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Redundant technology

Started by greencalx, May 22, 2022, 05:02:27 PM

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Blumf

Quote from: mjwilson on June 06, 2022, 12:49:53 PMApparently universal remotes are redundant now - there were various announcements about companies stopping making them. I think we're all just supposed to be using HDMI-CEC to be controlling everything, although half of my technology seems to be too old to support it.

Yeah, Logitech ditching their Harmony remotes is a real PITA. No I don't want to control my TV with a fucking phone app!

I'm using a SofaBaton U1 remote at the moment, which isn't as functional as a Harmony, but otherwise pretty decent.

Endicott

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 06, 2022, 12:22:17 PMGoogle podcasts is pretty good as a browser-only thing, although google seem to be trying to keep it a secret, I practically found out about it by accident.

The android app seems fine to me. I'm not exactly a heavy user though.

Famous Mortimer

Podcast Addict works an absolute treat for me.

Gurke and Hare

I use player.fm, but you have to pay if you want to keep what you have and haven't listened to synced between desktop and app.

touchingcloth

Are there still ATMs out there running Windows ME?

petril

Quote from: mjwilson on June 06, 2022, 12:49:53 PMApparently universal remotes are redundant now - there were various announcements about companies stopping making them. I think we're all just supposed to be using HDMI-CEC to be controlling everything, although half of my technology seems to be too old to support it.

I will miss the fun of cycling through every code and pressing the standby button to see if it's right or not. hundreds of times


canadagoose

Quote from: touchingcloth on June 06, 2022, 03:13:15 PMAre there still ATMs out there running Windows ME?
I remember seeing one using OS/2 Warp about 10 years ago. I assume they've changed them since then.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: mjwilson on June 06, 2022, 12:49:53 PMApparently universal remotes are redundant now - there were various announcements about companies stopping making them. I think we're all just supposed to be using HDMI-CEC to be controlling everything, although half of my technology seems to be too old to support it.

That'd all be well and good if CEC wasn't an absolute twat. Especially when you have AV-receivers and stuff in the equation. I'm dreading when my 6+ year old Harmony remote gives up the ghost.

buzby

Quote from: canadagoose on June 06, 2022, 08:37:22 PM
Quote from: touchingcloth on June 06, 2022, 03:13:15 PMAre there still ATMs out there running Windows ME?
I remember seeing one using OS/2 Warp about 10 years ago. I assume they've changed them since then.
They used OS/2 because it was so obscure nobody bothered to write exploits or viruses for it - 'security via obscurity'. The banks started to move off it when IBM announced it was withdrawing support for it at the end of 2006, it hung around in US ATMs for quite a while after that though (the US manufacturers NCR and Diebold only stopped selling new ATMs with OS/2 in early 2006). IBM started promoting an embedded Linux as a replacement, but most banks went for Windows XP, and later XP Embedded and Win7 Embedded.

The banks that do use Linux basically use it to run virtual machines so the old OS/2 or Win32 software doesn't need to be immediately rewritten.

gilbertharding

The 'infoband' on the GPO Tower [sic] is running on Windows 7, apparently:


Blumf

The Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers run Windows 2000

https://www.theregister.com/2007/02/26/windows_boxes_at_sea/

At least Win2k was one of the better releases, I suppose.

Sherringford Hovis

Quote from: buzby on June 01, 2022, 03:20:56 PMAnother user of them is fire brigades - a few years ago I was involved with a project to upgrade the station alerter systems at a number of fire brigades. The old embedded contollers at the stations used Oki Microline ML280 dot matrix printers with RS232 interfaces, some of which were around 20 years old and still working (the print heads are life-rated for 200 million characters, and the ribbons for 3 million characters). They are used to print out the incident details, which the crew then tear off as they head to the engine (they have touchscreen terminals in the cabs these days too, but prefer having a physical copy as well).

Can confirm: still using OKI ML280 printers for mobilisation info in my brigade. You can still buy them new: the "microline" branding has disappeared and they're now "eco" apparently. Also, the plastic casing has been updated from 80s beige to 21st century tech-grey. They only feed reliably from beneath if stood on a shoddy plastic plinth that looks like some lacklustre Year 8 Design and Technology project. Feeding from top or behind is usually not utilised as the printers are commonly sited just inside vehicle bay doors so driver or commander can grab it immediately prior to mounting up. The sprocket-holed paper "tip sheet" remains essential as the MDT/RIT/ABD touchscreen software in the vehicles generally fails somehow about 20% of the time.


buzby

Quote from: Sherringford Hovis on June 07, 2022, 03:53:06 PMCan confirm: still using OKI ML280 printers for mobilisation info in my brigade. You can still buy them new: the "microline" branding has disappeared and they're now "eco" apparently. Also, the plastic casing has been updated from 80s beige to 21st century tech-grey. They only feed reliably from beneath if stood on a shoddy plastic plinth that looks like some lacklustre Year 8 Design and Technology project. Feeding from top or behind is usually not utilised as the printers are commonly sited just inside vehicle bay doors so driver or commander can grab it immediately prior to mounting up. The sprocket-holed paper "tip sheet" remains essential as the MDT/RIT/ABD touchscreen software in the vehicles generally fails somehow about 20% of the time.
Yeah, we had to supply new ones for the new station ends as their existing ones were too old to use  the USB interface module. They were still Microline branded and beige at that time though (about 6 years ago). They removed RS232 as an interface option when they went to the 'Eco' version.

Your MDTs don't run SEED's software do they, by any chance?

Fr.Bigley

Anyone still using a Betafax for sending emails?

Sony won that format war in the end and your emails were always faxed in decent resolution and had a lovely watermark of Richard Whiteleys face from that Asahi advert.

Captain Z

One of the materials testing machines in my lab runs on Windows 98. I often need to get text file data off it, but due to the age of the computer there is no USB port. We had to network it to a laptop that now functions purely as a glorified USB hub.

billyandthecloneasaurus

Ooh I keep all my minidiscs in case Ian Limewire decides to delete all music ever. Grow up.

billyandthecloneasaurus

But nah this is a really interesting thread.  We still have a fax machine at work, but it only gets used once every six months for one specific client in Germany who insists on it.  What a loser.

gilbertharding

Re-reading this thread reminds me that I bought a Samsonite briefcase in the 90s which had a special little compartment (on the left, here) where you could store three or four 3.5" floppies. And another part where your calculator went (on the right).



Actually: Calculators. I know you can still buy them, but I think I'm the only person in my office who still has one.

Sebastian Cobb

I can't even be bothered firing up calculator apps half the time, quicker to Google the sum.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 08, 2022, 12:20:40 PMI can't even be bothered firing up calculator apps half the time, quicker to Google the sum.

Ask Jeeves: "What is the hypotenuse of a triangle where the base is 3.5m and the opposite angle is 36 degrees?"

Dex Sawash

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 08, 2022, 12:20:40 PMI can't even be bothered firing up calculator apps half the time, quicker to Google the sum.


Fuck me that's amazing

MojoJojo

At home I'll ask alexa or google.

JaDanketies

Quote from: billyandthecloneasaurus on June 08, 2022, 01:51:48 AMBut nah this is a really interesting thread.  We still have a fax machine at work, but it only gets used once every six months for one specific client in Germany who insists on it.  What a loser.

German client is thinking "I wish I could throw this bloody thing away but I need to fax that idiot company every six months after expressing a preference 15 years ago"

Jasha

Motor factors still use the dot matrix, only reason I can think is it can print off a carbon copy relatively quickly or without canning the ink

Sebastian Cobb

Talking cars, what were tha all about, eh?


I remember we touched on something similar with talking toys in a thread a while back. I didn't realise some talking cars used this technology as well, I mostly only knew about the Austin onrs that used a synths.