RenHoek said:

that's what the original npgmc ran on

i appreciate technology and admire the people that come up with new stuff, but not all technology is always appreciated, and sometimes we give it too much value also...some technology that you need to use can also give major headaches, and that's because we're so used to it being around us in the first place.

The fact that I compressed my ENTIRE music collection(and more where that came from) which took me years to invest into this tiny lil' device..


Is sometimes scary. The fact that I also walk around with a library(e-books or audiobooks) is something I never imagined I could see

Sure, we ALL love the simpler technology,,,its nostalgia, I get it. But when everything seem so accessible, practical and time consuming,,,,you have no use for anything else anymore.

Funny thing is, couple of years from now,,,,ALL we discussed about in this thread will soon be passe

i'm not so up to date with technology. i'm sure there are many things i'll find fascinating in concept, and then find out they've been in use for a while.

that said, i do appreciate cellphones for when i'm lost or in trouble.

GirlBrother said:

Not sure about that. The 8-track was THE media format of its time. Every Camera, Trans Am, and station wagon, and any other car had one. There were portable players (my aunt had one we used at the pool), as well as carrying cases for your favorite 15 or 20 tapes. Every console stereo unit with a radio and turntable had an 8-track in it. Even when cassettes started becoming more prevalent, most home stereo systems still had an 8-track player on them as well. For a long time the 8-track was the shiznit.

My aunt had a stereo with an 8-track RECORDER. I grabbed an old tape from my mom's collection and recorded "1999" on it at my aunt's house. (She had the LP.) I could only get the first five songs on the tape, so for a long time, the 1999 album to me was just 1999, LRC, Delirious, Let's Pretend, and DMSR.

The MiniDisk had its moment in the sun, but it was here and gone rather quickly in comparison. I really don't remember any albums being released on minidisk, although it could have happened. It's a bit how SACD and DVDAudio never quite stuck. The CD was still a strong format, and people just didn't want to switch after 15 years of CDs.

ernestsewell said:

Not in the U.K. - and possibly the rest of Europe. The Compact Cassette was king - even in the early 1970s.

ernestsewell said:

I do remember quite a few albums released on MiniDisc - mainly Sony Records artists.

I think the death-knell of the MiniDisc was the huge growth of cheap blank CDs and CD-RW drives. The major selling point of the MiniDisc was that it was an optical disc you could record onto digitally - which was a moot point, when by the early 2000s nearly every home had a home computer with a recordable CD drive.

If the MiniDisc had been invented and marketed around 1988, it would have been loads more successful. It was ten years too late.

unique said:

I was shootin' for the Lotusflower server but that's a good one too...

I really hate the digital revolution, particulary with regard to what I call 'the death of photography.'

I was an art history major and there was something comforting about the hum of the slide carousel in a darkened lecture room, clicking on the professor's demand, illuminating the room with masterpieces of art. In 2003, all of the art history professors where I went to graduate school were required to use PowerPoint for their lectures. Kodak stopped making slide carousels. A few years ago, Polaroid announced they were going to discontinue manufacturing the famous film.

I spend a lot of time at art museums and everyone is so busy snapping digital photographs to 'document' their experience they don't even look at the art; they are just running from famous painting to famous building clicking, clicking, clicking. Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" should be required reading.


And texting -- I was at a restaurant a few weeks ago, a couple was seated, across from one another. They spent at least 5 minutes each checking their Blackberry/iPhone/whatever not even acknowledging the server or one another. Weird.

Honey said:

The hell.

I do think that sometimes, the limitations of a technology are beneficial.

It's like telephones. The technology to make video calls has been around for ages now, but everybody still prefers to make voice-only calls. I love the fact that you can speak to your bank manager, after waking-up wearing yesterday's underwear and not much else.

I'm watching TRON

ZombieKitten said:

I'm stoked for the new one!

ernestsewell said:

it looks sooooo shiny!!!!!

I'm still tripping that we can fly over an ocean in a 700,000-pound winged can at 600 miles per hour and land in one piece!

roodboi said:

Ditto. My kinda guys!

GirlBrother said:

jone70 said:

I agree 100%. I too spend alot of time in art galleries, and this is my pet peev.

Walter Benjamin's "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" can be read here
http://www.marxists.org/r...njamin.htm

Lammastide said:

Most of the time.