Top ten obsolete technologies that refuse to die

[Force Flow]

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/scigliano0204.asp

Yes, people still use Dot-matrix printers, Reel-to-reel tape, and vacuum tubes ;)

[mbossman2]

all of these have uses:

Try counting someone's pulse on anything but a sweep hand watch, you screw up all the time.

Dot matrix printer - multipart forms and incredibly high speeds

Typewriters - manual typewriters work anywhere. try using a word processor where there is no power.

Broadcast radio - highly portable, can be extremely long ranged (a 50Kw clear station can go thousands of miles to places where their are no internet connections.

pagers - i hate the damn things so they can DIE for all i care.

R2R tape - not sure, hated it since I stretched tape while dubbing commericals

Vacuum tubes - rugged as hell and you can look at the tube and see if it is broken.

Fax machines - it is easy to alter an electronic softcopy but a fax is as a hard to alter as a written document.

mainframes - they run forever and fail so infrequently it isn't funny....i worked for companies that rely on mianframes (banks etc) for almost 15 years and only once did we have a failure that took the system down (albeit it was for 3 days - when they break they do so spectacularly)

[homer15]

my company still uses dot matrix printers... we can turn out 400 5 part invoices in about 7 minutes... that's over 57 pages a minute! ok, maybe that's a little exaggerated, i've never timed it. but it's still fast.

[mairving]

I echo your sentiments about pagers and would add faxes to the DIE list.

[Mr N8]

Here's my take on the one's I like:

Analog Watches: I have one, and its a very nice dress watch. Digital watches look tacky with business apparel.

Dot Matrix: Of course they are still around. Impact inkjets are too unreliable still. Financial institutions and stores need impact printing for carbons.

Vacuum Tubes: I love my Marshal amp with tubes. Please don't take them away.

Edit:

I propose adding floppy drives to that list.

[corosus]

do you mean 5 1/2 inch floppy's (those are dead, but sometimes i miss them) or 3 1/2 disks? I use those regularly. both for transproting data, as for a quick backup.

[mattg2k4]

Typewriters (manual or electronic) are good for filling out forms that must be submitted in paper form.

[mairving]

You can add zip to that list.

For some reason, 3-1/4" floppies refuse to die.

[Blakhart]

Analog timex military watch and vacuum tubes are kinda emp resistant. A good thing if there's ever an "emp event".
:D

[SonicVanguard]

Originally posted by force_flow2002
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/scigliano0204.asp

Yes, people still use Dot-matrix printers, Reel-to-reel tape, and vacuum tubes ;)
Don't mess with reel-to-reel :) A properly recorded reel-to-reel will sound better than any standard CD currently on the market and will hold it's own the DVD-Audio, SACD or HD-CD.

Dave.

[mbossman2]

Originally posted by Mr N8
Analog Watches: I have one, and its a very nice dress watch. Digital watches look tacky with business apparel.


I'll know the end is nigh when Rolex rolls out a digital watch

[Force Flow]

Originally posted by SonicVanguard
Don't mess with reel-to-reel :) A properly recorded reel-to-reel will sound better than any standard CD currently on the market and will hold it's own the DVD-Audio, SACD or HD-CD.

I knew you'd be the one to mention that fact ;)

[Mac Medic]

I can't fathom anyone who would think analog watches are a dying technology. What better example of micro engineering than a mechanical watch?. I would die before i replaced my Tag with a digital model.

[mystvearn]

I have an adidias digital+analogue watch. And I like it. So many functions, and I still get a anologue interface at the front, and the background has all te digital stuff.
I still have the tape recorder, and the small cassettes for recording people's speach.

[ZANEY123]

HELL, I am a computer operater of a gcos7 mainframe with 2 impact printers(dot matrix) and alpha 32 reel drives with a storagetech wolfcreek tape vault that uses 10 megabit tapes..

hewhehehe

we are in the process of migrating to a windows version of the bull,,,after 5 years,,,, it might happen in a couple of months..