obsolete technology

8 Stories

America's Nuke Program Runs on Floppy Disks

And not even the tiny ones

(Newser) - To anyone born after 1995, the floppy disk is better known as that thing that resembles the "save" icon. To the Pentagon, it's the gizmo that controls America's nukes. A report from the Government Accountability Office finds US government agencies spend $60 billion a year operating and...

9 Old-School Tech Words That Won't Die

When did you last 'dial' a number?

(Newser) - When was the last time you literally rewound a tape? Think back to the VHS era, though perhaps you used the term when referring to YouTube today. At Mashable , Yohana Desta lists eight other terms that have outlasted technology:
  • Our phones haven't had rotary dials for decades—yet we
...

7 Jobs That Went the Way of the Dodo

Goodbye gandy dancers and knocker-up men

(Newser) - The modern age has a way of turning jobs obsolete in a hurry. At the San Francisco Chronicle , Katie Dowd picks out some of the more unusual casualties through history. A sampling:
  • Newspaper readers: The title is no joke. Decades ago, factories sometimes employed official readers to stand on a
...

21 Reasons to Be Glad It's Not the '80s

Many involve tape, and all of them save you time

(Newser) - It's almost Thanksgiving, so let's take a moment to appreciate the little things—specifically, the many frustrations of the 1980s that no longer require your attention. Benjamin Solomon provides a handy reminder of 21 of them, via Vanity Fair . The highlights:
  1. You no longer have to stick a
...

20 Things That Have Become Obsolete Since 2000

VHS tapes, 1-900 numbers, and more

(Newser) - Oh, 1999. A time when we used to drive all the way to the video store to rent a VHS tape. Those, along with VCRs, became obsolete this decade, officially dying, quipped the Washington Post, at the youthful age of 29 in 2005. The Huffington Post lists 19 other things...

Things the Internet's Killed
 Things the Internet's Killed 
ANALYSIS
Sep 5, 2009 5:15 AM CDT

Things the Internet's Killed

(Newser) - The efficiencies granted by the Internet have rendered many aspects of life obsolete—the Telegraph has compiled a full 50. Some highlights:
  • The art of polite disagreement. A quick look at the comment section on YouTube or any news or politics-related site will confirm this.
  • Fear that you are alone
...

Be Kind, Rewind, One Last Time

The era of VHS is officially over

(Newser) - Remember those black plastic bricks you used to pop into your entertainment system to watch movies? The nostalgic might want to snap a few digital photos, because tapes won't be with us for much longer now that the last VHS supplier has made his final shipment. The LA Times rewinds...

Files May Be Fleeting
 Files May Be Fleeting 
Apr 7, 2008 1:29 PM CDT

Files May Be Fleeting

As formats change, your digital data could be endangered

(Newser) - Cuneiform tablets have kept information safe across millenia, but hard drives have lifespans of just a few years. Even if your CDs survive the century, their players might have become obsolete, warns the Boston Globe. "Who knows how long they're going to last—how much time before the information...

8 Stories