Technology that refuses to die

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Palm Pilots and PDAs in general. Since I have been getting into Palm PDA like m500 and my LiveDrive There is a whole enthuiest group out there that are keeping this old devices running. There are people out there that will service them and even restore them.

I get pissed off if I rent a car (which I do constantly) and it doesn't have USB in the dash. I am good at losing the cig lighter-to-USB adapter. In fact it's rolling around somewhere in my rental car right now, probably under a seat.

Some people feel terrestrial TV is a good bang for buck and that all cable and satellite providers are overpriced even on the most basic packages.

I completely disagree. I think windows and mac are the ones that are obsolete. I'll admit unix/linux aren't always consistent when it comes to things like specifying options, but it's still incredibly useful, and it is far more flexible than windows ever was or will be (when I read what you said my jaw literally dropped).

Microsoft windows (don't care what version, this OS is the lowest common denominator of all operating systems and it is broken beyond all hope of repair),
VHS tapes,
DVD players,
paperwork,
written signatures (I'd like to meet the person who came up with this just to see what his/her logic was),
checks,
television (I'll admit I didn't know rural areas had trouble getting internet, but we should have set up cables there a long time ago),
snail mail,
adobe flash,
paper books,
printers (except the 3d kind),
publishers,
copyright,
and so many more.

These I will give you:

And these I wont..





My reasoning for this is that the top things could be done better, and are indeed being phased out or upgraded. Including televison.. to some degree. So I agree.



I don't agree with the high-tech elitism displayed in the bottom section.

If you have ever conducted business you would understand how absurd getting rid of most of those are.

3-d only printing. Lol. Seriously>?

Open source kernels are pretty good - although the Linux kernel is finally getting a bit rusty the last 5 years or so - and their performance has driven Windows to improve, and they are the actual basis of Mac OS X. However, and this is a big however, open source guys are not equipped to do UI design or follow direction from nonprogrammers that would improve the experience of nonprogrammer users.

DSL. we've had DSL for far too long. it's 2013.

Does anybody know the true reason for implementing digital terrestrial TV broadcasting and switching off PAL in Britain and Europe?

The English Green Party was opposed to switching off PAL terrestrial TV broadcasting and wanted to see it continue for as long as there was consumer demand for it. A party spokesman believed that satellite, cable, and internet TV was successful at providing digital broadcasting and extra channels for those who wanted them, and that millions of people who only had PAL terrestrial receivers were happy and content with it.

To allow that part of the radio spectrum to be sold to mobile phone companies (not that it is raising as much money as they hoped).



Digital terrestrial broadcasting started in the UK in 1998. For over a decade both systems were transmitting simultaneously. Keeping the analogue transmission going for a handful of users would be a complete waste of energy.

I know here in the U.S., you can get set top boxes that will convert HDTV signals into the NTSC that older sets use. I assume in Europe, you can do the same thing by downconverting the digital TV signal into PAL or SECAM. I've been using the same TV set since 1983, a 1982 Zenith, and we have a converter box on top of it.

I disagree, I'm using gnome 2.3 and it is far better than the windows interface.

Sounds like the english green party is opposed to color television.

That's actually not true.



The digital terrestrial in the UK between 1998 and 2002 was On Digital / ITV Digital that was an ill-fated venture by Carlton and Granada to have their own pay TV service independent of the cable operators or Sky. It was intended to complement PAL terrestrial rather than replace it outright. Shortly after ITV Digital closed down the BBC stuck their fingers in the pie and resurrected digital terrestrial as Freeview, an unencrypted and free to view service from the outset - almost the exact opposite of On Digital.



They are luddites at times but the UK has been broadcasting on PAL before the Ecology Party (forerunner of the Green Party) was even founded. The Green Party decision was made at a time when there were probably fewer people with Freeview boxes than satellite or cable receivers and millions only had PAL terrestrial.

I suspect that if PAL was to be continued indefinitely and no legislation was passed that TVs had to contain Freeview tuners then Freeview would only be semi-successful and live in the shadows of satellite and cable.

Coil tattoo machines. Go pneumatic already. They do exist, and even though their initial cost is higher, the level of detail and efficiency is bar none, which means an even greater return on the investment.

TI-83+

http://xkcd.com/768/

True that.