David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager



	David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager People who love sausages and software should never watch either being made

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Monday July 30, 2007

Technologies that are almost gone

I've been thinking about great technological innovations that are obsolete now, and may soon vanish. There are reasons I will miss them.

AM radio -- so simple you could make a receiver out of a razor blade, and a signal that could carry across five states. Nothing like the thrill of hearing a 50,000 watt signal from half a continent away in the middle of the night. They're actually talking about getting rid of it to free up spectrum.

Telegrams -- nothing could scare you as much as getting one unexpectedly.

Dial telephones -- hmmm, why did I like them? I still have one in the garage. There was something soothing about the little string of clicks, shorter or longer, depending on what digit you dialed.

Fire alarm boxes on downtown telephone poles -- they'll still work even after the terrorists have blown up the cell phone system.

Wireless telegraphy and Morse code -- I had to learn Morse in Boy Scouts. Now you don't even have to know it to get a ham radio license.

The revolver -- when it HAS to work, you know it will, every time.

Posted by davidleetodd ( Jul 30 2007, 05:35:34 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Comments:

Eventually, multicasting digital FM radio (idiotically called "HD Radio") could, in theory, eliminate the need for channel space in the AM band. But what I cannot figure out, is why in Atlanta, they do not yet simulcast the AM broadcast on one of the digital HD-1 or HD-2 multicast channels. Goodness knows I simply cannot stand losing almost every AM station after sunset, and because of the electromagnetic interference of my wireless Ethernet, I cannot listen to many AM stations in my house. As a result, at home I listen to the Internet stream of the AM stations over my Sqeezebox. But until I get a G3 Internet connection in my car, I am stuck listening to only one AM station at night when driving, which means no baseball, ESPN radio, traffic, or news.

Posted by Mark on July 31, 2007 at 12:38 AM PDT #