Off Topic before the digital era

Just reading this. Anything you miss or hated?

The old days were the 59s, 60s and 70s. Now they are the 80s, 90s and 00s



In an era when a technically perfect playlist of your favourite tunes can be compiled in a matter of minutes, we miss making a mixtape, according to a survey.

For anyone too young to remember what such a thing was, a mixtape was often recorded from the Sunday afternoon top 40 chart show on the radio.

Requiring concentration, anticipation and quick reflexes, it involved recording your favourite songs on cassette while trying to avoid DJ chatter and radio station jingles.

Thus it also required skill and detailed knowledge - both of the DJ's propensity to chat at certain points, and of a song's in and out points.

Did the track finish, for example, or did it fade? Misjudge that, and it would be another seven days before you could try again.

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Imageutting photos into albums was the second most missed activity
In the poll of 2,000 adults, carried out for British Airways, making a mixtape was the thing people missed most among activities that have been replaced by digital alternatives.

Putting photos into albums, and recording films and TV shows using VHS tapes, were second and third.

Those questioned also missed sending love letters, or handwritten letters of any kind, sending postcards, buying CDs, using public telephones, remembering phone numbers, buying disposable cameras, and ringing the speaking clock.

But, of course, it works both ways. More than half those surveyed said they did not miss having to wait in the Post Office to renew their car tax, while 43% did not miss having to fax documents.

The survey also demonstrated the extent to which we now depend on technology, with 58% saying the majority of their activities relied heavily on it.

One in 10 felt lost if they were unable to go online, while a quarter felt completely cut off without Wi-Fi.

Adults spend an average of just over four hours a day on the internet.

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Image:Recording films and TV shows on VHS was also missed
Top 25 things we miss:

1. Making mixtapes

2. Put photos into albums

3. Recording films and TV shows using VHS

4. Having printed photos around the house

5. The excitement of having photographs developed before you can see them

6. Handwritten letters

7. Sending love letters

8. Sending postcards

9. Having pen friends

10. Buying CDs / having a CD collection

11. Using public telephones

12. Using a telephone directory

13. Carrying a portable CD player

14. Going into the travel agents to research a holiday

15. Buying disposable cameras

16. Turning to a hard copy of the Yellow Pages

17. Playing traditional board games or cards

18. Owning an encyclopaedia

19. Dialling directory enquiries

20. Visiting car boot sales to sell old stuff

21. Remembering phone numbers off by heart

22. Hand-writing essays /school work

23. Ringing the speaking clock

 

Looking at teletext for flights

then trying to phone on a landline to try and book one

 

Sucky has got a VHS

 

Sucky is more off a betamax dude.

 

I remember when I tapped into the dating section on Teletext...that was boring...used to play Bamboozle on CH4 and both BBC and ITV had pages specific for each top flight football club, used to enjoy reading that ****e

 

Last time you went into one of these?

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I'd forgot about those

 

Switching between Cefax and Oracle (I think the BBC and ITV versions) when the football was on to see whether your team had scored.

 

A couple of weeks ago. My daughter loves playing on the 2p push machines.

She's a budding little pikey like me

 

BBC final score teleprinter...i think you could hear someone winding it up

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I'm shocked they still have 2p machines.

 

Yep, still got them. Remember loving them as a kid. These days nobody gives a **** about them and the little trays are full of 2p coins. My daughter loves it and she goes around collecting them all and putting them back in the machine.

Might treat the wife to a day out there soon

 

Used to love my old mixtapes and repairing them when the tape snapped. Anybody else do that?

You had to take the cassette apart with a screwdriver, take out the reels, find the break and then sellotape it back together, then carefully trim off the excess sellotape so that the tape would go around the reel, then screw the case back together.

 

I live only a few 100m from the coast, where there is a few. But never been in one for decades/

ive always fancied getting a sit down arcade table, like you used to see in pubs

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Guess we were pikeys together on that one mate.

 

They must go for a ****ing mint these days. Loved that Pacman table top game.
Do you remember Asteroids ? With the little roller ball controller and the bright white lines on the screen for the triangle ship and the asteroids.

 

You had to be really careful to make sure that the tape hadn't got twisted anywhere when it snapped. Otherwise you'd take the time to repair it and then it would play the other side backwards

 

Aye, used to hyperspace and reappear, and still die.

 

Yeah, ****ing rage inducing !

 

I ordered a retro console thing the other day, it Has all the amiga/commodore games, sega master system, mega drive, mega cd, dream cast, Nintendo NES, SNES, 64, Neo Geo, arcade games, game boy, game gear, Atari, spectrum, apple and dos and some others.

I'm gonna get straight on Champ Manager 97/98.

£200.