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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from dot Com. Hey, Aron,

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, your beloved host,

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Speaker 1: and today I've got a super special guest host live

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Speaker 1: from c NET. It's I as Actar Hi, I as Hi.

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Speaker 1: Jonathan is good to be here, is great to have

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Speaker 1: you on. Now. I AS and I go way back.

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Speaker 1: We met when you were working with Randall Bennett, and

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Speaker 1: uh we became friends. So, just in the interest of

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Speaker 1: full disclosure, I AS and I are friends. I know

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Speaker 1: it's shocking, So any sarcastic barbs, I take it, Jonathan,

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Speaker 1: or he throws back at me. We do that out

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Speaker 1: of love, entire absolutely true, absolutely true. And today, Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I always asked my guests if they have

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Speaker 1: a preference for the topic they want to cover. I

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Speaker 1: has actually looked through the list of articles and suggestions

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Speaker 1: and things that I've been collecting for potential tech Stuff

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Speaker 1: episodes and picked one. There was a listener suggestion listener

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Speaker 1: named Jare shared a link to an article on Web

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Speaker 1: designer Depot and it was all about technology that had

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Speaker 1: gone obsolete, and Jared said, wouldn't it be great to

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Speaker 1: cover an obsolete technology podcast? So We're going to look

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Speaker 1: primarily at the technologies that appeared on that list, and

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Speaker 1: then we're gonna kind of talk about, you know, what

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Speaker 1: made them go obsolete. In a few cases, we might

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Speaker 1: even debate if it is in fact obsolete. I think

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Speaker 1: there's some that are on the list that might have

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Speaker 1: been a little premature to say it's obsolete. When I

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Speaker 1: think obsolete, I really think that it no one uses

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Speaker 1: it anymore. It's been completely replaced by newer technology, you know,

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Speaker 1: like the crossbow. Not a lot of people using those.

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Speaker 1: What's not obsolete that that still has a function, So

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Speaker 1: that they will argue at that planning, like, what is

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Speaker 1: the true definition of that is it's just no one

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Speaker 1: in the world ever uses again? Or is this just

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Speaker 1: basically something that's been or its function has been traded

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Speaker 1: in for another device. Well, I mean sure, a crossbost functional.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not working. I'm just saying that,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're okay, that you're right. We're gonna get

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Speaker 1: into this throughout the entire episode. So, uh, spoiler alert,

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Speaker 1: crossbow does not appear on the list, so we're not

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Speaker 1: going to be covering that. However, I wanted to begin

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Speaker 1: kind of where the list began, although I should also

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Speaker 1: add these are not necessarily in the same order as

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Speaker 1: they appeared on the article, because a lot of the

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Speaker 1: technologies in the article were similar tech or at least

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Speaker 1: we're technologies that fulfilled a similar role, and so I

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Speaker 1: kind of grouped together quite a few of them. But

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Speaker 1: in any case, the first one was super eight or

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Speaker 1: eight millimeter film cameras, which the article referred to as

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Speaker 1: video camera rus and I immediately got the giggles because

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Speaker 1: film and video are two different things. Now, I as,

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Speaker 1: have you ever actually used a film camera? Surprisingly, no,

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Speaker 1: The only cameras I ever used when I was growing

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Speaker 1: up were ones that used VHS tape, and that's it.

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Speaker 1: I never I never had the experience of the super eight.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are familiar with it

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Speaker 1: with the Wonder Years. That's what it looked like, kids.

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Speaker 1: If you wanted what it looked like, this film actually

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Speaker 1: going through but no sound, usually I think, yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: it's a you know, you you had to record sounds

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Speaker 1: separately if you wanted to have sound with your films,

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Speaker 1: which meant that you would have to slate it. Slating

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Speaker 1: of course for those who aren't familiar with the the

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Speaker 1: film production world. Slating is where you have some sort

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Speaker 1: of visual and audio Q that tells the producer how

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Speaker 1: to line or the editor how to line up both

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Speaker 1: the audio track and the video track. So if you've

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Speaker 1: ever seen the little slapboards are often used to you know,

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Speaker 1: whenever you're seeing a behind the scenes shot of a

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Speaker 1: movie or it's just a television show where they've got

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Speaker 1: that in there, as you know, usually it's when they're

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Speaker 1: showing someone making a movie, that's what that's all about.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, yeah, usually these were just silent films. It

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Speaker 1: was interesting to me that eight millimeter film was actually

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Speaker 1: sixteen millimeters wide. Uh. It was just that you would

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Speaker 1: when you were shooting, it would record on one half

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Speaker 1: of the film lengthwise, and then you would turn the

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Speaker 1: cartridge upside down and reinstall it and then you could

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Speaker 1: shoot on the other half of the film lengthwise. So

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Speaker 1: that was what allowed you to double the amount of

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Speaker 1: film that you had per cartridge. Um that's one of

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Speaker 1: the things that is very different these days. Obviously, like

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Speaker 1: we used to talk about film in terms of footage

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Speaker 1: literally footage, how many feet of film did you shoot?

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Speaker 1: And that's while we still use the term ntage today,

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Speaker 1: and we still use the term film today. That's no

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Speaker 1: longer the case. Now we're talking about how many bytes

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Speaker 1: of data did it fill up? So I agree that

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Speaker 1: this is obsolete in the sense that I don't think

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Speaker 1: you're gonna find a lot of places offering super eight

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Speaker 1: uh film cameras or even super eight film. But you

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Speaker 1: can still find a few places. It's just really tricky,

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Speaker 1: and it's also tricky to find places that can process

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Speaker 1: that film because unlike video or digital film, you can't

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Speaker 1: just view it immediately. You actually have to process the

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Speaker 1: stuff you shoot in order for it to become viewable.

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Speaker 1: So I'm I'm okay with this one being called obsolete.

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Speaker 1: What's your opinion. It's definitely obsolete. Although I'm sure they're

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Speaker 1: parts of Brooklyn where this is like the coolest thing

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Speaker 1: that kids do or hitchers do. Um, There's there's no

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Speaker 1: way I would see anybody using these things these days.

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Speaker 1: And unless you're like some kind of crazy enthusiast. It's

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Speaker 1: like somebody who who set but like a flash with

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Speaker 1: that powder stuff that would go up flash that would

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Speaker 1: seem to be very unusual. So I would think absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: unless you're a film student trying to make some sort

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Speaker 1: of statement, I don't see this happening. Uh, it is interesting.

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Speaker 1: Another little bit of trivia. The old super eight film

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Speaker 1: could hold thirties six hundred frames worth of film, which

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Speaker 1: amounts to just a few minutes, so two and a

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Speaker 1: half minutes of footage at twenty four frames per second.

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Speaker 1: If you change the frame rate, you could get more

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Speaker 1: or fewer minutes of footage. Helt. But just imagine, you know,

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Speaker 1: the fact that you are doing a take using a

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Speaker 1: super eight film camera, No take could be longer than

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Speaker 1: two and a half minutes. Obviously, that kind of pressure

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Speaker 1: makes movie making take a lot more time, and it's

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Speaker 1: a lot more stress I think. Um. Going along with

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Speaker 1: this one is home movie projectors. Again not a huge surprise,

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Speaker 1: because if you don't have the came rus to shoot

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Speaker 1: the film, then why do you need something to show

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Speaker 1: the film? Um? Yeah, I mean that's that's been gone forever.

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Speaker 1: I mean I've seen these back. Actually I have seen

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Speaker 1: this in school, back when they actually the real the

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Speaker 1: reels would come in the wheel, this a V unit

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Speaker 1: in and they'd have an old projector with this. But

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Speaker 1: usually there were science things not necessarily home movies. But

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Speaker 1: I'm just thinking back to the the how quick you'd

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Speaker 1: have to shoot things. I'd imagine the stress levels would

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Speaker 1: be very high for families. It's like, get the shot right,

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Speaker 1: getting right, because we've got two and a half minutes

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Speaker 1: and that's it. We're gonna have be happy here, that's it. Jimmy,

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Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta at least give a a a

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Speaker 1: false sense of happiness to everyone back home, and we

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Speaker 1: get one shot. That's it. It's not like the days

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Speaker 1: where we got to to retry everything right. If you know,

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Speaker 1: these days, if they take a picture with like a

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Speaker 1: smartphone and you don't like it, you just delete it

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Speaker 1: and do it again. That was not the case in

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Speaker 1: the old film days. Well yeah, these these projectors have

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Speaker 1: been largely replaced with DVRs, DVD players, Blu ray players, VCRs,

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Speaker 1: even in some homes, and then some people have digital projectors,

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Speaker 1: so kind of a spiritual successor to the old real

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Speaker 1: home projector, but it works on a very different technology. Now,

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Speaker 1: the next one I remember from my childhood. I didn't

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Speaker 1: own a Beta Max machine, but I remember the the

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Speaker 1: cassette wars between Beta Max and VHS and those are

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Speaker 1: the next two on the list. Now, this is the

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Speaker 1: early video market for the consumer. Video had been used

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Speaker 1: in professional capacity for quite some year, for quite a

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Speaker 1: few years, I should say, before it ever hit the

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Speaker 1: consumer market. And then you had the VHS versus Beta

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Speaker 1: Max battle. Um. The main differences between the two well one, uh,

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Speaker 1: Beta Max was made by Sony and v HS was

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Speaker 1: uh that came out from our c A I believe,

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Speaker 1: and uh, so you had a format war that way.

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Speaker 1: But Beta Max also could record in a slightly higher

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Speaker 1: resolution and was limited to at least for the longest time,

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Speaker 1: to one hour long cassettes for home recording, whereas VHS

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Speaker 1: didn't have that limitation. You could get longer recording VHS

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Speaker 1: tapes and that gave it an advantage. Also, Beta Max

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Speaker 1: tended to be more expensive than VHS, so this was

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Speaker 1: a battle that we'd see play out again with Blu

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Speaker 1: Ray versus h D DVD. That's sort of a fight

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Speaker 1: that broke out, um. And in many ways the two

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Speaker 1: format wars are very similar to each other. So if

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Speaker 1: you remember the old h D DVD war, then this

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Speaker 1: story is really pretty close. Uh. The big difference being

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Speaker 1: that I didn't go to the c e S where

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Speaker 1: Beta Max pulled out of the show at the last minute,

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Speaker 1: but that did go to the c e S when

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Speaker 1: HD DVD suddenly decided not to show up, uh the

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Speaker 1: day of the show opening. Yeah, this is Sony's like revenge.

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Speaker 1: At least the Blu Ray one was because when it

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Speaker 1: came to Beta Max, the quality was there. It was

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Speaker 1: higher quality, like you mentioned, and a lot of people

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Speaker 1: thought that quality went out, but VHS was I'm just

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Speaker 1: much cheaper and you could have longer films, and I

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Speaker 1: believe there was the adoption of pornography on VHS, so

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Speaker 1: that kind of led the way at times. But son

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Speaker 1: you got to win finally with the Blu Ray. I

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Speaker 1: think the last major player they boughtut I want to

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Speaker 1: say it's Warner Brothers, but they basically paid a truckload

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Speaker 1: of money and ensured their victory in the home theater space. Yeah, VHS,

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Speaker 1: while I would say it's pretty, you know, it's it's

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Speaker 1: mostly dead and the Princess Bride sense of things. There's

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Speaker 1: still plenty of companies that are offering up vhs like VCRs,

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Speaker 1: but they're usually combo VCRs. There VCRs that are packaged

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Speaker 1: as like a DVD or Blu Ray, even a Blu

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Speaker 1: Ray vcr UM. But there still are some out there,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, some movies are still being released on VHS,

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Speaker 1: but it's almost always a gimmick, like The Horror Anthology

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Speaker 1: VHS two was released on VHS cassette, but that again

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Speaker 1: was kind of a one off, like aren't we clever

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Speaker 1: sort of thing. Yeah, you can tell someone has gone

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Speaker 1: to the obsolete point when you see the prices start

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Speaker 1: taking on things like VCRs, the playback machines. They start

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Speaker 1: going down and they start decreasing to this point and

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Speaker 1: then like they're practically giving them away for free, and

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Speaker 1: then they start slowly increasing the price because so few

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Speaker 1: companies are making it. Because if you look up a

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Speaker 1: VHS player now, it's not as cheap as it would

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Speaker 1: have been back when if the market was flooded. So

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it's it's not dead, it's definitely

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Speaker 1: actually obsolete when it comes to video technology. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: have the quality, it doesn't have the amount of I mean,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't say bit rape if you're not in the resolution.

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Speaker 1: When it comes to this, you're not gonna have the

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Speaker 1: same amount of audio coming out of this this technology.

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Speaker 1: So it's definitely uh, it should be on its one

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Speaker 1: way out, but it's that it won't just die. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think obsolutely. It's a fine word because, like you

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Speaker 1: were saying, I as I think, absolutely does not necessarily

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Speaker 1: mean it has been white from the face of the planet.

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Speaker 1: It really just means that. I mean, if you were

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Speaker 1: going out today to buy a brand new home entertainment center,

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Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't think of a VCR as a necessary component.

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Speaker 1: But what about a LaserDisc player. I loved when the

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Speaker 1: LaserDisc came out. I was I saw it. It came

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Speaker 1: out in the store. I saw this massive box and

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Speaker 1: get these record size, shiny platters, and then I begged

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Speaker 1: my folks to buy me one. They bought me a

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Speaker 1: laser disc player. I came home with it and then

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, how do you record on this thing?

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Speaker 1: And they said it doesn't record, and I go, we're

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Speaker 1: taking this back to service merchandise right now. So at

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Speaker 1: a lasers player in my ask for all of three

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Speaker 1: days because I was not happy about it, and my

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Speaker 1: folks were very nice and they were very happy to

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Speaker 1: get what I believed to be a four hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty dollar credit back from this store because that was

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Speaker 1: really really expensive and they were very nice enough to

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Speaker 1: get for me, So they get to uh, they got

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Speaker 1: to enjoy the stork about it later. That's so hilarious

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Speaker 1: that that you owned a LaserDisc for all of half

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Speaker 1: a week. Uh. Yeah, I didn't have a LaserDisc player

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Speaker 1: at all. I did grow up in the era of

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Speaker 1: the the home video you know, wars everything from the

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Speaker 1: Beta Max to VHS. We had a VHS VCR, not

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Speaker 1: a Beta Max. We didn't have a LaserDisc player. We

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Speaker 1: did have a totally different obsolete technology that I'll mentioned

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Speaker 1: towards the end of the show, but it's it was.

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Speaker 1: It didn't make the list that we were talking about

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Speaker 1: right now, the online list. LaserDisc players had a much

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Speaker 1: higher quality than vhs when it comes to resolution and sound.

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Speaker 1: They were kind of the predacess sirs to DVDs. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They were and you know, really the first optical based

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Speaker 1: home media's format. And it also brought in the era

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Speaker 1: of full motion video because there were laser disc arcade

250
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Speaker 1: machines that um used laser disc footage as the means

251
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Speaker 1: of showing off the game, like like Dragon's Layer is

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Speaker 1: the big example, where you know, at certain moments within

253
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Speaker 1: Dragon's Layer, you can make a decision and the character

254
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Speaker 1: would go and either succeed or fail based on that decision.

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Speaker 1: But everything has already been prerecorded, nothing was being rendered

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Speaker 1: at the time that you were playing. You were really

257
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Speaker 1: just unlocking various sequences. And that was the limitation of

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Speaker 1: the laser disc format. It couldn't do anything beyond that.

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Speaker 1: But on the other hand, people who own laser discs

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Speaker 1: love the quality of the picture and the sound. I

261
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Speaker 1: remember going to parties with people who had laser displayers.

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Speaker 1: They would always have, you know, one of the movies

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Speaker 1: on in the background, and it it was it just

264
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Speaker 1: blew away anything that was on vhs. You didn't have

265
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Speaker 1: that tracking artifact that would go across when you know

266
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Speaker 1: your tape is not quite right, you have to fix

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Speaker 1: the alignment so that you don't have the static or

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Speaker 1: whatever on there. That was never a problem, but a

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Speaker 1: LaserDisc ultimately didn't catch on in the consumer market. UH

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Speaker 1: to a wide extent. It had a very dedicated core

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Speaker 1: of followers, but it eventually lost out to things like DVDs,

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Speaker 1: UH and blue rays later on. So by two thousand

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Speaker 1: in the United States. Um, they were pretty much gone.

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Speaker 1: So sad to say that it never really caught on

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Speaker 1: in a big way, but it did kind of pave

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Speaker 1: the ground for the following types of optical based media

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Speaker 1: like DVDs and blue ray. Uh. Then we've got a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch that I grouped together because they are similar.

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Speaker 1: There's the phonograph, turntables, vinyl records, transistor radios, boom boxes,

280
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Speaker 1: the Sony Walkman, and the Sony Discman. So some of

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Speaker 1: these I could argue are technically not obsolete. Uh, they

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Speaker 1: might be niche markets. Um. In one case, the Sony Walkman,

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Speaker 1: the brand still exists, so I guess you could argue

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Speaker 1: it's not the same piece of technology. That's not exactly

285
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Speaker 1: the same they The Walkman used to be a cassette player.

286
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Speaker 1: For those of you don't remember. Cassettes are like with

287
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Speaker 1: analog way of getting audio to you, and when the

288
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Speaker 1: tape itself would have an issue, you have to get

289
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Speaker 1: a pencil and kind of rewind the actual tape. Yep.

290
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Speaker 1: So there's there's a whole generation that people have no

291
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Speaker 1: idea you know what I'm talking about. But when you

292
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Speaker 1: had these cassettes, you'd want to walk around with them,

293
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Speaker 1: and unlike something that that succeeded them, like the discman,

294
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Speaker 1: you didn't have a lot of skipping problems. You could

295
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Speaker 1: run around with the tape and there was no real

296
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Speaker 1: issue there, but you did have to deal with the

297
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Speaker 1: destruction and whear and tear of the actual tape. And

298
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Speaker 1: I remember when I had a discman at one point. Uh,

299
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Speaker 1: it was great. Once they they invented anti skip technology

300
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Speaker 1: was which basically just reading ahead and having the audio

301
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Speaker 1: set to go in case of a skip because optical

302
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 1: media not exactly designed to be ran around with back

303
00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,120
Speaker 1: first came out. Yeah, it had to buffer that audio

304
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Speaker 1: so that should you encounter a bump, it could continue

305
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Speaker 1: to play seamlessly. And like you were saying, the cassette

306
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:49,800
Speaker 1: didn't have that problem, you have other issues, Like there

307
00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,439
Speaker 1: were times where maybe the tape could get caught on

308
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Speaker 1: something and unwind from the cassette and that was a

309
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Speaker 1: huge headache. Uh. You know, obviously it's a magnetic storage medium,

310
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Speaker 1: so if you were to work near i don't know,

311
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Speaker 1: super conductors or something, you might end up having some

312
00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,800
Speaker 1: issues on your music. But but I, you know, I

313
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Speaker 1: certainly was a big fan of the cassette. Back in

314
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Speaker 1: the day, it was one of the easier ways to

315
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Speaker 1: have your music be portable, and the Walkman specifically made

316
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Speaker 1: that easy. As for things like, well, the phonograph, Sure,

317
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Speaker 1: the phonographs obsolete. It's been obsolete for ages. I don't

318
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Speaker 1: even know how it made the list. It's kind of

319
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Speaker 1: like saying, you know, uh, I don't know, like the

320
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:39,320
Speaker 1: horse and buggy is obsolete. Well, yes, that that is obvious. Turntables,

321
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Speaker 1: I'm I don't know. There again, it's like a niche market.

322
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Speaker 1: But there are lots of music artists out there who

323
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Speaker 1: will release their music on vinyl and you play it

324
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Speaker 1: on turntables. I'm sure there's some people who collect that

325
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Speaker 1: kind of stuff, even if they don't have the device

326
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Speaker 1: to play the media on, but they're just a collector.

327
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Speaker 1: But I know that turntables and vinyl certainly still have

328
00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,880
Speaker 1: a place. I mean, DJ's alone, make sure that that

329
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,719
Speaker 1: doesn't die out completely. Would you go so far as

330
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Speaker 1: to say that turntables and vinyl records are actually obsolete,

331
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Speaker 1: definitely obsolete at all, because their replacements would be something

332
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,639
Speaker 1: like digital music, and they're The big claim is that

333
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,680
Speaker 1: there is some kind of analog warmth that you get

334
00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,159
Speaker 1: that you just can't reproduce on it digital medium. And

335
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,520
Speaker 1: so as long as long as as there's gonna be music,

336
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:34,679
Speaker 1: if there's still gonna be vinyl, because you know, of

337
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,000
Speaker 1: all the things that try to replace Vinyl, the fact

338
00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,120
Speaker 1: that it keeps coming back or just refuses to die,

339
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,359
Speaker 1: I don't think it's it's ready to be called obsolete,

340
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:45,720
Speaker 1: because then why why don't we other why don't we

341
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,840
Speaker 1: ever see other analog audio take off as well as

342
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,879
Speaker 1: vinyl does. I'm not really sure, yeah, I mean, the

343
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,160
Speaker 1: only thing I can think of is that the cassette

344
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 1: tapes have the magnetic media tend to have a hiss

345
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:04,520
Speaker 1: behind it, which people say that obviously takes away from

346
00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,560
Speaker 1: the fidelity of the recording, whereas vinyl doesn't have a hiss,

347
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,400
Speaker 1: assuming that your equipment is clean and the record is unblemished,

348
00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:14,960
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, if your record has wear and tear,

349
00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:18,399
Speaker 1: there's going to be some pops and scratches in it.

350
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Speaker 1: Some people say that actually adds character to the recording,

351
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Speaker 1: and uh, for a for a full generation, that was

352
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Speaker 1: the way people were used to music, and it sounded

353
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Speaker 1: weird to not have those kind of pops and scratches

354
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Speaker 1: in it. So yeah, I agree with you. I don't

355
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,040
Speaker 1: think that one's obsolutely I would say that that one

356
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,479
Speaker 1: that one probably does not merit inclusion on the list. Uh.

357
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,640
Speaker 1: Cassette tape recorders and cassette tapes are actually the next

358
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:49,639
Speaker 1: one that we're listed in the the article, and I

359
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:53,479
Speaker 1: can see why. I mean, obviously, the music, like the

360
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 1: prerecorded music stuff. The music industry going out to buy

361
00:20:56,400 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 1: an album has largely and almost totally abandoned the cassette format,

362
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,480
Speaker 1: with with a little one off exceptions, things that are

363
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,600
Speaker 1: really more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. For example,

364
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,639
Speaker 1: the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack They're Awesome mix tape

365
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,520
Speaker 1: is going to be released or has been released out

366
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,240
Speaker 1: on cassette tape, but that's because the cassette tape played

367
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 1: such an important part in the movie. It's really more

368
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: movie memorabilia, I would say, than an actual musical album

369
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,920
Speaker 1: in that sense. Yeah, cassette tapes, obviously I was talking

370
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:37,040
Speaker 1: about before. My big life with cassette tapes was recording

371
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:39,159
Speaker 1: stuff off the radio. I'm sure you've done this too.

372
00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: It's like you got your boom box, You're waiting for it.

373
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:45,560
Speaker 1: You're waiting for a song because there was no way

374
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,360
Speaker 1: to get audio very easily. You just have to wait

375
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 1: around for it to come in through the airwaves. Have

376
00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,240
Speaker 1: your cassette tapes, and like back when we're talking about

377
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: the Walkman, nothing more. Nothing would cause a panic, like

378
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:02,480
Speaker 1: seeing that tape getting stuck between the heads and you're like, Okay,

379
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,439
Speaker 1: did you get twisted? Isn't busted inside? Uh? When it

380
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,800
Speaker 1: comes to the cassette tapes, I remember just having a

381
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:12,040
Speaker 1: ton of them. I liked how small they were. That

382
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: was something that was a big nice thing to have

383
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 1: a portability. But I think definitely obsoustely at this point. Yeah,

384
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:21,439
Speaker 1: I used to have cases of these things. My my

385
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 1: college roommate and I had dozens of mix tapes, including

386
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:30,360
Speaker 1: tapes where we were doing just dumb things like we

387
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:36,240
Speaker 1: each had vinyl record collections, including singles and full albums,

388
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: so we once did a mix tape that was all

389
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:44,359
Speaker 1: vinyl albums played at the wrong speed, so we would

390
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 1: have singles played too slowly, and we have full albums

391
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,880
Speaker 1: played too quickly, and we thought that was the funniest

392
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:54,200
Speaker 1: thing in the world. Because our senses of humor had uh,

393
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: stayed at the eight year old level. I have since

394
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,880
Speaker 1: gone up to twelve years old in my sense of humor,

395
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,639
Speaker 1: So there's progress there. Did you have a tape player

396
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:06,919
Speaker 1: that variable speed so you could actually listen to it

397
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,080
Speaker 1: back normally if you wanted to, or you just thought,

398
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,280
Speaker 1: that's it, one speed, this is how it's going to be.

399
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,439
Speaker 1: It was one speed. Yeah, we I remember distinctly like

400
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: we had um Anarchy in the UK played super slow,

401
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 1: which sounded more like a rob zombie cover of the

402
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,800
Speaker 1: Sex Pistols made it really really scary and ominous. But

403
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 1: we also had a super fast version of Comfortably Numb

404
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 1: and hearing Alvin and the Chipmunks cover Pink Floyd was amazing.

405
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 1: So but we yeah, once once we recorded it, that's

406
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: the speed it was gonna be. We didn't have a

407
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 1: variable speed tape player. Now, all of this so you know,

408
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,160
Speaker 1: by two thousand one, those cassette tapes made up less

409
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 1: than five of music sales, and so pretty much you

410
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 1: don't find them for prerecorded music. You can still find

411
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 1: blank cassette tapes because apparently there are some people out

412
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: there who are still using them to record stuff, but

413
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 1: as for like an actual album release. It's incredibly rare

414
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: except for the the random one off. However, the next

415
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,680
Speaker 1: one on the list eight tracks, I think we could

416
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,880
Speaker 1: just say is obsolute without even you know, any debate

417
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,359
Speaker 1: on the subject. It was obsolete during the era of

418
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: the cassette tape. Yeah, I think that's just like enough said,

419
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: is an eight track And if you if you're miss

420
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 1: hearing me, you're thinking the Sony a track, that's not

421
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. The eight track cassette tape that

422
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:37,040
Speaker 1: just kind of when went away. It was supposed to be

423
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: be higher quality audio then you'd be getting from other methods,

424
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: but it was these giant cartridges. They kind of look

425
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: like atry cartridges, at least that's where I remember them

426
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: to be. I don't think I've ever been in a

427
00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 1: car that had an eight track player, have you? I

428
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: have been in a car that had an eight track player.

429
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 1: My my family did not own one. We always had

430
00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 1: just the A M and then later the a UM

431
00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 1: FM radio, but we never had an eight track player.

432
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: Eight track players had a lot of limitations. For one, uh,

433
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:12,400
Speaker 1: you couldn't rewind a cartridge. You could only play it forward. Now,

434
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:16,400
Speaker 1: some eight track players had a fast forward so if

435
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: you really wanted to get to the other side of it,

436
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 1: you could fast forward the the cassette, or if you

437
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: wanted to hear a song again, you could eject it,

438
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: turn it over, fast forward to what you think is

439
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 1: the beginning of the song you wanted to listen to again,

440
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,399
Speaker 1: eject it, turn it over again, put it back in

441
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: the player, and push play and hope that you guessed correctly. Um,

442
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: you could also fast forward, or rather, when you did

443
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: fast forward, most of these players would cut the audio,

444
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,200
Speaker 1: so you're just fast forwarding. You wouldn't actually be listening

445
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: to the stuff played super fast, so you wouldn't be

446
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: able to listen to music played at the wrong speed.

447
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: But yeah, this format died pretty much in the seven knees.

448
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: So I was a kid in the seventies, but I

449
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 1: was a very young kid in the seventies and I

450
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 1: have no real memory of eight tracks. It was only

451
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,920
Speaker 1: when I was writing in someone's car that dated back

452
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,919
Speaker 1: to that era that I ever saw an eight track player.

453
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: So we never had one in my family. There should be, uh,

454
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,040
Speaker 1: I don't think there's any adapters that have like an

455
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: eight track to Bluetooth adapters or adapter. Your CD player

456
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: not a thing. Causette Cassett's still kind of live in cars.

457
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 1: The last car I owned had a cassette deck in it,

458
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 1: and that car was from two thousand and four, so like, yeah,

459
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 1: so they still had a tape deck and it was

460
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:39,679
Speaker 1: had the ability at least for me, It's like, Okay,

461
00:26:39,680 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: I'll get the adapter. But I've never seen an eight

462
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: track to c D or eight track to Bluetooth adapter,

463
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 1: so definitely dead. Well, I I haven't even seen, like

464
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:50,439
Speaker 1: it's been a while since I've seen a car that

465
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: had a CD player in it, much less eight track

466
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:59,360
Speaker 1: or cassette player. But again, might be that bias creeping

467
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: in where I just I tend to hang out in

468
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: the other podcaster cars and we're all gadget breaks, so

469
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,880
Speaker 1: we tend to get the the various systems that are

470
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: all digital. Well, how about real to real tape? You

471
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: think that one's still a contender or is that one obsolete?

472
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,119
Speaker 1: It's not dead. I know this because I think one

473
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: of the last Food Fighter albums was recorded on real

474
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: too real. It was because they wanted total analog, they

475
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,639
Speaker 1: wanted to not use pro tools. So there's some certain

476
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 1: bands that still use this to record, and the Food

477
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: Fighters are kind of a big band, so and so

478
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: that's it's it's unusual that somebody would choose to do that.

479
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,159
Speaker 1: And I just remembered back with the cassette tapes, I

480
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: us have a four track machine so I could record

481
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 1: music on different tracks, and that was my second big

482
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: cassette moment because I was totally into CDs at that point.

483
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: But real to real tape, this is another like kind

484
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: of niche kind of thing that people would be trying

485
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,280
Speaker 1: only if you want to have the analog sound from

486
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: the very beginning, because there's no other real reason to

487
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 1: do it, because it's kind of limited. Yeah, it's it's

488
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: really for one, thing is just really big, right, I mean,

489
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 1: it's it's a bulky medium, and so you have to

490
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: have a lot of physical space to store it. So

491
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: that alone makes it less attractive than a lot of

492
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:19,680
Speaker 1: other alternatives. Granted, you still have again this this sort

493
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:24,479
Speaker 1: of perception that the sound quality on the medium is

494
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,600
Speaker 1: fundamentally different from other types of media, and that might

495
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: that might actually be true. There are some things that

496
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 1: come up during recording that you know, you wouldn't hear

497
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: if you were actually in the room. While the recording

498
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 1: was being made, it wouldn't be something you could perceive,

499
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: but on the recording you get these kind of distortions

500
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: and interference of various frequencies as they're being recorded, and

501
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: that becomes part of the song or whatever is being

502
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: recorded onto that medium, which is kind of cool. It's

503
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 1: an idea that the the media itself is playing a

504
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: part in the quality of the song or whatever else

505
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: it is that you're trying to set down. And I

506
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 1: think that's really interesting. But I don't I think outside

507
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: of that realm that you're talking about, I s it's

508
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: not terribly uh um popular or well known. There's some

509
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,880
Speaker 1: I know there's some computer systems that still use a

510
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 1: real too real type system to do backups, just because

511
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: it's a legacy system and that's what they have to

512
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: work with. But I don't think that's terribly common either.

513
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: I agree that it's not quite obsolete, but it's definitely

514
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: very niche. It's very it's very useful if you're making

515
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 1: like a period sci fi movie, because if you have

516
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: a large computer, they almost always had two real to

517
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 1: real decks constantly going never knew what it was doing,

518
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 1: was always in the background with the flashing lights. So

519
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: if you're wondering what those giant discs are, that would

520
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: be real too, real in a lot of these sixties

521
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 1: sci fi movies, and a lot of twilight zones as well.

522
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: It makes me think of airplane too. These lights are

523
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: blinking out of sequence. We'll get them to blink in sequence.

524
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: It's pretty much where that goes. The next one is

525
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 1: is another one that I don't think really fits is obsolete.

526
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: It's ham radio. I think at this point I would

527
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: argue that the the author of the piece is perhaps

528
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 1: equating something that is not terribly popular with something that

529
00:30:26,280 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 1: is obsolete. But ham radio, amateur radio is still a thing, right,

530
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: This isn't It didn't people didn't just stop. There are

531
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: quite a few amateur radio operators out there. Yeah this,

532
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: I know, it's not dead. I used to work in

533
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,200
Speaker 1: a place where this is very big with a certain

534
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: group of people. But it's definitely not something that is

535
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 1: marketed towards the general consumer or anything. So like like

536
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,480
Speaker 1: we talked about with other devices, things that if we

537
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 1: want to think about it as will the normal person

538
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: be like, Yeah, I'm totally into this and this is

539
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: what I will choose to you was over a cell

540
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 1: phone or whatever would be Uh, this thing is obsolete

541
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 1: and that kind of not people Not many people are

542
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: using it that way. Yeah, I guess yeah, from that perspective,

543
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: certainly they're not using it as a primary communication tool.

544
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things also that I don't

545
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: think was ever popular enough for you to say that

546
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 1: it's been replaced by something else. It was always kind

547
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 1: of this hobbyist, uh market, and not something that you

548
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: would see, you know, it's not I don't think the

549
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 1: average home a few decades ago had a ham radio

550
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 1: sitting around in it. It was one of those things

551
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 1: that people who had a very specific kind of interest.

552
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: That's those were the homes you founded in. Otherwise it

553
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: was it was just not there. So I don't really

554
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: think of it as obsolete. I just think of it as,

555
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 1: you know, kind of again very niche. But the next one, telegraph,

556
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: I feel it's pretty obsolete. Yeah, I mean it's pretty

557
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: cool and if you don't again legraphs um. I think

558
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: the last time I saw one on Madman, that was

559
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: the last time I saw one. It was an ad

560
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: campaign for it and it was a pretty good episode.

561
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: But it's basically a piece of trivia in your head

562
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: when it comes is when a telegraph is because you

563
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: just text people nowadays, right, Yeah, I mean there's so

564
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: much stuff that's replaced it the telegraph system. I mean,

565
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 1: it was all introduced in the nineteenth centuries, so the

566
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Um, it really got running towards the end

567
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: of the eighteen hundreds and wireless telegraphy came in. And

568
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: the thing that surprised me was when I was doing

569
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,800
Speaker 1: some research just looking into this, was how long the

570
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 1: telegram business lasted in the United States. Western Union shut

571
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: down their telegraph service in two thousand and six. I

572
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 1: would have imagined that to have been much earlier. With

573
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:55,080
Speaker 1: things like, um, uh, just the telephone system, computers, you've

574
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: got cell phones. The smartphone really wasn't a thing in

575
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 1: consumer markets in two thousand six. You'd have to wait

576
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 1: till two thousand seven when the iPhone came out for

577
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: that to really happen. But still it was amazing that

578
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: it stuck around that long. Uh. And then you have

579
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 1: telex machines, which were teleprinters. Uh. Telex actually itself is

580
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 1: the name of the network. It's not the name of

581
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: the device, but the network allowed printers that had been

582
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 1: hooked up to it to print text based messages that

583
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: have been received over the network. So um, it's not

584
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 1: entirely obsolete either. It's still being used in maritime functions.

585
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: In fact, it's a requirement in the Global Maritime Distress

586
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:44,719
Speaker 1: and Safety System, mainly because other systems could fail. This

587
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: is like a backup system for communication. It's not necessarily

588
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 1: something that would be relied upon as the primary source

589
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: for communication, but still an important network. I can see

590
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 1: why you'd say obsolete, however, because it's not like it's

591
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: something that the average person is going to ever come

592
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: into contact with. I'm actually generally unfamiliar with telex machines

593
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,760
Speaker 1: other than like I guess the Simpsons referenced at times Burns.

594
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,799
Speaker 1: Mr Burns does retalex, but that's about it. Like I

595
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: I don't know much about it at all other than

596
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,919
Speaker 1: what you just said. Yeah, yeah, I mean I've never

597
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,640
Speaker 1: I've never personally encountered one. You know. My parents wouldn't

598
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: let me into the telex room at home, so yeah,

599
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: they kept in that cabinet and we weren't allowed to

600
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,960
Speaker 1: touch with the fancy soaps and the beautiful dishes. Actually,

601
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 1: I have to correct you, as they kept me in

602
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: the cabinet. Everything else was outside of it. That's much

603
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: more efficient. My folks should have done the same thing.

604
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: They just locked us in the rooms. They should just

605
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:41,400
Speaker 1: lost us in a tiny one Harry Potter. Potter was

606
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 1: largely based on my background. You and your owls man.

607
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 1: Real problem. Yeah, yeah, well, okay, let's let's not reveal

608
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: my entire personal life to the internet. Let's move on

609
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: to to Whang calculators. This was the Yeah, I remember

610
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:59,760
Speaker 1: Whang computers, but only because I remember people talking about

611
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:05,839
Speaker 1: it after the computer company had already faded away, and

612
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,000
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's one of those things where the

613
00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:14,200
Speaker 1: more juvenile among us joke about it, Wanging computers. But

614
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,880
Speaker 1: Wang Laboratories was founded in nineteen fifty one, and the

615
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 1: Wang Loki two or l o c I two was

616
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 1: the first desktop calculator that the company offered in nineteen

617
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: sixty five. They were enormous. Have you ever seen one

618
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: of these? I have not? Okay, well, you know, like

619
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: the really big um office telephones, the ones that have

620
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 1: lots of different bells and whistles to them, not just

621
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,720
Speaker 1: your average ones, the ones that take up a good

622
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: quarter of a desk. If you've ever seen one of those,

623
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 1: that's kind of the size of a weighing desktop calculator.

624
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: These things were enormous. They weren't It's not like a

625
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 1: pocket calculator. It was a big piece of machinery. Uh,

626
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: and these really have become Obsoletely, you can get a

627
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: basic scientific calculator that could do everything that the Wang

628
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 1: calculator could do, and you can put it in your pocket,

629
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 1: whereas these things, again were huge. Uh. The company Wang

630
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 1: Laboratories went bankrupt in two and it was eventually acquired

631
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: by a company called g Tronics in and then essentially dissolved.

632
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: They folded it into their other divisions and it no

633
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 1: longer exists as its own entity anymore. It's kind of sad,

634
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 1: but yeah, the I can't disagree that an enormous desktop

635
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 1: calculator is now obsolete. Definitely. Now I am looking, okay,

636
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: I found some pictures of this thing. It looks kind

637
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:48,280
Speaker 1: of like a word processor. Yeah, it's just it is enormous.

638
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:52,360
Speaker 1: This is um it's it's a computer. That's what it is. Exactly.

639
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:57,839
Speaker 1: Does it computes things? Yeah? Yeah, specifically bath that's really

640
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:03,760
Speaker 1: what it computes yea various like scientific calculator type um functionality.

641
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was. It was big now. Granted, at

642
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: the time it was a very advanced piece of machinery.

643
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: It's easy for us to kind of joke about it now,

644
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 1: but at the time it was it was cutting edge.

645
00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 1: So it shows that we've gone a long way where

646
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,280
Speaker 1: you can hold something in the palm of your hand

647
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 1: that can do everything that machine can do. Plus you

648
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 1: can just carry it around with you, and you know,

649
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 1: depending on the device, you could connect to the Internet.

650
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:35,680
Speaker 1: So that's something that that that machine never could have done. Uh.

651
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: Analog telephones is our next one. Uh. The landline service

652
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,799
Speaker 1: has been declining steadily since the mid two thousand's, and

653
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 1: digital systems are a huge, huge deal. I've heard that

654
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 1: the FCC will allow phone companies to stop supporting analog

655
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: lines by and that by we would expect them all

656
00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:00,080
Speaker 1: to be gone. Uh. I asked, do you still have

657
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 1: a landline? No, I've moved to avoid box. Uh. Landlines

658
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: are They're really helpful for things like, UH nine one

659
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: one calls because you actually can of the dispatch, can

660
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 1: actually see where you are with that kind of thing.

661
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: But these days I believe you can set your home

662
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:17,799
Speaker 1: location with E nin one one, so at least you

663
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: have that kind of functionality built back in. Although analog

664
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 1: just regular landlines in general just they run with no

665
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: power since this power always going through them. Is there

666
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: a digital version of that that exists where you can

667
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: have power going to it all the time, you know?

668
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,319
Speaker 1: I don't. I've never heard of one. I've always seen

669
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 1: the digital lines having to get supplemental power, so I

670
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:41,200
Speaker 1: don't know. I also don't have a landline. I really

671
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: like solely on cell phones now. Um. In fact, I

672
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: haven't had a landline and probably a decade. UM. It's

673
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: it's been a really long time since I bothered to

674
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 1: to maintain one. I know there are a lot of

675
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 1: people who advocate that you should keep one like a

676
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: just a phone just plugged in somewhere, even if you

677
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: don't have a regular phone line, just in case of

678
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 1: an emergency. UM. I know a lot of my friends

679
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:07,799
Speaker 1: out in San Francisco do because that's part of their

680
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: earthquake preparedness kit. But here in Georgia, I don't have

681
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,719
Speaker 1: to worry about that. We get if we get an earthquake,

682
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:18,560
Speaker 1: it's likely not strong enough for us to notice it, So, um,

683
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: I haven't bothered with it, But yeah, I can see

684
00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:24,600
Speaker 1: why this one's on the obsolete list. It's still again,

685
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 1: if you live in an area where you have to

686
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: worry about various kinds of power outages or whatever, often

687
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: the phone line, not all the time, but often the

688
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: phone line can remain unaffected by that depending on the

689
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,399
Speaker 1: nature of the outage, and it can be a really

690
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: useful tool. I just it's just one that I never

691
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 1: really think of. How about p d A S. Did

692
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: you ever have a personal digital assistant? I did. I

693
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 1: had a Handspring Visor, and uh, if you guys don't

694
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: know what that's like, it's kind of like a smartphone

695
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,000
Speaker 1: without the phone connectivity. But the Visor was show because

696
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 1: it had the ability to have something called springboards in

697
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 1: the back, kind of like a game Boy cartridge slot.

698
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 1: You'd remove this little plastic placeholder you put in something

699
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: like a physician's dictionary, dictionary if you wanted, or encyclopedia,

700
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 1: that is. You could even attach a cell phone attachment.

701
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: So I actually my first cell phone was a Visor phone,

702
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,960
Speaker 1: which anytime I handed to other people to use, they

703
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:24,440
Speaker 1: did not understand that they had to use a stylist

704
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 1: or touch the screen to actually dial a number. And

705
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: they were like, what about all the face grease. You're

706
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: putting your face against the screen. That's just really weird.

707
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 1: This is back in like two thousand and two, I

708
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:36,839
Speaker 1: want to say, so this is a long time ago.

709
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:41,680
Speaker 1: That concept was very foreign back then. Were you a

710
00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:44,839
Speaker 1: p D A guy? I was not. I never had one.

711
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: I I was actually a late adopter of cell phones. Um,

712
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: but once I did adopted, I never looked back. So

713
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 1: I went from not having any kind of personal digital assistant,

714
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:00,960
Speaker 1: nothing like that. I had a computer at home, and

715
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:03,719
Speaker 1: I had a landline at home, and that was it.

716
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: You know, if I was out and about, there was

717
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: no getting in touch with me and I if I

718
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 1: needed to call somebody, I had better have that phone

719
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: number memorized because that was the only way I was

720
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,360
Speaker 1: going to get it, unless they happened to be in

721
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 1: the phone book. Yeah, we used to have phone books. Boy,

722
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 1: I remember those two. Yeah, I still get them, even

723
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: though I have put myself on the do not send

724
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: list multiple times. But yeah, it's that is certainly one

725
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: of those things the Internet has helped replace. But yeah,

726
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 1: I never I never carried one around and by the

727
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: time I would have cell phones were a thing, and

728
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:42,160
Speaker 1: they were. They had enough basic functionality for me to

729
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,360
Speaker 1: have a list of contacts with the people that I

730
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: would call more frequently than anyone else. Um and I

731
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 1: never really worried about using them to keep schedules because uh,

732
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 1: no one ever wanted me to go to anything, so

733
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 1: I didn't need it. Um. Yeah, I was more of

734
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 1: a second gen p d A guy. I just realized

735
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,080
Speaker 1: that my dad used to have the radio shack Rolodex,

736
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:04,680
Speaker 1: like the large one that you would pair with a

737
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,279
Speaker 1: smaller one with I R so you can actually send

738
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: it over. And these little the small ones like a

739
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 1: clamshell little device. It kind of looked like a business

740
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: card holder had very very like the spongy little keys

741
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: on it. It It kind of like rubber membrane that you

742
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: push and actually input stuff. But if you didn't want

743
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 1: to do that, you could use the larger Rolodex one

744
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 1: that had much larger keyboard. It looked like a child's

745
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 1: cashier kind of toy if you wanted to remember that

746
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,279
Speaker 1: look like. And then for myself not only have the

747
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:38,520
Speaker 1: visor phone back in college, I had some p d

748
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,360
Speaker 1: A with a stowaway keyboard, because back when I was

749
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: in college, kids didn't use laptops for anything, and we

750
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 1: didn't really have We didn't have WiFi. I'm not even

751
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:49,399
Speaker 1: making this up. There's no WiFi and cell signals are

752
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 1: basically for the really wealthy. So I would download my mail,

753
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 1: I'd be between classes, type out the responses, and then

754
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:00,879
Speaker 1: go back to my dorm and then sink it back

755
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 1: to send out my messages. That was a long time ago,

756
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:09,719
Speaker 1: and that is really scary. Yeah, I skipped all that.

757
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 1: And see the thing is that these truly are obsolete.

758
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,840
Speaker 1: The smartphone has completely negated any need for the p

759
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 1: d A. The smartphone can do everything that the PDA

760
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 1: could do and more so. Uh, these days, I can't

761
00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 1: even imagine not having my smartphone with me. In fact,

762
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 1: I start to go through withdrawal if I haven't, if

763
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:31,680
Speaker 1: I've left it behind. If I happened to leave the

764
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:34,719
Speaker 1: house and I realized I left the smartphone back at

765
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 1: the house, it starts to gna me, which really is

766
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 1: more of an issue with my psychology than anything else.

767
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I have to force myself to

768
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 1: go on vacations where I don't have cell service or

769
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 1: WiFi so that I can just get away from it.

770
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: It's funny because it's something that I never used until

771
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 1: the smartphone came along, Like I never used the p

772
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,279
Speaker 1: d A or anything like that, and now I can't

773
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:04,840
Speaker 1: imagine not using it. I think. I think that speaks

774
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,839
Speaker 1: highly of the technology and not so highly for me. Yeah,

775
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 1: you are definitely somebody we should all pity so with you.

776
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: That's fair. So what about pagers? Did you ever have

777
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: one of those? I really wanted one when I was

778
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,120
Speaker 1: a kid, but my folks were like, no, not getting

779
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: a pager, and they were right because who would be

780
00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:25,120
Speaker 1: calling me? It was like an eighth grade. There's no

781
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: reason for an eighth period to have pages. But my

782
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:30,919
Speaker 1: friends had them, and I'm like, wow, that's so cool.

783
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:33,719
Speaker 1: Who's calling you? And you'd have these cool messages, like

784
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: the special number code because you couldn't text yet, so

785
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:39,120
Speaker 1: they'd be like, I know, four one one means there's

786
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: some information, or there's nine one one means there's some

787
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,520
Speaker 1: kind of emergency. I better go home or whatever it was,

788
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 1: or you call those people back. But I did not

789
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:50,480
Speaker 1: personally have a pager because I was deemed not popular enough.

790
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,640
Speaker 1: I didn't have a pager either, and I never got one,

791
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: mainly because I couldn't imagine a scenario where someone needs

792
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,879
Speaker 1: to get in touch with me that badly, where if

793
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 1: I wasn't next to my phone, uh, that it would

794
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 1: be something necessary, you know, that they would need to

795
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,960
Speaker 1: go to that extra step to get my attention. I

796
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 1: figured my phone and my answering machine were enough to

797
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:20,000
Speaker 1: take care of all of that. Uh. And again, now

798
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,839
Speaker 1: that we've got cell phones and smartphones, pages are largely obsolete,

799
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: So I agree with it being on this list. What

800
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: about portable television? Well, I'm being reminded in my head

801
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: that pages aren't dead. I mean, doctors use them, and

802
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 1: there there are other versions that are available, like when

803
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 1: you go to a restaurant and they give you a

804
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,799
Speaker 1: pager and still technically a pager. So so everybody wants

805
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:44,359
Speaker 1: them writing to go. They're not dead. They're not dead.

806
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:46,800
Speaker 1: We just think that, you know, these days, you wouldn't

807
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 1: be going to the store to get a pager. Right.

808
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,240
Speaker 1: What was the the other item you just mentioned, portable TVs?

809
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 1: Oh man, I I wanted them to work. These are

810
00:45:56,719 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: definitely this is obsolute, like crazy, because there's enough streaming services.

811
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 1: You can get things on your phones. But I had

812
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:08,280
Speaker 1: a Sony Watchman. Okay, do you know what that is? Yes, Okay,

813
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 1: So if folks I don't know, it was this portable

814
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: television had about two point two inch screen. It was

815
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 1: like a brick. It was pretty large, had a telescoping antenna.

816
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: It was black and white. I had a mono speaker.

817
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,840
Speaker 1: And because the old days before the transition, UH, pretty

818
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 1: much getting a signal on the go kind of impossible.

819
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: So if you were in a moving car it was useless.

820
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:35,799
Speaker 1: You basically couldn't watch anything. It was really about. You

821
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: could bring it with you and you can stop and

822
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: look at it, and it just it didn't do a

823
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 1: very good job when it came to that. Battery life

824
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: was terrible, the audio was terrible. And then something like

825
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:49,880
Speaker 1: recently there was a version of this that came back

826
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:53,399
Speaker 1: for cell phones called media Flow or flow TV. They

827
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 1: had their own spectrum. Once the analog to digital conversion

828
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,839
Speaker 1: happened with television waves here in the US, they were

829
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: all these free frequencies. So they had bought this frequency

830
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,239
Speaker 1: and it was gonna be here. People are gonna have

831
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:09,320
Speaker 1: sort of cable like TV on their phones, it folded

832
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:11,840
Speaker 1: within a couple of years. Apparently nobody really wants to

833
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: watch live TV on the go. I'm not sure why

834
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 1: that is, but that's what apparently has been happening. I

835
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:21,720
Speaker 1: think I think live TV in general has really taken

836
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:24,719
Speaker 1: a hit. I mean, we've had so many ways of

837
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 1: watching stuff on demand whenever we are ready to watch it,

838
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:31,359
Speaker 1: you know, so that we are not held to the

839
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:36,240
Speaker 1: schedule of a television station or a channel or anything

840
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 1: like that. I think that's really kind of filtered out

841
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 1: through the entire spectrum of platforms that you would get

842
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:49,000
Speaker 1: television on. Granted, there's still shows that I will set

843
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 1: myself down so that I can watch it when it

844
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: comes on, but there I think there are only two

845
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:56,239
Speaker 1: that I do that for right now, and only one

846
00:47:56,239 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 1: of them is what I like. I watch a show

847
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 1: I don't like when it comes on ahead? Which one?

848
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: Is it? Sleepy hollow? Oh? You just watched as you

849
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:09,600
Speaker 1: can criticize it? Is that right? That's yeah, it's mostly

850
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 1: so I can feel superior by criticizing the historical inaccuracies

851
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 1: and ridiculous plot holes in that show. I think my

852
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 1: favorite I think you tweeted about a scientific inaccuracy, you

853
00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:22,200
Speaker 1: do my it seems like, yeah, you can let go

854
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: of the anachronisms, you can let go of the license

855
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:28,480
Speaker 1: is being taken. But when they can't get basic science

856
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 1: right at times, that's your Your tweet was quite hilarious. Yeah,

857
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: I go a little bonkers with that. Yeah. I can

858
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 1: handle the fact that there is a headless horseman walking around.

859
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:45,000
Speaker 1: But if you get basic science wrong by trying to

860
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 1: create gunpowder by just lighting sulfur on fire, then I

861
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:53,440
Speaker 1: really flip my lid. But listeners of tech stuff, no,

862
00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:56,239
Speaker 1: we did a full episode about fireworks and I explained

863
00:48:56,239 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: how to make fire gunpowder essentially, and they know you

864
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:03,320
Speaker 1: can't just light sulfur on fire and have it explode

865
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,600
Speaker 1: and be gunpowder unless you live in the world of

866
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 1: sleepy Hollow. I guess I'm getting off track, all right.

867
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 1: Our next one is another batch which I think we

868
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 1: can just kind of dismiss out of hand, which is

869
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 1: um led watches, TV watches, the Saco wrist, computer calculator watches.

870
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,880
Speaker 1: Basically all the little gimmick watches and watches in general

871
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:29,040
Speaker 1: have really taken a hit. I mean, they're largely used

872
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 1: as an accessory now as jewelry because almost all of

873
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:35,399
Speaker 1: us have some other device on our person that has

874
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:39,120
Speaker 1: the time on it, so they're not as necessary. In fact, Uh,

875
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,560
Speaker 1: it's gotten to the point where even the smart watch,

876
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: which is still trying to make headway into the consumer market,

877
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 1: is having some issues because a lot of people ultimately say, well,

878
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:53,239
Speaker 1: why do I need this? So I definitely agree that

879
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:57,960
Speaker 1: these watches and watch form factors are all suitably on

880
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,600
Speaker 1: the obsolete list. Yeah, and I think there's a need

881
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 1: for him other than fashion. I have my own wristwatch

882
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,560
Speaker 1: that i'd like to wear, and the big reason why

883
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: I wear it is because it's a kinetic watch. That

884
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 1: technology has made watches a lot more palatable to me

885
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 1: because then they never die. That's the big thing holding back.

886
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:16,320
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these things, like the spot

887
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:19,240
Speaker 1: watch back when Microsoft tried it, or like the smart

888
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 1: watches that are coming out in this generation, is the

889
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:24,279
Speaker 1: fact that you have to charge something every day or

890
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 1: it could die. And this is not the device you

891
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:28,399
Speaker 1: want to die. You actually want to know the time.

892
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:31,040
Speaker 1: It's relatively important because you know your life might have

893
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:36,280
Speaker 1: a schedule. So uh, these gimmick watches, yeah, nobody, nobody

894
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 1: really needs to have like a time X watch you

895
00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:41,319
Speaker 1: hold up to a cr team monitor that flashes a

896
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 1: signal that will give you the data. That was a thing.

897
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,680
Speaker 1: I love that idea because it was so ridiculous and

898
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:49,279
Speaker 1: and when I saw the demo it looked like it

899
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,760
Speaker 1: was going to induce seizures because the cr team monitor flickering.

900
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:57,240
Speaker 1: Which was brilliant idea of getting data from one device

901
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:03,000
Speaker 1: to another. It wasn't the greatest in execution. Definitely great curiosity.

902
00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 1: I loved these devices when they came out, but they

903
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:07,840
Speaker 1: just didn't hit it. It was a very creative approach

904
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 1: to trying to solve a problem, just not one that

905
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: was necessarily effective. Um. Yeah, and our our next one

906
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:17,400
Speaker 1: would be CRT. You it's good that you mentioned the

907
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:21,360
Speaker 1: CRT monitor because CRT monitors and CRT televisions are on

908
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:24,680
Speaker 1: the list now. These are cathode ray tube displays. They

909
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 1: had a vacuum tube and an electron gun. The gun

910
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 1: fired electrons at fluorescent screens and that would create the images.

911
00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:35,560
Speaker 1: So uh, these were that This was like the main

912
00:51:35,640 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 1: kind of television before you got all the great technologies

913
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:41,600
Speaker 1: like l C, D, l E ED plasma stuff that

914
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,560
Speaker 1: allowed us to have these super slim flat form factors.

915
00:51:45,600 --> 00:51:49,080
Speaker 1: Everything before that was CRT uh, And by two thousand

916
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,400
Speaker 1: that technology was pretty much on the way out. And

917
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 1: it's you know, depending on the store you go into,

918
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:57,280
Speaker 1: you may not even be able to find a CRT

919
00:51:57,520 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 1: monitor or display in the door. Um, did you do?

920
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:05,560
Speaker 1: You have a CRT and e CRT displays laying around?

921
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: Not anymore. I used to have some CRT suh. You can.

922
00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 1: You can probably pick up c RT s free on

923
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:14,160
Speaker 1: the streets to New York. I've seen them outside. They're

924
00:52:14,200 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 1: just literally by the garbage and says free on it

925
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 1: says working. But I mean, nobody's really using these devices anymore.

926
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 1: It's like the idea of a thirty two inch television,

927
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:25,160
Speaker 1: Like that's really tiny nowadays. But if you're in a

928
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:27,839
Speaker 1: thirty two inch television and it's a CRT, you're talking

929
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:30,280
Speaker 1: about a good one hundred to a hundred and fifty

930
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:33,960
Speaker 1: pounds of television. So it wasn't like, hey, you wanted

931
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 1: this TV upstairs, It's like, what is it? It's a

932
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:40,239
Speaker 1: thirty two in CRT. No, that is noting downstairs. Yeah

933
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the basement TV. Yeah that yeah, yeah, No,

934
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 1: I I have some sitting in storage that I just

935
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 1: never got rid of. I need to find a an

936
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: electronics recycling program and put them through that way, because

937
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:58,200
Speaker 1: like a lot of electronics, CRT s can have some

938
00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:00,799
Speaker 1: some materials in them that are toxic, and so you

939
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: don't want to just throw it out if you can

940
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:06,200
Speaker 1: avoid it. Um, it's better to find a way of

941
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,439
Speaker 1: of taking that to a recycling area where they can

942
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 1: they can strip it of anything that's useful and dispose

943
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,879
Speaker 1: of the toxic stuff in a responsible manner. But yeah,

944
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:20,640
Speaker 1: I was happy to get away from the CRT technology.

945
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:23,719
Speaker 1: It's just it's so bulky, it's inefficient to it. It

946
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: uses up more electricity than other types of displays, so uh,

947
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:32,240
Speaker 1: you you can only get to a certain size before

948
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: it just got too heavy to be practical and it

949
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:40,440
Speaker 1: was an electricity hog. So yeah, I was glad to

950
00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:43,160
Speaker 1: see this on the list. I definitely agree that it's obsolete.

951
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: I've seen, you know, some CRT s still being used

952
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:49,120
Speaker 1: in places, but usually it's because it's part of a

953
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:52,120
Speaker 1: legacy system. Once again, like I've seen c rt s

954
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:58,040
Speaker 1: in some um air traffic control towers, but these are

955
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: usually older air traffic control towers that have it upgraded

956
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:07,279
Speaker 1: their systems yet, and they're relying on eighty pound CRT s.

957
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 1: And I know this because I had to move them

958
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:13,960
Speaker 1: once upon a time. The syrtes were fascinating subject for

959
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: me in school. They were in a physics textbook. They

960
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,920
Speaker 1: explained how how things worked when it comes to this. Uh.

961
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:22,000
Speaker 1: They mentioned the electronic gun that was in the back shooting. Basically,

962
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:23,760
Speaker 1: he's drawing the picture in line by line. It's happening

963
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 1: so quickly, and it was it was drawing the screen

964
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,520
Speaker 1: like like the first line and the third line and

965
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 1: the fifth and then it would fill in the even numbers.

966
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,279
Speaker 1: And that's why you have something called interlacing. So it's

967
00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:37,280
Speaker 1: just interesting to see that this stuff actually does permeate

968
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:40,399
Speaker 1: and cause issues like even today with some DVDs. If

969
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:43,080
Speaker 1: you see interlacing, it's based on this idea of how

970
00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:47,400
Speaker 1: these televisions were drawing the screen for you. It's the

971
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:50,480
Speaker 1: picture for you, which I was. I was fascinating because

972
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:52,920
Speaker 1: whoever thought this is the way we're gonna show a

973
00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:55,440
Speaker 1: moving image is let's just fire a gun really fast,

974
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,920
Speaker 1: back and forth. Pretty freaking interesting. But yeah, the c

975
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,520
Speaker 1: RT they fully for my back and yours. Uh is

976
00:55:02,680 --> 00:55:05,440
Speaker 1: no longer a modern day issue, except when you move

977
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 1: eighty pound ones like you do. Yeah, that was not

978
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:11,240
Speaker 1: a fun job. I'm glad I don't have that job anymore.

979
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:15,160
Speaker 1: So we've got lots more to get through. But what

980
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:18,600
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I AS, if you're amenable to it, is

981
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 1: wrapping up this episode and then maybe chatting on a

982
00:55:21,560 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 1: second one about the remaining ones. And uh, I just

983
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 1: have a discussion about any kinds of technology that we

984
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:30,240
Speaker 1: think are obsolete that should have made the list but didn't.

985
00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: That would be excellent. I'd love that all right. Well,

986
00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:36,040
Speaker 1: for our listeners who might not be familiar with your

987
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:38,319
Speaker 1: work or where to find you, what would be the

988
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:40,880
Speaker 1: best way to track down I as actor, you know,

989
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:44,279
Speaker 1: in a totally friendly kind of way, not a scary

990
00:55:44,400 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: Liam Neeson kind of way. Right, So, if you want

991
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:48,520
Speaker 1: to be able to find me on the internet, the

992
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:51,319
Speaker 1: easiest way is to find me on Twitter. My husue

993
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:54,160
Speaker 1: name is i As I y A Z. I got

994
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:57,000
Speaker 1: it early, so I'm usually just i AS on the Internet.

995
00:55:57,160 --> 00:55:59,439
Speaker 1: If you want to find me, like at where I work,

996
00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:02,439
Speaker 1: check see net dot com. I have penn some things

997
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:04,560
Speaker 1: every now and then I do some videos every now

998
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:07,880
Speaker 1: and then, uh so check me out and I usually

999
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:10,040
Speaker 1: mostly Twitter. I just if you want to find out

1000
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:12,120
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, like second to second and find out

1001
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:15,680
Speaker 1: what's irritating me today, Twitter is the way to go.

1002
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:17,440
Speaker 1: There you go. And if you want to get in

1003
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:19,880
Speaker 1: touch with us, you can send us an email the

1004
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:23,279
Speaker 1: addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com, or

1005
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,400
Speaker 1: you can drop us a line on Twitter or Facebook

1006
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 1: or Tumbler that's the third one, or handle it all

1007
00:56:30,160 --> 00:56:32,919
Speaker 1: three is tech Stuff H s W. And we will

1008
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:40,600
Speaker 1: continue this obsolete discussion releases for more on this and

1009
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:52,879
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Does it Works dot Com