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.

  • autriyo@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    10 days ago

    Electromechanical stuff. Like old jukeboxes, pinball machines or anything else that required programming before the widespread use of microcontrollers.

    Some people have already mentioned stuff akin to this, like the mechanical govenor, or the post abt THIS MUSEUM IS NOT OBSOLETE, but it really deserves its own thread.

    Technology Connections on YouTube has made some great videos about devices like that.

    Pinball Jukebox

    • itstoowet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      They also feel…worse? Jumbo frets, thick coats of polyurethane, cheap pickguards, plastic pickup covers, etc — yuck.

      I’ve been buying weirdo vintage guitars (teisco, musima) and they feel way better in my hands. The pickups are usually pretty low output, yeah, but the cleans sound so so good.

        • itstoowet@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          13 days ago

          Well that one is a baritone (26.5" or 27" scale) but still pretty thin (about as thick as the typical strat) and ergonomic.

          My other guitar, a 1960s teisco, is one of the lightest guitars I’ve ever owned:

          I’m gonna modify this one though and put a tuneomatic on here, the intonation is quite terrible.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    Ships’ sails. I mean, I know some small vessels still use them, but look at any paintings from 1500s-1800s and tell me those huge white pieces of cloth don’t look cool.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      They definitely have a look, although I like the sleek, almost solar punk look of modern sails.

      We went from bedsheets that get blown around to clean and optimized vertical wings.

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    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.

    • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days 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.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      13 days 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.

  • Dearth@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    12 days ago

    The original tv remote didn’t use batteries. It used sound. Giant clunky devices with large tactile buttons. Never runs out of batteries and still works if your kid tries to block the screen to keep you from turning it off

  • tal@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    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.

  • Everett@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    In the near to mid future, I think an answer to this question Internal Combustion Engines. I love electric vehicles and look forward to the tech improving. But the sheer coolness factor of moving a large machine through perfectly timed and calibrated explosions is tough to beat.

    • waz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      As a subset of this, the fact that carburators worked as well as they did, until we had the technology to invent the simpler fuel injector, I think is pretty cool.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        13 days ago

        Constant velocity carburetors blew my mind when I learned how they worked, and I got the funniest introduction to them.

        I had an Aprilia RS-50 motorcycle which had a slide-type carburetor. Instead of a coin-in-a-pipe throttle, this thing basically had a portcullis across the intake. Pulling on the throttle cable pulled the slide upwards making the aperture/venturi larger, allowing in more air, while also lifting a needle up out of the jet to allow more fuel in. It’s a 2-stroke race bike, so you could easily bog down the engine if you opened the throttle too fast.

        Then I bought a Ninja 250F, which has constant velocity carbs. Which also have a slide, AND a butterfly valve. The butterfly valve is operated by the throttle cable to control power. The slide is vacuum powered from the engine, and opens and closes the venturi to keep the air velocity through the carburetor constant, in order to keep the suction at the jet constant. It also has a needle in the main jet which it lifts along with the slide, so the needle’s taper meters the fuel mixture for the amount of air going through the carb. This inherently compensates for air density; if the air is less dense the vacuum mechanism can’t pull the slide open as far so the slide doesn’t open as far, and neither does the needle valve. So it automatically maintains the mixture.

        Which is why using constant velocity carburetors on the Rotax 912 engine is such a brilliant idea. A carbureted airplane engine with no cockpit mixture control.

        • spookex@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          12 days ago

          RS50 is such a fun bike, and I know the pain with the carb, I have to ride mine uphill, also, just replaced the 12mm flat slide carb with a 17.5mm round slide, runs quite nice

    • Dragon "Rider"(drag)@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      Drag disagrees. If you want transportation with fire, ride a dragon. No need to pollute the earth. The emissions make it uncool, just like the ridiculous Mad Max cars.

      • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        13 days ago

        If you want transportation with fire, ride a dragon.

        Username checks out. I see you everywhere, and your comments often make me happy.

        I definitely agree with you that cars are terrible, and I wish they didn’t exist. Even though I’m a hater, I gotta admit the engineering and history behind them fascinates me, still.

    • reesilva@bolha.forum
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      And the fact is “mechanic automated” system for me is what makes it even cooler. All you had to do to start is twist it a couple revolutions and bang, it works as long as you have fuel because everything simply works. Of course, today you have electronic fuel injection and so one, but if you want you can make it works just with a lot of metal to do the right parts.

      Man, I’ll miss combustion engines (but I hope its use ends ASAP because planet can’t wait anymore)

      • spookex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        12 days ago

        That’s why I kinda like my carburated 2-stroke motorcycle.

        Needs just 3 wires from the engine to work and 1 to shut it off. Weighs just around 100kg and will propel me to 90km/h with just a 50cc cylinder.

        Not to mention the smoke, sound, and the narrow powerband, just love that feeling.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        13 days ago

        It won’t. Hydrogen has terrible efficiency even when fuel cells are in the pipeline. Putting it in an ICE only makes it worse. It’ll have some racing applications, but that’s it.

      • Cris@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        13 days ago

        Thoughts on motorcycles? Totally fine if you really don’t like them either, I’m just curious :)

        • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.socialOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          13 days ago

          Grudging respect.

          I don’t like motorcycles either, but they are the “noble steed” of my country’s entire service industry, and being a worker in said service industry is a very sucky (and dangerous!) position to be in.

          So I don’t like bikes. But. I respect their riders. Their lives are hard and they are therefore stronger than I.

    • Gil Wanderley@lemmy.eco.br
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      I never knew the complexity of ICE until watching the Garbage Time YouTube channel. They repair old cars (and sometimes break them to fix them later) and show the whole process, but do it as a hobby, so it’s all for entertainment.

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    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.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    13 days ago

    Portable music players.

    They were the coolest when they used minidiscs.

    • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      It’s ironic

      A microsd card with 64 gigs worth of flag files is smaller, more reliable, and sounds better.

      … But minidiscs still LOOK like the future to me. Something about their shape and size just gives that vibe.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        13 days ago

        Exactly, a microSD is boring, it is cool in concept but damn boring IRL.

        I would love a minidisc player as a fidget toy!