For us over 50 - Favourite Technology

[TameRacingDriver]

motco said:

It's not that the dot matrix machines went wrong - although they did. It's the pain of trying to get any printer to work properly under DoS and printing from a DoS version of Word Perfect or any other program.

Yes I take your point. This is why I personally preferred the Amiga was a doddle to get a printer to work on that!

[GetCarter]

TameRacingDriver said:

Yes I take your point. This is why I personally preferred the Amiga was a doddle to get a printer to work on that!

Indeed - Amiga was at least in the same universe as a printer!

However, I recently bought a new Mac and third party printer.

This happened.

Mac: I see you've connected a printer, hold on while I find the latest software on the manufacturer's website.

Okay. Found it, wat a few seconds whilst I download and install.

Okay. Printer will now work. Press 'P' to print a test page.

It did. Perfectly.

Surprised? I nearly wen't to the pub!

Okay. I Did.


..and it has worked faultlessly ever since.

[j3gme]

https://youtu.be/HeEWtNaW6KE
Watch this it’s about us lot brought up in the 70s and 80s technology..... to the tune of Billy Joel “I didn’t start the fire”... apologies to anyone has already seen it

[Kermit power]

j3gme said:

https://youtu.be/HeEWtNaW6KE
Watch this it’s about us lot brought up in the 70s and 80s technology..... to the tune of Billy Joel “I didn’t start the fire”... apologies to anyone has already seen it

That is superb!!

[Exige77]

OpulentBob said:

Modern, tiny digital hearing aids with Bluetooth connectivity for phones, tvs etc. Utterly amazing and life changing (not me, I'm in my 30s, but they have transformed Pater's day to day living)

^^^^What he said. Life changing technology.

I can’t imagine life without them.

Also Fit Bit to wake you up in the morning.

How the hell I managed before is a mystery.

[Trevatanus]

For me, the iPhone, I just recently upgraded to an X, and it's a world apart from my 7.
Sky Q, again, just got this, very impressed so far.
Finally, I have a pair of Google Home Mini's and Hue bulbs in the living room and bedroom.
Not used the physical light switch in either room in months.

[vixen1700]

I think my wife's favourite thing about having the internet on her phone is watching old Top of The Pops and instantly picking up her phone and seeing what they look like now.

I tend to do that with old films to see if people are still alive or not.

[simonrockman]

The technology I think is really clever is chromecast. I'm not even sure where the content is. Does it stream from my phone or the internet?

[nonsequitur]

Technology. I have a laptop, but only skim he surface of it's capabilities.

I have an iPhone, but it is always switched off and only used for infrequent calls, which kind of defeats the object of the device.

I have only recently stopped making mix tapes when the car I bought did not have a cassette player. Now I am having trouble finding a two year old used vehicle the will play my 8 track stuff. (only kidding) CD's. It's all 'connectivity' now.

On a recent sort out found my Sony Walkman, which still works,

I have no problems with the above as it is a voluntary choice and am quite happy with my landline and speaking to others face to face.

[RATATTAK]

PDK

[rayny]

The proliferation of television;

1966 - Three TV channels - all the young lads in the street visiting the one family who had a TV ( black and white at that) to watch the world cup.

2016 - I've given up counting how many channels are available. - Whilst one of the seasons GP races was on I was wandering through the office one Sunday - There must have been a dozen flat screen TVs on the walls (there would have been a similar number on the east wing, and this would have been duplicated on each of the 6 floors), I could access the internet on my PC, and I (along with just about everybody else working that day) had a mobile 'phone on which we could watch any sport that was being broadcast.

[ReverendCounter]

deckster said:

Dog Star said:

But in general what's made the difference is information - hugely rapid access to humungous amounts of data. No science fiction writer from my youth saw this coming at all; Arthur C Clarke got a vague idea of a PDA with the "minisec" but that was totally lame compared with what actually happened.

I think Douglas Adams got pretty close. Case with "Don't Panic" aside, the iPhone bears an absolutely uncanny resemblance to what I'd always imagined the Hitchhikers Guide to be.

The iPad was set out as the centrepiece of the sci-fi book 'The Diamond Age/The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer' in 1995 - an animated book-like device with a voice that answered questions, taught and informed, leaked out into the world in order to educate and empower young girls.

1995! How prescient.

[SCEtoAUX]

Kermit power said:

That isn't really progress to me. Just because you can have a TV in every room, should you actually want to?

Granted, we can all watch separate stuff on tablets and phones anyway, but to me there's something thoroughly depressing about the thought of everyone in the family disappearing off to watch TV in their own antisocial little bubble.

The Virgin engineer who fitted our box last year was absolutely gobsmacked when I told him we didn't have a second TV for the second TiVo box, so I guess we're in the minority now.

We only have one telly. Fairly small one in the lounge. Two of us in the house.

[Rostfritt]

GetCarter said:

My first job (1974) was putting plugs on TV's, getting them to work and delivering them. At least 30% didn't work out of the box. These days I guess it'd be much less than 1%

..and then there were cars...

Quality control is SO much better. My last 4 new cars haven't broken down at all, ever. And they were all assembled in the UK!

I remember saving my pocket money to get a 14" tv in the 90s. First one we got was £180, broke within a month, was sent back to be repaired (yes, they did that), loaned set from the shop didn't work, got another that did, got old one back, didn't work, sent back again and the shop gave us another one that was much more expensive that still worked when we got rid of it.

On the other hand we had a decent Panasonic one in the living room which I would imagine still would work if the power switch wasn't broken. Cost over £500 for 21". If TV prices had kept up with house prices, that would cost about £3000 now. You can get a 42" smart TV for like £250 now. Not saying they never go wrong though.

[J4CKO]

deckster said:

J4CKO said:

ApOrbital said:

No printers have ever worked they are from a different planet.

Yep, its like having an incompetent crack addict on your desk, you give it one job and it screws the paper up, prints faintly, prints with lines or has a random approach to what eventually comes out.

Ha. You literally have no idea how much easier it is these days. Until you've spent three days trying to get WordPerfect to print to your Epson dot matrix printer, which is oh-so-nearly the same model as in the built-in driver list but actually not quite, then you just don't know. Printers in the 1980s man, you don't understand, you weren't there....

Oh, I do, I am 48 (as mentioned earlier) and was a Star LC10 Victim, actually, it worked pretty well fro what I remember.

I think I am in the main, just less tolerant.

Todays Joy was printing my expenses cover sheet, hit print and go to the printer, a fair distance away, in a locked room, the entry process to which is a pain, and usually involves a fair crack of static when you ground yourself on the handle, get there and nothing, no paper, return to find that my computer again insists it is using "Letter", instead of A4, no matter what I do it is obsessed with selecting letter and the printer says "No, not got no letter paper".

I dont print much, so its always a joy when I have to.

[j3gme]

Just seen this in Curry’s
Old new mixed

[Kermit power]

j3gme said:

Just seen this in Curry’s
Old new mixed

WTF???

Curry's are still in business???

[Trophy Husband]

For me it has to be Spotify. We have over a thousand CD's (in the loft!!). The last time I put a CD on was at least 4 years ago.

Can somebody please explain to me how I can have a playlist offline? Where the fluck is it stored?

[NDA]

Trophy Husband said:

For me it has to be Spotify. We have over a thousand CD's (in the loft!!). The last time I put a CD on was at least 4 years ago.

Can somebody please explain to me how I can have a playlist offline? Where the fluck is it stored?

You should see a 'download' slider somewhere - either on your phone or laptop. Slide that and the playlist will be stored locally - no idea where....

[Trophy Husband]

NDA said:

Trophy Husband said:

For me it has to be Spotify. We have over a thousand CD's (in the loft!!). The last time I put a CD on was at least 4 years ago.

Can somebody please explain to me how I can have a playlist offline? Where the fluck is it stored?

You should see a 'download' slider somewhere - either on your phone or laptop. Slide that and the playlist will be stored locally - no idea where....

I get that and I use it but how the fluck is it on my phone? Where and how is it kept?