Asklemmy

cds

Guillotines

Tape drives. Remember those big reels of tape on mainframes in the 80s? They don't look exactly like that anymore, but tape is still used for backups/long term archival because they offer the lowest cost per gigabyte and decent longevity without needing to be powered, as long as you don't need to access the data all that fast or often.

Those dank memes and cat videos you posted in 2010 are probably on tape in a data centre somewhere

Pretty much anything in a machine shop made in the last 80 years or so. So many people turn up their noses at anything that isn't computer controlled anymore. Yknow what a big old mill can do that a CNC can't? It can make every single part needed to make a new mill. It's a self replicating machine with the right know how. People don't respect that kind of quality anymore.

Wired headphones

Printing out tickets as a backup. I do this for concerts and travel because then I don't have to worry about batteries dying, wifi/roaming not being available, getting logged out and having trouble getting back to the ticket, etc.

I also print out maps when doing wilderness backpacks because even if you download the map you'll burn through your battery life well before the hike is over but a paper map is just as good. If I really need to confirm my location I can occasionally turn on the app and shut it off. I keep the maps in a gallon ziplock so water isn't an issue.

Writing your passwords in a piece of paper. Safer than storing it digitally and easier for people that don't know how to use password managers or computers in general to understand what to do to access your stuff if you're under a difficult situation or dead.

Also, physical photos. Yes yes, we all have gigabytes of photos, but almost never check any of them. Physicals catch my glance at home very often, great decoration. I've also took to writing the day, place and people on the back, plus any other important bits of context.

Buttons, knobs, plastic bezels.

At least according to the industry those are all in the past. The future is screens that go to the very edge of the device and absolutely nothing tactile.

And it is bullshit. It is less reliable, less convenient, less cool -- To say nothing of the safety disaster that nailing a tablet computer to the dashboard of every car has been.

Wrist watches. Extremely convenient, even when your phone is buried or you don't want to be distracted.

IRC

IRC: simplest way of communicating online, and a bouncer can be availed for free

Forums: great store of knowledge and friendly, helpful people. If you ask a question in discord, nobody will ever see the answer again.

Safty razors! Why would anyone spend 20$ on the new fangled 30 million blade razor that mighy last one shave? When you can spend pennies even if you change blades every shave.

CDs/DVDs/BluRays

I don't want to support Spotify, which is owned by tencent. I don't want to spend a fortune on streaming services. I don't want to sell my data to google by using YouTube, and I want to be able to listen to music/ watch movies when offline.

Fax machines. Government and medical offices would grind to a halt without them. That's just reality.

measles..

Measles

Apparently trains for some people

Being kind to one another

Trackballs

You might think of them as this old mouse that you had 20 years ago, but actually the technology is still being used for all kinds of things, including ergonomic mouse

Magnetic tape. Datacenters use it for long term storage.

Pencils. The ones where you need a pencil sharpener to sharpen them every so often. Mechanical pencils just aren't the same.

Developers. Yes, AI can sling a lot of code, but it can't make business decisions and it can't please a difficult customer.

I'd probably say something like my Sony Discman or any other CD player, if we're talking the general public. CDs aren't anywhere near as popular as they used to be thanks to streaming, but if you're collecting like I am, a dedicated CD player is a necessity.

xmpp

I want to throw a shout out to the site that cloned the old Google reader by making theoldreader.com

Fax machines and overhead projectors, if you live in Germany. Basically every office here still has a (frequently used) Fax machine and all schools still use overhead projectors.

It was actually quite a shock to me when my University retired their projectors in 2023. They sent an email to each and every student as a warning. Life‘s crazy here.