Retro Technology

I had one of these! And I had completely forgotten it ever existed until I saw this article. I lived in the boonies, so reception was terrible, though it was really cool when it worked.

Like the contributor, I also took mine apart when it stopped working. Unlike the contributor, I probably stand no chance of ever putting it back together (assuming I still had it).

When traditional dial-up modems communicate, they encode digital bits as screechy analog tones that would then be carried over phone lines originally designed for human voices. It’s an imperfect way of doing things, but it was the most practical way of networking computers in the olden days. There was already a telephone line in just about every house and business, so it made sense to use them as a conduit to get computers online.

For years, speeds ticked up as modem manufacturers ratified new, faster modulation schemes. Speeds eventually reached 33.6 kbps which was believed to be near the theoretical maximum speed possible over standard telephone lines. This largely came down to the Shannon limit of typical phone lines—basically, with the amount of noise on a given line, and viable error correcting methods, there was a maximum speed at which data could reliably be transferred.

In the late 1990s, though, everything changed. 56 kbps modems started flooding the market as rival manufacturers vied to have the fastest, most capable product on offer. The speed limits had been smashed. The answer lay not in breaking Shannon’s Law, but in exploiting a fundamental change that had quietly transformed the telephone network without the public ever noticing.

An interesting look back with some unique editing choices

After seeing the various Commodore keyboards in Alien: Romulus I'm wondering if these ones from Silo existed in the past too.

Having a penchant for cheap second-hand cameras can lead to all manner of interesting equipment. You never know what the next second-hand store will provide, and thus everything from good quality rangefinders an SLRs to handheld snapshot cameras can be yours for what is often a very acceptable price. Most old cameras can use modern film in some way, wither directly or through some manner of adapter, but there is one format that has no modern equivalent and for which refilling a cartridge might be difficult. I’m talking about Kodak’s Disc, the super-compact and convenient snapshot cameras which were their Next Big Thing in the early 1980s. In finding out its history and ultimate fate, I’m surprised to find that it introduced some photographic technologies we all still use today.

I've inherited all my grandfathers radio and telegraph equipment. I have lots of memories of sitting on his lap in his radio room while he talked to people on the other side of the world before the internet was really a thing. He passed away in the mid 90's and I think he would have loved this modern world and all its tools for instant communication.

This piece is likely from Signal Electrics Telegraph learners kit, there appears to be many eras of this kit from the 1920s until the 40s. I suspect he got this around the 30's but I'm not sure. Its a really cool piece of retro tech tho.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/30929451 in [email protected]

I'm kind of shocked that they built the system in '98 and decided to use 5.25 floppies instead of the 3.5 ones.

For anyone who is unclear what this is, the circle on the back of the card is an actual tiny record, and when you put it in the machine it would play you a little bio about the baseball player on the card!

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/8962980

Sauce: https://post.lurk.org/@loriemerson/111818576272784347

Yeah, my fax has broken. I'm broken.

I got two AirPort Express from my dad. Now, since the hardware is so old, I thought maybe there is way to get root or at least elevated rights somehow in order to play with it a little

Hope someone knows something about it, or knows which community may help me better with

😊have a nice day!

Fighter planes in the 1950s used the  Bendix Central Air Data Computer to determine air speed, mach number, altitude and so forth from pressure. It is electromechanical, using gears and synchros for its computations. Amazingly, it is modular and can be easily disassembled.

We separated the top layer from the rest for testing. The "interface" between the layers is two gears and an electrical connection. The electronic servo amplifier blocks come off too.

(3 photos in link)

The backwards compatibility achieved by clever "simple mechanics" is very cool!

Yup, it still works. The hose was replaced long ago, so that's not original. I have a really nice cordless Dyson that I use for day to day vacuuming, but this one lives downstairs and still does the job when its asked of it.