PC World - By the time you read this story, the Internet may be obsolete.

Okay, maybe not. But you never know. With technology evolving at breakneck speed, no one can say for sure what's around the next corner -- to say nothing of the one after that. The circle of life, however, remains constant: When a new high-tech creation is born, something else may die as a result. Sometimes, the loss is a good thing -- who wants busy signals or staticky TV? -- but at other times, the departure stirs bittersweet feelings (remember saying farewell to your trusty old C:\ prompt?).


We've compiled a list of 40 once-commonplace activities that are rapidly approaching extinction. Some are in danger of disappearing, while others have already vanished. So join us for a spirited send-off.

1. Playing Video Games at an Arcade
Status: On life support

Once a favorite activity of geeks worldwide, going to the arcade to play video games began fading away in the mid-1990s, just as going to the arcade to play pinball had done a decade before. A few arcades survive, but the days of gamers lining up to toss quarters into Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat are long gone. It's easy to see why: The advent of advanced gaming systems allows you to experience the same action at home, minus the dungeon-like lighting, the deafening game noise, and the premature exhaustion of your lunch money for the week.

2. 2. Running Out of Hard-Drive Space
Status: Deceased

With terabyte-size drives now selling for less than $70, hard drives that exceed your storage needs aren't exactly hard to come by these days. But remember when an 80MB drive was the pinnacle of luxury and a 1GB drive would have seemed as spacious as Carlsbad Caverns?

3. Getting a Busy Signal
Status: Nearly deceased

Thanks to advances in voicemail and call-waiting technology, you rarely hear that annoying broken tone any more. Unless, of course, you're voting for American Idol or listening to Pink Floyd.

4. Going on a "Blind" First Date
Status: Deceased

What with Google, dating sites, and a slew of social networks, it's not difficult to get to know a person digitally before choosing to interact with them in a brick-and-mortar environment. Heck, you might even get to know them intimately before ever meeting. Or instead of ever meeting.

5. Needing to Be 18 to Have Access to Porn
Status: Deceased

It may sound crazy, but in the old days a fella had to be 18 to get his hands on prurient materials -- either that or have an easily bribable older brother. Or a friend with such a brother. Or a dad with an obvious stash. Not that I know anything about such matters.

6. Chatting With the SysOp
Status: Deceased

The SysOp -- short for system administrator -- was a figure of power beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1990s. As the creator and overlord of the local bulletin board system (BBS), the SysOp watched over the users who dialed into his pre-Internet electronic communication system. He chatted with visitors, kept the system running smoothly, and occasionally hit the disconnect button when someone remained logged in for too long.

7. Paying for Long Distance
Status: Nearly deceased

Once upon a time, people had to pay expensive per-minute fees for long distance. Then, the big bad cell phone came along and blew those charges away like a straw house. The end.

8. Getting Fuzzy TV Reception
Status: Deceased

When the United States flipped the switch on an all-digital broadcasting system this summer, it also effectively sent the fuzzy "white snow" to the graveyard. So long, annoying static; we always loathed you.

9. Hearing the Sound of a Modem Connecting
Status: Nearly deceased

How a familiar series of sounds could simultaneously be so grating and so gratifying is a mystery that man may never unlock. Jonesing for a fix? Try the 56K Modem Emulator.

10. Shooting Polaroids
Status: Nearly deceased

Polaroid plans to stop selling its signature instant film at the end of this year.

11. Waiting to Get Photos Developed
Status: Showing signs of illness

Though film-based cameras aren't completely gone, the advantages of digital snapshots -- namely, that you can view a picture immediately after taking it and that you can discard bad shots at no cost -- have certainly made traditional cameras far less common.

12. Typing on a Typewriter
Status: Nearly deceased

The clickity-clackity sound of the standard typewriter has quieted over the years. Unless you work in the New York City Police Department, which reportedly just signed a $1 million typewriter-purchasing contract.

13. Removing the Perforated Leader Strips From Continuous-Feed Paper Printouts
Status: Nearly deceased

Born in the 1970s, the dot matrix printer delivered low-quality printouts for nearly two full decades before inkjet technology offered an alternative that was slightly less hard on the eyes. The dot matrix printer will be remembered for its frequent paper jams; for its slow, noisy operation; and for the thin strips of perforated paper that you had to tear (carefully, so you didn't end up with a document that looked as though a tiny but voracious shrew had been sampling it) off the left and right sides of a printout once their work of keeping the paper properly aligned in the printer was done.

14. Having Easy-to-Remember TV Channel Numbers
Status: Nearly deceased

Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on? More like 557 channels (and still nothin' on). Try writing a catchy tune to that, Springsteen.

15. Checking Your Answering Machine
Status: Seriously ill

"Hi, you've reached the answering machine. I'm still around, but most people are now using dial-in voicemail instead of me. What a bunch of ungrateful little...BEEP!"

16. Enjoying Complete Privacy
Status: On life support

In the face of constant monitoring by Google and the many forms of GPS tracking in our lives (social networking shoe, anyone?), privacy has become a rare and precious commodity within the connected world. Speaking of which, that's a nice shirt you're wearing today.

17. Making Someone a Real Mix Tape
Status: Deceased

Web sites like Mixtape.com and Songza may attempt to fill the void, but the art of laboring over a custom-made mix tape tailored for a special occasion or a special person -- as romanticized by John Cusack's character in High Fidelity -- seems to have gone the way of electrical appliance repair and blacksmithing. It's a damn shame, too, because mix tapes made great gifts for dates (and by "great" I mean "potentially highly prized by the recipient and yet incredibly cheap and easy to assemble").

18. Wearing a Calculator Watch
Status: Deceased

Affectionately dubbed "the nerd watch," the calculator watch once served as a proud badge of a person's abiding amusement with mathematics -- as diagnostic as a pocket protector or membership in the high school Slide Rule Club. Nowadays, the only sure way to ascertain an individual's true geek quotient is to test their Star Trek knowledge.

19. Seeing Pages and Pages of Phone Sex Ads in the Back of Free City Weeklies
Status: Showing signs of illness

Those naughty 900 numbers may still exist, but cybersex and the scandal-du-jour phenomenon of sexting have stolen most of the spotlight from landline lovin' these days. Not to mention that Craigslist and online events calendars have left free city weeklies looking pretty anorexic themselves. It's true that lying about yourself and your various physical characteristics is just as easy when you're talking on the phone as when you're typing on a keyboard -- unless the lie is "I don't sound like Donald Duck" -- but online the person you're communicating with can't hear that repellant note of desperation in your voice.

20. Using a Public Phone Booth
Status: On life support

Now that everyone and his cockatiel has a cell phone, public phone booths are getting tougher to track down. Translation: Superman is screwed.

21. Dialing on a Rotary Phone
Status: Nearly deceased

The ease of touchtone dialing has made active use of rotary phones a novelty, though it isn't clear whether those old Bell Telephone models will ever become truly rare, since they were built to withstand thermonuclear attack. In any case, mimes may never let the motion go from their repertoire.

22. Storing Data on a Floppy Disk
Status: Nearly deceased

A disk with 1.44MB of storage? Shyeah, right. The once-standard protocol for storing and transferring data seems puny by today's file-size standards. (And don't even get started with the truly floppy 5.25-inch variety.) Few new PCs are being built with floppy disk drives anymore; and as a result, the era of the A:\ prompt is in its twilight. As for the Zip drive, Iomega may still say it sells 'em -- but is anyone buying it?

23. Booting Up to a C:\ Prompt
Status: Nearly deceased

DOS, we'll always fondly remember seeing your blinking prompt upon boot-up. Rest in peace, dear friend.

24. Typing on an Old-School Word Processor
Status: Deceased

Let's face it: Doogie Howser wouldn't have been nearly as endearing if he had typed his nightly journal on Microsoft Office 2010. But boy, that plain blue-and-white screen just screams "1991."

25. Having Your Mobile Phone Attached to Your Car
Status: Deceased

I remember those early mobile phones that mechanics installed in people's cars. What I can't remember, though, is what today's important-looking Bluetooth-always-in-the-ear guys did to make themselves look like tools back then.

26. Putting in a Videotape to Watch a Movie
Status: On life support

Dearly beloved, we gather here today to mourn the passing of VHS. The lucky twin of the long-deceased Betamax (whose cause of death remains a source of controversy decades later), VHS gave us hours of videotape-watching enjoyment -- and almost as many hours of trying to adjust the blasted tracking knob to get a steady picture.

27. Holding Up a Lighter at a Concert
Status: Showing signs of illness

Listening to a power ballad in a dimly lit stadium without a sea of gently undulating lighters for company is like spending time at Twitter without a sea of social media experts offering their insights and informed criticism: Something about it doesn't feel right. Sure, holding up thousands of illuminated cell phones might be safer -- but even if the phones have virtual lighter apps installed, it just isn't the same.

28. Watching a Movie on a Laser Disc
Status: Deceased

The only proof that anyone ever actually watched movies on laser disc is the (at this writing) 5282 entries posted on eBay by people trying to dump their LDs. But whether fact or fiction, the technology is definitely obsolete now.

29. Using Proper Grammar and Punctuation
Status: On life support

txting and iming has made proper grammar seems kinda old skoo, dont u thnk? heres hoping 4 capitalization & punctuation 2 make a comeback in emails & other writing. the gr8 gatsby probly wuld hv been way less gr8 if it wuz written like this. lol

30. Getting a New Car With a Cigarette Lighter
Status: Showing signs of illness

Built-in cigarette lighters -- standard-issue accessories for many nicotine-friendly decades -- are losing favor among automobile manufacturers. In fact, most new cars today ship cigarette lighter-free, instead dedicating the ports to electronics charging.

31. Flipping On an Incandescent Light Bulb
Status: On life support

More and more nations are saying so long to the traditional incandescent light bulb and encouraging their citizens to use relatively ecology-friendly, energy-saving bulbs. Cartoon characters getting "bright ideas" have yet to adapt, however.

32. Sitting in Front of a CRT Monitor
Status: On life support

I won't miss staring at blurry, hard-to-read text on a CRT screen. But I will miss the dramatic effect of seeing one of those bad boys dropped from a third-story window. Flatscreen monitors may be more aerodynamic, but they just don't blow up as well.

33. Playing Music on an Audiocassette
Status: Nearly deceased

You can try to rewind, but the life of the cassette is on its last legs. If anyone knows a practical application for four boxes of late-1980s, early-1990s rock tapes, please advise.

34. Going to the Local Music Store to Check out CDs
Status: On life support

Local music stores are becoming harder and harder to find. Here's hoping that the remaining few can manage to hang on/ Losing them would leave a cultural void that iTunes is not equipped to fill.

35. Getting an AOL Disk or CD in the Mail
Status: Deceased

Ever wonder how many of those floppies and CDs AOL sent out over the years? You're not alone. But no one seems to know the answer. The supply of AOL marketing material appeared endless, right up until the mailings stopped a few years back. People who devoted their time to collecting or shunning the discs haven't figured out what to do with themselves since (nor have I figured out what I'm supposed to use for coasters now).

36. Looking Up Numbers in the Phone Book
Status: Showing signs of illness

Phone companies still hand them out, but printed phone books have definitely seen better days. The combined influence of the Web and of phone services such as GOOG-411 has sharply reduced everyday use of phone books; and today the traditional walking of fingers through wood-pulp pages seems antiquated to many tech-friendly families (and wasteful to many green-friendly families).

37. Using Carbon Copy Paper
Status: Nearly deceased

With even low-end printers now able to scan, copy, and possibly make toast, you don't see old-fashioned carbon copy paper too often, making carbon paper a candidate to join purple-on-white mimeograph paper any day now in the museum of antiquities. And I doubt that anyone's complaining.

38. Sending Documents via Fax
Status: Showing signs of illness

Why fax when you can attach? Especially since most documents are now created on computers, the facsimile may soon find itself on the endangered species list. Fear not, though, Office Space fans: The legend "PC Load Letter" will live on forever.

39. Rockin' Out With Your Boombox
Status: Nearly deceased

Your iPod may look cool, but can you balance it on your shoulder and blare your funky beats at obnoxiously high volumes? Didn't think so. The boombox -- also known as the jambox, the ghetto blaster, or the jerkface apparatus -- reached its peak popularity during the 1980s, when big hair, stone-washed jeans, and bad dancing enjoyed similarly unaccountable heydays. Though updated editions of the boombox may be on the market today, the era of not being able to ride in peace on a randomly selected public conveyance on a randomly selected day is, thankfully, behind us.

40. Giving Someone Your Undivided Attention During a Social Interaction
Status: Showing signs of illness

Oh, come on -- talking without simultaneously texting or tweeting is so 2008.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136629/Obsolete_tech_40_things_on_their_way_out?taxonomyId=0&pageNumber=4

Now, I will ask you to tell me how many of these things have you actually done in the past year?

I've done #1 as many beach resorts still have arcades, though I feel that I don't see anything completely replacing the arcade at those niche markets (though more affordable, home/portable entertainment may ultimately lead to its demise.

I actually experienced #8 as I stil have a 1980 13" TV in my bedroom to pick up stations a bit more distant.
I've done #11 (though I wouldn't call 1 hour a long wait at a Target (you can do all your shopping!) and even #12 to type up a few jukebox strips until I found blank title strip templates on the computer.

I'm still very intune with #16 as I keep all personal information secret.

I've done #26, of course (yes, a bit bulky, but now that many movies are free online and the picture quality is improving, I would even put the DVD as "showing signs of illness")

I REALLY CARE about #29, and feel that it is very important to use proper language, as when it comes times to write an official publication, it really shows that you are a good writer.

I've done #33 for nostalgia purposes, and of course #34 to look at actual jewel cases to savior the physical appearance of music.

Pretty good list, and I agree with most of the ones you commented on. I'd add to #34 that video rental stores seem to be on their way out as well, with those movie vending machines, movies on demand, torrent sites and on-line movie rental. There is now only one movie rental store in town, on the other side. All of the others have folded.

Ant

  Nice article.  Never thought about these things...

  In the past year I've done -

     2. Running Out of Hard-Drive Space (my hard drive is only 40 gig.)
     29. Using Proper Grammar and Punctuation (I still do for work and other important stuff.)
     31. Flipping On an Incandescent Light Bulb (we still have two of these.)
     34. Going to the Local Music Store to Check out CDs (went to Rasputin's last week.  Picked-up B-52's Funplex.)
     40. Giving Someone Your Undivided Attention During a Social Interaction (aren't we supposed to?)

  And that's it...

1 karamel because I love this article you picked!

Number 40 is really sad!  :\'( Lol. But some people, even in the olden days still won't listen to you no matter what.

I kind of miss phone booths!

A few years ago, before I got my cell phone, my car had busted tire it took FOREVER to find a phone to call my folks for help!  >:(

I've done only a few of these in the past year. I've played old VHS tapes and cassette tapes though more of nostalgia than anything. I still have several incandescent bulbs. I have also typed on an old school typewriter, I bought this 45 or so year old typewriter at an antique shop and played around with it...still works, though against of course this was done purely as a throwback. I still use mostly proper grammar while I try to. Depressing that I remember when a good deal of the stuff on here was common place modern technology, now it is all obsolete.

I actually just got a CD in the mail.  The Firmware update for my Blu-Ray Player wasn't working, so I had to call Sony Canada and they sent me the update disc.

I still buy Audio Cassettes, but I can't say as I play them unless I am ripping from a cassette to mp3.  I have probably over 5,000 cassette tapes.

Reading through that was a real flash-back for me.

From 1990-1993 I ran several BBS systems.  It was really a fun hobby, and taught me a lot about hardware and networking that I was able to use in later years.

I had a saying that I had posted on my board:  A SysOp is a person who spends thousands of dollars on a computer, so other people can play with it.  ;D

The sad thing is that within a few years, the Internet went mainstream, and pretty much killed them all.  I don't think I have called one in 12 years, and doubt if there are more then a handfull left.

In the past year I have taken film to be developed (well, a disposable camera), had less than 57 channel numbers on my TV to remember, looked up numbers in a phone book (did it Friday evening) and prepared something to be faxed (though my husband faxed it).  You need to fax some documents that need signatures on them.

With regard to #8: going digital hasn't necessarily improved TV reception.  Now instead of watching a faintly snowy picture I have to put up with dialogue break-up, blocky or stationary pictures or the bloody 'no signal' option.  I know which I prefer.

#6 - isn't Chucky like the SysOp for these boards?

#3 I think the Pink Floyd song section is actually the UK ring tone.

I was just thinking about #7 yesterday.




Cat

#5 holds a special place in my heart.  As a kid, we would go to amazing lengths to get a peek.  LOL

#9 That AOL modem shriek from the 90s was defintiely annoying and exciting at the same time!!!!

#17 Real mix tapes - gee I miss making those perfectly-crafted mixes.  Interestingly, the recipients were never as excited as I was when I gave it to them.  Well a few were!!! 

Reading through that was a real flash-back for me.

From 1990-1993 I ran several BBS systems.  It was really a fun hobby, and taught me a lot about hardware and networking that I was able to use in later years.

I had a saying that I had posted on my board:  A SysOp is a person who spends thousands of dollars on a computer, so other people can play with it.  ;D

The sad thing is that within a few years, the Internet went mainstream, and pretty much killed them all.  I don't think I have called one in 12 years, and doubt if there are more then a handfull left.


I think you've twigged on one of the things I like about this little corner of the 'net, though.  A few dozen regulars, but open to anyone; people drifting on and off any particular board from year to year.  A decent pool of active discussions, but a single human being could read everything that was said in the past 2-3 days in the space of an hour or two.  But by and large, this place reminds me of a good BBS, back in the day.

#6 - isn't Chucky like the SysOp for these boards?


Pretty much.  (And part of that feeling is that ChuckyG runs this place like a good SysOp ran his board -- keep the servers running, clean up the really egregious messes when they happen, moderate lightly, but for the most part, let the users take care of themselves; given the chance to be decent, for the most part, they will.)

The big difference is on the hardware side -- in the web age, the server's in a datacenter, and most of the physical maintenance of the machine (and sometimes the same physical hardware may be shared by dozens of unrelated web sites) is done by others.  Back in the BBS days, the computer was almost always an off-the-shelf PC sitting on a desk, or in the SysOp's closet, and hooked up to a dedicated (land/analog) telephone line.  This was before multitasking operating systems, so if the SysOp wanted to use the same PC for programming or even so much as playing a video game, the board was down -- a dedicated PC was typically required.  Thiis was also back in the days when off-the-shelf PCs cost thousands of dollars, so to run a board 24/7 was a serious commitment.

For any inthe00s regulars who came after the BBS era -- imagine a message board as cozy as this one, but in which everyone lived within 20 miles of each other, and once or twice a year, someone would host a party.  This board's about as close as you'll ever get to that sort of experience.  Neat.

The big difference is on the hardware side -- in the web age, the server's in a datacenter, and most of the physical maintenance of the machine (and sometimes the same physical hardware may be shared by dozens of unrelated web sites) is done by others.  Back in the BBS days, the computer was almost always an off-the-shelf PC sitting on a desk, or in the SysOp's closet, and hooked up to a dedicated (land/analog) telephone line.  This was before multitasking operating systems, so if the SysOp wanted to use the same PC for programming or even so much as playing a video game, the board was down -- a dedicated PC was typically required.  Thiis was also back in the days when off-the-shelf PCs cost thousands of dollars, so to run a board 24/7 was a serious commitment.

For any inthe00s regulars who came after the BBS era -- imagine a message board as cozy as this one, but in which everyone lived within 20 miles of each other, and once or twice a year, someone would host a party.  This board's about as close as you'll ever get to that sort of experience.  Neat.


Well, some of us multitasked.  I used DesqView, so could run from 2-4 lines on a single computer running DOS.  Pretty cool stuff.  At the height of the BBS craze (1993), I had 4 lines, with "outreach" lines that extended my coverage over 100 miles (in short, I would pay for a line with somebody on the edge of the coverage area, set up as "auto call-forward", extending the local area even further).

My peak configuration was 1 server, which was a 80486SX-25.  It had 4 MB RAM, 2 200MB hard drives (IDE) and a 700MB drive (SCSI-II).  I had 2 CD-ROM drives, one with a NightOwl shareware disk, and another similar one I forget the name of.  As far as I am aware, I was the first SysOp in the Bay Area with over 2 GB of file online (a huge feat in 1992).

I used Ethernet (coax) with 2 80386DX-25 computers, each with a 20 MB hard drive.  These each had 2 Practical Peripherals 9600 bos modems.  And because I used DesqView, each had a VGA monitor and a monochrome monitor.  I used Remote Access, and ran probably 30 different door games.

When I was in the Bay Area, the various SysOps got together regularly.  Myself and one other DJed at a local bowling alley.  Many other SysOps and users would get together either there, or at a local club that another SysOp was MC at.  And about once a month we all got together with users for pizza.

But it was not all local.  I was a member of FIDONet, which was an early international forum.  I was active in the virus section, the Star Trek forums, and several others.  I remember the old "Flame Wars", where trolls would jump in and blast everybody, just for the sake of blasting them.

When I moved to LA, it changed a bit.  Less popular were the smaller 1-5 line boards.  Instead you had 30-50 line monstrocities that were run as a business, on dedicated hardware.  Instead of Remote Access and Wildcat, these ran DLX, or PC-Board.  Instead of requesting donations, these were ru as a business, with paying accounts being the only way to go.  Ironically, in the mid 1990's, some of these were the first to make the jump to the Internet.  One of the biggest in LA, Stepping Stone Hotel, was bought out, then turned into an ISP.  The ISP was around for a few years, then was bought out by a bigger ISP (Internet In A Mall), which was in turn bought out by EarthLink.

Of course, there was also software.  Almost every board had a library of programs for download, with the faithfull X, Y, and Z Modem.  Most was public domain and shareware.  And there were the "Pirate Boards", where you could download everything else.  For about a year I was one of the official McAfee sites, and always had the newest version of SHIELD and CLEAN.

And there were the wonderful DOOR games.  I know that somebody is a BBSer if I can mention TW, LOTRD, BRE, or TW2002 and they start to smile.  Forget EverCrack being the first online game addiction, people were addicted to these long before most people ever heard of the Internet.  I would have people log on every day, to get their daily fix.  And some of them would play games on 5 or 6 local boards.

The death of BBS though came with the Internet.  There were probably 30 in my area in 1993.  By 1997, it was down to maybe 20.  By 2000, I doubt there were more then 2 or 3.  I have not even tried to call one since 1997.  But off and on I have thought about them, and miss the interaction.

And you can track this in my online habits.  From 1997-2002, I was very active in IRC.  But when IRC started to die, I moved to online forums like this one.  But in many ways, it is just not the same.

PC World - By the time you read this story, the Internet may be obsolete.

Okay, maybe not. But you never know. With technology evolving at breakneck speed, no one can say for sure what's around the next corner -- to say nothing of the one after that. The circle of life, however, remains constant: When a new high-tech creation is born, something else may die as a result. Sometimes, the loss is a good thing -- who wants busy signals or staticky TV? -- but at other times, the departure stirs bittersweet feelings (remember saying farewell to your trusty old C:\ prompt?).


We've compiled a list of 40 once-commonplace activities that are rapidly approaching extinction. Some are in danger of disappearing, while others have already vanished. So join us for a spirited send-off.

1. Playing Video Games at an Arcade
Status: On life support

Once a favorite activity of geeks worldwide, going to the arcade to play video games began fading away in the mid-1990s, just as going to the arcade to play pinball had done a decade before. A few arcades survive, but the days of gamers lining up to toss quarters into Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat are long gone. It's easy to see why: The advent of advanced gaming systems allows you to experience the same action at home, minus the dungeon-like lighting, the deafening game noise, and the premature exhaustion of your lunch money for the week.

2. 2. Running Out of Hard-Drive Space
Status: Deceased

With terabyte-size drives now selling for less than $70, hard drives that exceed your storage needs aren't exactly hard to come by these days. But remember when an 80MB drive was the pinnacle of luxury and a 1GB drive would have seemed as spacious as Carlsbad Caverns?

3. Getting a Busy Signal
Status: Nearly deceased

Thanks to advances in voicemail and call-waiting technology, you rarely hear that annoying broken tone any more. Unless, of course, you're voting for American Idol or listening to Pink Floyd.

4. Going on a "Blind" First Date
Status: Deceased

What with Google, dating sites, and a slew of social networks, it's not difficult to get to know a person digitally before choosing to interact with them in a brick-and-mortar environment. Heck, you might even get to know them intimately before ever meeting. Or instead of ever meeting.

5. Needing to Be 18 to Have Access to Porn
Status: Deceased

It may sound crazy, but in the old days a fella had to be 18 to get his hands on prurient materials -- either that or have an easily bribable older brother. Or a friend with such a brother. Or a dad with an obvious stash. Not that I know anything about such matters.

6. Chatting With the SysOp
Status: Deceased

The SysOp -- short for system administrator -- was a figure of power beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1990s. As the creator and overlord of the local bulletin board system (BBS), the SysOp watched over the users who dialed into his pre-Internet electronic communication system. He chatted with visitors, kept the system running smoothly, and occasionally hit the disconnect button when someone remained logged in for too long.

7. Paying for Long Distance
Status: Nearly deceased

Once upon a time, people had to pay expensive per-minute fees for long distance. Then, the big bad cell phone came along and blew those charges away like a straw house. The end.

8. Getting Fuzzy TV Reception
Status: Deceased

When the United States flipped the switch on an all-digital broadcasting system this summer, it also effectively sent the fuzzy "white snow" to the graveyard. So long, annoying static; we always loathed you.

9. Hearing the Sound of a Modem Connecting
Status: Nearly deceased

How a familiar series of sounds could simultaneously be so grating and so gratifying is a mystery that man may never unlock. Jonesing for a fix? Try the 56K Modem Emulator.

10. Shooting Polaroids
Status: Nearly deceased

Polaroid plans to stop selling its signature instant film at the end of this year.

11. Waiting to Get Photos Developed
Status: Showing signs of illness

Though film-based cameras aren't completely gone, the advantages of digital snapshots -- namely, that you can view a picture immediately after taking it and that you can discard bad shots at no cost -- have certainly made traditional cameras far less common.

12. Typing on a Typewriter
Status: Nearly deceased

The clickity-clackity sound of the standard typewriter has quieted over the years. Unless you work in the New York City Police Department, which reportedly just signed a $1 million typewriter-purchasing contract.

13. Removing the Perforated Leader Strips From Continuous-Feed Paper Printouts
Status: Nearly deceased

Born in the 1970s, the dot matrix printer delivered low-quality printouts for nearly two full decades before inkjet technology offered an alternative that was slightly less hard on the eyes. The dot matrix printer will be remembered for its frequent paper jams; for its slow, noisy operation; and for the thin strips of perforated paper that you had to tear (carefully, so you didn't end up with a document that looked as though a tiny but voracious shrew had been sampling it) off the left and right sides of a printout once their work of keeping the paper properly aligned in the printer was done.

14. Having Easy-to-Remember TV Channel Numbers
Status: Nearly deceased

Fifty-seven channels and nothin' on? More like 557 channels (and still nothin' on). Try writing a catchy tune to that, Springsteen.

15. Checking Your Answering Machine
Status: Seriously ill

"Hi, you've reached the answering machine. I'm still around, but most people are now using dial-in voicemail instead of me. What a bunch of ungrateful little...BEEP!"

16. Enjoying Complete Privacy
Status: On life support

In the face of constant monitoring by Google and the many forms of GPS tracking in our lives (social networking shoe, anyone?), privacy has become a rare and precious commodity within the connected world. Speaking of which, that's a nice shirt you're wearing today.

17. Making Someone a Real Mix Tape
Status: Deceased

Web sites like Mixtape.com and Songza may attempt to fill the void, but the art of laboring over a custom-made mix tape tailored for a special occasion or a special person -- as romanticized by John Cusack's character in High Fidelity -- seems to have gone the way of electrical appliance repair and blacksmithing. It's a damn shame, too, because mix tapes made great gifts for dates (and by "great" I mean "potentially highly prized by the recipient and yet incredibly cheap and easy to assemble").

18. Wearing a Calculator Watch
Status: Deceased

Affectionately dubbed "the nerd watch," the calculator watch once served as a proud badge of a person's abiding amusement with mathematics -- as diagnostic as a pocket protector or membership in the high school Slide Rule Club. Nowadays, the only sure way to ascertain an individual's true geek quotient is to test their Star Trek knowledge.

19. Seeing Pages and Pages of Phone Sex Ads in the Back of Free City Weeklies
Status: Showing signs of illness

Those naughty 900 numbers may still exist, but cybersex and the scandal-du-jour phenomenon of sexting have stolen most of the spotlight from landline lovin' these days. Not to mention that Craigslist and online events calendars have left free city weeklies looking pretty anorexic themselves. It's true that lying about yourself and your various physical characteristics is just as easy when you're talking on the phone as when you're typing on a keyboard -- unless the lie is "I don't sound like Donald Duck" -- but online the person you're communicating with can't hear that repellant note of desperation in your voice.

20. Using a Public Phone Booth
Status: On life support

Now that everyone and his cockatiel has a cell phone, public phone booths are getting tougher to track down. Translation: Superman is screwed.

21. Dialing on a Rotary Phone
Status: Nearly deceased

The ease of touchtone dialing has made active use of rotary phones a novelty, though it isn't clear whether those old Bell Telephone models will ever become truly rare, since they were built to withstand thermonuclear attack. In any case, mimes may never let the motion go from their repertoire.

22. Storing Data on a Floppy Disk
Status: Nearly deceased

A disk with 1.44MB of storage? Shyeah, right. The once-standard protocol for storing and transferring data seems puny by today's file-size standards. (And don't even get started with the truly floppy 5.25-inch variety.) Few new PCs are being built with floppy disk drives anymore; and as a result, the era of the A:\ prompt is in its twilight. As for the Zip drive, Iomega may still say it sells 'em -- but is anyone buying it?

23. Booting Up to a C:\ Prompt
Status: Nearly deceased

DOS, we'll always fondly remember seeing your blinking prompt upon boot-up. Rest in peace, dear friend.

24. Typing on an Old-School Word Processor
Status: Deceased

Let's face it: Doogie Howser wouldn't have been nearly as endearing if he had typed his nightly journal on Microsoft Office 2010. But boy, that plain blue-and-white screen just screams "1991."

25. Having Your Mobile Phone Attached to Your Car
Status: Deceased

I remember those early mobile phones that mechanics installed in people's cars. What I can't remember, though, is what today's important-looking Bluetooth-always-in-the-ear guys did to make themselves look like tools back then.

26. Putting in a Videotape to Watch a Movie
Status: On life support

Dearly beloved, we gather here today to mourn the passing of VHS. The lucky twin of the long-deceased Betamax (whose cause of death remains a source of controversy decades later), VHS gave us hours of videotape-watching enjoyment -- and almost as many hours of trying to adjust the blasted tracking knob to get a steady picture.

27. Holding Up a Lighter at a Concert
Status: Showing signs of illness

Listening to a power ballad in a dimly lit stadium without a sea of gently undulating lighters for company is like spending time at Twitter without a sea of social media experts offering their insights and informed criticism: Something about it doesn't feel right. Sure, holding up thousands of illuminated cell phones might be safer -- but even if the phones have virtual lighter apps installed, it just isn't the same.

28. Watching a Movie on a Laser Disc
Status: Deceased

The only proof that anyone ever actually watched movies on laser disc is the (at this writing) 5282 entries posted on eBay by people trying to dump their LDs. But whether fact or fiction, the technology is definitely obsolete now.

29. Using Proper Grammar and Punctuation
Status: On life support

txting and iming has made proper grammar seems kinda old skoo, dont u thnk? heres hoping 4 capitalization & punctuation 2 make a comeback in emails & other writing. the gr8 gatsby probly wuld hv been way less gr8 if it wuz written like this. lol

30. Getting a New Car With a Cigarette Lighter
Status: Showing signs of illness

Built-in cigarette lighters -- standard-issue accessories for many nicotine-friendly decades -- are losing favor among automobile manufacturers. In fact, most new cars today ship cigarette lighter-free, instead dedicating the ports to electronics charging.

31. Flipping On an Incandescent Light Bulb
Status: On life support

More and more nations are saying so long to the traditional incandescent light bulb and encouraging their citizens to use relatively ecology-friendly, energy-saving bulbs. Cartoon characters getting "bright ideas" have yet to adapt, however.

32. Sitting in Front of a CRT Monitor
Status: On life support

I won't miss staring at blurry, hard-to-read text on a CRT screen. But I will miss the dramatic effect of seeing one of those bad boys dropped from a third-story window. Flatscreen monitors may be more aerodynamic, but they just don't blow up as well.

33. Playing Music on an Audiocassette
Status: Nearly deceased

You can try to rewind, but the life of the cassette is on its last legs. If anyone knows a practical application for four boxes of late-1980s, early-1990s rock tapes, please advise.

34. Going to the Local Music Store to Check out CDs
Status: On life support

Local music stores are becoming harder and harder to find. Here's hoping that the remaining few can manage to hang on/ Losing them would leave a cultural void that iTunes is not equipped to fill.

35. Getting an AOL Disk or CD in the Mail
Status: Deceased

Ever wonder how many of those floppies and CDs AOL sent out over the years? You're not alone. But no one seems to know the answer. The supply of AOL marketing material appeared endless, right up until the mailings stopped a few years back. People who devoted their time to collecting or shunning the discs haven't figured out what to do with themselves since (nor have I figured out what I'm supposed to use for coasters now).

36. Looking Up Numbers in the Phone Book
Status: Showing signs of illness

Phone companies still hand them out, but printed phone books have definitely seen better days. The combined influence of the Web and of phone services such as GOOG-411 has sharply reduced everyday use of phone books; and today the traditional walking of fingers through wood-pulp pages seems antiquated to many tech-friendly families (and wasteful to many green-friendly families).

37. Using Carbon Copy Paper
Status: Nearly deceased

With even low-end printers now able to scan, copy, and possibly make toast, you don't see old-fashioned carbon copy paper too often, making carbon paper a candidate to join purple-on-white mimeograph paper any day now in the museum of antiquities. And I doubt that anyone's complaining.

38. Sending Documents via Fax
Status: Showing signs of illness

Why fax when you can attach? Especially since most documents are now created on computers, the facsimile may soon find itself on the endangered species list. Fear not, though, Office Space fans: The legend "PC Load Letter" will live on forever.

39. Rockin' Out With Your Boombox
Status: Nearly deceased

Your iPod may look cool, but can you balance it on your shoulder and blare your funky beats at obnoxiously high volumes? Didn't think so. The boombox -- also known as the jambox, the ghetto blaster, or the jerkface apparatus -- reached its peak popularity during the 1980s, when big hair, stone-washed jeans, and bad dancing enjoyed similarly unaccountable heydays. Though updated editions of the boombox may be on the market today, the era of not being able to ride in peace on a randomly selected public conveyance on a randomly selected day is, thankfully, behind us.

40. Giving Someone Your Undivided Attention During a Social Interaction
Status: Showing signs of illness

Oh, come on -- talking without simultaneously texting or tweeting is so 2008.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136629/Obsolete_tech_40_things_on_their_way_out?taxonomyId=0&pageNumber=4

Now, I will ask you to tell me how many of these things have you actually done in the past year?

I've done #1 as many beach resorts still have arcades, though I feel that I don't see anything completely replacing the arcade at those niche markets (though more affordable, home/portable entertainment may ultimately lead to its demise.

I actually experienced #8 as I stil have a 1980 13" TV in my bedroom to pick up stations a bit more distant.
I've done #11 (though I wouldn't call 1 hour a long wait at a Target (you can do all your shopping!) and even #12 to type up a few jukebox strips until I found blank title strip templates on the computer.

I'm still very intune with #16 as I keep all personal information secret.

I've done #26, of course (yes, a bit bulky, but now that many movies are free online and the picture quality is improving, I would even put the DVD as "showing signs of illness")

I REALLY CARE about #29, and feel that it is very important to use proper language, as when it comes times to write an official publication, it really shows that you are a good writer.

I've done #33 for nostalgia purposes, and of course #34 to look at actual jewel cases to savior the physical appearance of music.
I miss phone booth.Your moving car is not a phone booth!!! >:(

Wow! I actually still do/use quite a few from the list! :o

2. Running Out of Hard-Drive Space - my virtual memory on the old IBM ThinkPad I have told me last night it was running low and so had to increase it's size. Sadly, the hard drive is only a 20gb.

3. Getting a Busy Signal - When I call my dad's, I still will get a busy signal. Yep, they still have corded phones too.

7. Paying for Long Distance - We still do. Not on the house phone but on our cell phones... to call Canada.

8. Getting Fuzzy TV Reception - Time Warner is no exception. We still receive some channels that are no better than UHF and TWC has been out several times to try and fix it. They still cannot explain it.

9. Hearing the Sound of a Modem Connecting - when I fax I hear the sound of a modem....

11. Waiting to Get Photos Developed - even with my digital camera, when I take photos in I still have to wait. That's probably because some of them I blow up to larger sizes and so I have to have the photo studio do it for me. ;)

13. Removing the Perforated Leader Strips From Continuous-Feed Paper Printouts - I still get these for our Health Insuarnce letters and such.

15. Checking Your Answering Machine - sadly, I still use an answering machine!

17. Making Someone a Real Mix Tape - I make Big Nasty Mix cd's lol

23. Booting Up to a C:\ Prompt - I do this almost once a week. That's because I fix computers! lol

24. Typing on an Old-School Word Processor - hmmm... does notepad count?

29. Using Proper Grammar and Punctuation - I still do this. I hate not being able to understand other people, and so if I get text speak, I ask them to explain further. ;)

31. Flipping On an Incandescent Light Bulb - I still have these. One in the fan over the stove and one on my patio.

32. Sitting in Front of a CRT Monitor - I still do this if I am fixinf a computer at someone else's house.

34. Going to the Local Music Store to Check out CDs - I go to Best Buy at least once a week to do just this! Well, I also look for dvd sales as well.

36. Looking Up Numbers in the Phone Book - I use the phone book all the time!

38. Sending Documents via Fax - Like I said previously, I use my fax.

40. Giving Someone Your Undivided Attention During a Social Interaction - If someone is talking to me then the conversation is important, no matter what. I like being heard and understood so I can only give to others what I expect in return.

16. Enjoying Complete Privacy
Status: On life support

I want my privacy back!  >:(