fax machines, both in Germany and Japan.
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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
And it's WAY older than people think. The first patent for a fax like machine was granted in 1843.
IPv4.
IPv6 became a recognized standard by 1998.
EDIT: https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html#tab=ipv6-adoption
Nearly 30 years later, and less than half of the connections to Google are via IPv6.
Fucking NAT. Never should have been allowed to escape from the lab.
Lolol, you're not wrong. NAT made IPv6 a later problem
I'm almost at the point where all of my connections are IPv6, but still hampered by my mobile provider (ironically, since IPv6 was generally adopted earlier on mobile in many countries).
It surprises me how many system utilities I use that are older than I am. I am currently initializing a disk on a cloud server with an application that was written when Ford was the US president.
Can you say which application it is? Does it run on a mainframe? Any idea what language was used to program it?
Sorry this is just quite interesting.
Snot Flickerman was right, it's dd. It was in the docs I linked to show the commands. It runs on anything with storage devices and an operating system. I mainly use it on Windows servers running on AWS.
The Wheel. We should've graduated to antigravity by now, don't you think?
Back to the Future lied to me again!
In fact, it didn't.
Hoverboards actually do exist. And for bonus points, so do speeder bikes. You probably already know about real-life jetpacks.
I wish I could live another 100 years to see better optimized versions of them.
Car thermostats for the radiator. You don't want the coolant flowing when the engine first starts, because it will run like shit. So you have a cylinder filled with wax that expands with heat. That controls a valve to set the flow of coolant. Low tech, works fine, no particular reason to change it.
Steam engines.
The vast majority of our power comes from making something really hot and boiling water. Coal plant? Oil plant? Gas plant? Nuclear fission plant? Geothermal plant? The grand holy grail of energy production that would be a nuclear fusion plant? All steam engines.
Yes, unbeknownst to everyone, this is what a steampunk society realistically looks like.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned jack plugs yet. Basically unchanged since 1877 when it was invented for phone switchboards, roughly as old as safety pins or modern hairpins (give or take a few decades)
That can't be the actual name of those, is it?
I've always kinda wondered, and generally call them TRS or something (I'm audio engineering background, American, millennial), so looked it up:
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio) under the "other terms" section:
The 1902 International Library of Technology simply uses jack for the female and plug for the male connector.[3] The 1989 Sound Reinforcement Handbook uses phone jack for the female and phone plug for the male connector.[4] Robert McLeish, who worked at the BBC, uses jack or jack socket for the female and jack plug for the male connector in his 2005 book Radio Production.[5] The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, as of 2007, says the more fixed electrical connector is the jack, while the less fixed connector is the plug, without regard to the gender of the connector contacts.[6] The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1975 also made a standard that was withdrawn in 1997.[7]
The intended application for a phone connector has also resulted in names such as audio jack, headphone jack, stereo plug, microphone jack, aux input, etc. Among audio engineers, the connector may often simply be called a quarter-inch to distinguish it from XLR, another frequently used audio connector. These naming variations are also used for the 3.5 mm connectors, which have been called mini-phone, mini-stereo, mini jack, etc.
RCA connectors are differently shaped, but confusingly are similarly named as phono plugs and phono jacks (or in the UK, phono sockets). 3.5 mm connectors are sometimes—counter to the connector manufacturers' nomenclature[8]—referred to as mini phonos.[9]
Confusion also arises because phone jack and phone plug may sometimes refer to the RJ11 and various older telephone sockets and plugs that connect wired telephones to wall outlets.
There's a used bookstore near me that has the oldest cash register I've ever seen. It has keys like a typewriter, and makes the most satisfying "ka-ching" sound when it opens. They always use it to add up your purchase and print a receipt, even when you're paying with a credit card. But I always try to bring cash when I'm there so that the drawer gets used. (And also, y'know, screw credit card companies taking their cut.)
I know that's not really "in widespread use" today, which is probably what the question meant, but that was the first thing that came to mind for me.
Air traffic control still uses floppy disks, windows 95, and a plastic board of paper tag numbers to keep track of shit instead of a computer.
To be fair I have infinity more confidence in the system you just described than whatever tech bro disruptor was going to pitch
Not all of them, most of ATC in EASA airspace is Linux based and use electronic strips instead of the plastic paper strips.
But the foundation of the ground/ground communication is still AFTN based on x400 network (Europe used to have an X.25 network for its CIDIN communications).
The latest and newest tech for international data exchange is AMHS based on X400, often it is x400 over IP ok, but still a 50 years or so tech.
The main idea behind ATC and aviation tech is reliability and compatibility with countries with less money to upgrade tech.
SS7, part of the old ass 2g and 3g networks
Kinda surprised this doesn't have more upvotes considering it seems that it continues to be a massive security vulnerability.
It surprises me how little stick-built houses have changed in the last 50 years or so, at least in the USA.
Phone numbers
A decade ago, I thought phone numbers would soon die out. Instead, the most popular messaging apps use them as identifiers and adoption of those in North America is poor.
Pagers
Hospitals use pagers because the frequency band they run on is better at penetrating walls. Shorter waves carry more data, but are easily blocked by walls. Pagers don’t need a lot of data, so they use really long waves.
And hospitals are built like bunkers, to avoid the potential need to evacuate patients during an emergency. Things like fire breaks between individual rooms, earthquake protections, being strong enough to stand up during a hurricane, etc… The goal is to be able to shelter in place instead of evacuating, because a mass evacuation of bedridden patients who all need monitoring equipment would be a logistical nightmare.
But this also means hospitals are really good at blocking wireless signals, because the walls are all super thick and sturdy. So they use pagers, which use long waves and can reliably penetrate the bunker-like walls. You don’t want a doctor to miss an emergency call because they were sitting in the basement; Hospitals need a wireless connection that reliably works every time. And pagers just happen to fit that specific niche.
An Ikarus 256 was used as a train replacement bus in normal traffic in Hungary yesterday
Mirrors on cars.
I mean, logically I know why, but it just feels so weird and out of place in the 21st century.
Like you got this high tech vehicle with a bunch of computers inside and a lot of screens/displays, radios, GPS, “assisted driving”, then you see this mirror that’s thousands of years old and not some advanced 360 radar system.
I know that a mirror isn’t gonna fail like electronics do, so its better reliability, but still feel odd seeing old tech and new tech merged.
I spend a fair bit of time on construction sites, and cameras have one huge issue compared to mirrors: They're one-way.
With a mirror, I can see the driver in the mirror. I can make eyecontact and confirm that they've seen me. With a camera, I have no idea if they've seen me. Maybe they can see more, but if they happen not to be looking, I have no way to tell.
And our stupid road regulations don't allow for both.
You better take a long look in the mirror before you make a controversial statement like that.
A lot of production industry still runs on PLC from the 90s or older and uses DOS supervision systems. They would continue using it but are usually forced to upgrade once they run out of spare parts and / or staff that can maintain it.
there's still new passenger airliners which use old fashioned control cables over fly by wire
How did it go again?
If it is Boeing, I ain't going!