Category: retro tech
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Rumors of VHS’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Oh, planned obsolescence, you are such an insistent mistress. It seems like the end of the year news hole combined with the imminent digital TV transition (which does not necessarily mean the end of analog TV…) has sparked additional interest in the press ringing the funeral bells for that most ubiquitous yet unloved video medium,…
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Cheapskate Audiophile
As a geek videophile audiophile there’s the tendency for that interest to be conflict with my critical side that questions our modern consumerist capitalist economy. I believe that balance can be found, as long as one accepts that it’s nearly impossible to be entirely non-comsumerist without checking out of modern technological society altogether. Yet, it…
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Don’t Be Spooked by Threats of Obsolesence
One of the unfortunate effects of our capitalist economy is the constant drive for new and better. Well, really it’s mostly new and novel, with better being a secondary consideration. That means obsolescence is something that constantly looms over industrial products, especially tech products. But obsolete does not equate with useless or worthless–not remotely. With…
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When Underground Culture Was Hard(er) To Find
Filmmaker Danny Plotnick’s “Out of Print” is an absolutely brilliant and simple but effective short film about the somewhat lost pleasures of hunting down underground media, from cult films and bands, to underground literature and zines. By his own description, it’s “an ode to the counterculture of the 80s and 90s when unearthing quality culture…
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Making the Most of Limitation
One of the most continuously engaging and inspiring elements of DIY culture is the limitation. Of course, lots of creators would love to have millions of dollars to blow on equipment and 80 hours a week to dedicate to a project. But that’s not a reality for most people, and I think too much energy…
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Minidisc in Bizzarro World, or, It’s a Wonderful Format
CNET.uk has a feature on “Format wars: the tech that should have won,” sizing up some media and computer systems that lost out in the marketplace, despite their technical advantages. The article imagines a world where technologies like the 8-track and Betamax predominated, instead of cassettes and VHS. Two of my favorites–that I still use–are…
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Can Data Storage Media Ever Be Retro-Cool?
It must be retro-goodness week. While I’m musing about cassettes, Aj files a Requiem for the Floppy. I actually backed up all my old 3.5″ PC floppies onto CD-R (two copies each, of course) this past spring. Less than 10% of them were bad, but because I’m kind of obsessive about backing up, it seemed…
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Next Big Retro Thing: The Cassette Revival
I’m not known for my trend-watching skills. I won’t be selling my consulting services to corporate America in order to peek into the mind of youth culture or what’s hot with generation Z. But occasionally my antennae are sensitive enough to pick up a low-level lame-geek trend. It occurred to me today that there has…