)

 

[Bald Rick]

Guinness and bitter was known as a pint of "Mother-in-law" round our way. (Stout and Bitter)

Brilliant

 

[KevinBrum12]

Following on from the Windows 95 Turns 30 thread. we have to add the floppy disk, which was never really floppy. Putting three or four disks into a computer to open a software package then another one to save your work was a faff.

 

[AM9]

Following on from the Windows 95 Turns 30 thread. we have to add the floppy disk, which was never really floppy.

In 45 years of using them, I've never seen a 'floppy disk' that isn't floppy.

 

[Sun Chariot]

In 45 years of using them, I've never seen a 'floppy disk' that isn't floppy.

Tne older - 7 inch? - black covered disks that I recall in 1982, were definitely very flexible and floppy.
The 1990s 3.5 inch disks encased in blue hard plastic, were definitely un-floppy.

 

[AM9]

Tne older - 7 inch? - black covered disks that I recall in 1982, were definitely very flexible and floppy.
The 1990s 3.5 inch disks encased in blue hard plastic, were definitely un-floppy.

The term 'floppy disk' refers to the magnetic disk with the data recorded on it, and 8inch, 5 1/4 inch and 3 1/2 inch drives all had them. They are floppy and the read/record head actually presses against the surface which is compliant although trying to maintain a flat profile as a result of it spinning. There are felt liners inside the card or paper cases to clean the floppy disk when it spins.

 

[Sun Chariot]

The term 'floppy disk' refers to the magnetic disk with the data recorded on it, and 8inch, 5 1/4 inch and 3 1/2 inch drives all had them. They are floppy and the read/record head actually presses against the surface which is compliant although trying to maintain a flat profile as a result of it spinning. There are felt liners inside the card or paper cases to clean the floppy disk when it spins.

Superb, thanks. The 8" and the 5 1/4' I used at school and at home.
3.5" were a bit later although a good friend amassed 100s!

 

[Statto]

The days when you had to buy paper maps if you were going to an area you were unfarmiliar, the A to Z was the most popular. then Ordnance Survey started compeating with A to Z publishing County road maps, A to Z then started publishing County road maps as well, technology has moved on in spades that we have likes of Satnav, Google Maps & Smart Phones that makes paper maps redundant.

 

[AM9]

..., technology has moved on in spades that we have likes of Satnav, Google Maps & Smart Phones that makes paper maps redundant.

Until you are somewhere away from an adequate base station, - as many hill climbers have found to their cost.

 

[75A]

Until you are somewhere away from an adequate base station, - as many hill climbers have found to their cost.

Here in Northern Ireland if you're not in a town there are many places where you don't get a signal, so Sat Nav, Mobile Phones etc are useless.

 

[dcbwhaley]

The days when you had to buy paper maps if you were going to an area you were unfarmiliar, the A to Z was the most popular. then Ordnance Survey started compeating with A to Z publishing County road maps, A to Z then started publishing County road maps as well, technology has moved on in spades that we have likes of Satnav, Google Maps & Smart Phones that makes paper maps redundant.

Paper maps cover a much greater area in detail than a map on a three inch scree

 

[MicroLithium]

Paper maps cover a much greater area in detail than a map on a three inch scree

True, but somehow the bit you need is always in the fold/halfway over on the other sheet!

 

[dangie]

The days when you had to buy paper maps if you were going to an area you were unfamiliar……. Google Maps & Smart Phones that makes paper maps redundant.

I have an Ordnance Survey digital subscription so I can see the 1:50,000 & 1:25,000 maps on my phone or tablet or computer. All very useful, but nowhere near as enjoyable as a winter evening pouring over the corresponding paper maps. Must admit though the double sided White Peak & Dark Peak could involve a bit of dexterity and contortion