In show 1x32, there was a discussion of when ones first got into tech. So, the question that came to my mind is, what is the oldest tech that you currently use on a regular basis?
Now I use a toaster that is 1950’s vintage and also a combination square of the same era, but that’s really not tech, is it? I do use a CNC machine almost daily that has a 486DX 75mhz processor with 4MB ram running DOS. It runs fine and upgrading that computer would have virtually no positive effect on the machine.
Difficult for me to answer as I sold most of my stuff when I moved to the US. Probably the oldest thing I use on a regular basis is my bass guitar which I bought in 2001.
Yes, I was trying to think as to what would be “tech”. I use metal working machines that are 1940’s vintage, but the only “tech” about them is the power switch, unless you include mechanical “tech”. It is amazing what can be done with them though.
Now, you might wonder why use machines that are so old? One word. Iron. They used lots of iron in these old machines and that makes them very stable. Plus, if it works and works well, why get rid of it?
Huh! I’ve got an old Frigidaire Electric Range from 1952 that I love (really classes up a kitchen). But I don’t really feel like that counts for this…
Do games count? I’ve got my Computer Space from 1971 that’s still running and playable. The Odyssey from '72. But I suppose I don’t really turn those on very often (a few times a year).
The oldest game system I usually haul out and play is the Vectrex from 1983.
On the productivity side of things I run DOS on a daily basis – though usually it is the latest version of FreeDOS… which had the last major update just two years ago. So it feels really old… but isn’t. I fairly regularly use an old copy of Wordperfect 5.1 which is from … (looks it up on Wikipedia) … 1989.
Nothing fancy here. Since I still buy CDs but have to encode them to put them on my smartphone, I still use a 2006 laptop to do this, the only device remaining in my house that comes with a CD drive…
And I do have a Rolleiflex camera from the 1930s (I’m p[retty opsitive it’s the K2 from around 1934), but to be honest I only used it once with a roll of 120 film I bought in Taipei. It was fun but I guess film photography is definitely not for me
I still use film occasionally when taking photographs so the oldest bit of tech I have that actually gets used is My Pentax ME Super which was bought for me in the early 80’s. Though to be fair it is only occasionally and most of photographs I take now are digital.
It is perhaps suprising that UNIX and SQL are the foundation of the majority of information systems we build and deploy, considering they are essentially 40 year old technologies?
Agreed. Although I increasingly don’t use SQL RDBMSes for projects these days; only where I actually have highly-relational data. And it is not clear that a modern unix-like system (OS X, Ubuntu, etc) resembles a 1970s Unix all that much
I guess - although the bourne shell, vi, and the unix filesystem are fundamentally the same? Not that i’m complaining, mind you - these are some of my favourite things. As is SQL - although enjoying Redis for Node microservices right now.
I have a sort of retro gaming setup, which consists of an old Grundig 14" color CRT, an NES and a Sega Genesis. I would think those are the oldest pieces of working technology that are still in regular use. There is stuff in the basement that’s older, but not being used.
Dot matrix printers and SABRE system at work. Every few months we’ll receive a message saying there has been a minor glitch as they had to “change the tapes”.