this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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I don't mean BETTER. That's a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That's just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Horsehide bomber jackets of the sort worn in WW2.

We can make cheaper and lighter synthetic materials. But I like the look that leather jackets acquire with wear over time (and particularly horsehide, which is less-available today than cowhide, as we don't have many horses around any more).

They aren't gone -- it's still possible to obtain them. But in 2024, they're really limited to people going out of their way to get them.

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[–] Mac@mander.xyz 20 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

Carburetors are pretty fuckin cool.
The concept seems simple: utilize the vacuum from the engine to pull in fuel. But they're extremely complicated with all the tiny orifices and passageways to perfect the amount of fuel going into the engine at different points.

Unrelated sidenote: i got deja vu writing this comment. Interesting.

[–] Tujio@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

A fuel injector is measurably better in basically every way.

I might still rather have a carburetor...

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[–] terraborra 19 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Railway signalling and interlocking systems. Sure ETCS and other digital systems are far safer, but some dude at a junction used to manually reset the points and crossovers using a giant lever. Now everything’s just a digital system overseen by someone with 8+ monitors in a control room removed from the actual network.

Also, not a technology, but rally cars used to be fully unhinged. I could watch old Group B videos for hours and never get bored.

[–] Mora@pawb.social 5 points 18 hours ago

Come to Germany, we still use parts from emperors time😂

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 14 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

I still think ZIP drives are pretty cool. Or using cassette tapes of any kind for data other than video/audio. Hella wish I had a DAT drive still.

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[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 9 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

The Apple II is still such a fucking cool computer.

Sure, my watch is about a billion times more powerful, but my watch will never be as cool as the Apple II.

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 3 points 15 hours ago

Never did I wish I'd been born 30 years earlier quite how when I saw 8 bit guy's video on the workings of an Apple II

I simply adore how tinkerable that thing seems to be.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

It's mainly cool to me because of what it represented in its era. It was personal computing available for the masses, yes, but it's also the embodiment of the American dream. Here's these guys soldering and writing code in their garage, and all of the sudden they're in stores across the world, and competing with giants such as Xerox, and IBM. It's a product from a story for the ages.

[–] bonn2@lemm.ee 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I'm a sucker for Nixie Tubes

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[–] metaStatic@kbin.earth 6 points 20 hours ago

cooler then or now? because I would argue all retro tech is cooler now

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 6 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Not really an "older iteration" as much as a "sideways iteration", but the Novint Falcon was the coolest controller I've ever used. It had a ton of potential, but it seemed like the company had no clue how to utilize it.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I still have mine sitting on a shelf in my office.

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 4 points 19 hours ago

I still have mine in its original box in my closet. I wish there were modern drivers for it with custom game support; so you could mod support into your favorite games.

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