Technology We'll Miss When It's Gone

nate42nd · 21 Nov 2009

Dave76 said:

I remember earlier this year a long discussion on the floppy drive, some people refused to give it up.

Some things just out live their usefulness.

Optical drives are next.

To each there own preferences.

+1 I could get along without one now. (except creating an install USB drive)

Night Hawk · 21 Nov 2009

I still have one onhand for a few old things whenever...? I get around to set up one old pc with dos, 3.1, 95, or 98 there some time for memorabilia, illustration, or simply to recover something off of an old machine without a working optical drive.

Flash drives and eventually SSDs will be another new item that will gradually phase out some older things like the present ATA 100/133/150 hard drives at some point on new premade systems once the initial costs presently seen have dropped considerably as well as drive capacities there also see an increase.

Dave76 · 21 Nov 2009

Previous technology will always have a use with legacy hardware and shouldn't be completely discarded.

There will always be a market for new technology which converts to legacy hardware.

jimbo45 · 22 Nov 2009

Hi there
One thing I WILL miss when they are gone are Minidisc player / recorders -- I'm still using (and loving) the MZ RH1 -- beats ANY IPOD with mp3's -- much nicer quality sound - and can RECORD as well -- great for music gigs, lectures etc etc.

Hi-MD minidisc will record 7 hrs at lossless compression - but you can still use higher comression rates for lower quality sound / speech etc longer play times. (for PCM / WAV recordings you only get around 1 hr per disc - but in a gig that's enough for a demo)

You can of course use ATRAC lossless for around 7 hrs per disc but it needs a bit of stupid software to get that codec into more common codecs that other players will recognize .

(Atrac lossless Sony propretary lossless compressed codec 99.999% as good as CD standard- but you need software for decoding the codec - supplied of course with the MD).

MP3 etc are LOSSY codecs.

If device gets broken / lost you don't have to re-digitize your collection / find it again --just pop another disc into your new player.

Journalists out in the field still use these - just try changing a tiny micro SD card in the middle of a howling gale or when you are in the front line reporting a clash between protesters and fully geared up Riot Police.

Enc pic of the MZ-RH1. Has a common analog / optical input too for lossless real time recording.

A device much appreciated by professionals but unfortunately not really supported by Sony in the way it should have been. (And it did have some rather stupid software).

Enc pic -- was a bit "boozed" when I took this however.

Cheers
jimbo

Joan Archer · 22 Nov 2009

You don't miss what you've never had so MP3 players and the like are not something I'll miss.
I wont miss Myspace as I've never been or had any,

I would miss my mouse and CD drive.

I wouldn't miss my mobile that much as I don't really go anywhere so it's only used really for emergencies I much prefer speaking on a landline than mobile and I hate text talk, I always use the T9 facility.

I wouldn't want to be without a digital camera, phone cameras just don't have the quality.

Night Hawk · 22 Nov 2009

Cameras in cell phones are sales gimics to start with there and not for any high quality photo shoots to begin with. It's more of a convenience item then a practicality to start with there.

Be a little leary of some lower priced digital camcorders however. Some of those are only good for taking up shelf space in a store and suffer greatly in the quality dept. there.

jimbo45 · 23 Nov 2009

Joan Archer said:

You don't miss what you've never had so MP3 players and the like are not something I'll miss.
I wont miss Myspace as I've never been or had any,

I would miss my mouse and CD drive.

I wouldn't miss my mobile that much as I don't really go anywhere so it's only used really for emergencies I much prefer speaking on a landline than mobile and I hate text talk, I always use the T9 facility.

I wouldn't want to be without a digital camera, phone cameras just don't have the quality.

I'm even more technophobe than you when it come to mobile phones -- so what on earth is T9.

( I do however know about " 2.2 GHZ white noise generators" which renders reception of a Mobile somewhat difficult for about 30 metres -- great if I'm sitting in a train --PEACE).

Old fashioned Physics / electrical engineering still works in the "Ipod" age.

Cheers
jimbo.

Joan Archer · 23 Nov 2009

T9 is the phone being put into properly written English instead of text speech.