It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: CrikeyMagnet
A few years ago, I found myself downtown without a cell phone and needing to make a call. It was then that I realized pay phones are essentially a thing of the past. I can't find a clip of it... but there was an episode of Phineas and Ferb where their father describes the pay phone as a little room you can go into to have a private telephone conversation. The response from one of their friends was "You guys are blowin' my mind!"
I'm sure most of the stuff that has been "lost in the mists of time" just slipped away without us noticing, though. Much like 8-tracks gave way to cassette tapes, which then gave way to cd's and now have given way to no-physical-media. The awesome things from our childhood are being replaced with things that may be equally awesome... but are also portable.
originally posted by: socketdude
originally posted by: CrikeyMagnet
OH!! Cool one! The floppy disk. 5.25 or 3.5 inches (or 8 if you're even older) of plastic and a little scrap of metal, and it would store a comically tiny amount of data*. The reason it's so cool... the image of a 3.5 inch disk is still used in many applications as the "Save" button.
Trying to explain that to my daughter was fun. "Click on the... picture of a thing you don't recognize..."
So... many people would recognize it as the save button, but may have never actually seen one!
* I should add that the amount of data is comically tiny by today's standards, but the sheer ability to span disks with a single application (or, say a large number of 720kB disks to install Windows 3.11) was a technological marvel. What a fascinating, Charleston-dancing world we lived in, back in the early 90's.
originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Vasa Croe
I would like to hear about other things that have been forgotten from the recent past that would seem odd to have forgotten, yet somehow were easy to not think about
Manners, respect........."please", "thank-you"
It took my father and mother a life time to get the beautiful home and few assets they have. These days, 20-somethings expect it all straight out of college/Uni........and the banks and their credit cards provide that [strike]debt dream. (expectation).
Sad, but true.
originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
The old DRM methods of the early nineties in PC gaming. You know, when you had to open the manual to a certain page, find a certain paragraph, and type a specific word from the paragraph. (And it changed each time you opened the game) Some games came with little decoder wheels that you'd spin to specific places when prompted and enter the password revealed. They were very creative.
Another is Shareware. Wolfenstein 3D is the most notable early example. Give the first ten levels of game away for free, and include an option to purchase the full game if they like it. Now it's all about "Early Access". Buy a game at usually roughly half their estimated launch price, and you can have the game and play it while it's still in development.
originally posted by: camain
a reply to: Vasa Croe
So my daughter is learning how to drive, she has a permit which means she can only drive with a licensed driver. So we drive to Walmart to get some stuff, and after we parked, I told her to lock the doors. As a woman she should always make this a habit getting in and out of her car. Which she did. We went in then came out, got to the car, and she said, "oh crap, I don't have an unlocked, how do we get into the car." I then taught her how to unlock the car using the key.
Cheers,
Camain
originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: Vasa Croe
How about this.
originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
Almost forgot about this little beauty from the recent past:
The humble pager.