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

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

479 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] 33 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

CDs and DVDs, because ownership beats convenience when you can get them second hand for pennies on the pound

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Also:

FUCKING LASERS DUDE! Lasers will never NOT be cool.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Why are the kind of holograms made by lasers not cool anymore? They're just on credit cards and currency now. I always thought those were awesome. There used to be a hologram museum in Chicago when I was a kid. We went up there a few times and I always insisted on going.

The best ones were holograms of microscopes or telescopes and you could actually look through the eyepiece and see something through it!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

And the technology has evolved that I can actually record and re-record to these plastic discs using lasers and it all fits inside a 1cm-tall drive that sits on my desk. And if the manufacturer uses high-quality materials, the disc will last hundreds of years.

Also some discs I can then either ink-print or laser-print on the top of it? Simply amazing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

I miss the satisfying act of slapping a cassette into a tape deck, then snapping it shut.