Tech anachronisms

[Charlie Bonesx]

I’ll bite.
Macintosh is a popular variety of apple (the fruit) in the US.
(I think it’s one of those huge red Disney-type apples).

is it really popular though?

McIntosh Apple Review - Apple Rankings by The Appleist Brian Frange

Review of the National Apple of Canada and eponymous computer apple, the McIntosh, a tangy yet sub-par apple with unbearably thick skin.

applerankings.com

 

[Happy_John]

SSDs are neither "disks" nor "drives". ( they're not circular nor do they have any drive mechanism).

 

[Happy_John]

When was the last time you had a discussion on modems, compared to that back in the 80s and 90s?

Yes the component name lives on, cable modem, etc but overall in the vernacular it is not, so imo, my point stands, it largely is not used.

Wierdly, I was having a conversation about fiber modems early today.

But yes, outside of technical discussions, people only talk about "routers", for combined "modem + router" boxes.

 

[Harddrive]

We have gone from dial-up to fiber with wireless speeds approaching 2400mbps not to mention bluetooth reaching across the room nice time for tech.

 

[PsykX]

The smartphone is actually an entire computer in your pocket.

 

[Happy_John]

The smartphone is actually an entire computer in your pocket.

My smartphone is a computer which I don't really use as a phone. I use my watch as my phone, and sometimes I dial phone numbers on my watch, not my phone, but my watch doesn't have a dial. And when it rings, the ringtone isn't a ring, because there's no bell.

 

[theluggage]

Troll - Large humanoid who goes by Tom, Bert and William.😉

So, since this is a useless info sort of thread, the tech term trolling had more to do with the fishing technique of "trolling" that involves dragging a lure or bait through the water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_%28fishing%29

...back in the era of Usenet and bulletin boards, before all this Web 2.0 malarkey, "trolling" would consist of "trailing a hook" by posting - say - "The Mac is useless, there's no command line and the mouse only has one button!" to comp.sys.apple, or "The special effects are rubbish and its a rip-off of DS9" to alt.fan.babylon5 - just for the fun of provoking a slew of angry responses. That would usually invoking a second wave of posts admonishing the first for wasting bandwidth by "feeding the trolls".

Ah, yes, "trolling" may be a fishing term, but those who indulge in this heinous activity are obviously called trolls & therefore associated with billygoat bothering and rolling rocks at hobbits. Thus are metaphors mixed...

Anyway, trolls/trolling started out as specific to what is now called rage baiting (and still part of the troll's armoury) rather than today's more general application to online bullying or generally being unpleasant.

This thread makes me feel an XKCD reference coming on...

Wrong Superhero

xkcd.com

 

[seek3r]

Pretty much the only thing modern computers do is add zeros and ones. Binary arithmetic. Same as the 1940s computers.

1940s computer were, by and large, actual people, mostly women - and they did a lot more than that

Human Computers: The Early Women of NASA | HISTORY

Their calculations would chart the course of many ground-breaking space missions, yet their stories remain mostly unk...

www.history.com

 

[fatTribble]

It’s an interesting post!

Personally I like the references to how the technology originated.

I still say “roll down the car window” and “dial the phone”.
Actually I still say “ice box” on occasion because my parents would sometimes use the term.

If anyone accuses me of being old I’ll shoo them off my lawn with my stick. 🤭

 

[Abydos]

language persists even if the meaning changes, I'm reminded that tragedy originated from two greek words which meant goat song , it seems theater originated from the worship of Dionysus where men dressed up as goats sang a 'goat song' to honor the god. I've heard roll the tape (for a replay) too many times . live with the clutter, watch it evolve don't worry about it

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

The iPod no longer exists

Speak for yourself—my iPod is still going strong (and has 1TB of space).

 

[dmr727]

This is what the upper right hand corner of the desktop on my M4 Air looks like. And I wouldn't have it any other way! 😛