Old School Tech

What "old school" tech do you still love and/or use regularly and/or dream about owning or using? This can include BlackBerry and Mobile tech, but isn't limited to that.

I'll start:

-- 80s era steel touring bicycles with friction shifters. I have one that I've ridden on 5 continents for over 50k miles over more than 30 years. I also have a modern bike to use as a beater, but the old-school bike is my favorite.

-- Manual typewriter (love them, don't own one presently)

-- LPs and analog audio gear, including reel-to-reel tape decks.

-- Acoustic musical instruments (folk, jazz, orchestral)

-- Atari and NES Classic video game consoles

-- Mechanical switch pinball machines

-- IBM computer keyboards (buckling springs)

-- BB10 and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Posted with my trusty Z10

I am with you on most of all that. I probably wouldn't return to LPs, however I am an avid Laserdisc connoisseur. I like that you have to flip the disc and that gives you intermission to go use the rest room and grab a drink without missing anything and get don't get those annoying and forced previews and menus to waste away your viewing pallet.

I have a Hermes Rocket typewriter and love it. I donated my old Oliver Type 9 Oliver Typewriter as a display item to a NFP in Chicago as the teeth on the main gear were weathering to dysfunction.

I still use an Atari Portfolio to keep passwords with only 16kb of memory (stock)

And I use a fax modem to send out faxes however recently only been sending out half transmissions so I think the modem is on its last legs and expecting a friend to give me a Hayes Modem 14.4 baud fax later this year.

Other than that I occasionally though haven't in a while, use a crystal ball to scry. It is a strain on my eyes and I believe I have no business telling the future. I've used it only to help people identify their issues and what would help them.

Some photos:

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Mechanical watch - after two of my watches stop working during winter holiday due to battery issue. I have to get one of mechanical version.
Sun dial with adjustable geographical location (Northern hemisphere only) - small compact that can hang on my neck.
Mechanical typewriter - small underwood. Low profile with a plastic lid (possibly, last generation).
Slide rules - just hand over to my nephew, made in occupied Japan.
Collection of music tapes with working Sony Walkman player. Some of the music you can no longer find it in digital format. With vhs tapes too. (mostly music performance). And Panasonic vhs player.
Collection of early hardware -1st gen 4mb memory chip (prototype), LCD mask artwork, etc.
Sears mini microscope - for inspect photo negatives. And of course, old camera with film.
Palm zire with WiFi card.
Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by givechanceachance

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That's a sweet little typewriter!

Vinyl records is pretty much the only old tech I still keep and use.

I don't have a vintage setup or anything like that, but I did get a new cartridge to replace the old Audio Technica that I bought back around '84.

The turntable itself is c. 1979 Fisher MT-6310 semi-auto belt driven unit. It's the sole remaining piece from a whole Fisher set my parents bought in Dec of '79 from one of those Sherwood Magnavox stores at a local mall (that is now a shell of its former self). I remember being with them watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica on one of the TVs in the store. The component set included the receiver, a cassette tape deck, an 8-track tape deck (my mother still had an 8-track in her '77 Grand Prix), and a set of speakers.

Everything slowly went away over the years, after I kind of took it over by the early 80s. The 8-track was the first to go before I even took it. The tape deck was later replaced, then the receiver itself when the volume control finally failed. CD players came into the mix, and then surround sound (after I moved out), but to this day, the turntable still works.

It's currently out of service because I recently moved, and I haven't set up a place for it. But it had lived near my computer in recent years where I've recorded many of my albums and 12" singles into my computer and even made my own CDs for the car with it.

My 450 or so albums, EPs and 12" singles, and about 150 45s have always stayed with me. I only started buying them in 1980, but had a couple earlier my parents bought that stayed with me. I have CCR's Green River, and The Beatles 67-70 double LP set, but what I consider my first album is Heart's Dreamboat Annie from the summer of '76 when I was 10 years old (we had an older turntable that nearly ruined that album). Among the first I went out and bought by myself in 1980 include Blondie's Autoamerican, Heart's Greatest Hits/Live double LP, The Empire Strikes Back double LP soundtrack.

So, that's it.

Other than my laserdisc collection, but I had to sell the old Pioneer player years ago.

Vinyl

Mechanical watches most days

Normally aspirated engines and manual transmissions (some days)

Single Ended Triode amplifiers

Fountain pens

Commodore 64 with disk drive and a Windows 98 machine.

Posted via CB10 on Z10

thanks for starting this bb10adopter111! felt bad hijacking the other thread lol!

if you remember I was talking about my guitar tube amplifier. I still have an old school mishmash of audio equipment. an old wooden sided Pioneer 300w head unit with am/fm, techniques adjustable speed turntable, a DAC equalizer/spectrum analyzer, Techniques dual cassette deck, Sony 100 cd player, Bose 301's and 501's and modified Techniques tall speakers. I'm sure I'm forgetting something though lol!

if you don't know about them, check them out. I'm talking about the Carver Silver Seven 900 mono amplifier. you need two to power a stereo system. 900 Watt for each mono amplifier. the set of 2 will only set you back $32,000.00 . yes, thirty two thousand dollars for the pair. unfortunately I can't review them as I'm unwilling to pay for them. if someone would like to buy me the set, I can let everyone know how they are, but I'm more likely to be ridiculed lmao!

watch wise, I own too many of them. I collect them also. only own one quartz, the rest are all mechanical handwind or automatics. everything from 1873 working pocket watches up to newer automatic chronographs.
game wise almost all of the gameboys from the monochrome screen up to the 3ds. super Nintendo still working with the light gun, Playstation one through 3, original Xbox through the Xbox one. wish I would have kept my old Pong game, the Atari 2600 and the Vic20 I used to have. they all got sold by my mom a long time ago.
I'm also in to old cameras. I have old tiny fold out Kodaks, old Polaroids, quite a large collection of all the Minox varieties and accessories. quite a few Bolex pieces and other assorted 8mm (I think) cameras.

I have way too many hobbies too! of course guitar, metal detecting, astronomy, watch repair and on and on. no wonder I'm always busy lol!

Vinyl LPs, turntable, valve amps (both phono preamp and power amp), fountain pens and mechanical pocket watches are amongst my favourite things. [emoji846]

Mechanical watches, fountain pens, double edge razors and woodworking tools.

Number of old radios at home, two bluetooth speakers, one wired (I hate fixed-wired!) sandisk sansa m240 fm tuner with 1GB memory for recording audio (wave) and also plays mp3 (never bother with it), plenty of laptops, fax machine, don't have an older machine to make use of a ton of dos-based diskettes, going to be looking for one (one armada laptop, still, the hard disk is IDE, screen is rubbish for games).

Vhs camcorder, Vhs player, two 1080p camcorders (one does 4:3 1080p), tube tv in the bedroom, lcd in the living room. Mechanical IBM model m 386 keyboard, just needs a proper usb adapter for use (the two remappers are useless, only supply power, not data exchange).

Submitted via blackberry passport on freedom mobile HSPA+ or LTE

Cars with manual transmissions.