Unusual technological nostalgia

[mikeg]

I suspect I'm in the right place given the number of diesel fans here versus the more commonplace kettle head demographic :
Does anyone else have any unusual nostalgia for vintage modern tech?

I'll name a few I have:

Fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting... As someone who at the age of eight nagged my parents successfully to start buying energy saving light bulbs when most didn't bother, they seem to have stuck. I grant you LEDs nowadays are much improved in terms of pretty much everything but there's something about fluorescent lighting I miss... Or more precisely don't. I recently bought a new CFL when an LED bulb in my flat failed and was oddly pleased to see it came with a fluorescent strip light in the kitchen.

Dot matrix printers: Just like trains, they're big, they're noisy and they rattle... Reminds me of the BBC micros at school and how I couldn't afford one for my Amstrad before we got a windows pc for way too much money on hire purchase with a lexmark ink jet.

Oh and who can forget CRT tellies. I'll grant you I don't have one but in some ways the later models still punched above LCDs IMHO. If only modern HD ones were available!

Are there any other people with fond memories of vintage modern tech everybody else seems to hate?

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Amstrad 1512
I loved watching it 'relay' text

Viewdata, that was the future back then

 

[hst43102]

Flip phones or calculator watches.

Not sure if it counts as "technology" but those grey plastic strips on the doors and corners of cars. They seem to have really gone out of fashion - I wonder if it's so that car manufacturers can sell more replacement panels?

 

[Gloster]

Very low tech: does anybody still use old credit cards to clean ice off the windscreen? Or at least similarly shaped plastic cards that don’t give away bank details. I remember the near derision that would be directed at anyone who bought a proper windscreen ice-scraper.

 

[Crossover]

Dot matrix printers: Just like trains, they're big, they're noisy and they rattle... Reminds me of the BBC micros at school and how I couldn't afford one for my Amstrad before we got a windows pc for way too much money on hire purchase with a lexmark ink jet.

Is it still nostalgia if in use in a daily basis (tractor feed and all) (genuine question)?
(Still arguably the easiest way of getting carbon copies of paperwork)

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I still pine for DOS as an operating system.

 

[Springs Branch]

Rotary dial telephones.
- plenty of clips on YouTube of young people trying to work out how to make a call.
- wasn't there some way to input a # and * with these phone when those two codes started to come into common use?

On a railway (and airport) theme - Solari mechanical flip-panel displays.
- used to love the rhythmic click-click-click at major stations as the departure boards updated regularly.

 

[birchesgreen]

My landline phone is a brown GPO 746 dial phone. I bought it off ebay years ago (before they became trendy and the price increased by about 1000&).

I am nostalgic for typewriters, i love the sound of them. I have a lovely Brother Deluxe which i occasionally have a type on.

 

[317666]

Flipdot displays - they were introduced on my local buses when I was five or so and I thought they were really cool compared to blinds!

 

[DarloRich]

Typing pools and dictation of letters and documents - wonderful.

Very low tech: does anybody still use old credit cards to clean ice off the windscreen? Or at least similarly shaped plastic cards that don’t give away bank details. I remember the near derision that would be directed at anyone who bought a proper windscreen ice-scraper.

CD boxes work well for this

 

[mikeg]

I see a following for DOS emerging, in a way its still developing with its libre alternative FreeDOS... They're even adding new features to keep it almost up to date!

But who here thought CP/M was the more elegant system when compared to the DOS of its day? Two very similar systems mind...

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Rotary dial telephones.
- plenty of clips on YouTube of young people trying to work out how to make a call.
- wasn't there some way to input a # and * with these phone when those two codes started to come into common use?

Oh even touch tone landlines are beyond some of today's youth. Had a work experience lad at work about a year ago. Dialled and then picked up the receiver. No sorry you have to pick up then dial. After the call, replaced the receiver and asked how to hang up. You just did! That's why it's called hanging up!
Made me feel very old!

 

[nlogax]

This is my lovely old 1970s Western Electric rotary dial phone. Still works, or did the last time I plugged it into a US phone socket. In theory it'll work here too - just needs an RJ11 to BT plug adapter.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Nov 2020 ==

Very low tech: does anybody still use old credit cards to clean ice off the windscreen? Or at least similarly shaped plastic cards that don’t give away bank details. I remember the near derision that would be directed at anyone who bought a proper windscreen ice-scraper.

I've been using my EHIC card for this purpose. It's been nowhere this year and as of Jan 1st it'll likely be useless for anything else.

 

[EssexGonzo]

Record players, not in the sense that being seen to like vinyl is perceived as cool by some but in terms of the sound characteristics.

Digital sound is clear and harsh (ideal for cars and headphones outside) but I can tell the difference between vinyl played on my Dad's Linn Sondek turntable vs his Meridian CD player.

 

[Monkeyhead]

Rotary dial telephones.
- plenty of clips on YouTube of young people trying to work out how to make a call.
- wasn't there some way to input a # and * with these phone when those two codes started to come into common use?

On a railway (and airport) theme - Solari mechanical flip-panel displays.
- used to love the rhythmic click-click-click at major stations as the departure boards updated regularly.

I bought one off eBay that had a modern plug on, and put it in the hall and challenged my 9 and 11 year old to ring my mobile from it, first one to manage got a fiver. Safe to say, the fiver stayed in my pocket! Was fun watching them though. As an aside, sitting on the bottom of the stairs talking to someone on the phone really took me back to my youth, and felt weird sat in one place rather than mooching round the house chatting.

 

[S&CLER]

I'm still holding on to my Panasonic VHS/DVD combi player-recorder, and get it serviced, since they are no longer manufactured. I still have about 20 VHS tapes, mainly opera and a couple of feature films, which I don't want to be without, haven't yet managed to replace with DVDs, but which can't be copied to DVD. Occasionally I find VHS tapes of interest, and am willing to pay 50p for them, but nowadays even charity shops won't touch them. Not long ago I bought a box of tapes of USA railroad interest for a few quid. The price labels on them showed they had been £19 or £20 each when new 15-20 years ago.

 

[Paul180]

This is my lovely old 1970s Western Electric rotary dial phone. Still works, or did the last time I plugged it into a US phone socket. In theory it'll work here too - just needs an RJ11 to BT plug adapter.

View attachment 85991

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Nov 2020 ==



I've been using my EHIC card for this purpose. It's been nowhere this year and as of Jan 1st it'll likely be useless for anything else.

Nice Nixie clock you have next to your phone.

 

[nlogax]

Nice Nixie clock you have next to your phone.

Ta. That's another tech nostalgia-fest although Nixie tubes were about done by the time I was born. Also have a VFD clock of a similar size elsewhere at home.

 

[SurreyCommuter]

They're not that old but I still have (and use) my old VHS player and Playstation 2 both of which I've managed to successfully hookup to my (relatively) modern TV.

I've also got something that is very niche - a MiniDisc player! For those that may not remember they were kind of a stepping stone between CDs and Ipods

 

[nlogax]

I've also got something that is very niche - a MiniDisc player! For those that may not remember they were kind of a stepping stone between CDs and Ipods

Lovely. Still got one of mine along with quite a few discs! MD was such a good format when traveling with personal CD players and piles of CDs felt a bit like hard work and nascent mp3 players cost an absolute fortune.

 

[Gostav]

I still use film camera, also there a colour enlarger in my room can make photos up to 10 inch.

 

[Ianno87]

A railway one: TRUST. So old, yet so beautiful and rhythmic to use.

Was once told I had "fingers like a classical pianist" using it.

 

[JohnMcL7]

They're not that old but I still have (and use) my old VHS player and Playstation 2 both of which I've managed to successfully hookup to my (relatively) modern TV.

I've also got something that is very niche - a MiniDisc player! For those that may not remember they were kind of a stepping stone between CDs and Ipods

I was a big fan of Minidisc back in its day and had a beautiful little Panasonic minidisc player:

MD Community Page: Panasonic SJ-MJ70

I didn't like portable CD players because they were bulky and could struggle with skipping so I stuck with a lovely little Panasonic cassette player but the minidisc player was small but could skip tracks and have track titles on them. I remember seeing the original MP3 players and thought they won't catch on which I was horribly wrong about.

I used to love Panasonic equipment which I thought was well designed and manufactured, I also had one of their portable DVD players which was barely the size of a DVD in its case and very useful when most people didn't have DVD players so I could easily take it round to their houses to watch a film:

Panasonic DVD-PV40 user manual PDF, specs & support

Panasonic DVD-PV40 Portable DVD Player User manual in PDF, technical specifications, troubleshooting tips and community Q&A for this device.

mans.io

 

[alex397]

On a railway (and airport) theme - Solari mechanical flip-panel displays.
- used to love the rhythmic click-click-click at major stations as the departure boards updated regularly.

Oh definitely! I really miss those. I remember the Liverpool Street example very well - it’s much more dramatic than a digital sign just changing with a second with no noise.

There are still examples remaining at some airports and railway stations in Central/Eastern Europe, but I can’t remember exactly where at the moment.

 

[XAM2175]

Fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting... As someone who at the age of eight nagged my parents successfully to start buying energy saving light bulbs when most didn't bother, they seem to have stuck. I grant you LEDs nowadays are much improved in terms of pretty much everything but there's something about fluorescent lighting I miss... Or more precisely don't. I recently bought a new CFL when an LED bulb in my flat failed and was oddly pleased to see it came with a fluorescent strip light in the kitchen.

Ooh I can't agree with this - far too many negative associations of offices and the like haha. I'm still clinging desperately to halogen lamps (other than in low-use areas) until I've no choice but to go to LED.

Dot matrix printers: Just like trains, they're big, they're noisy and they rattle... Reminds me of the BBC micros at school and how I couldn't afford one for my Amstrad before we got a windows pc for way too much money on hire purchase with a lexmark ink jet.

This, on the other hand, I can get behind! I used to use an Oki flatbed (paper went straight through without being bent) dot-matrix for printing cardstock tickets at a previous job, and I've got a lovely IBM 2481 at home for the fun of it (it was 10 quid, I couldn't resist )

Also have a VFD clock of a similar size elsewhere at home.

I have a particular fondness for what Pioneer did with VFDs in their Fluoroscan stereo components - so classy!

(from https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/sx-3900-how-good-is-it.358491/)

On a railway (and airport) theme - Solari mechanical flip-panel displays.
- used to love the rhythmic click-click-click at major stations as the departure boards updated regularly.

There are still examples remaining at some airports and railway stations in Central/Eastern Europe, but I can’t remember exactly where at the moment.

I miss Solari boards so much. Thankfully there's still a very large one in one of the terminals at Frankfurt airport, and you'll still find a fair number littered around SBB's network (some of them quite new, even), but their days are definitely numbered.

I still use film camera

Same! Actually I have many and frequently use several haha. Gratifyingly they still have a certain following and if anything are becoming more popular of late

 

[johntea]

Where I used to work (only around 5-10 years ago!) the Finance department used a dot matrix printer to print out all the payslips so it was a rather important bit of kit to keep running

Eventually it all became digital though, same in the NHS now I've learnt I can access my payslip for the month at precisely 00:00:01 on the day before payday!

 

[birchesgreen]

I still use film camera, also there a colour enlarger in my room can make photos up to 10 inch.

For a number of years i've used a Kodak Instamatic with 110 film, including some bizarre pink tinted film i got from Lomo. Not taken any for a a couple years though after my local Jessops closed and i haven't found anywhere else local that can develop 110 film (run out of film anyway!)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

On a railway (and airport) theme - Solari mechanical flip-panel displays.
- used to love the rhythmic click-click-click at major stations as the departure boards updated regularly.

Did any still working examples of a Solari board ever get preserved in the UK, maybe at the National Railway Museum?

 

[nlogax]

Did any still working examples of a Solari board ever get preserved in the UK, maybe at the National Railway Museum?

I believe some of the Brighton station board was preserved and is residing with the NSE Railway Society. Could be out of date info though.

 

[beeza1]

My first laptop, an NEC with Windows XP, it had pre installed programmes, office for example.
XP was so much more user friendly than any of the later versions, am now on Windows 10 and it's dreadful, also had to pay a fortune for office, which to be honest I rarely use.
Cars that I can service or repair myself, unlike todays overcomplicated offerings where nothing is "repairable", the whole unit having to be replaced.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Freewheels for cycles were dreamed up as a marketing gimmick about 1900, there was a lot of resistance at first, and as for multiple gears..

I ride fixed mostly, my geared cycle stands unused so long, the tyres go down, I almost need to re-learn how to ride it