Ten Technologies About to Go Extinct
Check out this list of ten technologies about to go extinct and then jump into the comments section and let us know what you think should have made the list.
Each of those marvels was a wonder of its time. Now each is obsolete, a once-outstanding advancement made laughable when compared to the contact-lens camera or Japan's soon-to-be feasible moon-walking robot.
1) Landlines: No not obsolete, they're still cheaper, offer more reliable quality, and businesses need them. They're also much more secure.
2) Floppy Disks - Yeah, but only in that one format, that type of magnetic storage is used in HDD's and more importantly, tape.
3) Wristwatches - Eh? Watches are still popular, still usefull, less prone to losing them, offer no EM radiation, and also are much hardier than phones. Then there's the specialist ones for Divers, Nasa etc.....
4) VCR/VHS - Superseeded by DVD and HDD's. Okay.
5) Beepers - I presume they mean pagers? Hospital and other specialised workplaces. They were never needed for the general public anyway.
6) Film Cameras - Obsoleted by digitial technology. Fair enough.
7) Typewriters - They've already gone in all practical applications because they've been superseeded by PC's. Bit of an odd choice for a list of technology "about to go extinct".
8) The Walkman, Discman and MiniDisc player - Advancement of MP3 players, technically the Walkman won't die as it's Sony's brand name. But the cassette form of it died in the early 00's.
9) Dial-up Internet access - Is not a technology. It's simply a method. Pointless inclusion on the list even if it has been obsoleted by ADSL and other cable connections
10) DVD's - I think not, it will be superseeded by other formats like Blu-Ray, the same as DVDs superseeded CD's for most applications and how CD's superseeded Floppy disks. Not really technology going extinct, just evolving.
Strange strange list.
Last edited by buzzmong on April 16th, 2009, 11:28, edited 1 time in total.
Strange list indeed, I stated before that I don't know anyone that has blu-ray discs or a blu-ray player (not including PS3's) or that are willing to fork out for a disc, dvd's are still cheaper and the box is usually nicer, the non-geek audience prefers that.
And dial-up about to go tits up? They obviously have never been to Australia.
Oh, it's Fox news. Makes sense that it's a load of pish.
6) Film Cameras - No. Just no. They are less prevalent, but still mighty popular.
9) Dialup - What? For those millions of people too far from an exchange, and in areas too poor for cable, dialup is their only method of internet access.
Pagers are virtually obsolete in this country, even hospitals etc don't use them, they issue dect low ejaculation phones instead. But worldwide, there's still quite a few countries where carrying a couple of beepers is a status thing. Until that stops they won't become extinct.
Typewriters - still used?
Film cameras - pretty much obsolete in terms of general casual use yes, but there's plenty of people who still use them.
I'm baffled as to why wristwatches are on this list.
Landline telephones? Yes a college dorm will be mobile laden, but businesses (like where I werk) have shit tons of landline phones. Everyone here in a site of thousands of workers each has a phone with one or more lines.
HereComesPete wrote:but businesses (like where I werk) have shit tons of landline phones. Everyone here in a site of thousands of workers each has a phone with one or more lines.
Are they actual phones, or is it some crazy IP phone thing?
Actual phone lines for external calls. They connect to pc/fibre line for a seperate internal phone network.
Editz - site has it's own substation and phone exchange buildings, right next to each other. The substation occasionally overloads the exchange and we lose our external lines, which is hilarious because of the call centre based downstairs. I don't talk to customers so I'm not bothered.
Landlines are the only thing that works when the power goes down - assuming you have a parasitic phone you can plug in in an emergency, but IP phones are taking over in businesses. Radio phones are actually more cost-effective in remote areas in places like Africa though, so it's not like the old technology in use in such areas is stopping its extinction.
I'm currently in the process of converting all my VHS titles to DVD - a whole box of tapes translates to a single 25-disk spindle of disks.
Pagers are still huge for what they are, also of note maybe Two-ways, which were like texting-only phones which caught on in the US, even after mobile phones were ubiquitous here.
DVDs. Not just yet. The problem with digital downloads is that you end up paying for everything multiple times - either cos you deleted it for more space and have to download it again, or for the continued cost of storage. With a DVD you buy/burn it once and it's yours forever.
Ten Technologies About to Go Extinct
