The Sounds of Tech Past
itwbennett writes "If you're of a certain generation, the screech of a modem, the stuttering song of the dot matrix printer, and the wet slap of a mimeograph machine can transport you to simpler (or at least slower) times. JR Raphael has rounded up 20 tech sounds on the brink of extinction for your listening torture. We're only sorry we don't have smell-o-vision to bring you that sweet mimeograph scent."
It wasn't the sound of a mimeograph machine, it was the SMELL of a new math or history test -- with purple ink.
Not just the whoooom, but the LSD-like-hazy-wobble of the screen coming into focus. I sort of miss that too.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Just shut the fuck up. No one here cares about your crapware. Go dive into a vat of acid already.
It's hell to get old, isn't it?
And interestingly they add the dot-matrix printer, while that's one of the technologies that just doesn't go obsolete.
Sure you don't use them at home anymore, but try to print any pressure form - like invoices, order forms, and many more of such uses. One of the few old technologies that's likely to stay with us forever.
That has to be at least 56k. I remember they distinctively had that double fading ping while the modems were calibrating the line level, because the server-side modem would send 5-7 bits per sample by simply encoding the sample to the bit sequence. The receiving modem had to have a valid map of the bits to the line voltages, and that double ping was caused by levels being tested, starting at the outermost and working inward.
www.wavefront-av.com
And I say: ..go.. ..fuck.. ..yourself...