this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024

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443

What's a technology that was cooler in its older iterations? (pawb.social)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

475 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't mean BETTER. That's a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That's just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I love that about CRTs, man.

How the fuck could we invent a tiny pocket sized particle accelerator electron beam gun that magnetically aimed its fire with such precision as to hit every individual phosphor, with the appropriate charge to make the right color, across an entire fucking screen, and do that 30+ times a second (for TV, or 60+ for a monitor)..

Yet the LCD is the high tech fancy monitor when its just a little grid of globs being electronically fired? How did the CRT get invented before the LCD?!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Turns out manufacturing individual, low-power-draw, micron-sized lights is not easy. Even if it's conceptually not as cool, it requires much better manufacturing processes and materials.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (13 children)

I MISS CLEAR COMPUTERS >:(

I mean LOOK AT IT it's so much cooler than just a box!
The SteamDeck community has been cooking with some clear cases which I would buy if I didn't have to risk breaking my beloved $500 indie machine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I bought the translucent nitro purple back plate. Very easy to install.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

YEYEYEYEYEYEYE

One of my dream projects would be to get a dead iMac G3 and make a modern-day sleeper build inside it. It was honestly the COOLEST a computer has EVER looked.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ships' sails. I mean, I know some small vessels still use them, but look at any paintings from 1500s-1800s and tell me those huge white pieces of cloth don't look cool.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Trains and railways are cooler and better than cars and highways. Imagine making everyone get their own personal vehicle, engine, tires, fuel, service, license, and insurance, just to watch them all crash into each other and die constantly.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Trains aren't old tech though. Just tech that got pushed out by auto-maker lobbying. In places (like Japan, or China, or parts of Europe) where they kept evolving they only got better.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

Yes although I would argue cars and highways are just evolutions of horse carts on dirt roads, a way older technology than trains.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Sex toys and local multiplayer is a way better combination than cybersex and online matchmaking

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

cybersex and online matchmaking

For when your team literally gets fucked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I generally can't be arsed with online multiplayer -- Just as a concept.

But I made great memories with my cousins playing Wii/GameCube local multiplayer titles. Smash, Mario Kart, Sonic Adventure 2, et cetera.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I have never played a game with random strangers ever. But! My brother and sister both live hours away from me (and each other), and we keep in touch by playing online co-op games every week.

I have a group of friends that I have mostly kept in touch with by playing online games too.

So I agree with what I think you meant, but I'm very glad online multiplayer exists in some form.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Who said you can't do it anymore?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Neither sure how to call it, nor is it a technology, more like a mindset. I am just gonna name it: "Prideful Craftsmanship"

Basically the incorporation of "useless" decorations and embellishments, to show off ones skill and maybe market oneself a little. Definitely superseded in the capitalist world. Things were just prettier or more interesting to look at, even stuff that wasn't meant to be flashy.

But with nearly everything being made to a price point, this practice has been somewhat lost.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Video games. Way back then there was imagination involved, and companies took risks. Nowadays every game seems to iterate on the same tired formula. The only recent entry I can think of that bucked this trend in the past few decades was maybe Portal, but there have been few to no other recent games that come to mind. Fight me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Along with the others I'd also mention Outer Wilds and Viewfinder

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The imagination came from the limitations of the hardware.

Computers today are too powerful for gaming. Its resulted all the famous studios racing to the bottom with graphics their primary and generally only concern, and everything else coming a distant second.

But at least it left the door open for indie devs, whose lack of resources and experience are still capable of keeping that ember of imagination and innovation burning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Alan Wake 2 and Control are fantastic!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

If you're only talking about AAA games, sure.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not a fan of indie games are you?

Baba is you, is a pretty original puzzle game. I'm not really into factorio, but it made tower defense cool again. There's lots more that are weird and interesting like brigadore, airships conquer the skies, cruelty squad, superliminal.

As far as I remember, portal was a mod or indie game that valve picked up because they thought the idea was really good. It was really good.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A student project, actually. Valve saw a college student doing fun/weird shit inside their engine and went "You're hired".