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Obsolete Sounds

citiesandmemory.com

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Re: Obsolete Sounds

#41

Post by PlunderBunny »

bee_rider wrote: post #13
binaryturtle wrote: post #4

Needs a recording of an Amiga reading in a floppy disk... and the floppy drive just waiting to be feed. Those were the sounds! :) (The interface on the website is a bit confusing to use, IMHO)

It is weird to think, computers are almost completely devoid of whirring nowadays. Other than the fan, and fans have gotten quite quiet. Floppies, CDs, hard drives. Tapes even (although I’m not that old). It’s just kind of funny, I guess, the upcoming generation will never have the surprising “wow, my computer is silent” moment. I guess that was a one-time thing.

I remember when the hard drive on my PowerMac 7200/90 started to fail (I was told that some of the ball bearings the platter rotated on were broken [0]). When the drive detected a 'wobble' on the platter, the entire computer would just power down with no warning at all - it was like the sound of a vacuum cleaner powering off. Silence and a blank screen that looked like a power cut, followed by that "oh sh!t" moment.

0. Note sure how true this was!

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#42

Post by ragall »

Theodores wrote: post #40
myself248 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, all the estate sales I go to are run (and posted) by third parties, who do it as a business, for a percentage of the sales. The heirs are nowhere to be found -- they got a first pass through the house a few days prior to grab anything sentimental, and they'll show up a few days later when the business has been transacted. But the folks running the sale are professionals. Which means they should know better. And s…

Meh. Maybe it is a cultural difference, we have different manners outside the USA. Your business is rather vulgar in the UK context, that of a parasite or a greedy gannet. There would be no honour in selling the estate items to your sort, setting light to everything or giving it to sensible charities would be far preferable. As exemplified by what is going on in the Middle East, the USA has different values to the re…

Well said.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#44

Post by marky1991 »

Theodores wrote: post #40
myself248 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, all the estate sales I go to are run (and posted) by third parties, who do it as a business, for a percentage of the sales. The heirs are nowhere to be found -- they got a first pass through the house a few days prior to grab anything sentimental, and they'll show up a few days later when the business has been transacted. But the folks running the sale are professionals. Which means they should know better. And s…

Meh. Maybe it is a cultural difference, we have different manners outside the USA. Your business is rather vulgar in the UK context, that of a parasite or a greedy gannet. There would be no honour in selling the estate items to your sort, setting light to everything or giving it to sensible charities would be far preferable. As exemplified by what is going on in the Middle East, the USA has different values to the re…

I don't get it , he's buying stuff at estate sales. That's literally what they're for. I didn't understand what part of his behavior you consider uncouth.

As he already said, they're almost always run as a very detached thing, run by professionals with no connection to the family, other than the transaction.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#45

Post by myself248 »

Theodores wrote: post #40
myself248 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, all the estate sales I go to are run (and posted) by third parties, who do it as a business, for a percentage of the sales. The heirs are nowhere to be found -- they got a first pass through the house a few days prior to grab anything sentimental, and they'll show up a few days later when the business has been transacted. But the folks running the sale are professionals. Which means they should know better. And s…

Meh. Maybe it is a cultural difference, we have different manners outside the USA. Your business is rather vulgar in the UK context, that of a parasite or a greedy gannet. There would be no honour in selling the estate items to your sort, setting light to everything or giving it to sensible charities would be far preferable. As exemplified by what is going on in the Middle East, the USA has different values to the re…

How do you view thrift stores, then? Genuinely curious. All the same items, one or two steps further removed from the family.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#46

Post by ehnto »

Theodores wrote: post #40
myself248 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, all the estate sales I go to are run (and posted) by third parties, who do it as a business, for a percentage of the sales. The heirs are nowhere to be found -- they got a first pass through the house a few days prior to grab anything sentimental, and they'll show up a few days later when the business has been transacted. But the folks running the sale are professionals. Which means they should know better. And s…

Meh. Maybe it is a cultural difference, we have different manners outside the USA. Your business is rather vulgar in the UK context, that of a parasite or a greedy gannet. There would be no honour in selling the estate items to your sort, setting light to everything or giving it to sensible charities would be far preferable. As exemplified by what is going on in the Middle East, the USA has different values to the re…

I'm not sure I follow, maybe I misunderstand what the original commenter is doing, but it sounds like they are helping their community find and re-use old equipment which doesn't sound like a bad thing. Not many charities would take on that kind of stuff, and it would end up in the tip.

I'm from Aus if that helps, I would rather see that kind of stuff flow on to enthusiasts than get tossed.

I am however not a big fan of scalping or opportunistic/speculative profiteering. That does happen a lot with these kinds of second hand markets. But I am not seeing that being what the original commenter is doing, maybe I missed it though.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#47

Post by flomo »

Cockbrand wrote: post #39
Cockbrand wrote: post #14

I can't believe nobody had nitpicked the obvious mistake yet: there never was an iBook Duo. The 68k Apple notebooks and the early PPC ones were called PowerBooks, so the correct naming is "PowerBook Duo 230".

Each time I get super anal about a piece nerd knowledge, I make some mistake myself - all the Apple PPC laptops were in fact called PowerBook. The MacBook name started with the Intel based devices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBook

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#49

Post by anthk »

shit_game wrote: post #6

I love seeing art like this. Using things that are forgotten, obscure, unused, insignificant, or otherwise inconsequential is an ethos unto its own. Obsolete technologies are becoming exponentially rare; I unfortunately passed up an auction for an Osbourne 1 just this week and I'm regretting it more every second since. I desperatey search thrift stores for anything I can find that isn't the generic consumer garbage t…

In my case I'm planing to get one of these portable game consoles mimicking a Game Boy with 4 buttons which have some embeeded Linux OS with a GP2X GUI (the handheldGUI from the old GP2X consoles, now being universal) and OFC video players like Mplayer can be adapted/ported there (and ScummVM and a lot more). Then I will just grab a cheap pair of $5 headphones and call it a day. Video player, retroconsole and maybe a pocket computer with a USB host cable and a mini keyboard, a geeks heaven.

As current smartphones as ditching own the auio cable this is great: I can listen to music/watch some niche scifi series at lowish res (PSP like) from an SD and I can also have nice matches with some old retro JRPGs and plataformers for almost nothing. Tons of homebrew ROMs are perfectly legal to share, too. I own a 100% legal collection which can be shared over Bittorrent and give a lot of fun for both kids and adults, from XRick to Cave Story ports for Genesis/MD to Supertux Advance, this one being a 100% libre game. As a plus, the phone battery will last for longer.

Oh, and with a mini keyboard I might be able to code in EForth whil seating down on a bus as they often have some foldable tray to place laptops and the like. I can just use a book to rest the console and with a keyboard I'm done :)

Oh, and podcasts, too. It wasn't the original purpose, but this is libre software. If an $20/$30 can do the same as an $100 netbook, better for everyone.

As current devices will get a much higher price because of RAM and storage shortages, repurposing devices as computers (and with the right software) can create drastic changes.

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