Fax machines are still around due to the fact that the info sent is more secure than email. Any company that needs sensitive info sent still uses them. In particular, medical offices.
Email can have attachments that are RSA 256 (or better) encrypted. No one who cares about security at all sends text out in the open, not even on a fax machine.
It's not that hard to wiretap a phone line. The tech is readily accessible to silently monitor and reproduce fax transmissions. Security by obscurity is a false sense of security
I went to Jr. High School in 1974 and in 1977 I went into High School. I learned how to type on a typewriter, but we didn't have computers back then, LOL. I got my first computer in 1982 and thank goodness for all the typing classes I took, wink. I don't use the number pad, but I know who to reach for the numbers on a keyboard.
I have to learn how to type from HS typing class in 1973! I have to learn how to use Land Line rotary telephone in 1962! The closest land lime telephone is about 1 kilometer away in Bangkok Thailand. The public phone booth required token that must be purchased from the news stands annex to the public telephone. The last office telephone landline was terminated last year in Lexington Park, MD when all phones were disconnected and handled in to IT.
Funnier for me still is back in the 1960s my parents BOTH took typing in school, and couldn't seem to type to save their lives!! Meanwhile I used their typewriter from time to time as a kid, BUT in 1981 at the age of 15 years old, my parents bought me a Commodore 64K, computer for Christmas and I have been using word processing software ever since!! I DO have all the "bad habits" of a self taught typist though!! BUT I can type much faster than I can write and I am 1000 times faster on a keyboard then my parents ever thought of being!! And I never took a single typing class EVER in my life!!!
I took typing in high school in 1961 and 1962 on an old black Royal typewriter with a hard return. In ‘63 we got IBM Selectric, wonderful machine. No personal computers yet. Remember white out, and carbon paper? Being a good typist back then was a real talent. I was pretty good, 86 wpm.
As a kid in the 60s, I remember phone booths. What striking to me now is that the phone booths were never vandalized or the phones stolen. There was no graffiti or damage of any kind done to the booths, even though many were out in the open on given streets, gas stations etc. only in the 70s did they start to be damaged by vandals and phones pried open and such. Seems like we’re going forward and backwards at the same time.
People were civilized then, no matter how broke or poorly educated, they had morals and personal standards. People are amoral wild animals now. Society is collapsing.
We were civilized. We were taught to be respectful of the property of others and respect our elders. I was taught to give up my seat on a bus or train for clergy, or a pregnant woman or an old person. Society today sucks. We’ve devolved. I’m 75. I’ve seen the USA at her best.
@@mchapman1928 indeed, respect for property and others was ingrained in our minds . Showing respect to others was really a lesson in respecting ourselves. A trait painfully lacking in so many young people today
This was great. I work in the medical industry, and believe it or not, the fax machine is still being used at small doctor offices. Love these videos. Thanks for making them.
Weird. Calling phone numbers (as well as the identifying information from the sending fax) are extremely easy to forge, and phone lines are easy to tap. If accepting faxes is a security posture, it's identical to staying on Windows 3.1 because there were hardly any viruses back then compared to now. IT'S NOT SECURE, BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION!
Notice on those old phones - they had handsets that would fit the human head so you could communicate with the other end and the sound quality was as good as standing next to the other person.
Indeed. And when you talked into the "microphone" end there would be some feedback of your voice into the "speaker" end which sounded more natural than the strictly one way each way mode we have now on audio communication devices.
In the 60's, I used to go to a telephone booth to call my girlfriend. Because every home only had one telephone in the entire house. That phone was in the living room and everyone could hear what you say.
In Thailand back in 1960 where was only few land lines telephone in available. Even some school still don't have telephone. I remember I have to take a taxi cab or bus to get the police to come down to my friend home to take a report.
Good one! Advanced versions could be hooked up to data processors and auto type repetitive documents: the first word processors. It blew my mind watching those first models typing by themselves like a player piano!
Working in many offices, I loved typing on those typewriters....70 wpm. They were used along w/ computers at the law firm for certain legal forms that had carbon between the pages; or for Bills of Lading and U.S. Custom forms in shipping. I liked typing on telex machines too. :)
I remember the State of Ohio had many offices equipped with the Selectric typwriters that were linked to the Mag Card readers/recorders that used a card the same size as the old IBM punch cards but were plain card stock with a magnetic coating on one side. They did have a limited lifespan however but was a way for the state to archive records. Wonder if they transferred everything to newer media over the years? The US government ran into a snag when they had to retrieve data stored on IBM tape reels in their safe storage facility out west. What they forgot to do is keep several tape machines to read the data. They did find an individual who had several of these systems that he restored and he charged the government plenty to transfer the data to a modern media.
0:50 Following the tornado 5 years back, once I was back in the house and property delivered back, I dug out a rotary dial to use. People ask why I keep a landline. B/c, if there's a power outage, the trace electrical charge needed is carried within the line and I can still make phone calls.
@@loginavoidence12 - Well, no. There are laws that prohibit the sending of unsolicited material via fax because it causes the receiver to expend resources. The reason email has not completely replaced the fax is because a fax is more secure than an email. You send it to the recipient and it's gone. An attachment to an email is out there forever.
When I was in high school, I had to do my reports on a typewriter. And my father had a custom made Underwood Scientific typewriter that had a few extra keys with scientific symbols such as Greek letters and Engineering symbols.
I'll never give up my land line. I still have many VHS tapes. Had some converted to DVD. Had a FAX once but never use it now. Businesses still offer a FAX number. We had a pair of Motorola walkie talkies once. I really liked them but later went to cell phones.
Hello, Joe. I have a lot of VHS 📼 tapes! How did you convert your tapes to DVD 📀? I’m in agreement with you!!!! I don’t want to lose my landline 📞 service! Have a blessed day! 🙏🏾
@@earleneslay7977 I found a company in Cal. that converted mine & they were flooded in a basement flood but came out pretty nice. I'd say if you Googled like I did you would find such a company. I can't recall who it was.
I regret giving mine up. When I tried to get it back during that time when we were all working from home, the people at AT&T didn’t even know what I was talking about.
Cassette Tapes and decks are STILL being manufactured. The Analog cassette is a lot more rugged than a CD,lasts much longer and to my ear, has a better sound. With the copyright Madness of the DMCA, even looking at blank media might land you in court. And yes, I still make a few tapes for both my Tandy Color Computers and my truck's CD/Tape stereo. What turned me away from pre-recorded CDs was the Virus Rootkits Sony had in their music CDs..I sued Sony for that and won, too. I make my own now.
Back in 70s we had a big machine called " Telex". You could chat " online" just as today but the difference was all texts would be printed on tape of paper.
Pagers were handy for people working out of the office. In busy areas it was common to have to wait in line to use a payphone, and always had to ensure you had a stash of quarters in the console. They're the reason new area codes had to be implemented. And more area codes when cell phones showed up.
We had to use them in the military when we were the duty officers. We liked them because it meant we didn't have to stay in the building and could go to the duty bunkroom or home.
Cassette tapes , dial phones, vhs , cd,DVD, car antenna ,fax machine ,projector system ,typewriter , cameras digital and film , ..ALL STILL USED AND ARE AS GOOD NOW AS THEY WERE Than!!!!!!!!
Phones in 1844? About 35 years later, at the earliest. Pagers are still in very limited use. Saw one a few weeks ago. Phone booths /pay phones are still around but very rare. Some copiers do double duty as fax machines. Film cameras are still around... there's a instant film camera called Instax ( Walmart has them). Five Below had b/w 35mm film a couple weeks ago. Landlines are still around, though it seems to be limited to institutions or large business offices. I know two people with a home landline. Walmart also has 90 minute blank audio cassettes.
I still have my old Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera. It's on the coffee table now. I had a photography dark room for my black & white photos. I loved that hobby. Oh...carried one of those miserable 'beepers' every day for decades...Hated that thing!
In my hometown, dial phones were not available until 1957. Before that, we would pick up the phone and hear an operator asking for the number you wanted to call. We had a party line so we could pick up the phone and listen to our neighbor's conversations. I also remember opaque projectors and mimeograph machines.
Let's not forget the bulky old telex machine, which I think was phased out during the 1990s. It was always the size of, say, a small desk. Among others it could transfer each keystroke live to the receiving machine, when connected through the landline. My dad showed me how he could use this feature to do what today is called chatting, live in the 1970s. Texts/letters etc. could be stored on a paper tape that was punched with a hole code. What a tech that was...
These items may be considered "obsolete", but I still use a couple of them and they all still have a place in our high tech world. Phone booths should come back because I'm sick of hearing other people's, sometimes off putting, cell phone conversations. And pay phones don't give people brain tumors. I like film cameras. Classic looks, and pictures on film, then printed, can last several lifetimes and don't get lost when you upgrade your cell phone. Cassettes are still cool and VHS still works. I have a player and some things you could never find elsewhere. I grew up with all of this stuff. Maybe I'm obsolete too.😕
@@spankynater4242 Perhaps the actual booths because of the "Americans With Disabilities Act", but pay phones disappeared as the use of cell phones grew. There are a handful around, but cells phones are largely the reason for the demise of pay phones. telephones.
1) Cell phones don't give people brain tumors - stop listening to conspiracy theorists. 2) Who carries around coins anymore? 3) Upload your digital photos to the web and access them anywhere, anytime. There's no need to lug around a photo album. 4) Photos are lucky to last one lifetime, and even then only if stored in a room with no light. 5) Magnetic tape degrades each time you play it, and the tape itself degrades over time.
I still have a couple manual Typewriters. One is a 50 year old Underwood and the other is a small Sears portable. Works great when there is no electric power, which is all too often here in Eastern Kentucky
VHS Tapes could be used as tape drives for early IBM PCs and clones. Radio Shack sold an interface board for a PC for that. Worked pretty damned good too
Also the later Hi-Fi machines have pretty good audio. Good enough that a local radio station used to run their overnight broadcast, which was simply music with nobody in the studio, from VHS tape previously recorded. The video aspect wasn't used, it was just a cheap and effective way to get the required 6 hours of audio at good enough quality that nobody complained.
VHS tapes could be used to make magnetic strip credit card clones. But you had to scan the original first, then record the tones on the VHS segment. Seal it to a blank novelty card that was the same size as standard credit cards, and you have a clone card. It was complicated, but could be done regularly. Today, however, all that does ntk be done. Just have a reader in your pocket, brush up against someone saying, "excuse me," and yet you got their credit card information. Go home, flash a blank chip, and you are done. It is so much easier to get credit card numbers today. It is even easier to use the cloned chip card. Technolgy has made security so much easier to bypass.
About phone booths - in Australia, public phones have been free, even for long-distance calls. Many are also WI-FI hubs. Also, doctors’ clinics use fax machines, for medical images.
In the old days, actual paint and canvas was used by artists to create masterpieces. Now, works of art are created in a flash using social media's filters to turn the long dead into talking portraits who even dance.
Wow, tape recorders, I would wait for a favorite song all day and run to the tape recorder to start it as soon as DJ said the song was coming on, LOL!!
My brother was such a Luddite. He was the LAST person in his town to have a rotary dial telephone. The phone company basically told him, "Either you go to a push button phone or you lose your phone service."
Learning to type by touch is very important and valuable I learned in 8th grade from a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Obeck she was great we had a huge chart on the wall you would look up at the keys on the typewriter were blank without any letters you had to look up at the big chart to help you if you needed to see where the keys were.
This made me nostalgic and a little sad. When I was young, I remember the transition from rotary phones to touch tone phones. That was a big deal. Getting ready to buy a house and will finally cut the land line for good.
Another technology that was one of my favorite hobbies - the BBS or "Bulletin Board System" with the computer hooked up to a dial-up modem and landline. It could handle only one user at a time, but posting messages on a BBS was early "Social Media" for me. Same thing with CB radio. My friends and I would chat every night and random people would join in the conversation, then we would have the get-togethers, or "Coffee Breaks" to meet the radio users in person and have a good time.
What I have always wondered is how telephones and cameras became so hopelessly intermingled? It never made any sense to me. Now suddenly you don't buy a phone for the phone, you buy it for the quality of the camera. HOW did that come to be??????
It won't be long that the things we use today will be considered obsolete. All if the items he talked about worked, and worked well and solved the problems of the people who used them.
I still have a hard-wired, dial, wall phone. Been hanging on the kitchen wall since the house was built. Over 68 years. Hundreds of VHS tapes. Ones I recorder of mostly auto races back in the VERY EARLY 80's.
hi memorie mountain great video yes I remember about all of the stiff in this video the phone booths the cameras the pagers the cassette tapes the boom boxes etc you had some old stuff in this video like the Manuel and electric type writers the small manual type writers in this video i remember as a kid we're take along type writers used by collage kid's at college and other people etc to use on the go to like library's dorms etc well have great night and a great week and a very happy thanksgiving :-)
You might be right about the rotary phone, but if you have a landline phone with a answering machine and caller id display, you could feel more comfortable receiving a call and if you do get out and about, you save the message and then it's up to you if you want to contact them. Now, if they put a multi phone charger(s) in the box, the phone box would still be handy, as they are a iconic design and tourist attraction. Also if the box hasn't been vanderlised, it overcomes the lousy signal trouble, people have to deal with with a mobile, especially in the UK
Rotary phones are dead in the US because the phone companies offering landline service stopped supporting rotary/pulse dialing years ago. I remember push button phones that would send rotary style pulses, instead of tones, when dialing. Fortunately, most of those push button phones had a switch that allowed you to chose which one you wanted to use. My late grandmother lived in a town that only supported rotary/pulse dialing for the longest time (into the 90's), then she had to flip that switch on her phone to start using tone dialing instead.
Audio and VHS tapes are still around with blank-tapes having a resurgence recently, I still have about four-dozen VHS tapes of stuff I've recorded and a VCR-player to watch them.
You showed two cameras that I owned and loved back in the day: the Canon GIII and the Kodak Retina IIa. It took some experience and savvy to use the rangefinder, variable shutter speeds and aperture settings. I miss being in control of the camera. I don't miss the expense of the film.
I still have a landline AND a Rotary phone in my kitchen and bedroom as not many people have my landline number so I don;t have to worry about friends drunk dialing, and I absolutely refuse to bring my cell into my bedroom ( still use a GE radio alarm clock that I've had since the mid 90s). Also, that phone will ALWAYS work if the power goes out and if it rings in the middle of the night I'll pick it up within a half a ring as I know something is seriously wrong. I'm also 45 years old and not 80 or anything and I'll NEVER go without a landline as there is something special hearing those phones RING...I love it and it makes my home feel just like it did when I was a kid at my parents house.
I live in hurricane country and still have a copper landline. When the storm blows through and damages the cell tower it's the only way to communicate.
I had the same landline number since the late 60s and didn't want to give it up but 99% of the calls were from telemarketers plus the line kept calling 911 even after unplugging the phone from the jack.
@@robertschmidt9296 I have worked for a major telecom company for many years. Did you port your number over to your cable company via VOIP, voice over internet protocol? Calling 911 doesn't make sense. If it's not a copper landline but VOIP you may have been hacked.
@@laural5177 no. At one point several years prior, the phone company changed hands and the new company continued to keep patching the old telephone lines in my area. It was common to hear a radio station while talking to someone and sometimes it's so loud you can't hear the person you're talking to. The only changes I made was unplug both phones, one was in the house and the other was in the barn. And the sheriff still showed up. The line ended at the jacks.
I have always insisted on copper lines to my home however the phone company decided to deactivate the copper for voice and use it only to provide ADSL service to the modem which has two wired telephone RJ11 jacks on the back. It’s basically VOIP service now but when the power goes out anywhere between our home and the CO we loose service. The DSLAMS (fiber to copper translators need power to run their relay amplifiers not only for the fiber but the translator cards for each copper pair it serves for the neighborhood). There are provisions for battery backup but the phone company has very few equipped with batteries. It’s a problem if you have an alarm system, no phone service no call in if there is any emergency. Solved it with wireless links at 100 watts both ways between home and monitoring system.
With all the "wonderful" modern inventions we can give thanks to the disappearance of photo albums to keep memories visible for future generations to view. Digital images can get lost as quickly as they were captured. I can look back at my grangparents' history in old photo albums but I can't look back at my wedding photos because the SD card got erased. Oh how wonderful new technology is!
I still have my audio cassettes and a functioning player. I still have a working Betamax VCR and a couple of working VHS. And a typewriter, that still works. In 20 years ... "remember mobile phones?". Meanwhile Vinyl LPS are being made again.
Man I am so old I remember pay phones using them anti trider I still have a slew of cassette tape video tapes a VCR can we please go back into them days
When I worked in a payroll office in the mid 90s there was still one holdout fax machine that used thermal paper in it and we were always advised to photocopy the time sheets and things from it for better saving due to the fading quality of the other "paper"! I'm always going to be glad I took typing classes in junior and high school because of the advancement of computers! Something I'm also seeing less and less are desk top calculators!
Phone booths still exist in Australia. They are now free. It is cheaper to leave them in place than to remove them all. There is one down the street from me. It rarely gets used, but those who use it are happy that it is there.
I still have all of my cassette tapes from over 35 years ago, which have all of these custom-made remix singles on them, which were recorded from the radio over 30 years ago because I used to listen to the radio every Saturday night during the times when they used to have programs on the radio, switch features remix dance Classics because I remember recording things off the radio many years ago and today I still have all of those cassette tapes back at storage and today I’ve taken many of those cassette tapes and burn them onto my computer and so I can listen to them later on on electronic listening devices.
Joke related to obsolete technology - “Hello? Is that 777 7777? Oh good, could you do me a favour and call the fire brigade please? I’ve got my finger stuck in the dial !”
Landlines are still in use. I have a landline phone number. The only difference is it supplies my home internet’s wireless router. I just don’t have it connected to a phone.
I can't remember the last time I saw a pay-phone! The home landline phone is now all by dead! I actually have a rotary dial phone made in 1957. My Dad had taken it from a trash bin at a construction site. I still play music on a Stereo Receiver and 4 big speakers. Got a Turntable, Cassette, CD and a connect for anything that plays MP3. I also have a fully working VHS HIFI and a Betamax HIFI!!!
FAX MACHINES are still in use, mostly medical, the Fax Machine is safe and reliable. You won't see a Fax Machine being compromised as are so many E-Mails.
As mentioned elsewhere here, FAX is still very much in use. Patient's medical information is sent via FAX, between offices, every day. It is still considered a truly secure method of document transmission for HIPAA. Email (unless securely encrypted) is NOT secure, and nearly all medical offices, hospitals, and insurance providers, prohibit the transmission of personal/private patient information via email.
It's a good thing Superman isn't around anymore, because there aren't any phone booths available for him to do the Quick change into his red and blue suit.
While talking about dial telephones and fax machines, you could also have mentioned telexes, which were teleprinters used for business-to-business communication.
My 2004 Toyota came with a factory installed cassette player when I bought it new in 2003. I remember my neighbor paid extra for touch tone telephone service. 20 years later, the phone company made touch tone service included for no extra charge, except for those that requested it and were already paying extra for. My neighbor still had the touch tone service charge on his bill. My rotary dial phone still works, so I continued to use it. I can dial faster on it than a touch tone phone, as my finger isn't used to the touch tone buttons and I'm not used to their placement.
Last year I visited London for the first time. Although they no longer work, they still left up their signature red phone booths. Now, they're just for the tourists to gawk at.
I learned to type in high school because I needed another elective. Omg was that the best class I ever took period. Now looking back in hindsight. It sure helped me more than most of my other classes ever did!
I believe the Cassette Tape goes back slightly earlier (c1965) and was used for dictation originally. Later Dolby Laboratories refined them for High Fidelity and Low Noise, later Stereo/Multitrack.
You could have mentioned mimeograph machines as well. For those that have no idea what they are, it's a sort of copier that used to be found in schools. They were used to produce multiple copies of tests, work sheets, etc.
Used all of them myself as I was born in the late sixties, started school in the early seventies, high school in the eighties, started life in the nineties. The overhead classroom projector, gave me one of the funniest moments in high school. We had this teacher, she was slightly on the tall side, slim, nice body, pleasant faced red head, often smiling, and very friendly, she used to turn her back to the class, show the overhead projector and pick her nose, I was one of the few who noticed what she was doing, I would tell the kids but most wouldn’t believe me, until one day, after a good pick, her booger landed right on the projector, there was a booger the size of a hockey puck with hair sticking out of it, I began to laugh and right after, she dropped the f bomb, everyone laughed, she just casually, picked the thing up, told the class that laughter break was over and everyone just shut the hell up and listen.
Hardline phones are still used in offices. Although you right are about typewriters are not used anymore, the pictures you showed were the very old manual typewriters. There were electric typewriters and were the first form of Word Processors by having a screen on it so you could see a few characters you were typing before it was actually printed.
Actually Compact Cassettes were already introduced in 1964 and a little later got Stereo sound added to it, while still remaining 100% compatible with Mono machines.
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Fax machines are still around due to the fact that the info sent is more secure than email. Any company that needs sensitive info sent still uses them. In particular, medical offices.
"...more secure than email." I *love* that!
Schools, too.
Email can have attachments that are RSA 256 (or better) encrypted. No one who cares about security at all sends text out in the open, not even on a fax machine.
It's not that hard to wiretap a phone line. The tech is readily accessible to silently monitor and reproduce fax transmissions.
Security by obscurity is a false sense of security
He never said they weren't still utilized; he said they "have largely been rendered obsolete."
I remember in highschool we had to take typing class in typewriters before we could take computer class. Back in the eighties.
I went to Jr. High School in 1974 and in 1977 I went into High School. I learned how to type on a typewriter, but we didn't have computers back then, LOL. I got my first computer in 1982 and thank goodness for all the typing classes I took, wink. I don't use the number pad, but I know who to reach for the numbers on a keyboard.
I have to learn how to type from HS typing class in 1973! I have to learn how to use Land Line rotary telephone in 1962! The closest land lime telephone is about 1 kilometer away in Bangkok Thailand. The public phone booth required token that must be purchased from the news stands annex to the public telephone. The last office telephone landline was terminated last year in Lexington Park, MD when all phones were disconnected and handled in to IT.
Funnier for me still is back in the 1960s my parents BOTH took typing in school, and couldn't seem to type to save their lives!! Meanwhile I used their typewriter from time to time as a kid, BUT in 1981 at the age of 15 years old, my parents bought me a Commodore 64K, computer for Christmas and I have been using word processing software ever since!! I DO have all the "bad habits" of a self taught typist though!! BUT I can type much faster than I can write and I am 1000 times faster on a keyboard then my parents ever thought of being!! And I never took a single typing class EVER in my life!!!
Same here. The IBM Selectric.
I took typing in high school in 1961 and 1962 on an old black Royal typewriter with a hard return. In ‘63 we got IBM Selectric, wonderful machine. No personal computers yet. Remember white out, and carbon paper? Being a good typist back then was a real talent. I was pretty good, 86 wpm.
As a kid in the 60s, I remember phone booths. What striking to me now is that the phone booths were never vandalized or the phones stolen. There was no graffiti or damage of any kind done to the booths, even though many were out in the open on given streets, gas stations etc. only in the 70s did they start to be damaged by vandals and phones pried open and such. Seems like we’re going forward and backwards at the same time.
People were civilized then, no matter how broke or poorly educated, they had morals and personal standards. People are amoral wild animals now. Society is collapsing.
Backwards
We were civilized. We were taught to be respectful of the property of others and respect our elders. I was taught to give up my seat on a bus or train for clergy, or a pregnant woman or an old person. Society today sucks. We’ve devolved. I’m 75. I’ve seen the USA at her best.
@@mchapman1928 indeed, respect for property and others was ingrained in our minds . Showing respect to others was really a lesson in respecting ourselves. A trait painfully lacking in so many young people today
@@eltatoyo9211 - 👍
This was great. I work in the medical industry, and believe it or not, the fax machine is still being used at small doctor offices. Love these videos. Thanks for making them.
They are also used in the finance industry for transmitting documents related to certain investments wherein proof of delivery is required.
I still have a fax machine, but they don’t work over the cell system.
Sun Life will only accept a signed fax or mailed claim for larger medical claims. They accept e claims for all the smaller claims.
Weird. Calling phone numbers (as well as the identifying information from the sending fax) are extremely easy to forge, and phone lines are easy to tap. If accepting faxes is a security posture, it's identical to staying on Windows 3.1 because there were hardly any viruses back then compared to now.
IT'S NOT SECURE, BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION!
Notice on those old phones - they had handsets that would fit the human head so you could communicate with the other end and the sound quality was as good as standing next to the other person.
Indeed. And when you talked into the "microphone" end there would be some feedback of your voice into the "speaker" end which sounded more natural than the strictly one way each way mode we have now on audio communication devices.
In the 60's, I used to go to a telephone booth to call my girlfriend. Because every home only had one telephone in the entire house. That phone was in the living room and everyone could hear what you say.
In Thailand back in 1960 where was only few land lines telephone in available. Even some school still don't have telephone. I remember I have to take a taxi cab or bus to get the police to come down to my friend home to take a report.
I remember the IBM Selectric Typewriter. It had a globe that contained the letters rather than the letters being on little hammers.
That technology blows my mind more that anything done today.
Good one! Advanced versions could be hooked up to data processors and auto type repetitive documents: the first word processors. It blew my mind watching those first models typing by themselves like a player piano!
Working in many offices, I loved typing on those typewriters....70 wpm. They were used along w/ computers at the law firm for certain legal forms that had carbon between the pages; or for Bills of Lading and U.S. Custom forms in shipping. I liked typing on telex machines too. :)
I remember the State of Ohio had many offices equipped with the Selectric typwriters that were linked to the Mag Card readers/recorders that used a card the same size as the old IBM punch cards but were plain card stock with a magnetic coating on one side. They did have a limited lifespan however but was a way for the state to archive records. Wonder if they transferred everything to newer media over the years? The US government ran into a snag when they had to retrieve data stored on IBM tape reels in their safe storage facility out west. What they forgot to do is keep several tape machines to read the data. They did find an individual who had several of these systems that he restored and he charged the government plenty to transfer the data to a modern media.
0:50 Following the tornado 5 years back, once I was back in the house and property delivered back, I dug out a rotary dial to use. People ask why I keep a landline. B/c, if there's a power outage, the trace electrical charge needed is carried within the line and I can still make phone calls.
Right on!
Although not as common in offices, The fax machines are still very much alive.
more like "junk mail receiver"
@@loginavoidence12 - Well, no. There are laws that prohibit the sending of unsolicited material via fax because it causes the receiver to expend resources. The reason email has not completely replaced the fax is because a fax is more secure than an email. You send it to the recipient and it's gone. An attachment to an email is out there forever.
@@jerometaperman7102 ya, there are laws that's nice, but doesn't stop me from having to throw them away ever day out of the copy machine at work
@@loginavoidence12 - I know what you mean. I'm on the National Do No Call list but I still get robocalls.
😂 when some one ask me to fax something I reply “what’s a fax? I haven’t faxed in 20 years!”
When I was in high school, I had to do my reports on a typewriter. And my father had a custom made Underwood Scientific typewriter that had a few extra keys with scientific symbols such as Greek letters and Engineering symbols.
I'll never give up my land line. I still have many VHS tapes. Had some converted to DVD. Had a FAX once but never use it now. Businesses still offer a FAX number. We had a pair of Motorola walkie talkies once. I really liked them but later went to cell phones.
Hello, Joe. I have a lot of VHS 📼 tapes! How did you convert your tapes to DVD 📀? I’m in agreement with you!!!! I don’t want to lose my landline 📞 service! Have a blessed day! 🙏🏾
@@earleneslay7977 I found a company in Cal. that converted mine & they were flooded in a basement flood but came out pretty nice. I'd say if you Googled like I did you would find such a company. I can't recall who it was.
@@joebrown1382 Thanks 🙏🏾 for your reply!!!! I will do just what you said! Again, May God continue to bless you and your family!
I regret giving mine up. When I tried to get it back during that time when we were all working from home, the people at AT&T didn’t even know what I was talking about.
Walkie talkies still are useful where no cellphone signal is available.
I sell cars for a living. Banks still send loan payoff letters via fax. So weird in 2022...
Cassette Tapes and decks are STILL being manufactured. The Analog cassette is a lot more rugged than a CD,lasts much longer and to my ear, has a better sound. With the copyright Madness of the DMCA, even looking at blank media might land you in court. And yes, I still make a few tapes for both my Tandy Color Computers and my truck's CD/Tape stereo. What turned me away from pre-recorded CDs was the Virus Rootkits Sony had in their music CDs..I sued Sony for that and won, too. I make my own now.
Your cassettes might come back stronger. Nobody ever thought the vinyl records would come back, but they have.
Fun blast to the past!!!
Back in 70s we had a big machine called " Telex". You could chat " online" just as today but the difference was all texts would be printed on tape of paper.
Canon AV-1 thank you
Pagers were handy for people working out of the office. In busy areas it was common to have to wait in line to use a payphone, and always had to ensure you had a stash of quarters in the console.
They're the reason new area codes had to be implemented. And more area codes when cell phones showed up.
We had to use them in the military when we were the duty officers. We liked them because it meant we didn't have to stay in the building and could go to the duty bunkroom or home.
If it were not for phone booths, Bill and Ted would never have had an adventure and would not have graduated high school.
They actually graduated?
Cassette tapes , dial phones, vhs , cd,DVD, car antenna ,fax machine ,projector system ,typewriter , cameras digital and film , ..ALL STILL USED AND ARE AS GOOD NOW AS THEY WERE Than!!!!!!!!
*then
Phones in 1844? About 35 years later, at the earliest. Pagers are still in very limited use. Saw one a few weeks ago. Phone booths /pay phones are still around but very rare. Some copiers do double duty as fax machines.
Film cameras are still around... there's a instant film camera called Instax ( Walmart has them). Five Below had b/w 35mm film a couple weeks ago.
Landlines are still around, though it seems to be limited to institutions or large business offices. I know two people with a home landline.
Walmart also has 90 minute blank audio cassettes.
I and at least 3 people I know-maybe more if I think about it-have landlines.
The wired telephone was in use before Alexander Graham Bell was born? What a genius.
No more phone booths. I'm convinced that's why we never see Superman, anymore...
Thanks for the memories of all these technologies that were once cutting edge but now most are obsolete.
I still have my old Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera. It's on the coffee table now.
I had a photography dark room for my black & white photos. I loved that hobby.
Oh...carried one of those miserable 'beepers' every day for decades...Hated that thing!
In my hometown, dial phones were not available until 1957. Before that, we would pick up the phone and hear an operator asking for the number you wanted to call. We had a party line so we could pick up the phone and listen to our neighbor's conversations. I also remember opaque projectors and mimeograph machines.
Was her name Sarah ?? 🤣👍🏻
Let's not forget the bulky old telex machine, which I think was phased out during the 1990s. It was always the size of, say, a small desk. Among others it could transfer each keystroke live to the receiving machine, when connected through the landline. My dad showed me how he could use this feature to do what today is called chatting, live in the 1970s. Texts/letters etc. could be stored on a paper tape that was punched with a hole code. What a tech that was...
These items may be considered "obsolete", but I still use a couple of them and they all still have a place in our high tech world.
Phone booths should come back because I'm sick of hearing other people's, sometimes off putting, cell phone conversations. And pay phones don't give people brain tumors.
I like film cameras. Classic looks, and pictures on film, then printed, can last several lifetimes and don't get lost when you upgrade your cell phone.
Cassettes are still cool and VHS still works. I have a player and some things you could never find elsewhere.
I grew up with all of this stuff. Maybe I'm obsolete too.😕
Wheelchairs, not cell phones, were the demise of phone booths.
@@spankynater4242 Perhaps the actual booths because of the "Americans With Disabilities Act", but pay phones disappeared as the use of cell phones grew. There are a handful around, but cells phones are largely the reason for the demise of pay phones. telephones.
Not obsolete, you simply have some taste, my friend.
@@starmnsixty1209 Thank you, my friend. No doubt you as well!👍🙏
1) Cell phones don't give people brain tumors - stop listening to conspiracy theorists. 2) Who carries around coins anymore? 3) Upload your digital photos to the web and access them anywhere, anytime. There's no need to lug around a photo album. 4) Photos are lucky to last one lifetime, and even then only if stored in a room with no light. 5) Magnetic tape degrades each time you play it, and the tape itself degrades over time.
I still have a couple manual Typewriters. One is a 50 year old Underwood and the other is a small Sears portable. Works great when there is no electric power, which is all too often here in Eastern Kentucky
I wonder what superman will do, when the phone boots no longer are available? He can't shift from Clark Kent to superman in a cellphone? 😂
Thanks for these mini-docs - someday you'll have a million views!
VHS Tapes could be used as tape drives for early IBM PCs and clones. Radio Shack sold an interface board for a PC for that. Worked pretty damned good too
Also the later Hi-Fi machines have pretty good audio. Good enough that a local radio station used to run their overnight broadcast, which was simply music with nobody in the studio, from VHS tape previously recorded. The video aspect wasn't used, it was just a cheap and effective way to get the required 6 hours of audio at good enough quality that nobody complained.
VHS tapes could be used to make magnetic strip credit card clones. But you had to scan the original first, then record the tones on the VHS segment. Seal it to a blank novelty card that was the same size as standard credit cards, and you have a clone card. It was complicated, but could be done regularly. Today, however, all that does ntk be done. Just have a reader in your pocket, brush up against someone saying, "excuse me," and yet you got their credit card information. Go home, flash a blank chip, and you are done. It is so much easier to get credit card numbers today. It is even easier to use the cloned chip card. Technolgy has made security so much easier to bypass.
About phone booths - in Australia, public phones have been free, even for long-distance calls. Many are also WI-FI hubs. Also, doctors’ clinics use fax machines, for medical images.
In the old days, actual paint and canvas was used by artists to create masterpieces. Now, works of art are created in a flash using social media's filters to turn the long dead into talking portraits who even dance.
Pagers are still used by EMTs, because they work even when the EMT's are in basements, tunnels, etc.
I liked the old phone booths they were fun to use they were a dime when I was a kid.
Wow, tape recorders, I would wait for a favorite song all day and run to the tape recorder to start it as soon as DJ said the song was coming on, LOL!!
I did the same thing!!! 😃😀😄
But the dj wouldn’t shut up and play the song.
DJ would talk before song ended. Was a form of copyright control!
Reeling in a cassette was better using a classic Bic Ink pen, whose outer case exactly fit a cassette's reels
Fax machines may be a bit more rare, but they can be used quite often still in some businesses
My brother was such a Luddite. He was the LAST person in his town to have a rotary dial telephone. The phone company basically told him, "Either you go to a push button phone or you lose your phone service."
I had a rotary at my cabin and when I went snowmobiling there in minus 20 temps it worked.
@@rooky55 Glad to hear that. Any working phone is a lifeline, especially out in the boonies!
I have a cousin she still has one. Greetings from Greece.
I was stationed at Hellenikon AB in the 1980's.
@@ashleymarie7452 In 80's i was in Kavouri radar training unit which was close to Hellinikon. I hope you have good memories.
Learning to type by touch is very important and valuable I learned in 8th grade from a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Obeck she was great we had a huge chart on the wall you would look up at the keys on the typewriter were blank without any letters you had to look up at the big chart to help you if you needed to see where the keys were.
I wish these never went away …. I prefer to go back to those simpler days sometimes ❤
This made me nostalgic and a little sad. When I was young, I remember the transition from rotary phones to touch tone phones. That was a big deal. Getting ready to buy a house and will finally cut the land line for good.
When I was a kid my family's home phone number's last two digits were "00" which was always annoying when I had to dial home on a rotary phone.
I miss landline phones. The audio quality was far superior and they were more reliable compared to cell phones.
Ahh and now Superman doesn't have a place to change into his cape.
Another technology that was one of my favorite hobbies - the BBS or "Bulletin Board System" with the computer hooked up to a dial-up modem and landline. It could handle only one user at a time, but posting messages on a BBS was early "Social Media" for me. Same thing with CB radio. My friends and I would chat every night and random people would join in the conversation, then we would have the get-togethers, or "Coffee Breaks" to meet the radio users in person and have a good time.
Yes! ❤
What I have always wondered is how telephones and cameras became so hopelessly intermingled? It never made any sense to me. Now suddenly you don't buy a phone for the phone, you buy it for the quality of the camera. HOW did that come to be??????
It won't be long that the things we use today will be considered obsolete. All if the items he talked about worked, and worked well and solved the problems of the people who used them.
A fond remembrance of technology long since obsolete.
I still have a hard-wired, dial, wall phone. Been hanging on the kitchen wall since the house was built. Over 68 years.
Hundreds of VHS tapes. Ones I recorder of mostly auto races back in the VERY EARLY 80's.
hi memorie mountain great video yes I remember about all of the stiff in this video the phone booths the cameras the pagers the cassette tapes the boom boxes etc you had some old stuff in this video like the Manuel and electric type writers the small manual type writers in this video i remember as a kid we're take along type writers used by collage kid's at college and other people etc to use on the go to like library's dorms etc well have great night and a great week and a very happy thanksgiving :-)
You might be right about the rotary phone, but if you have a landline phone with a answering machine and caller id display, you could feel more comfortable receiving a call and if you do get out and about, you save the message and then it's up to you if you want to contact them. Now, if they put a multi phone charger(s) in the box, the phone box would still be handy, as they are a iconic design and tourist attraction. Also if the box hasn't been vanderlised, it overcomes the lousy signal trouble, people have to deal with with a mobile, especially in the UK
Rotary phones are dead in the US because the phone companies offering landline service stopped supporting rotary/pulse dialing years ago. I remember push button phones that would send rotary style pulses, instead of tones, when dialing. Fortunately, most of those push button phones had a switch that allowed you to chose which one you wanted to use. My late grandmother lived in a town that only supported rotary/pulse dialing for the longest time (into the 90's), then she had to flip that switch on her phone to start using tone dialing instead.
great
Audio and VHS tapes are still around with blank-tapes having a resurgence recently, I still have about four-dozen VHS tapes of stuff I've recorded and a VCR-player to watch them.
Pagers are still used, so are fax machine, and lane lines, specially lane line since they can still be used if the power goes out.
I don't miss cassettes at all! Particularly when the machines ate you best music.
One more thing to add to the list: Stencil printers
You showed two cameras that I owned and loved back in the day: the Canon GIII and the Kodak Retina IIa. It took some experience and savvy to use the rangefinder, variable shutter speeds and aperture settings. I miss being in control of the camera. I don't miss the expense of the film.
I quit using phone booths when the price went up from 10 cents to a quarter😎
I still have a landline AND a Rotary phone in my kitchen and bedroom as not many people have my landline number so I don;t have to worry about friends drunk dialing, and I absolutely refuse to bring my cell into my bedroom ( still use a GE radio alarm clock that I've had since the mid 90s). Also, that phone will ALWAYS work if the power goes out and if it rings in the middle of the night I'll pick it up within a half a ring as I know something is seriously wrong. I'm also 45 years old and not 80 or anything and I'll NEVER go without a landline as there is something special hearing those phones RING...I love it and it makes my home feel just like it did when I was a kid at my parents house.
I live in hurricane country and still have a copper landline. When the storm blows through and damages the cell tower it's the only way to communicate.
I had the same landline number since the late 60s and didn't want to give it up but 99% of the calls were from telemarketers plus the line kept calling 911 even after unplugging the phone from the jack.
@@robertschmidt9296 I have worked for a major telecom company for many years. Did you port your number over to your cable company via VOIP, voice over internet protocol? Calling 911 doesn't make sense. If it's not a copper landline but VOIP you may have been hacked.
@@laural5177 no. At one point several years prior, the phone company changed hands and the new company continued to keep patching the old telephone lines in my area. It was common to hear a radio station while talking to someone and sometimes it's so loud you can't hear the person you're talking to.
The only changes I made was unplug both phones, one was in the house and the other was in the barn. And the sheriff still showed up. The line ended at the jacks.
I have always insisted on copper lines to my home however the phone company decided to deactivate the copper for voice and use it only to provide ADSL service to the modem which has two wired telephone RJ11 jacks on the back. It’s basically VOIP service now but when the power goes out anywhere between our home and the CO we loose service. The DSLAMS (fiber to copper translators need power to run their relay amplifiers not only for the fiber but the translator cards for each copper pair it serves for the neighborhood). There are provisions for battery backup but the phone company has very few equipped with batteries. It’s a problem if you have an alarm system, no phone service no call in if there is any emergency. Solved it with wireless links at 100 watts both ways between home and monitoring system.
Pager are still in use for critical services. In disasters cell phone service goes down land lines and pagers still work.
With all the "wonderful" modern inventions we can give thanks to the disappearance of photo albums to keep memories visible for future generations to view. Digital images can get lost as quickly as they were captured. I can look back at my grangparents' history in old photo albums but I can't look back at my wedding photos because the SD card got erased. Oh how wonderful new technology is!
I still have my audio cassettes and a functioning player. I still have a working Betamax VCR and a couple of working VHS. And a typewriter, that still works. In 20 years ... "remember mobile phones?". Meanwhile Vinyl LPS are being made again.
Man I am so old I remember pay phones using them anti trider I still have a slew of cassette tape video tapes a VCR can we please go back into them days
When I worked in a payroll office in the mid 90s there was still one holdout fax machine that used thermal paper in it and we were always advised to photocopy the time sheets and things from it for better saving due to the fading quality of the other "paper"! I'm always going to be glad I took typing classes in junior and high school because of the advancement of computers! Something I'm also seeing less and less are desk top calculators!
And far fewer people able to calculate with their minds alone, I'm sorry to say.
Phone booths still exist in Australia. They are now free. It is cheaper to leave them in place than to remove them all. There is one down the street from me. It rarely gets used, but those who use it are happy that it is there.
lot of memories in this one
When I was a technology oriented child, a really cool piece of technology included a telephone dial!
I still have all of my cassette tapes from over 35 years ago, which have all of these custom-made remix singles on them, which were recorded from the radio over 30 years ago because I used to listen to the radio every Saturday night during the times when they used to have programs on the radio, switch features remix dance Classics because I remember recording things off the radio many years ago and today I still have all of those cassette tapes back at storage and today I’ve taken many of those cassette tapes and burn them onto my computer and so I can listen to them later on on electronic listening devices.
As a Baby Boomer I gotta say most of these things seem they were not so long ago.....😂😂😂
Carried a pager for years. Still feel phantom pager vibrations on my hip.
Joke related to obsolete technology - “Hello? Is that 777 7777? Oh good, could you do me a favour and call the fire brigade please? I’ve got my finger stuck in the dial !”
Landlines are still in use. I have a landline phone number. The only difference is it supplies my home internet’s wireless router. I just don’t have it connected to a phone.
And only the kids of the previous 1970s may recall "carbon paper."
I can't remember the last time I saw a pay-phone! The home landline phone is now all by dead! I actually have a rotary dial phone made in 1957. My Dad had taken it from a trash bin at a construction site. I still play music on a Stereo Receiver and 4 big speakers. Got a Turntable, Cassette, CD and a connect for anything that plays MP3. I also have a fully working VHS HIFI and a Betamax HIFI!!!
I remember trying to find the perfect time to get to blockbuster to get to rent the new releases
FAX MACHINES are still in use, mostly medical, the Fax Machine is safe and reliable. You won't see a Fax Machine being compromised as are so many E-Mails.
As mentioned elsewhere here, FAX is still very much in use. Patient's medical information is sent via FAX, between offices, every day. It is still considered a truly secure method of document transmission for HIPAA. Email (unless securely encrypted) is NOT secure, and nearly all medical offices, hospitals, and insurance providers, prohibit the transmission of personal/private patient information via email.
It's a good thing Superman isn't around anymore, because there aren't any phone booths available for him to do the Quick change into his red and blue suit.
Carrying that phone booth in our pockets...crazy
We actually have a bank of 3 outdoor working phone booths up here in Oswego, Ny. A local call is STILL only $0.10 for the 1st 3 minutrs!!!
While talking about dial telephones and fax machines, you could also have mentioned telexes, which were teleprinters used for business-to-business communication.
My 2004 Toyota came with a factory installed cassette player when I bought it new in 2003. I remember my neighbor paid extra for touch tone telephone service. 20 years later, the phone company made touch tone service included for no extra charge, except for those that requested it and were already paying extra for. My neighbor still had the touch tone service charge on his bill. My rotary dial phone still works, so I continued to use it. I can dial faster on it than a touch tone phone, as my finger isn't used to the touch tone buttons and I'm not used to their placement.
When the SHTF some of these “old” tech will be a backup, surprisingly.
Land lines are still widly used in business settings.
Last year I visited London for the first time. Although they no longer work, they still left up their signature red phone booths. Now, they're just for the tourists to gawk at.
I learned to type in high school because I needed another elective. Omg was that the best class I ever took period. Now looking back in hindsight. It sure helped me more than most of my other classes ever did!
These audio cassette tapes were also used for some gaming computers in the 80s. Maybe early 90s. Was it C64?
Smartphones: The govt's way of always knowing where you are, what you say and text, and spying on you in
general.
Worked in the medical field and wore a pager 24 / 7.
The precursor to texting was the Telex machine. At work in the early 90s we used it to send messages around the world for immediate replies.
I believe the Cassette Tape goes back slightly earlier (c1965) and was used for dictation originally.
Later Dolby Laboratories refined them for High Fidelity and Low Noise, later Stereo/Multitrack.
I always had to have my Lion King tape playing at night
I'm still using most of this stuff.
Oh wow, I actually owned a copy of that exact Billy Joel cassette.
You could have mentioned mimeograph machines as well.
For those that have no idea what they are, it's a sort of copier that used to be found in schools. They were used to produce multiple copies of tests, work sheets, etc.
..and the smell of those mimeograph pages, hot off the machine!
Used all of them myself as I was born in the late sixties, started school in the early seventies, high school in the eighties, started life in the nineties. The overhead classroom projector, gave me one of the funniest moments in high school. We had this teacher, she was slightly on the tall side, slim, nice body, pleasant faced red head, often smiling, and very friendly, she used to turn her back to the class, show the overhead projector and pick her nose, I was one of the few who noticed what she was doing, I would tell the kids but most wouldn’t believe me, until one day, after a good pick, her booger landed right on the projector, there was a booger the size of a hockey puck with hair sticking out of it, I began to laugh and right after, she dropped the f bomb, everyone laughed, she just casually, picked the thing up, told the class that laughter break was over and everyone just shut the hell up and listen.
Hardline phones are still used in offices. Although you right are about typewriters are not used anymore, the pictures you showed were the very old manual typewriters. There were electric typewriters and were the first form of Word Processors by having a screen on it so you could see a few characters you were typing before it was actually printed.
Actually Compact Cassettes were already introduced in 1964 and a little later got Stereo sound added to it, while still remaining 100% compatible with Mono machines.
Dude, you forgot about the 8 tracks and the floppy disk.