That is a good one. As a Mac (Power Mac 🙌) user of the time I am well aware of the lore, none of us could have fathomed the extent to which Apple’s fortunes would turn around.
Yeah, but (unfortunately) the Macintosh has been allowed to wither in favor of the iPhone. Yes, I know all about the silicon chips... I have new 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro...but Apple does't do much to market the Macintosh and their recent pricing structure is hostile to their customers.
SJSU! Go Spartans!
I had Mac computers from 1986 until the late 90s. I had a UMAX clone when Apple licensed their tech for other manufacturers. Jobs came back and killed that deal. I was so pissed I haven't bought another Apple product.
I use carbon paper everyday at work.
Wow...that's cool.
What for?
There is a dispatch record we use to send stuff to another location. It has to have direct signatures from everyone who handles it with multiple paper copies - so carbon paper!
They still use carbon paper in court in very busy district because it’s so much faster than making copies
My legs. Where's my hoverboard?!
I'm still walking to work because cars are insanely expensive.
WTF is with this economy?
Corporate shareholder greed is the answer to most economic problems. Or if you prefer, capitalism in general.
Same. Why are cars so expensive? I don't want to walk to work anymore.
I am addicted to my shoehorn.
Is it the little one, or the long handled one?
Pop culture references from the 80s/90s. I just haven't moved on.
any kardashian product
I had to use my parent’s cable TV last night to catch the new smiling friends episode. That was the first time in years I’ve used cable.
My liver, strong he is.
May he serve you for a long time.
Fax machine. We have several vendors that we deal with that ONLY accept orders by fax. One of them is this 80 year old guy who started with that company when he was like 12 years old, bought the company when he was in his 30's and now it is just him and 3 people on his staff.
A pager at work (hospital). I know it works through thick hospital walls, but still..
Radios. It boggles and impresses me to this day that even in the age of computer technology, radios have not become antiquated. I think that is a testament to its significance. Decades after its invention, radio technology has continued to be useful. I think that's what makes a good invention, it's ability to adapt to changing needs over time.
Plus it can reach even out here where cell towers are spotty.
When I was in high school and college in 80s-90s the competing rock and pop radio stations would give out bumper stickers so listeners could show their loyalty on their car. Those are a thing of the past.
Coins!
A crt tv (I was born in the 2000s I don’t even know why I have it)
I still have a 32 inch CRT TV - has a great picture!
I still use one too! It’s the best for old video game consoles!
Signing after using a credit card. The rest of the world uses a PIN except the US.
I think most of the world, including the US has moved on to contactless. I rarely have to sign anymore.
My hand.
P-38 can opener. It's such ingenious design that can be used by anyone and doesn't require much cleaning.
windshield wipers
Yep - the glass should be nano engineered to repel water at this point!
Best we can do is Rain-x
That we are still using pen and paper at work. Our hospital alone prints over one million pages each year. Why is there a physical folder for each patient when everything is available digitally?!
Fax Machines.
My office still has a fax because a specific facet of our business frequently involves working with "old school" small businesses, and those people are adamant that faxing their complete credit card information on an invoice full of personally identifiable information to a machine that literally dozens of people have unsecured physical access to is safer than typing their shit in to an online payment portal directly hosted and P2P-encrypted by one of the largest, most trusted payment processors in the world.
EDIT: The irony is, when we receive a faxed payment, we . . . process it via the online portal, because it automatically sends a confirmation and receipt.
We did government contracting about 10 years ago and all the orders came in over fax. Shocked it is still being used even now.
Mom-and-Pop small businesses can be really change-averse . . . something-something-boomers-something-something, I guess?
A handful of the smaller companies we work with still don't have an internet presence - no website, no social media, no email. Not even sure how they're surviving because our industry basically ceased to exist during early covid and they compete with very large, modern corporations. I guess, after decades in business, they just have their "regulars" and are happy to maintain a status quo . . .
Transport. You'd think that after the pandemic showed the world that we can all do this in the comfort of our homes, we'd switch to this permanently. But for some bizarre reason I still have to drag my ass to a whole other city just to sit in front of the very same computer I'd use from my bed. We had paradise and we voluntarily traded it back for hell.
Can you imagine? I wake up at 5 AM, put on my backpack with my laptop, a hat, something for the rain, etc. I travel to the train station, pay for a ticket out of my own pocket, travel to that dumb city, go to that dumb building, sit in my dumb cubicle, take out the laptop i brought from my home and work on it there, then put it in my backpack and take it back home. As if the internet never existed. 3 hours lost, one way. 3 hours lost, the other way. 6 hours lost.
If you didn't commute, managers might be found out to be nearly useless, and they can't have that, lol.
I prefer a physical card. It adds a layer of "are you sure that you want to buy this" that isn't there with the phone for me.
A gasoline powered automobile.
It does seem primative at this point.
as opposed to the coal powered EV's?
*possibly coal-powered. Unless the grid 8s renewable, which is getting to be more and more a thing. Even otherwise, a centralized power plant has better pollution controls and better efficiency than burning gas in a separate engine for every vehicle.
the floor, like why can't I walk on air yet, who's gatekeeping the hoverboards
Skull face emoji
Paris and Tokyo still do not have simple credit card tap and pay in their metro systems.
My brain, it seems like there are too many that forgot how to
I still pick up from cassettes and CDs before they don't require any online services to use them. Just as long I have a working player and a set of batteries, I'm chilled. Helpful during power outages.
My iron and ironing board
Non flying cars
I use a landline for work.
Fax machines....Holy shit I work in telecom I HATE fax machines
Fax machines for banking, govt documents, and medical documents.
I use golf clubs from 1989. Ping Eye 2 Irons. Besides normal wear and tear they function the same as clubs made today in a lot of cases. They were the first “game improvement” irons on the market, were banned for tournament use for a while and then became usable.
late 80s thru mid 90's Ping Eye 2 irons were what every serious weekend golfer wanted to use. My son is into competitive golf now and doesn't believe me when I tell him Ping's were once the best irons and putters around.
You should buy him a set off eBay, they have the highest resell value of like any iron set lol. I really wanna get a Beryllium Copper set before they inevitably go extinct.
Beryllium Copper set
totally forgot about those. they were bad ass
Telephone, texting and emails are much easier
Easier, but it is much harder to convey nuance versus talking to someone.
Vacuum tubes but I’ve been surprised that I’m one of the few people who loves them for a while now.
You are ready to withstand the EMP.
In the year 1999, I was graduating from college and was interviewing at many places. One place I interviewed at was Apple. But I said no because I thought Apple was a dying company.
Now, in all fairness, at that time, Apple was worth like $7 billion, and $4 billion of it was in cash. A few years ago, Microsoft invested $150 million to save it from bankruptcy (because they needed the illusion of a competitor to keep their monopoly). So, I thought it was running on its last legs.
Three trillion dollars and 25 years later, as I am writing thing on my MacBook - I am going to take the wild leap and say I was wrong. But my 21 year old self would be surprised people were using Apple in 2024.