Old and obsolete tech you know how to use - (and that for some reason insist on using)

[Synthetic Smug]

I know how to develop C-41 color negative film, and even remember how to use a process camera.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Oil lamps, flintlocks, and rock knapping.

Oil lamps, because I can't tolerate electric lights anymore, plus the wicks & fuel have other sources & uses.

Flintlocks, because percussion caps are a manufactured thing and I don't buy my own flints, along with how to make a reasonable black powder from various natural sources.

Rock knapping came from making my own flints; so far that's progressed into spear & axe heads. I'm not quite good enough to make consistent arrowheads yet though.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

All pilots are still trained on the flight computer which just a specialized slide-rule. It's pretty nifty.

 

[Kiislova]

I can and do still use a fax machine

Do you work for the government? Because that's the only place I still see those machines at use.

 

[The best and greatest]

Do you work for the government? Because that's the only place I still see those machines at use.

My bet is doctor's office

 

[Kosher Dill]

My bet is doctor's office

Let me put my bet on "mortgage broker".

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

I can write in cursive, and still maintain beautiful penmanship if that counts. It astounds me how many people I run across who can't write or even read script.

As for actual tech, I grew up with DOS and the Commodore 64, and operating them is still second nature to me.

I write in cursive, but I wouldn't call my penmanship "beautiful".

Would you count Unix(-like) shell? It's old, but it's not exactly obsolete for servers, IIRC.

 

[Kiislova]

I write in cursive, but I wouldn't call my penmanship "beautiful".

Would you count Unix(-like) shell? It's old, but it's not exactly obsolete for servers, IIRC.

Not obsolete at all. Ugly, old, but not obsolete by any means.

Do you work for the government? Because that's the only place I still see those machines at use.

My bet is doctor's office

Let me put my bet on "mortgage broker".

Also, @DarkWeenix
We are waiting xD

 

[MemeGrey]

Do you work for the government? Because that's the only place I still see those machines at use.

My bet is doctor's office

Let me put my bet on "mortgage broker".

Hospitality, specifically a hotel.

We've been trying to phase out Faxes but some of our big company guests insist on using them

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

I think I still know how to use a VCR, CD and cassette players.

 

[Badungus Kabungus]

Flint and steel, or bow drill. Still can't get hand drill right.

 

[Dysnomia]

I know how to program and record on a VCR.

I remember trying to show my mom how easy it was back when she wanted General Hospital and The Sopranos taped. All my life I had heard it was impossible to program a VCR. I did it in a few minutes just by doing logical button presses after popping a tape in.

I still use a flip phone. Because I want real buttons. I have an LGB470. It makes phone calls and I can still access google to check local weather. But the internet functions are becoming more and more non-functional. You have to go into options after accessing the browser to manually bring up google via URL or bookmark. You can use a hotkey for that though. And Youtube stopped working last summer on it so I can't watch fuzzy videos with poor sound that drain my battery in half an hour. Woe is me.

I know I should upgrade. But with a tablet I don't see why I need a smartphone at all. I have no use for internet while I am out and about other than checking weather. To me internet has always been a home activity. I don't like being distracted when I am out.

I can write in cursive, and still maintain beautiful penmanship if that counts. It astounds me how many people I run across who can't write or even read script.

As for actual tech, I grew up with DOS and the Commodore 64, and operating them is still second nature to me.

My penmanship used to be nice. But since I almost never write in cursive other than to sign my name now it has become really bad. Even my printing looks weird now. I used to take my time to write a nice, clearly legible signature. But when there are ten people behind me at the pharmacy and the pin pad is half broken that ain't happening.

 

[Strange E. Reckshun]

Old landline telephones with a rotary dial. Kids don't even know them any more.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Tallying up more obsolete tech that I still use; an old Remington typewriter, circa 1960s. Ribbons are still obtainable, but I found a fresh crate of them in an old abandoned school so I've got a lifetime supply.

All pilots are still trained on the flight computer which just a specialized slide-rule. It's pretty nifty.

Have you ever seen someone really proficient in a slide-rule work one?

Back when I first started accumulating flight hours in experimental, I had an instructor who was a wizard on the slide-rule. And my grandpa, along with several uncles, are/were precisiom machinists way before CNC, and the speed at which they used those rulers to crank out calculations on the fly was breathtaking.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

There’s also something interesting about “analog” calculations- you can literally know something “doesn’t feel right” because the rule would be in a weird place. I suspect the Gimli Glider didn’t use a slide rule on the manual calculations.

 

[Redeemer and Destroyer]

I still know how to use a rotary phone. My great grandparents had it up until they moved to the Carolinas.

 

[Redeemer and Destroyer]

Tallying up more obsolete tech that I still use; an old Remington typewriter, circa 1960s

My great-grandpa had a typewriter in his den! He had two: classic and electronic. I used to write stories on the old one as a kid. Good times.

 

[Vecr]

I still know how to use a rotary phone. My great grandparents had it up until they moved to the Carolinas.

They are really quite easy to use though, to be honest. Modern cell phones are much, much harder to use, on an objective level, even just remembering to change the battery, for instance.

 

[Redeemer and Destroyer]

They are really quite easy to use though, to be honest. Modern cell phones are much, much harder to use, on an objective level, even just remembering to change the battery, for instance.

Yeah, it was just the first thought that came to mind when I saw "old and obsolete." Bad example, but nowadays people would be too impatient to use a rotary phone compared to a lightning fast modern landline and/or cell phone.

 

[Kiislova]

Yeah, it was just the first thought that came to mind when I saw "old and obsolete." Bad example, but nowadays people would be too impatient to use a rotary phone compared to a lightning fast modern landline and/or cell phone.

I bet I can dial faster on a rotary than on the average overbloated smartphone that takes 30s to pop up the dialer keyboard.