Olds go nostalgic for the good old days of tech

[FGD135]

Everything you always wanted to know about christmas lights but were afraid to ask:

Tru-Tone C9 LED Christmas lights - an overview

LED Christmas lights which don't hurt the eyes: it finally happened!

LED Christmas lights still annoy me. Let's try some more fixes.

Once again I attempt to add polish to LED holiday lights

Bubble Lights: The Weirdest Christmas Light?

LED color experiments 2019; Beyond the Sharpie

LED Experiments: Making Holiday Lights Less Garish

I painted light bulbs and put them outside. Here's what happened.

The Twinkling Light Set: An increasingly rare but delightful type of decorative lighting

[FGD135]

Traceroute is real – I should know, I was there with MPLS

[IronEdithKidd]

My grandma had those bubble lights! They were neat!

[womanhood_deferred]

I still go on the computer. I’ll never give up my keyboard and multiple monitors.

[Crashproof]

I have to admit, sometimes I sit down in my big chair in front of my desktop with its dual widescreen LCDs and browse stuff on my phone.

[womanhood_deferred]

I don’t browse stuff on my phone, but I do message people with it even though I could just open a tab.

I do browse stuff on the tablet that sits on the end table next to my bed.

I surprisingly listen to a lot of music through my computer speakers.

[DaakSyde]

Me too, except the multiple monitors part. I did that for a few years and thought I’d never go back, but then I upgraded my graphics card and didn’t have an adapter for the older monitor, so I just went back to one and got used to that again. Now, however, work just bought me a new 34" ultrawide monitor, and I’m loving it.

Also I just finally bought myself a real desk. Wanted one for years but couldn’t decide what I wanted, so I made do with a folding table. But with the possibility of impending tariffs, I just decided to finally go ahead and get one.

[ficuswhisperer]

That “computer furniture” sure brings back some memories. Mostly bad . Did any of that stuff ever really last? It seemed like it was all low quality pressboard that would crumble the moment you tried to move it.

@DaakSyde

Now, however, work just bought me a new 34" ultrawide monitor, and I’m loving it.

This for sure. I’m very space constrained at home, and for a long time my desk was dominated by two 21” monitors that I borrowed from work after we were all sent home when COVID started blowing up. It was simply ridiculous. I replaced those two 21” monitors with a single 34” ultrawide that was on sale for cheap from Costco. It’s obviously not as big overall, but it’s big enough, and saves so much precious desk space.

(Not the best monitor, but a truly great one would have cost at least twice as much, but not have been twice as good. Since I don’t work from home much anymore I decided it wasn’t worth it.)

[1000YearBan]

I bought an ultra wide LG monitor and it was great until a cat jumped up on my desk, flipping a ballpoint pen against the screen and destroying it.

Back to the ancient MBP with dead pixels

[RAvery]

Restoring Apple's fastest Mac (in 1990)

[FGD135]

Christmas 1984: A turning point for 8-bit home computing

[MarkDow]

From near the pinnacle of steam powered technology:

How a Steam Locomotive Works (Union Pacific "Big Boy")

[Axolotl]

I just watched this yesterday. Are you looking over my shoulder?

[Millie_Fink]

[Millie_Fink]

Speaking of nostalgia, or anyway, of old times and things, has anything from way back when come to mind for you recently that hasn’t in a long time?

This morning I was visited by memories of two: chain letters and unlisted numbers. It’s probably been years since either has come to mind for me, let alone come up some other way.

[noahdjango]

@Millie_Fink

unlisted numbers

your post prompted “listed” numbers, i.e. phonebooks, and the predictive text just now prompted “phonebooths.”

[kxkvi]

Party lines – my wife’s family who lived in the country (well, 20 miles from a big city) had one till sometime in the mid to late 1960’s, I think.

[nosaj]

@noahdjango

@Millie_Fink

unlisted numbers

your post prompted “listed” numbers, i.e. phonebooks, and the predictive text just now prompted “phonebooths.”

Here in Oz, all phone booths were simply made free in 2021. Some of them are also free wifi hotspots too.

Payphones have always been and continue to be a vital piece of social infrastructure that are a convenient beacon of safety and connection, especially for our most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the community.

We have a universal service obligation to ensure that payphones are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia, no matter where they live or conduct business. We allow for public consultation on the location of payphones and try to resolve any complaints.

[Hanglyman]

The Japanese Pizza Page I first discovered in high school. Every few years I’ll go and check if it’s still around, and so far, it hasn’t ever let me down. I find it a soothing place to inhabit, a little slice of Web 1.0 preserved and intact. I still wish I could try most of those pizzas.

http://www.chachich.com/mdchachi/jpizza.html

[DaakSyde]

There’s also still https://www.lingscars.com/