All Things Geek

[Coss]

I don't think the author knows what the meaning of "obsolete" is. It's a list of "10 things I didn't know where still being used."

There are several things on that list that are still used because there is still a need for them that no other technology can fulfill. Dot matrix printers, for example. Still used for several different applications, including multipart printing for businesses, and printing those mailers you get where you have to rip the sides off to open.

Interesting that he listed audio tape, but totally ignored vinyl LPs, which are still quite popular among a certain audiophile set.

In particular, though, he seems to completely ignore the fact that a lot of people just aren't comfortable with certain pieces of technology. Fax machines are straightforward devices that almost anyone can manage to make work. How do you replace that in an economical fashion with something that a technophobe can use? Multifunction printer/scanners are either notoriously unreliable or stupidly expensive. (Or both, if you're unlucky.) I've had to fix so many for the various people I know that I can't stand the damn things anymore. I can only imagine handing some of the people I know a signed document and a smartphone, telling them to send someone a copy of that document. They'd freak out, and the recipient would probably end up with 12 blurry pictures of a desktop, and a few accidental selfies. Not to mention that smartphones cost several hundred dollars, and have to be replaced every couple of years.

Meh... overall, the article was ignorant and elitist.

Easy Rob; it's an article from Tech Republic who are sort of like Jalopnik at times. They water things down for the new breed of IT <cough> Pros

 

[Muzhik]

I don't think the author knows what the meaning of "obsolete" is. It's a list of "10 things I didn't know where still being used."

There are several things on that list that are still used because there is still a need for them that no other technology can fulfill. Dot matrix printers, for example. Still used for several different applications, including multipart printing for businesses, and printing those mailers you get where you have to rip the sides off to open.

Meh... overall, the article was ignorant and elitist.

I just breezed through it the first time. After looking at it again I have to agree: it's elitist.
1) Dial-up internet. The percentage he lists (3%) of Americans that still use dialup happens to match the percentage of the population that lives in rural or rugged country, where there's no cable or DSL, and cell reception is too spotty to use that for high(er) speed access.
3) Fax.Not just elitist but believes the rest of the world should just communicate in English, like REAL PEOPLE! (Brits are a special case, they ALMOST speak English, like the Canadians.) Fax development took off in Asia in the 70's and 80's for a simple reason: the difficulty in composing ideographs with a keyboard. Yes, we have keyboards today that can do that (supposedly), but it's easier to just scrawl a message on a sheet of paper and fax it During the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, the Chinese government cracked down on phone calls and such outside of China. However, too many businesses relied on fax machines to operate, so they were permitted to be used. Students wrote down reports of what was happening and faxed these reports to friends outside of China, enabling the world to know what was happening.
4) CRTs. I used to prefer the colors on a CRT, where black was really black, etc. Manufacturers have done wonders in improving LCD color spectrum, so I kinda have to go with him on this one.
7) Telegraphs may not be used in the Western world, but telegraphs and telexes are still necessary in the 3rd World. Hand-delivered in 3 to 5 business days? When an international letter to overseas will take up to a week or more?
10) COBOL is alive and well and living in your IT department's data center. Apparently, Mr. Vigliarolo believes that COBOL has not changed since 1959. Guess again. Check out the Wikipedia article on COBOL, and you'll see the latest update is COBOL 2014. There are perfectly good IDEs available for COBOL that allow applications to be developed, tested, and maintained on PCs. I remember in the late 1990s there was talk that COBOL would be going away as plans were made for the Y2K bug. All that happened was that a lot of computer systems were updated, and lots and lots of systems that were kept around just because they might have to run some obscure subroutine were decommissioned, and those obscure subroutines were moved. Not to C or some other high-level language, but to COBOL, where companies already had lots of COBOL programmers available.

 

[Marshall]

An insurance claim?

...that was denied?

 

[Marshall]

Excuse me. i'm in the wrong room. Where's Macro Economics 101?

Across the hall from Microeconomic .000101?

 

[BigWarpGuy]

There is a Think Geek store opening on 10-01-2016 at Northshore Mall in Peabody MA. I will be going there. I thought it was an online store only.
Think Geek. Think Geek store locations.

This one is in Miami Florida.

 

[Rob Croson]

I've bought a few things from them in the past. I just don't have a huge budget for toys. (And most of my toy budget goes to buying Lego...)

 

[wizard of ahs]

I've bought a few things from them in the past. I just don't have a huge budget for toys. (And most of my toy budget goes to buying Lego...)

Ha Ha Ha..........are you sure you don't know my son ???
My grandson has just about every Lego kit known to man

 

[Ty]

Last thing I bought... actually, from Walmart but I saw it first on ThinkGeek, were two jars with "butterflies" in them.

 

[Frim]

I would like to hear from our IT members about this platform and just how important it may be to accelerate production.

 

[Ekh]

I really hope Elio can keep this date and system from being hacked! It puts many eggs in one basket, and would be very useful to competitors and state-level foreign actors.