Dial-Up internet. Unfortunately, it’s still here because the ISPs continue to fail to deliver on the promise of expanding broadband over and over.
And because of that, it’s no wonder internet isn’t expanded to everywhere in the country of USA.
DVDs for sure. I have good memories of going to the local store and me and siblings arguing about what DVD we would get. These were some good times. However, those ads at the beginning they make you watch that you can’t skip get on my nerves and they scratch really easily. Streaming is the way to go
VCRs.
Spent my childhood merrily taping things off the TV, and thought it was the best thing ever. i love those nostalgic whirring and clicking sounds as the tape loads.
But digital media is just the best, and tapes can stay in the past where they belong.
DVDs too. If I never burn another DVD again, that will be A-OK with me. I hate having to babysit those. Give me a hard drive, USB, or server to move data all day.
I don’t doubt it exists, but I’m kind of curious about workflows that still involve burning optical media in 2024.
I still see it in the courts, both criminal and civil. It seems to make more of an impact on judges and juries, because all the lawyers love whipping out the cd and sticking it in the ancient little laptop they plug into the tv on the cart like the teacher rolled out in the 80s and 90s.
Most healthcare systems are stuck in the old ways.
its still better in a sense. usb storage devices all have an internal “mini computer” that run their own code and have access to the USB bus of the connected computer, with the ability to even present themselves as a keyboard, a network adapter or a lot of other things. that’s not a good idea to plug in to the hospital computer after it was given to the patient, and it is also not the best idea to just plug these in at home.
optical media on the other hand does not store code that is executed by the drive.
the problem is that pendrives have a firmware, and too much capabilities, even when not accounting for errors in hardware and code that participates in making it work. some of them (maybe most?) is even writable with the right tools, and the computer’s user doesn’t even need to know that it’s happening.
the most famous web browser that allows any website access to your USB devices with just 1 or 2 clicks makes this even worse.
The US military uses tapes for long term storage still
Tape is still the best long term storage medium though.
Secure networks have their head in their ass about flash media. So, discs.
Edit: For more technical reasons see what ReversalHatchery wrote further down
Burning DVDs was really a thing there for a hot minute. I remember buying them in big spindles of 50 at a time, and burning at least two or three a week.
Back then I already had my first ever USB flash drive, but they were still very expensive and small - 128MB was great for some documents, but no good for large files. And my PC’s hard drive was still only about 120GB or something.
DVDs were in their element. 4.7GBs of storage, and super cheap. I was using them to back up data and clear apace on my hard drive, and I was loading them up with content for friends, where I could just take a disc over their house and leave it there for them.
Then flash drives got bigger, and hard drives got bigger too, and that sweet spot the DVD occupied got squashed from both sides until poof, in just a few short years the age of the DVD was over.
… I still have probably 100 blank DVDs and a hundred blank CDs.
But I also have a 3.5" floppy drive so I’m not a good measure to go by on these things.
with digital media recording has become a lot harder, thanks to Digital Restrictions Management
Honestly I really miss being able to record live TV with a VCR. I still watch tv with an antenna, mainly for football games, and it would be really nice if there was a way I could record them. Whenever I’ve looked into making my own DVR it just seems too expensive and confusing.
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Changing the channel on the tv itself instead of having a clicker.
Also having an actual clicker YouTube short
As someone who still plays a lot of 2000s and early 2010s video games, The ‘piss filter’ can stay in the past. And I go out of my way to disable it anytime I can.
For anyone who doesn’t know, look up gameplay of Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) and noticed the heavy yellow tint over the entire screen. So many games from around that era of gaming had heavy handed colour filters. Not always piss yellow but that was a popular one.
TIL: People are nostalgic about some odd stuff.
I mean, I recognize some memories as good when they occured, but I don’t wish to return to them. And others, I mean, sheesh.
Paper filing of taxes.
But this is the only method I trust to not surprise me with fees for a “free” service.
“Free-free-free, free-free, free. That’ll be $39.95.”
Google “IRS Free File”
Make sure the website ends in .gov and has HTTPS enabled, verify that and voila. Free filing over internet.
I can’t guarantee this will continue to exist after Jan 20 tho.
Is that nostalgic for you?
USSR
I know it had lots of achievements for socialism. But it was really flawed
If I had to live in a red country back in those days, I think I’d pick East Germany. Berlin in particular is where both powers were strutting their wares/values, so I like to believe that the East Berliners had it better than most
Smoking. Black and white movie stars of the 40s and 50s made it look elegant and sophisticated, but you can’t smell a movie. And I don’t want to smell cigarette smoke.
I miss the smoking indoors. As a child who would attend political events with my parents, it gave rooms a misty haze of mystery and intrigue. Plus, you could always tell where the real political tables were by the density of the fog hanging over the table.
When people think men look “cool” smoking in those (which honestly, who thinks that anymore), they never think of the following 40 years. When I think of smoking now it isn’t the movies, it’s grandma and grandpa hacking and coughing, their sickly yellow walls of their house permanently stained with nicotine, and low gravely voices. Maybe you think you look cool for 5 years or so, and then it’s all downhill
I have very strong memories of fast food and going out with my family to restaurants like Applebees and Chilis. Family meals that I remember sitting together and ordering, the crayons at the table, bits and pieces come back.
As an adult, never try to relive those memories. The people are what you’re remembering, not the food or the atmosphere, and even then if you are the food and atmosphere are just gone. Leave the memories in the past, make new ones now. At better places.
