21st Century Buggy Whips

jtheune said:
wooden playground equipment that actually challenged kids instead of keeping them safe. My son was very disappointed when they upgrade the local park playground and shrank the equipment by 50% and made it plastic. He said it was boring.
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Back in mid-September I was relaxing in a public park just off Anchorage's downtown after meetings all day, watching the sun set over the Knik Arm as a pair of USCG C-130s came in on a long straight-in final for Elmendorf AFB when I heard a commotion behind me. A couple of 5-7 year olds were playing on one of those large combination playground pieces, the type that has a platform that you can climb up, a little hanging bridge to walk across, and then a slide. Heavy duty sucker, circa late 1980's sometime I imagine.The boy somehow managed to wedge his NECK between the slide rail and one of the "safety" bars on the platform, with his body on the slide (thus allowing gravity to overcome his ability to free himself.) He was hanging there making throat rattles while his sister slowly ramped up from whimpering to screaming. Mom was two tables away...not being irresponsible, exactly, but not really being eagle-eyed either. He was apparently fine after I untangled him.

Don't know, this just came to mind.
 
Kelvin said:
When is the last time anyone changed the points and plugs in anything you drive?
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Last spring, in my daily-driver 1951 International pickup, though I stuck a Ford 300 six in it. The ('85) engine originally had the Duraspark electronic distributor ignition on it but I searched long and hard and found a 1967 points/condenser distributor for it. That old ignition will, 99% of the time, give plenty of warning before it quits. Electronic ignitions, 99% of the time, just quit cold. And, 99% of the time, in some really inconvenient place.

So I still use a timing light, but the timing can also be set with an ohmmeter.

And every bearing and seal is an economical, easy replacement. Hard to get, though, on order since July, are the kingpins and bushings. Almost everything else can be replicated with basic machine tools and a welder. I'd make the kingpins but they're a hardened, high-alloy affair that are really critical parts.

Dan
 

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flyersfan31 said:
Heck, diving at ANY pool. Soon nobody will know how to.

I swim at the Y. I was a competitive swimmer, I know how to dive without killing myself. There are plaques all around the pool saying "No Diving." I hate hopping in, so I went ahead and dove in, racing dive into 4feet, I've done them off starting blocks into 3ft water, no issues.

Got myself a scolding for it. :frown2:
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We're fortunate to have boards at our private community pool and at the county rec-center pools (several with three-meter boards and a five-meter platform). Classes too. But there's a definite loss of facilities.

My six year old did a forward dive off the 3 meter board this fall at the end of class. She still talks about it (and my sad attempts at front flips off the 1 meter - I'm too big and slow to get all the way around).
 
Remember when Radio Shack had parts to build and fix stuff? Now it's toys and cellphones and computers. They might have a couple of switches and maybe an LED or two, but that's about it. Fixing old stuff (antique radios, etc.) can be a pain.

Dan
 
Independent Thinking ----> replaced by -----> internet blogs and webboards

Gary
 
Gary said:
Independent Thinking ----> replaced by -----> internet blogs and webboards

Gary
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I would say that blogging has increased a lot of independent thinking.
 
Gary said:
Independent Thinking ----> replaced by -----> internet blogs and webboards

Gary
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Liberally biased Network News replaced by many sources of differing opinion allowing you to decide.

:D
 
Anthony said:
Liberally biased Network News replaced by many sources of differing opinion allowing you to decide.

:D
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How about actual News replaced by

whargarbl.jpg


When you have people to discuss a topic on your show, you're not a news show.
 
jesse said:
I would say that blogging has increased a lot of independent thinking.
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Anthony said:
Liberally biased Network News replaced by many sources of differing opinion allowing you to decide.

:D
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Perhaps... no doubt the volume of "information" has increased exponentially. I do have my doubts whether the quality has seen such an increase - although, it is much easier to find specific pieces. I do believe that in all too many instances, conclusions are drawn because "someone said so on the internet" and there isn't a lot of digging to understand the basis or get another viewpoint. We are all subject to drawing conclusions from our past experiences and expectations.

Gary
 
I loved those TTY machines. I learned to use one as a dispatcher for the Iowa Highway Patrol when I was in college. In the pre-computer days, I had one like that (Model 28 KSR), a big Model 28 ASR, and a Kleinschmidt KSR and multiple accessories all in my ham radio room. Nothin' like that clackety-clack and the smell of hot machine oil.
 
RickH said:
I loved those TTY machines. I learned to use one as a dispatcher for the Iowa Highway Patrol when I was in college. In the pre-computer days, I had one like that (Model 28 KSR), a big Model 28 ASR, and a Kleinschmidt KSR and multiple accessories all in my ham radio room. Nothin' like that clackety-clack and the smell of hot machine oil.
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And I remember that type of equipment in the computer center in college (and the basement of our high school) and on board a number of ships and shore installations. Brings back some OLD memories. :D
 
Ghery said:
And I remember that type of equipment in the computer center in college (and the basement of our high school) and on board a number of ships and shore installations. Brings back some OLD memories. :D
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I used to use a teletype in college in the computer lab, too. Loud, slow, and old even then.
 
jtheune said:
wooden playground equipment that actually challenged kids instead of keeping them safe. My son was very disappointed when they upgrade the local park playground and shrank the equipment by 50% and made it plastic. He said it was boring.
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I grew up on real playground equipment. Years of rough and tumble on them and I got through it ok. The only time I got the stuffing knocked out of me was on one of those so called safety playgrounds. Flipping plastic coated bar at the exact wrong height and wacked my head hard. Give me the old steel stuff over that so called safety stuff anyday. At least the old stuff acted dangerous so you kept your guard up or got what you deserved. This new tame stuff makes you drop your guard just before measuring your length in the dirt.

I used to have those lawn darts. We would try to toss them as high as we could.
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Those are harmless toys. We use to shoot arrows straight up and catch them when they came back down. We normally kept them to 30ft or less. It was the ones that went full pull on the bow that went out of sight were just flat out scary but we had something hard to hide under.
 
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wanttaja said:
Magnetic tape recording.
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Depends on whether you are talking about analog or digital. Digital tape for data storage _may_ go away someday, but that day is nowhere near today. Tape is just so much cheaper than hard drives (or flash, or anything else) that not much else makes sense for archival storage. Current trends in physics mean that this will be true for quite a while too.

Chris
 
gismo said:
By "mainframe" I was thinking of the 360/370 room full of computer.
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Some of us still deal with "room full of computer"s every day. These days we call them "clusters" or "computing in the cloud", but they are roughly the same thing. :smile:

Chris
 
The thousand-dollar Tecra computer tool kit I have in the trunk of my car. It saw a lot of use a decade ago, when being a tech still required knowing how to find and replace a blown capacitor or hunt down a leaky diode. You know, back when fixing computers was still fun.

These days, I rarely take anything into a location with me except my service slip and flash drives. Maybe a screwdriver once in a while.

The rest of the tools and equipment sit in the carrying case wondering if I'm mad at them. :nonod:

-Rich
 
Player pianos, not those digital things, but the real player pianos
 
flyersfan31 said:
I think that belongs in the "20th Century Buggy Whips" thread.:D
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Player pianos came out in the 20th century, as did almost everything else
people have been suggesting for the 21st century buggy whips.
 
Bob Noel said:
Player pianos came out in the 20th century, as did almost everything else
people have been suggesting for the 21st century buggy whips.
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Actually they are a 19th century invention that saw a peak of interest in the 20th century. The paper rolls stayed in production until 2008 (21st century)
 
smigaldi said:
Actually they are a 19th century invention that saw a peak of interest in the 20th century. The paper rolls stayed in production until 2008 (21st century)
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19th century, yep, but you'd have a difficult time finding any of
the players from the 19th century. Heck, I don't think there
were any around back in the 1960's.

wrt rolls, it would seem that QRS is still producing rolls.
 
Bob Noel said:
wrt rolls, it would seem that QRS is still producing rolls.
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My sources say they stopped in 2008.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/538967.html

The remark scribbled at the end of the production sheet said simply, “End of era.”
It was written shortly after the last piano roll came off the assembly line at QRS Music Technologies, 1026 Niagara St., at noon Wednesday.
The halt in production comes 108 years after the company was founded in Chicago, and 42 years since it moved to Buffalo
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Teletype, Morse code - by cell phones, digital communication.
I have a teletype you can have for the shipping. Worked 30 years ago. No clue today.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Teletype, Morse code - by cell phones, digital communication.
I have a teletype you can have for the shipping. Worked 30 years ago. No clue today.
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Morse code is alive and well.
Teletype machines have been replaced by computers emulating the teletype protocols, but are still in use.
 
smigaldi said:
Teletype machines have been replaced by computers emulating the teletype protocols, but are still in use.
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I don't quite remember where I got this but here is a picture of a teletype from less than 10 years ago.
 

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Bob Noel said:
19th century, yep, but you'd have a difficult time finding any of
the players from the 19th century. Heck, I don't think there
were any around back in the 1960's.

wrt rolls, it would seem that QRS is still producing rolls.
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I fooled with one when I was a kid in the '60s, and knew of another that had had its vacuum pump and motor guts taken out to make it an ordinary upright piano. Pianos last a long, long time when they're looked after. The one I learned to play on was a 1901 Heintzmann, and I have to get it moved out of my folks house real soon. Sold the house.

Dan
 
Hmm, a quick glance in my "old crap" closet reveals
- 300 baud Mac modem
- appletalk dongles
- 9 track backup tape of my old VMS scripts
- Iomega Zip drive and disks
- Iomega Jaz drive and disks
- Tapeware DT 4mm drive; the whole boxes of tapes probably wouldn't back up my smallest hard drive any more
- external portable CD burner

all superceeded by 4,5 or 10 generations of cheaper, faster, better stuff ...
 
AuntPeggy said:
Teletype, Morse code - by cell phones, digital communication.
I have a teletype you can have for the shipping. Worked 30 years ago. No clue today.
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Manual Morse is alive and well in the ham radio world, actually gaining in popularity even though the licensing requirement has been removed. It's also still in use in a variety of other places, though if I mentioned those I'd have to kill you.:nono:

Rick,
CTR2 USNSGA 1968-1972
 
Dan Thomas said:
I fooled with one when I was a kid in the '60s, and knew of another that had had its vacuum pump and motor guts taken out to make it an ordinary upright piano. Pianos last a long, long time when they're looked after. The one I learned to play on was a 1901 Heintzmann, and I have to get it moved out of my folks house real soon. Sold the house.

Dan
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My father and I used to rebuild player pianos. At 83 he isn't able to do that
anymore. There aren't many of us left who know how to rebuild or service
the old player pianos.
 
Some friends of mine have a player piano - it's a heavy sucker. I know, I dropped it on my foot when I was helping them move it. I think it has pedals to pump it up to make it run.

--

I was at the gas station today, watched an older guy have to move to another pump because the filler door was on the wrong side. I remember when they used to be under the license plate.
 
doing a tune-up for your car in the driveway:
remember-timing lights, points and condensers, a dwell-tach meter, a carburetor, distributor wrench, etc
 
Matthew said:
I was at the gas station today, watched an older guy have to move to another pump because the filler door was on the wrong side. I remember when they used to be under the license plate.
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'57 Chev had it behind the left taillight, IIRC. There was a time when carmakers seemed to see how well they could hide the fillers. As a young pump jockey I sometimes had to ask the owners where it was.

Dan
 
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