Remembering Retro Tech

[bulbasaur]

Technology has really grown quickly the past few years.  Growing up, only a few kids had computers in their homes.  Now, every kid has a computer in their hands.  There are kids today who don't know of a world without the Internet.  It has been interesting to live through this change.  And to remember this change, here is my ongoing list of tech that no longer exists...

The Zip Drive

It was summer camp, and a counselor called some of us over.  He said, "I heard you guys like computers.  Check this out."  He pulled out some funky big blue disk.  It looked like a regular disk, but bigger.  "It's called a zip drive," he said.  He plugged it into some external blue drive that was connected with the parallel port.  It held 100mb!  And it loaded a full screen picture in less than 5 seconds!  The best part: just $20 for 100mb storage!  What a bargain! 

Zip was cool for a few years.  Almost all the computers integrated them.   100mb went to 250mb.  250 went to 750.  However, CD's soon became the medium of choice, which was then followed by DVD's.  And now, we have USB HD and USB thumb drives and clouds and network drives, etc.

[bulbasaur]

The Belt Clip

In the early days of mobile devices, it was cool to clip everything on your belt.  PDA, work phone, personal phone, pager, ipod, whatever....be lt.  Everyone looked like Batman, but with only the utility belt.  These days, not many people rock the belt clip.  Maybe field workers do, or people who have to be "on call."  Anyone here still rock the belt clips? 

[bulbasaur]

Logitech iFeel Mouse

This mouse was supposed to be the next evolution in interfacing with your computer.  The mouse would vibrate over hotlinks.  Or, act as a semi-rumble pack for games.  All the apps were supposed to take advantage of this tech.  But, like fetch, it never happened.   

[bulbasaur]

DIVX

No, I am not talking about the codec.  I am talking about the video rental program by Circuit City (if people still remember Circuit City).  CC would let people rent DIVX for about $5.  The cool thing was that you could watch it whenever and there was no late fee.  However, once you started, you had 2 days to finish it.  If you wanted to extend it or buy the movie, you could pay more.  If you didn't want to buy it, just throw the disc away.  The downside, the DIVX players were expensive compared to DVD, and you had to signup for the service.  DIVX could only be read with a DIVX player, so even if you bought the movie, you can't even lend it to a friend with a regular DVD player.  Renting from a video store or simply buying was a better option.   

[bulbasaur]

Asian Avenue

So you want to connect with someone today, what do you do?  Facebook, of course.  Or, maybe one of the other popular social networking sites.  Well, before then, we had Asian Avenue (black people had Black Planet).  This was the site where young enthusiastic people went to connect with other...and on the far chance, love.   

Anyways, one could argue that PH is one of the legacies of sites like Asian Avenue.

[bulbasaur]

AOL Instant Messenger

AOL really dropped the ball.  This should really be what people still use today on their phones.  Unfortunately, AOL has made some really bad decisions.  Anyways...

AIM was what people used to talk with each other and leave each other messages.  It was really popular with the college kids.  There were other alternatives, like IRC or MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger, but AIM was top choice.  It was text messaging before cell phones were common.

AIM and such programs eventually added more and more features.  Everything from group chat, voice chat, video chat, file sharing, etc.  Skype is probably the result of all these messenger services.  In fact, MSN Messenger was faded out and replaced by Skype.   

There were even programs that linked all these messaging programs together, like Trillian.

There were hacks that got rid of all the ads, and hacks that let you clone AIM so you could use multiple user names.

AIM was even influential in Siri.  AIM had a bot where you could ask it several questions.  You could ask about movie times, tickets, etc.  It even had smarta$$ remarks if you asked smarta$$ questions, just like Siri. 

Funny thing, I still have have AIM running, but no one is on.  It still works (though maybe not supported).  I am waiting for someone to log back on.   

[bulbasaur]

Netscape Navigator

Back in the early days of the Browser Wars, there were only 2 big names, Netscape and Internet Explorer.  Most people would agree that Netscape was much better.  In fact, it was actually the default for most.  User used to have to pay for it, but it was later given out for free.  Unfortunately, AOL bought Netscape, and innovation stopped.  Netscape soon disappeared, and IE won the browser wars. After "winning" the Browser Wars, Microsoft also stopped innovating.  Thus, we had a few years of awful web.  This gave an opening for Google to swoop in and play Big Brother. 

Fear not Netscape fans, its code lives on in Firefox.  So in a way, it kinda beat IE. 

[bulbasaur]

Tandy 1000 and Apple LC

One of the first computers to hit schools was the Tandy 1000 series (I think) and the Apple LC series (Apple actually had some earlier ones, but they were slightly before my time).  I learned all the basic functions on those things.  I even learned Fortran on that little Tandy. 

And of course, we all were Super Sleuths at Carmen Sandiego,  and why is Mary always getting sick on the Oregon Trail!  Good thing I was good at hunting bears. 

[bulbasaur]

VHS

Before streaming video, Bluray, and DVD, there was VHS.  VHS was amazing because now people can have their own movie library at home.  Having a movie night with friends or family was actually something special.  Or as they used to say, "Make it a Blockbuster night."  People would display their VHS tapes along side their entertainment system.  Having a good library was just as important as having a good system. 

The problem with VHS is that the quality wasn't as good as the movies.  Or, the aspect ratio was cropped.  Studios later tried to fix this, which is why there are so many different Star Wars on VHS.

VHS did beat out Betamax and Laser Disc in the format wars. 

VHS was also cool in that people could now take family videos.  Looking back, the video quality is awful, but at least there are videos.  Anyone have VHS family movies? 

My first VHS movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 
 

[bulbasaur]

VooDoo

For those who remember, this was a brand for computers and gpu's by 3dfx.  I am not really sure why both companies decided to use the same name.  It's a bit confusing.  Anyways, both computers and graphics were cool for a time.  HP eventually bought the computer company, and Nvidia eventually bought 3dfx.  HP kept the VooDoo brand for a while, but it's virtually gone now.  I always wanted to try a VooDoo gpu, but I was an ATI guy at the time.   

VooDoo computers are nice.  They still look nice today.


As for 3dfx VooDoo cards...it has such a bada$$ box. 

[bulbasaur]

Palm / Handspring

People loved PDA's (no, not that PDA, but Personal Digital Assistant).  Palm was the leading brand, but Handspring was just as good being that it was formed by the same people.  Business types all had their Palm or their Handspring.  Students had theirs for time management.  I think I still remember how to write the alphabet on those things. 

Handspring eventually merged with Palm.  Palm should be the dominant name in smartphones today, but they made bad decisions because they refused to evolve.  Palm didn't realize that people didn't want to use two devices anymore.  Apple swooped in, and Palm is now a memory.  I liked WebOS, too.  It sorta lives on with LG.

And BTW, Apple totally stole the idea of portable apps from Palm.  Not surprising that Apple would steal good ideas though...

I had the Handspring Visor Edge. It had a full metal silver body with a metal flip.  It was hipster.

[bulbasaur]

The Overhead Projector

If you work in a business environment or an education environment, you may have come across smart screens, smart boards, smart projectors, etc.  They are all different ways to give a presentation or to teach.  They are replacing whiteboards, blackboards, regular projectors, posters, etc. 

One tech that was used for presentations that kids today may never see is the overhead projector.  This was already old when I was growing up, but some old teachers were still using it.  In fact, one of my favorite college professors used an overhead projector.  He was into his 70s, but he really enjoyed teaching.  He used his overhead projector everyday, and he hand-wrote all his notes for us.  It's amazing he could get away without using a computer in this day and age.  Despite the low tech, he was highly effective.

[bulbasaur]

Symbian

Oddly enough, a lot of people don't remember Symbian.  As recently as 2010, it was the most popular OS for smartphones.  Symbian was the OS of choice for many manufacturers, especially Nokia.  Unfortunately, like most companies when they are on top, they didn't innovate fast enough.  Android entered and took over the market.  Apple took the niche, and Symbian was faded out. 

[Sifu]

I still have some zip drives AND jazz drives (booya!).  And Voodoo cards were all the rage when 3D cards were hitting mainstream.  The video card wars are still going strong.  We also had an early laser mouse (with reflective pad cuz lasers!) and a comptec tablet.  I probably still got them somewhere in storage.

[bulbasaur]

Video Card Wars.  That should be a thread all to itself.  I bought a card a while back, and those things are huge.  Some of them looked like they need a power supply all to themselves.  Those two fans on that VooDoo card were awesome back then, but now you can get some monstrosities. 

As of late, my general assumption is that GeForce is better for performance, but Radeon is better on the budget.  I could be wrong.  I don't really keep up. 

I got a Radeon because the performance vs. price was better than the GeForce equivalent.  However, drivers and settings were a pain.  Maybe the GeForce would have given me the same issues, too.  But, I was expecting a plug and play.  Maybe cards today are too complicated for simple plug and play.  Maybe vendors think that anyone who drops this kind of cash on a card would want to personally tweak it. 

I still have some zip drives AND jazz drives (booya!).  And Voodoo cards were all the rage when 3D cards were hitting mainstream.  The video card wars are still going strong.  We also had an early laser mouse (with reflective pad cuz lasers!) and a comptec tablet.  I probably still got them somewhere in storage.