What 70's tech do you still use? 80's tech?

[Archae]

I'm watching "70's Tech" and "80's Tech" on History Channel International.

For me, I have a clothes dryer from the 70's.

And I have an 80's record player/cassette player combo stereo I use for recording old records and tapes.

[Blue-Jay]

1. Me and my monkey like a nice tune on the hurdy-gurdy.

Wait... You're talking about the 1970's?

[datasuspect]

2. pot

[hunter]

3. A bunch of my film cameras are 70's technology.

35mm cameras that were once beyond my grasp now cost close to nothing.

My current favorite film camera is my Polaroid Super Shooter (1975-1977). I bought it for $2. The Fuji film packs it takes are $10 for 10 pictures, but dang, it's fun!

We've got two cars that are 80's technology. One's got a carburetor and no computer, the other's got this fancy new thing called fuel injection but the computer is minimal, with no annoying "check engine" light or any memory at all, unlike todays car which will tell all to your mechanic, the state's smog check computers, and maybe even the police. Or worse, go loopy like the Woz's Toyota.

I used to occasionally unpack my Atari 800 but I can emulate it almost perfectly on my Linux desktop so I haven't touched it for a few years.

[tonysam]

24. Film Cameras.

I have a 1988 Toyota Camry which had only 68,000 original miles when I bought it last year. It has 75K now.

My landlord gave me his washing machine which dates back from the early 1980s and still works great. He gave it to me in 2002.

I have a high intensity desk lamp my parents gave me for Christmas back in 1970. It is still going strong after almost 40 years. It was made in the U.S.A.

[flvegan]

4. Three-point seat belts in my car, for one.

[LeftyMom]

6. Volvo invented them in the 50's.

Actually, I'm fairly sure they had them in the outboard seats in the rear by 1968 or so. By comparison, cars for the US market weren't required to have 3 point seatbelts in the rear outboard seats until 1989. Requiring them sooner might have saved half a million lives. Our safety laws suck.

edit: I'm such a dork.

[flvegan]

15. And Mercedes "invented" ABS in the '70s

Wasn't incorporated into the automotive must-have collective until the late '80s in the US.

Neither Volvo nor Benz should be the benchmark we judge the automotive industry against, lest we be vastly disappointed each time. Commonality is that US carmakers incorporated 3-point belts in the 70's.

[LeftyMom]

16. Yeah, but I'm not one to pass up an annoyingly technical quibble.

Especially if it's a car thing.

[flvegan]

19. Thank the gods I didn't say "the internet" or we'd be here all night.

[LeftyMom]

20. Series.

[lutefisk]

5. IBM model M Keyboard, Tandberg stereo receiver, Nikon F2, etc...nt

[onestepforward]

7. My lighted make-up mirror.

It is the only one I've ever had and I still use it daily :)

[RoyGBiv]

8. Calculator ...

I still have a calculator given to me as a birthday present in the 70s, and it still works. I think it cost about $100. The most advanced function it has is the ability to calculate a square root.

It also had a cool thing where you can press certain combinations of buttons and get weird readouts on the display.

[krispos42]

9. My VCR is about 4 years old, but it's still VHS...

I use an old dual-cassette boombox at work, too. Pop in a cassette adapter and *bam* instantly compatable with my iPod. $4 at the local thrift store, virtually brand-new!

[Odin2005]

10. My oven is as old as the apartment building, so it's over 30 years old.

Ugly 70s brown color with the dial-like timers on the wall above it. Lived here for over 4 years and still don't know how those dial work...

[Archae]

11. My Mom's stove had those too.

There were two of them, and they clicked in and popped out.

None of us ever did figure out what they were for. :-)

[mitchum]

12. White noise generator, Moog, amplifiers, speakers, mixer, reverbs

electric guitars, black boxes, shortwave radio, oscillators
lots of stuff

[Kat45]

13. My stereo is from 1980. n/t

[petronius]

14. I myself am 1970's technology. Cutting edge at the time, although I've been superseded

by later models.

[TrogL]

17. Nikon FM

And we've got an AS400 at the office.

It won't die.

Die, damn you, die. Die, damn you, die damn you, die, damn you...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. I have a Texas Instrument calculator from the early 70's...

Still works perfectly!

[MilesColtrane]

21. 1978 MusicMan Stingray bass

[rainbow4321]

22. One of my TVs is from the 80s

I have a picture of my now 22 yr old when she was 1 or 2 yrs old and the TV that is in my bedroom is in the background. It still works just fine so I've never felt the need to replace it.

[Throd]

23. 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme