Earlier in the week I threw out the following question…
What current technology, service or product do you see as totally passé… And why….?
The responses were quite interesting and while there was a good deal of agreement there were also some places where our diverse group parted ways.
Here are some of the answers…
Judie
Incandescent Bulbs – wasteful, dangerous, and inefficient.
[True story on the dangerous part – when Sarah was 11 (or so), she was spending the night at a friends. She reached across a bedside lamp to grab something, and the 60w bulb touched her skin for a few seconds before she realized that she was being burned. By the time she pulled her arm off, she had a very painful second/third degree burn about the size of a half dollar. Luckily both parents of the girl she was staying over with were doctors, they had Silva cream on hand, and they were able to get it on her burn immediately. That coupled with silicone sheets and time turned what could have been an awful scar into a barely noticeable patch of slightly darker skin, about the size of a quarter. I had no idea until that awful incident how hot bulbs could actually get.]
Companies that will not allow you to pay your bill or download statements via a website.
Checks (!!)
Wayne
Landline phones- I know they are a necessity for some but for me I have not had a home line in over 5 years.
Voice mail – if you need to contact me email or text.
Satellite radio – it’s ok for when you’re in the midst of nowhere but Internet radio will eventually kill it in 10 years
Jason
Printed maps- With standalone GPS units and GPS apps for mobiles, no need to worry w/ printed maps
Wayne asked… How about pagers as obsolete. For most?
Carly reached deep into her past and asked… But how would drug dealers do business then?
Thomas replied- We still have some hospitals that don’t allow cellular, only pagers since they would rather that they can page the doctor during major surgery! 🙂
Larry (who knows about such things first-hand) Most of the emergency medical and law enforcement communities still rely on pagers.
Drew
USB Datasticks– The Interface is too big now given Micro_SD
Clinton
Voice Mail– Most industry stats suggest voicemail usage has dropped by 50% while IM use has climbed nearly 200% in the enterprise. Enough said I suppose…
Incandescent lightbulb- In some countries you can’t buy them any longer and I suspect the US isn’t far behind. With LED and Florescent technology where it is today, there is no real reason to buy incandescent. And this, mind you, is coming from the biggest
“anti-theworldisendingbecausewecutdowntreesanddonthugpolarbears” guy out there
Joel
Not really tech but I will say it: Binders– Walked into a conference Monday and the handed me a binder. It stayed in the room and I did not carry at all. I would rather have a PDF.
To which Clinton replied… I actually refuse to take the binders at conferences. If they hand me one I ask if they can email it to me in PDF. If they can’t then I don’t take it. It’s a waste of space for me.
The Rest of the Group-
Linux! (okay not really but we had to work Linux in here somewhere for Joel’s sake)
Travis
CDs- I have not bought one in 4 or 5 years. Digital music is easily
moved and takes no physical space.
The biggest overlap in the list was…fax machines. There were, however, divergent views on this. For example…
Drew
Fax Machines– scan it and email me.. especially internationally
Chris
Yup, there are better technologies to replace it but it just refuses to die!
Clinton
Sadly I have one and it still gets used on occasion, especially for doctors
Judie
I have a subscription to TrustFax because I need to be able to send and receive faxes (not emails) as part of my day job. I don’t have a landline at our home, but $5/month allows me to seem like I do.
Carly
I am going to pile on the anti-fax machine bandwagon and add another: printers. With rare exceptions, very few things NEED to be printed, since almost everything can be transported and accessed by smartphones and computers.
Travis
Schools still use the fax like it is a current technology. It drives me crazy to send and receive faxes but I have sent 5 or 6 this week already! Most coaches seem to be slow to utilize new technologies. I am the district chairman for our softball meeting and am conducting out planning and scheduling meeting in an hour. I can gurantee at least one coach will tell us they don’t use a cell phone and don’t email!
Chris
You know I still like the print forms of things. When I get a PDF I still frequently print it. I still find print easier to read on my eyes than a screen. I’m still supporting analog fax machines on a VOIP phone system because people won’t leave fax even when you show them better, higher quality alternatives. I spend more time keeping that crap working than anything else because it is so picky about line quality.