[PCWorld]

Post your comments for 10 Technologies That Should Be Extinct (But Aren't) here

[RedNvSS]

one item you are way off base, believe it or not typewriters... many companies still use them to type out multipage forms that a printer just can't duplicate.
the exact forms I can't list but you will find the old IBM selectric I, II, & III still in use. I should know i make a fortune servicing these relics. very few of us left that are able to service and repair these ancient pieces of equipment.
why they hang on to them i do not know....
aside from typewriters we repair large volume FAX machines. Mortgage companies use them to FAX loan and orginating documents to lenders and escrow companies and vice/versa. some of these FAX Machines run nonstop all day long.
our company repairs and services, copiers, Fax Machines and typewriters, we have not slowed down one bit due to this recession. 90% of our client base are mid to large sized companies..

[AntonCleaver-Wilkinson]

Landline's and Turntables?
Both have their purpose in the right situation.
Think about a family with kid's? You aren't going to be ringing their mobiles are you now? It's so much more convenient to have a 'family phone' as well as the older children's and the parent's mobiles.

Turntables?
Love 'em. Dj's use them, I use them. They are classic, retro and coming back to popularity. Buying from the record store feels so much better than downloading from iTunes (if anyone really doesn't like limewire).

[vmcc]

Turntables never really went out of style with high-end audiophiles. Vinyl just sounds better, and I hope it does have a resurgence. Proof positive that digital isn't always the better format. Look at film vs digital, or the continued popularity of vacuum tube amplifiers...

This post has been edited by vmcc: 04 July 2010 - 07:42 PM

[JasonVines]

Until downloaded or streamed multimedia can match the quality and convenience of DVD and Blu-Ray, rather than offer heavily compressed video that takes hours to download, tales of physical disk obsolescence are greatly exaggerated.

This post has been edited by JasonVines: 04 July 2010 - 07:16 PM

[vmcc]

JasonVines, on 04 July 2010 - 07:15 PM, said:

Until downloaded or streamed multimedia can match the quality and convenience of DVD and Blu-Ray, rather than offer heavily compressed video that takes hours to download, tales of physical disk obsolescence are greatly exaggerated.

Jason, I believe that's why Google is experimenting with super high speed broadband service. Their Google TV will probably require it.
I just saw a story the other day, but didn't get a chance to read it, about the 'new' BluRay standard being approved. As I remember, the new disks will hold 128gig vs todays 50 gig, but don't quote me.
New players for everybody... again. Yippee!

[PercivalMerriwether]

Wow, this guy actually writes for PC World magazine. I find the ignorance of this article's author appalling. Each of these technologies has many reasons why it is not extinct, and a more interesting article would have been to find those many reasons. Of course, that would have required some effort on the author's part. I guess that's why my subscription to PC World magazine will soon become extinct. Ciao

[ahumanbean]

Nice and inaccurate article. How can you replace the fax machine. If you can afford a high speed/capacity scanner than I can see it, but the cost of these have not come down enough.

[LSUdolemite]

As someone who lives in the middle of a hurricane zone, I can personally attest to the usefulness of land-line telephones. Even assuming that cell towers have backup power (and generators eventually run out of fuel), the sheer volume of calls during a major hurricane overwhelms any wireless network in the immediate aftermath, which bogs down any kind of emergency communication. During Hurricane Gustav some people in Louisiana were out of power for over 3 weeks. Without battery chargers or electricity, cell phones will run out of power inside of a week. So land lines indeed serve a vital use for emergency and backup communication.

[bigrobsf]

Quote

Wow, this guy actually writes for PC World magazine. I find the ignorance of this article's author appalling.

I didn't take it so seriously. The author is described as a geek humorist and has a column at esarcasm.com. It's supposed to be funny. At least that was my take anyway.

But about land lines - I keep one because 1.) our home alarm system requires it and 2.) the last utility that seems to go out in a disaster is the trusty land line. I've been in plenty of storms and a few hurricanes in the South and when we lost power and cell phone service, that dial tone was music to my ears. Now I live in San Francisco and I'm not sure I trust AT&T Wireless to be available in a major blackout or after an earthquake.

This post has been edited by bigrobsf: 04 July 2010 - 08:56 PM

[JackSchmalzried]

you are so far off base here. everything has a time and a place. i love my turntable my land line and my instant print camera. there is something about nostalgia that most "geeks" never latch on to. i love my smart phone but sometimes its refreshing not to have to worry about so much stuff and just relax

[Dropmeoff]

#11 Dot-matrix printers

Lot's of businesses still want carbon copied printouts.

#12 iPad

[bignumone]

Many of the things you talk about require you put your trust in companies to deliver.
CDs and DVDs? Yeah, you can get stuff via download. But then if something happens to them, just try to get them back.
Landlines? Do you live near cell towers? Do you get a good signal in your house? I don't. Or if you are talking about VOIP, then you are either stuck with an IP provider's product/service or you are dependent on them to keep the lines open/not throttle your service. Just try to get Charter to fix a problem with their service. I have an IP outage at least 30 minutes a week (average).
Anything manually driven (typewriters, etc) would be a shame to disappear. Have you ever gone with-out electricity for more than a day? What a PITA! I have had several times where power has been out for several days and it is very difficult to get anything done with-out a generator.
It is like that with each and every one of your "suggestions". All and all, I would say you should put more thought into these lists or write about a better topic.

[simpsontruckdriver]

One thing mentioned here is still needed: the CB Radio. For the normal person, yes, no one needs a CB. But truck drivers like me need it. We use them to find out what traffic is like up ahead, like what lane is open. We use it to communicate with warehouses, to be told which dock to back into and when our trailer is loaded/unloaded. So, for truck drivers, it's highly recommended! For the average user, not really.

[technicalhitman]

I have to agree with the article. I understand it's done in humor. But some of the responses here are ridiculous at worst.

1. Email, text, or a tweet is much cheaper than telegraph.

2. Multi-page forms can be done by a computer. Ever heard of a printable PDF? It's a matter of programming of the software and the printer. Typewriters really serve no purpose in the 21'st century. Even carbon copies can be altered with another piece of carbon copy paper.

3. Digital fax services are more than good enough. Any computer attached to the internet becomes a faxing device. The old analogy fax could be dismissed with just the proper push.

4. The landline still has relevance due to ridiculous state of ISP's & wireless ISP's. However, new ethernet lines with the ability to send power could change that. However, redundancies to our power grid would have to follow. I think this keeps the landline around maybe for another 50 to 100 years.

5. Ever heard DVD Audio or Blu-Ray Audio? Those would totally blow away the turntable. DJ's are popular niche, but it's not what the every day person has. Everyone has a DVD player & Blu-rays are very popular now. An audio Blu-Ray or DVD album would destroy the turntable. Some artist are now doing Hi-Definition digital recordings that sound 10 times better than a vinyl record. Eventually, the next generation of portable music device I suspect will be able to deliver musically warm Hi-Definition music to the masses. Probably sooner than later.

6. As long as cash is written on paper, there will always be a place for the cash register. That's just being practical.

7. There's no way the instant camera will last in the era of digital printing. The quality of instant print's still lacks to the quality of a professional printer. The cost per print is much lower. This is a nice novelty, but instant prints do not last the test of time. The colors and paper fades much faster over time.

8. Disc aren't going anywhere. It's still a sure way to transfer media. You can always attach a reader to non-optical disk devices. Now maybe in 20 years, the disc will disappear.

9. I suspect in 10 years, the CRT will finally be extinct. The materials improvements will eventually render CRT moot.

10. Push to Talk killed the CB star. Yes, it's popular with truckers because of it's low cost. However, once the economy recovers and a technology refresh beings in the shipping world, CB's will go. So I bet in the next 20 years, the CB will finally be extinct.

[eowgt]

"wacky brand of geeky humor" "humorist"???????????????????
... keep practicing on the routine ... You'd never make it on the comedy club circuit...I give you a D+ for effort...

It's more likely that you will be extinct before most of these technologies will be...

[sroach23]

turntables? i love my turntable backpack for when im on the go. just because 99.9% of the population doesnt want to use this technology doesnt wont make it extinct. give me one reason why people would want to use a devices that can play thousands of songs without the fun of swapping records.
cds and dvds? what happens when people that arent smart enough to back their stuff up? they cant recover their music if their computer goes down.
these things will not be extinct for .0001 percent of the population so i dont think this list was poorly thought out.

[imjake9]

technicalhitman, on 05 July 2010 - 04:40 AM, said:

I have to agree with the article. I understand it's done in humor. But some of the responses here are ridiculous at worst.

1. Email, text, or a tweet is much cheaper than telegraph.

2. Multi-page forms can be done by a computer. Ever heard of a printable PDF? It's a matter of programming of the software and the printer. Typewriters really serve no purpose in the 21'st century. Even carbon copies can be altered with another piece of carbon copy paper.

3. Digital fax services are more than good enough. Any computer attached to the internet becomes a faxing device. The old analogy fax could be dismissed with just the proper push.

4. The landline still has relevance due to ridiculous state of ISP's & wireless ISP's. However, new ethernet lines with the ability to send power could change that. However, redundancies to our power grid would have to follow. I think this keeps the landline around maybe for another 50 to 100 years.

5. Ever heard DVD Audio or Blu-Ray Audio? Those would totally blow away the turntable. DJ's are popular niche, but it's not what the every day person has. Everyone has a DVD player & Blu-rays are very popular now. An audio Blu-Ray or DVD album would destroy the turntable. Some artist are now doing Hi-Definition digital recordings that sound 10 times better than a vinyl record. Eventually, the next generation of portable music device I suspect will be able to deliver musically warm Hi-Definition music to the masses. Probably sooner than later.

6. As long as cash is written on paper, there will always be a place for the cash register. That's just being practical.

7. There's no way the instant camera will last in the era of digital printing. The quality of instant print's still lacks to the quality of a professional printer. The cost per print is much lower. This is a nice novelty, but instant prints do not last the test of time. The colors and paper fades much faster over time.

8. Disc aren't going anywhere. It's still a sure way to transfer media. You can always attach a reader to non-optical disk devices. Now maybe in 20 years, the disc will disappear.

9. I suspect in 10 years, the CRT will finally be extinct. The materials improvements will eventually render CRT moot.

10. Push to Talk killed the CB star. Yes, it's popular with truckers because of it's low cost. However, once the economy recovers and a technology refresh beings in the shipping world, CB's will go. So I bet in the next 20 years, the CB will finally be extinct.

I agree with everything you've said 100%. Especially what you've said about discs. As long as DVDs exist, so will disk drives. And I think it'll be a long while before all movies are purchased electronically.

[dfschmid]

Landlines. They'll be around for years.

Here too in Canada, they are still widespread. Why? Primary reason is cost. Cell phones are way too bloody expensive in Canada. One can spend a fraction using a land line. Not everyone is that bloody rich, you know. And do you really need to use all those features on a cell phone anyway? Besides, landlines offer better quality.

[AlexHumva]

If you don't mind, I don't find paying things with digital money that great. Cold hard cash suits me just fine. Credit cards are stupid and paying for stuff with stuff that actually doesn't exist outside of 1s and 0s was never my idea of reliable. So until cash is outlawed, cash registers will be around.