BS: Technological Dead-ends

Subject: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:26 PM

Hey, remember when "Drip-Dry" was the cutting edge for washable men's wear?
Or the "Self-winding Watch"? Now that was an idea that seemed to promise an end to old-fashioned winders and batteries! I remember a comedian who had a line that his uncle had been such an active man that it took five years for his self-winding watch to stop after he died.
The demise of the belt was prematurely announced with the "Sansa-belt Slacks."
Any others?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: artbrooks
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:30 PM

8-track? BetaMax?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:43 PM

the 40 hour workweek?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 04:44 PM

And how about the FAX machine? Talk about something that caught fire to the point that it was necessary to have one to do business. Now, I use my FAX about once every two months.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: freightdawg
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 05:00 PM

What about the computer?

When I was in high school (shortly after the crust of the earth cooled down enough for habitation) we were told that "in just a few years" we would be living in a paperless society.

Even now every transaction that is completed on-line has the attached advice..."be sure you print this page for verification."

I still love the feel of my fountain pen as it glides smoothly over real, genuine paper. And, no power outages to contend with!

Freightdawg the ancient.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: bobad
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 05:05 PM

I inherited one of those "Self-winding Watches" from my father, it is an Omega Automatic, a very fine watch, my wife wears it daily and it keeps on ticking after about 35 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: pdq
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 05:18 PM

cryogenics

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: bobad
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 05:30 PM

The Flying Car

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Amos
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 05:31 PM

The flying cars that were predicted in the 50's as "coming soon" for Every-man's garage were a soap-bubble dream; the ramp-up of energy prices and the relatively slow development in private aviation infrastructure left the field behind. Although there will be car-planes available in a couple of years (and have been in various forms in the past) they will not be viable investments for the average family to maintain, as cars are (or at least were until recently).

A

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 06:13 PM

How about the car-boats? I remember seeing a few puttering about with propellers sticking out under the bumpers long ago, but never saw one hit the lake.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 06:27 PM

I remember CDs first advertised as indestructable and always playable.

I even remember 'Tomorrow's World' (BBC technogeek programme introducing science to people waiting for 'Top of the Pops' to start) driving a tractor over it and it played perfectly.

Now we have several that are unplayable because someone accidentally let a speck of dust get onto them.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 06:27 PM

When I was in high school (shortly after the crust of the earth cooled down enough for habitation) we were told that "in just a few years" we would be living in a paperless society.

Snifflin' young puppies ....

When I was in my third year of COLLEGE the dean of the electrical engineering department visited our class (of mostly MEs) to explain that transistors¹ probably would never be able to replace vacuum tubes in a workable computer², and building a computer that consumed less than a few KILOWATTS was a pipe dream.

¹ of the kind then known

² similar to ENIAC(?)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: artbrooks
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 06:50 PM

The first computer I ever worked with (and I was 3 years out of college at the time) ran on vacuum tubes and was programmed with a roll of one-inch-wide paper tape with holes punched into it. The first thing we did each morning was to bang it underneath with a baseball bat to shake the condensation loose. I remember a geek friend of mine saying a few years later, "you know, it is theoretically possible to make a calculator the size of a pack of cigarettes".

How about the paperless ballot?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 07:24 PM

My Dad had a Cadillac with state-of-the-art automatic dimmer switch for the headlights. I remember an entire trip to Florida, right after he bought the car, when he futzed with this thing for hours. It would alternately darken the lights when there wasn't a car in 10 miles,and then blind oncoming drivers with a sudden burst of brightness when they least expected it.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 07:27 PM

And here's a prediction :

On-Demand movie rentals through cable and satellite service will put an end to Movie Rental stores in less than 5 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 07:34 PM

The self-winding watch is still with us and will cost you several hundred dollars.

Betamax lost out to VHS, even though Betamax was a superior product.

8-tracks were NOT superior and I'm glad they're dead, those rascals them.

On-demand movies will obviously put an end to video rental stores -- it's already happening. The Netflix model will work for a while, but will eventually lose out to MP3 or something similar.

Here's one: the recording industry, as it is currently structured, will pass out of existence within 10 years max. One possible replacement is websites that function like iPod sites do: sell the user a song and let the user pick and choose; a percentage of each download would go to the artist.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: bobad
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 07:35 PM

Automatic push button transmission - I once had a 1950's Dodge Fargo pickup truck with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 08:10 PM

Great one, bobad! I, too, had a Chrysler Biscayne, about 1960, that had the pushbutton tranny.

Curb feelers?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 08:38 PM

Leather prophylactics.
Steam automobiles.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 08:39 PM

Citizens Band Radio

Pressure Cookers

Electric tin openers and carving knives

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 09:14 PM

Anybody remember the rollagon? or Peltier Effect cooling?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:12 PM

Dodge Dart, pushbutton tranny. Sliding lever for Park. Dunno what year-- I learned to drive on it (thanks Mom) and paid no attention to year. Car lasted till the rust finally et through the huge contact-paper flowers my mom covered the rust up with. It was in the late 60's.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:13 PM

CB is still with us -- you can get the whole setup, and it's still used by truckers and others.

How about:

Matchlock firearms
Wheel lock firearms
Ducking stools
Checking accounts
Banjos
Wankel engine
Internal combustion engine
Wet-plate photography
Cold fusion
Antibiotics

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:13 PM

Wasn't the rollagon a kind of a rolling octagon thing that was purported to cure the flu?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Amos
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:32 PM

Church-keys.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: number 6
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:45 PM

You still need them for Heinekens Amos.

anyone remember the Amphicar

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:52 PM

Balance of Terror, Mutual Assured Destruction and the hardware that went with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:55 PM

Slings
Trebuchets
Orangers

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 11:15 PM

On-Demand movie rentals through cable and satellite service will put an end to Movie Rental stores in less than 5 years.

Correction:

On-demand movie rentals through cable and satellite service will put AN END TO OUR USE OF THE INTERNET IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS if current "premium service" privatization efforts succeed.

(IMO)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 11:32 PM

Just because something is obsolete doesn't mean it's a dead-end. Most obsolete items are necessary steps in the evolution of their succesors. A true dead-end has no successor.

"Yankee" screwdrivers are pretty much a dead-end. They've been replaced in almost everyone's toolbox by rechargable portable drills with screwdriving bits. Both tools perform the same job, but they use entirely different technologies.   

The dedicated word-processing machine is not a dead end. It's obsolete, but it has evolved into the word-processing software we all have on our computers today.

And the eight-track tape wasn't really a dead-end, just a wrong turn.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 03:16 AM

On-demand movie rentals through cable and satellite service will put AN END TO OUR USE OF THE INTERNET IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS if current "premium service" privatization efforts succeed.
Holy schneikies sez I!

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 03:34 AM

Peltier Effect cooling is used on some high power high end CPUs to help get the heat out of the chip and into the water cooling system.

Hey, old computers had water cooling systems - some buildings were designed with a space for the cooling fountain...

And I didn't mind 8 track tapes - they had their uses for endless background sounds... used one for that... still got the recorder, now where can you get tapes? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:20 AM

Peltier effect "refrigerators" are readily available and are used by a fair number of long-haul truckers to keep their lunch fresh. (Lots of people buy them, but the ones who use one for more than a couple of trips usually add a lump of dry ice to help the reefer out a little.)

Of course they mostly do have the advantage of having a couple of ~300A generators to run their frivolous little accessories too.

The "coolers" are available for "recreational use," but you just about need a "UTE class" truck to carry the batteries to run one for more than a couple of hours. Efficiency has NOT been too significantly improved since the first generation devices, although some of the current ones are a little bit better than the old penny on ternplate stacks we used to build in the hobby shop.

Peltier CPU coolers are availableadvertised, but I haven't seen much indication that people are buying them in any quantity. BIG FANS, BIG FINS, and lots of thermal goop seem more in favor.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:29 AM

Lonesom EJ:

Take a look at the recent thread BS: Internet Freedom Under Fire for the prognostication on the internet.

I linked to my "explanation" but you can scroll back to the rest of the thread from there.

Of course it's just one person's guesstimate.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 07:25 AM

DATs and ADAT machines in recording studios.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 08:59 AM

Civilization (such as it is) as we know it.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Chip2447
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 11:40 AM

Amphibious vehicles haven't become a technological dead end, perhaps just an oddity;

carboats

Chip

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 11:52 AM

Both the Quadski and the Humdinga look pretty cool on Chip's site. I like the picture of the Humdinga getting ready to go over the falls.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 12:37 PM

Leather Prophylactics George ?!?!?!?! YGTBKM.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 01:30 PM

Peltier, peltschmear- years ago I gave my dad a canvas water bag that hung outside his truck when he was in the fields and it kept his water almost chilled.

How about milking stools? Three legs and low to the floor.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 02:56 PM

Maybe not too enjoyable, GUEST Neil, but bloody effective.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: john f weldon
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:07 PM

I'm looking at my once-treasured Dat machine, which cost a bundle. Sigh.
I have a large box filled with used SCSI cables, for sale cheap.
Syquest drive anyone?

But a 5-string banjo is forever!

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rog Peek
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 04:18 PM

Artbrooks
There is nothing 'dead-end' about the 8 track player in my car, over 30 years, still works as well as it did then, and has NEVER chewed a tape or skipped a track!

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: artbrooks
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:03 PM

Buy any new tapes lately, Rog?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Rog Peek
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:08 PM

No artbrooks, but I've got a recorder, and tapes cost nothing, very generously donate them when they are having a clear-out..

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 06:45 PM

When digital clocks and watches came out, I figured it would mean the demise of analog clocks and watches, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Most people seem to prefer the old-fashioned dial-face with hands.

I have used a digital watch for years, and I love it, mainly for the additional functions: date, alarm, and timer, which I use frequently. It has a black plastic case and cost less than $25. The strap is not the one that came with it originally; mine is nylon fabric with a Velcro closure; the perfect timepiece in my estimation. I can't imagine wanting anything better. Oh, it might be nice to have one that would measure my heart rate, or blood pressure, or give me my exact location by GPS, or tell me how far I have walked today, but I can live without those functions.

Yet, pick up any copy of, say, The New Yorker magazine, or the Wall Street Journal, and you will see dozens of ads for expensive watches, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Many of them don't have as many functions as mine does, and I doubt that they can do anything more accurately or conveniently than mine does. So why do they exist? I suppose because people who buy them want fancy jewelry more than they want functionality.

And, curiously, all of those expensive watches are analog, not digital. Why? Hasn't anyone figured out a way to make a digital watch look like jewelry? Not that I would want one…

* * *
I think dirigibles were a technological dead-end.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 07:00 PM

I remember the "plane-sail" (I think) on Tomorrow's World. It was an array of four parallel vertical wings to replace the sail of a boat. It could be controlled by a wheel and a couple of levers while you sat in an armchair in the cabin!

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: john f weldon
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 07:21 PM

Analog watches are not just a dead end. They are evil. No one uses a worthless but pricey analog watch unless they are trying to impress the world that they care NOT about time, but the power to ignore time, and that they have vast supplies of money to waste, due to their wealth and power.

Analog watches are the modern equivalent of bound feet.

Thorstein Veblen coined the term "conspicuous waste". His epic work "The Theory of the Leisure Class" (written in 1899 (!)) would appeal to many Mudcatters; his warnings are more relevant than ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 07:31 PM

But have you noticed how many people in dances get clockwise wrong since the digital watch came in?

Subject: RE: BS: Technological Dead-ends
From: john f weldon
Date: 01 Nov 07 - 07:39 PM

I was, of course, reponding to Jim Dixon's post. I still have my granpa's old pocket watch, and a five-yr old windup pocket watch that cost about 10 bucks. Neither work.

It's the 5000 dollar-plus pieces of junk still being made and sold that make me angry.

It's perfectly possible to create a watch that looks analog and has digital works for a small cost; I haven't seen one lately.

Clockwork was a miracle in its day. It's dead now, and should be buried.