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Technologies that Have Exceeded Their Expectations?
drfunch asks: "With the recent 'passing' of Pioneer 10 after over 30 years of service, I wonder what other technologies have far exceeded expectations. One example from my own experience is my trusty HP calculator, which is still going strong after 21 years. What technologies or devices have gone far beyond your expectations?"
My washer and dryer are almost 30 years old....
My Magic Eightball is great for answering questions from our sales department. Saves a lot of time on some of those questions that rely on actual thinking.
Although all I play on it is Karateka (sp?). That damn bird...
I got it in 1983.
..my liver.
Trolling is a art,
I never thought they's last.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
The number 1 problem of working in a cubicle - 23 power cords, 1 outlet...
The Real Doll. That thing goes WAY beyond expectations!
Oh, wait, I dont think thats what you mean, was it...
hmm...
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
I made it out of a Charmin toilet roll and some tinfoil found on the street back in 1977. To this day I use it.
Yeah, well, people were ok with reading and then punching a hole in a piece of paper for 200 years. But that was before MTV, Fox and Hip-hop.
for what seems like decades now we've been hearing wild, utopian speculation regarding an endless stream of leg-covering technologies, each hailed as a 'pants-killer'. on seemingly a yearly basis, it seems, sony or microsoft or archer daniels midland trots out some promising technology to replace pants -- some intended to render not just the item but the entire pants PARADIGM obselete forever. but for all this new-fangledness, what's that on your ass, i ask you? huh!?!?
man, am i hung over.
god is just pretend.
this device has greatly exceeded my expectations
Hey just you wait until it comes back to destroy earth as VGER.
Users are like bacteria, each one creating a tiny problem until the host dies.
I've got this electric-synapse device in my skull that's been working terrific for over 23 years. And the original batteries that came with it still work! The only downside is the warrenty/insurance - it's a large monthly fee, but, hey, it's an expensive, fragile piece of equipment.
Rock!
Or how about Intel's shitty (for now) chip design based on a great (for then) 1970's design?
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
And how many wish it hadn't?
Voyager exceeded your expectations? I thought it was the worst of the lot. The characters were flat, and the plots were repetitive. Every other damn episode was about time travel, and they did it poorly.
Well, except for 7 of 9. She wasn't flat.
The Russians used a pencil.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Sliced Bread.
You can not go a day without something being compared to it. I do not think the person who thought to actually sell sliced bread to all the lazy people in the world knew what a hit it would be.
You have several good points (4, or 6?) in there.
:)
Someone, mod this up to 3 (or 5?).
The Commodore 64 (or 66?) was definately a cool piece of hardware, but at age 12 (if I am accurately recalling my age; 14?) I had to suffer with a Tandy Color Computer 2 (or 3?).
You might want to sit down for this.
I once knew a Ph.D. who called saying that his "CD-ROM" drive wasn't working right and that it messed up his CD. No problem, I'll be over shortly to check it out. Then, I got to thinking, "He doesn't have a CD-ROM drive!!!"
Sure enough, the guy tried to put a CD in a 5 1/4" Floppy Drive. The drive actually tried to read the CD! It messed up his CD and the drive! I couldn't decide if I should smack him or just laugh until I couldn't breathe.
OH, BUT IT GETS BETTER!
His Ph.D. was in Computer Science!!! I kid you not!!!
The man was just too smart to get out of the RAIN and had the common sense of a rock.
The truth is usually just an excuse for lack of imagination.
I remember a documentary about it just as it was retiring describing this bird as "10,000 loose rivets flying in close formation".
With a half-life of 24,000 years, it takes a lickin' and still keeps you from tickin'.
Next time you're confronted with one, try screaming "MAN CLOCK" at it. Even it that doesn't work, somebody's bound to notice and tell you what time it is.
My parents' washing machine was one of the first front loaders - it's still washing 23 years later.
Their Ferguson VHS deck is still working 20 years on too.
Their Windows based PC broke after a year.
It is still the stand by which all new technologies are measured.
But so is DOS.
:-)
*ducks*
Joke, meet Poster. Poster, meet Joke. Here are Joke's friends, Irony and Sarcasm. They hang out together a lot; you might want to get used to seeing them together. :-)
Just make sure you really pronouce that 'L' lest you get the wrong attention ;)
I regularly use my Faber Castell Dramstadt slide rule (67/54R)with Mechanical additator on the back and a Commodore Minuteman Calculator purchased in 1971. I picked both up at a garage sale for AU$2