Technologies that Have Exceeded Their Expectations? 1037
drfunch asks: "With the recent 'passing' of Pioneer 10 after over 30 years of service, I wonder what other technologies have far exceeded expectations. One example from my own experience is my trusty HP calculator, which is still going strong after 21 years. What technologies or devices have gone far beyond your expectations?"
Not Just HP! (Score:4, Interesting)
Palm OS Devices (Score:4, Interesting)
SR-71 Blackbird (Score:4, Interesting)
Stuff that lasts (Score:2, Interesting)
Oldies but goodies! (Score:2, Interesting)
And just to tweak the youngsters at work, I still keep my trusty Pickett sliderule in my desk....
Another interesting one.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I exclude SVHS because it's more or less a completely different format on the same media.
Kinda crazy if you think about it.
Casio Scientific Calculator (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh and another thing - when I first started college, I bought a single Sony double-density 3.5 floppy disk. That's 12 years ago and it still works. Yes, yes, I know, floppies are obsolete... but really, I bought a box of 3.5s (figuring they'd be a lifetime supply) and I'm lucky if I get a dozen rewrites out of them. That original floppy has been overwritten literally thousands of times. What gives with that?
LONG LIVED TECHNOLOGY? (Score:2, Interesting)
The Internal Combustion Engine. (Score:3, Interesting)
Invented more than 100 years ago, it's been refined to a point where it is very reliable and reasonabally effecient (from a chemical energy perspective).
Even a modern engine is still basically the same as the Ford Model T. We've just made it more effecient.
My first car, a 1975 Buick LeSaber had an Olds 455 that sucked so much gas I needed to take out a loan to fill the tank (and gas was $.34/l). My latest car, a 2003 Mercury Marauder has a 4.6l Cobra Engine that would kick that old 455 easily. It uses 1/6 the fuel with 3/4 the displacement developing 40% more ponies, and won't need to be rebuilt as often.
Licorice Pizzas and Thermionic Devices (Score:2, Interesting)
Not bad for LP (1948, Microgroove) and tubes..(Crap.. 1910's? DeForrest.)
SMS (Score:2, Interesting)
Games that spring to mind (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Casio Scientific Calculator (Score:1, Interesting)
Hey, I know what you mean. I've got 8" floppies that still work. Er, should I have admitted that? Well, anyway, the answer to your question is simple economics. How many floppies would you buy if they lasted forever?
Re:Washer and Dryer (Score:3, Interesting)
My jeep. (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a 93 jeep with 300,000 miles on it, mostly original engine (replaced after about 400 miles. See police car below). Original transmission, and, well, basically over it's lifetime, we've put maybe 25000 dollars into it-- including buying it new and only two major technical breaks in its lifetime (transfer case and shorted computer chip), and all of the copays.
Three of the accidents were my family's fault-- Including the drunk in the truck. Cop called it her fault, but failed to give her a breathalyzer-- small town, cop didn't want to arrest his mom's friend. drunk contested, because of how she hit us, it looked like it was our fault, and no proof she was drunk. Let this be a lesson to you-- ALWAYS require a breathalyzer, even if it's obvious they're drunk, or the cop doesn't want to-- you can request it, and if the first cop won't, call 911, and say you were hit by a drunk driver.
Things that it's been hit by:
A) Big Rig
B) Police Car
C) Drunk in truck
D) New driver in new truck.
E) Idiot in el camino.
F) at least three other actionable accidents (had to have almost every panel replaced-- the roof is the one exception.
The most remarkable thing, 90% of the miles were put on within its first 5 years. After three years (180k miles), my parents stopped giving it regular maintenance("well, we're gonna sell it soon, what does it matter"), followed by not replacing the brakes. Six months later, they gave it an oil change. a year later "well, the brakes aren't getting any better".
Most of my friends received new cars on graduating HS, or before or during the first couple years of college. I got the beast because the dealer was going to give them only like 1800 trade in on it-- So my parents signed it over to me. Most of said friends have since seen their cars blow up/go kaput/stop moving.
Other than the cd player and the oil leak, there's nothing wrong with mine
mactoaster (Score:2, Interesting)
has a whopping 512K of RAM and a 9" b/w monitor
runs on two 800k floppies
boots in 17 seconds
runs various useful office programs including MSword 3.0 which means WYSYWIG columns, dropcaps, styles, embedded images, footnotes, chapters, indexes, etc.
doesn't crash (EVER!!)
networked over a printer cable, once upon a time
entertained/survived two toddlers
was made in early 1985
I wrote a master's thesis on this thing in the backyard, squatting in the grass with a long extension cord, published books and 'zines, hauled it around in a shoulder bag on trains and planes and boats, and generally thrashed it with everyday use.
Recently moved 6,000km, and couldn't give it away or sell it, and since it still works, hauled it some more. It's set up for more occasional abuse, though it gets less and less.
I love hearing the particular sound of those floppy drives used as incongruous 'hacker' sound effects in cheesy hollywood movies!
Old Lionel Trains (Score:2, Interesting)
The loco was manufactured in 1917.
We dusted it off, put it on the track, powered it up and it ran just fine. Only thing that didn't work was the little light on the front.
As much fun as their new trains are, I have a feeling that their old engines will probably outlast trains made today...
Colt M1911 (Score:4, Interesting)
sharp el-506d, se/30, light bulb (Score:2, Interesting)
My high school calculator ('87 I suppose?) is still going strong on the original battery. I bought two revisions of the el-506 since, both had a hard plastic slide-on cover that I thought would be nice, but both have flaked out and died. The D still balances my checkbook, converts bases, and does trig for me.
(My HS math teacher had a calculator from about 1970 that still worked at the time. It had red LEDs, which was cool compared to the boring black LCD displays ours had. The school had paid several hundred dollars for it. Funny to think my calculator is as old now as his was then. I wonder if his still works?)
I have an SE/30, dating to '89 or '90, that still runs wonderfully. I installed a 1.2 GB drive and bumped the RAM to 68 MB, and it runs NetBSD. I think my //gs still runs...
I remember a Guinness book record from the 80's, I don't know if it's been broken since, but there was a fire hall that had an old carbon-filament light bulb that still worked. They thought it dated to around 1910 or something like that. That's pretty cool.
old phones (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of my younger brother was over there a few years ago and had to ask my dad how to use the phone because he'd never seen a phone without a number-pad on it. Pathetic. Times are changin and these young whipper-snappers aren't learning things that we took for granted. Like learning to read the time off of the face of a (non-digital) clock.
Anyways... back to the subject.
TV, telephones, wallclocks, pocket calculators (solar powered ones too), etc... there are a bunch of pieces of technology I use every day that have lasted beyond initial expectation.
I wish I could say the same thing about computers now-a-days. (Most are considered "old" or "out of date" within 6 months.)
IBM PC/AT keyboards (Score:3, Interesting)
AK-47 (Score:2, Interesting)
note: this post should not be misconstrued as an endorsment of anything - except that college degrees don't always count for much.
Mars Pathfinder mission (Score:3, Interesting)
Pathfinder's lander had operated nearly three times its
design lifetime of 30 days, and the Sojourner rover operated 12 times its design lifetime of seven days.
The Wright's four basic airplane controls. (Score:4, Interesting)
Throttle.
Ailerons (via "wing warping).
Elevator.
Rudder.
That basic configuration hasn't changed since Orville and Wilber used it in 1903.
C= 64 - The Commodore 64 (Score:3, Interesting)
But that's not all, the machine was hacked so much *in software* that near the end of its life in the western world hackers could display 640 x 480 (oe 640 x 400?) high resolution graphics on a chip hardwired to produce only 320 x 240 (I think those are the numbers if I recall correctly, might be 320 x 200). Hackers also broke the sprite (i.e.: high-speed moving/animated graphics blocks) barrier from 8 (or 16?) to basically an unlimited number. Hackers also figured out a way to display graphics in the "overscan" area (i.e.: the black area around the display), thus increasing even more the resolution. You can also find software-based synthesizers that could extend the number of sound voices to 6 (or 8?). There were also hacks to make it seem as if it could display hundreds of colors (as opposed to 16).
Up to this day millions are still used for all kinds of control applications (robotics, telecom, industrial, etc).
I guess we could call this machine the world's most hacked machine ever (and pretty close in second place was probably the Commodore Amiga).
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
27 year old calculator, with original batteries (Score:1, Interesting)
A little text on the front says "2 penlight batteries for over 22,000 hours continuous use". And it still has the original OEM batteries, Casio AA, which look brand new. I use it several times a week, and have done so for 27 years now.
Is it too obvious? (Score:2, Interesting)
maybe it's just too obvious to notice.. =)
Tons of stuff (Score:1, Interesting)
The fan on the 486 went out in 1998 and I never fixed it. The thing STILL works. It's outlived 3 hard drives.
I have a cocktail-table sytle vintage Pac-Man machine from 1982. The monitor blew out on it but the PCB, sound, and controls all work fine. I'm in the process of refurbishing and re-wiring the cabinet on it. It's a blast. I bought a new monitor but I haven't figured out how to hook it up to the 21-year old connectors from the PCB! (If anybody has any experience with this, email me: here, PLEASE! [mailto]. I'm too much of a chicken to just plug it in and turn it in in case I do something Incredibly Stupid and Wrong and ruin it.
My dad's an accountant and he had an old adding machine from the early 70's that he kept on his desk when I was a kid. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I'll bet he's still got it somewhere. He also kept his first-ever calculator, which cost $100 at Sears. They had to make payments on it. Still works.
My desktop gaming PC pre-dated the advent of the Athlon chip, and despite it having never once received any hardware upgrades beyond a new Ethernet Card (it didn't come with one, that's how old it is), it still plays EQ, DAOC, MOO3, CIV3, Quake3, and every other game I'ev thrown at it. It's not always smooth, but it more than works. This isn't really old but I'm still amazed. I used to upgrade machines once every 2 years and add new hardware - never again. This was an $1800 machine when I got it and it's not received another penny of work yet and it's more than good enough. I expect it to begin to fail by this summer.
I have my original 8-bit NES. I mowed lawns for an entire summer to buy one of these in late 1984. All of my original carts still work, too. Mario 1-3, Final Fanyasy, Zelda 1 and 2, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Dragon Warrior, Ultima. Got 'em all, and the save-game batteries are all still good. Mario 3 gives me trouble sometimes and Zelda 1's battery is getting flakey, but they're in good shape.
My Atari 2600 still works but sadly I sold it before it was worth any money, but its current owner insists that it's still working fine.
I've got a 30-year old dishwasher in our house that still works well enough. Our water heater is pushing 16 years, which is ancient as far as water heaters go. Our furnace was 30 years old before we replaced it, which we only did because the 30-year old A/C unit went out and we figured we'd replace the whole mess now and not worry about it.
I bought a DVD player in 1995 that still works. Never been cleaned and it works fine. Sadly, it can't play some of the newest DVDs, I'm not sure why yet. It also can't play burned CDs or copy-protected CDs. Also have a VCR from 1981 that sometimes works, and a color TV from 1972 that just died a few years ago. Actually, it still worked but it was developing a big yellow blotch and it was one of those big monsters in a wooden cabinet that was twice the size of the TV. So we got rid of it.
The Toshiba Libretto (Score:1, Interesting)
I still use mine for almost all mobile computing. FreeBSD runs wonderfully on it and I can just as easily dial into Earthlink as I can hop on a wireless network - and with _two_ pcmcia slots, I can even set up a rudimentary wireless AP.
Light Emitting Diodes (Score:2, Interesting)
The feeble red light from the first light emitting diode could never have suggested full color displays and replacements for automotive tail lights, traffic lights, and even indoor area lighting. I was amazed to find white LED-based 120V incandescent light bulb replcements.
And to think there are still so many Earthlings who think that LED watches are a pretty cool idea.
Not the engine itself... (Score:4, Interesting)
Spark plugs have not changed at all in at least 60 years, as far as the OEM styles go. They have been remarkably similar since their original designs, a graphite core surrounded by a ceramic insulator surrounded by a metallic threaded ring. Amazing.
Re:The Internal Combustion Engine (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, a modern diesel engine with direct fuel injection and regenerating particulate filter rivals or may surpass Compressed Natural Gas "clean air vehicles".
Clean Diesel [google.com] has a lot of practical promise.
In many parts of the US, electricity is principally generated using coal, natural gas, and diesel anyway, then 50-70 percent of the energy is thrown away as waste heat and of the remainder 12 percent is lost in transmission, of the remainder that makes it to your recharging station the battery cycle consumes 20 percent or so. In the end the best of all feasible electric cars is getting 40% thermal efficiency and is carrying an enormous amount of extra weight in batteries.
Clean Diesel hybrid vehicles with ozone catalysts on their radiators would do wonders for consumer adoption of more env. friendly technology, and all the technology is available TODAY.
your sample size is small (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not too impressed with durability claims when it only involves a sample size of one. Do you know anyone else who owns the same model of your calculator?
Aircraft, IBM, DMV, GE (Score:2, Interesting)
The 707 airliner was developed about 1954 (I think). 707's are still used in the passenger carrying business a bit and are more common now in ferrying freight.
The F-4 fighter plane was developed around the same time and that thing is used in the world's militaries, including our own.
On the computer side, IBM has done an amazing job over the years in making its systems compatible with older incarnations, the result being that it is theoretically possible to run an old Fortran accounting program written in the 1950s for the IBM 650 vacuum tube beast on the latest and greatest IBM mainframe.... or so it is said. We in California should be grateful for this fact because the Department of Motor Vehicles, despite throwing tens millions of dollars at futile attempts to modernize their software and database, still uses software from the 1960s on much more modern hardware.
But all the kudos I have goes to my General Electric digital alarm clock that I've owned for nearly 20 years now and is still going strong despite numerous power spikes in the dorms early in its life and being dropped uncounted times.
Re:The Internal Combustion Engine (Score:4, Interesting)
I think the biggest changes in internal combustion engines over the last half century are the addition of solid state electronic management and improved production methods and materials. These have rendered high end technologies like the Merlin sported practical for mass production and distribution.
GalileoSpace Probe! (Score:4, Interesting)
It became the first spacecraft to take a close up photo of an asteriod and when it reacher Jupiter in 1995, the first space craft to drop a probe into a gas giant. It's mission was to last only until 1997, but it was given a two year extension. The mission continued another three years AFTER the extension, sending its last scientific data back in November 2002 as it passed the moon Amalthea. In August of this year it will burn up in Jupiters atmosphere.
The spacecraft has operated over twice as long as expected and has taken three times the radiation it was designed for, and still it mostly works. The plunge into Jupiter is because the craft is running low on fuel and they would rather burn it up than risk having it possibly slam into Europa, contaminating it before we can check for native ba cterial life there.
While it's certainly not lasted as long as Pioneer, it has taken one hell of a beating from the intense radiation of Jupiter, the tidal stresses of orbiting the gas giant and its planet sized moons as well as flying through toxic (and possibly caustic) volcanic plumes kicked off of the surface of Io by eruptions.
So I would say that Gallileo is in fact in the same class as Pioneer when it comes to be being built tough.
Re:Beating a Dead Horse? (Score:1, Interesting)
USENET! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's still a little weird; may people post without having any idea what USENET is, but it still works, and is still (sort of) useful even with trolls and spam.
Re:Sad, I think (Score:2, Interesting)
but it's not as if the CLI itself has improved dramatically
Don't you think that command-line interfaces have outlived past predictions from around the time when GUIs started to become mainstream? I find having to go back to plain (Bourne) sh or DOS command.com a painful experience, compared with modern shells and CLIs. Readline and editline are terrific, productivity-enhancing tools/libraries. Programmed completion in modern shells is just fabulous. I definitely see dramatic improvements compared with vanilla sh and even old ksh.
The one major feature that's missing from the CLI is the ability to switch between multiple sessions, but thankfully that's made easy thanks to screen, virtual terminals, multiple xterms, and tabbed terminals like the GNOME 2 terminal. Isn't that an area where GUIs have enhanced the CLI?
Not a //e but still... (Score:4, Interesting)
DC-3 (Score:5, Interesting)
So durable that eventually the FAA gave up and declared it exempt from end-of-life regulations.
So durable that some have been flown under combat conditions with a third of the wing blown off.
The only thirty year old cargo plane ever to be reconfigured as a combat gun platform (the Dragon, a.k.a. Spooky, a.k.a. Puff the Magic Dragon)
Rebuilt as a turboprop and outperformed new aircraft.
Left abandoned in a field of snow up past the Arctic Circle for an entire winter and then, dug out from under the snow, started up, and flown home.
No longer manufactured after 1946, still in use to this day.
The one, the only, The DC-3!
Yay!
Rustin
Why don't we send a relay probe? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:The Internal Combustion Engine (Score:3, Interesting)
But maybe one day when Americans have to pay real money for gas, they will start looking at producing and buying cars with higher fuel efficiency. But until then, you'll excuse me if I keep my old Pontiac.
Re: Sad, I think (Score:3, Interesting)
You bring up the idea that the CLI hasn't improved or been integrated with the GUI, but you completely ignore Emacs and the UI development that has gone on in Smalltalk and Lisp systems. A particularly striking example are the constraints-based GUIs - Ivan Sutherland first had this idea all the way back in his Sketchpad paper, and there have been multiple UI systems built afterwards on the principle (and I know of a new one that is being built right now), yet when was the last time you've even heard of constraints?
I find it depressing that all the wonderful techniques developed aren't being utilized, and some users think that because the systems they work with are based on 30 and 20 (even 20 years ago the X approach was considered a poor man's window system) year old paradigms there isn't anything else out there.
B-52 (Score:1, Interesting)
Electronic Music Gear (Score:2, Interesting)
I have an FX-502p (Score:4, Interesting)
Electric Guitar (Score:1, Interesting)
The Great Wall of China (Score:5, Interesting)
So with that in mind, I nominate the Great Wall of China, still standing after all these years. I think it qualifies whereas things like the Pyramids don't, in that they never served any real function. I bet the wall would still work pretty well today, if there was a war. Not perfect, but good.
If the goal was to pick classes of technologies, I think most of the responses here are exceptionally shortsighted. I think sail technology, the steam engine and the wheel had a lot more staying power, and who knew?
I think there are some good specific examples. Any real old bridges out there? Panama Canal is great, 'course it was designed to last a long time. I bet there are some irrigation ditches somewhere that were dug thousands of years ago, and still work. Stepped hillsides fall into that category, too. Most people who built them probably paid no heed to them lasting longer.
Pioneer is unique, because there was really no way to maintain it, and it was a 1 (or 2) shot deal. Those HP calcs are fine, but have more than 10% lasted this long? I'd love t hear about some scarecrow that's been scaring away crows for 200 years without a person laying his hands on it. What's the longest any manufactured item has lasted (and remained useful) for without human intervention? Kudos to the winner.
AK47 - kalashnikov (Score:2, Interesting)
reliable... and to think Kalashnikov the
designer get no royalties
(Is this sort of an "Open Source" rifle
then? With anyone able to make them w/o
paying royalties?)
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/models/ka50.html
http://ak-47.net/
http://www.sovietarmy.com/small_arms/ak-47.html
Re:QWERTY keyboard (Score:2, Interesting)
Granted, since we're no longer using mechanical typewriters, the reason for QWERTY isn't as compelling, but it was far better than anything else when it was devised, which made it the standard (at least in English-speaking countries) to this day.
Drifting O.T. here, but oh well. (Score:3, Interesting)
Amen brother!
Always draw it out of them. NEVER beat it in to them.
Voice tone is EVERYTHING.
If they still can't do it when you're done, then it's YOUR fault. You're a LOUSY teacher. Go find something else to do.
Real Old Bridges ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Colt M1911 (Score:4, Interesting)
This is kind of a metaphysical issue. Each system is the pinnacle of its design philosophy.
The Kalashnikov is inherently rugged and tolerant of environmental variables. AK derivatives operate flawlessly in sand and water, at any temperature. Years ago I read an interview with Uziel Gal where he said that was why IMI (meaning Israel Galili and himself) chose the AK as the basis for the Galil. Israeli combat experience showed the AKs to be the only weapon to operate at or near 100% efficiency in desert combat.
The AR-15 is a totally different animal. It is a beautifully balanced and elegant design. While the AK was based on proven designs and manufacturing methods, the AR-15 was ground breaking. New materials and manufacturing techniques made it feather light, robust and easy to produce. Eugene Stoner's baby was an unbelievably efficient weapon. As you say it was more accurate than the AKs. Its ammunition was also (at the time, AKs have caught up) lighter, which meant you could carry more of it, and more destructive. The lightweight small bore cartridge also made the weapon easier to use.
Unfortunately, the AR-15s strength turned out to be its weakness. It was such a finely balanced design that the slightest change in specifications completely destroyed its functionality. This is painfully clear from the history of the M-16 in Vietnam. While the AR-15 was highly prized in that war, the "militarized" M-16 was a disaster. To the casual observer, the differences between the two weapons were trivial. The M-16 had faster twist rifling, which improved the already excellent accuracy but drastically reduced the bullet's destructiveness. The bullet retained stability after impact while the AR-15's tumbled. The M-16 had a plunger on the right side of the receiver for forcing the bolt closed when jammed with debris. Forcing a debris jammed bolt home is probably not going to solve your problem and can permanently damage the weapon. But neither of these changes explained the shocking reduction in reliability between the two designs. The AR-15's reliability had been outstanding, both in tests and in combat. The M-16 was terrible. GI's and parental complaints were so voluminous they sparked congressional hearings. What had changed? Believe it or not the cause of this unreliability, which probably killed hundreds of GIs (and wounded thousands), was a simple change in the type of gunpowder in the cartridge. Against Stoner's advice the DOD had changed from a Winchester bar powder to their standard ball powder. The higher chamber pressure and temperature, as well as the dirtier combustion, completely destroyed the functionality of the weapon. It took years of tweaking to bring the M16 back to reasonable reliability standards. The problems never occurred in testing because the Army never bothered testing the new powder. The M16 evaluation was all don with Stoner's Winchester powder.
By contrast, the AK variants can digest any ammo you cram into the magazine with roughly equal efficiency. The Russians learned there lesson during WWII when brass shortages forced them to use steel cartridge cases. If you can cram it in the chamber, the AK will fire it, eject it and load another.
The AR-15 is a fine piece of engineering. Israeli soldiers who used the Galil like it because of its balance and light weight. And for theIDF's current uses it is probably perfect. But it isn't any lighter than the AK-74 and accuracy is a secondary consideration. Reliability, durability, flexibility and quantity are more important. The Kalashnikov wins on all those counts. For most militaries I think the AK-74 is a better choice.
I also think the Browning Hi Power was a much better design than the 1911, and only twelve years newer (design not production).
$.02...blah, blah
Re:DC-3 (Score:3, Interesting)
For those of you not familiar, the DC 2 1/2 was a DC-3 trashed by the Japanese during WWII. One wing wasn't repairable and no DC-3 wings could be found, so they strapped a DC-2 wing to the underside of, you guessed it, another DC-3, delivered the wing to the crippled plane, attached it, and flew the rebuilt plane out of the combat zone with one DC-3 wing and one DC-2 one.
This wasn't *quite* as insane as it sounds since the DC-2 and the DC-3 used the same root design. In other words, the point where the wing attached to the fuselage was the same on both planes so very little modification was needed. IIRC they pretty much just adjusted the trim *way* to one side and bopped on out.
I say again, three cheers for the unassuming, the unassailable, the unmatched DC-3.
All-time champeeen.
Rustin
The GameBoy (Score:2, Interesting)
Casio F-5 watch (Score:3, Interesting)
The band has rotted long ago and it's just sitting in my drawer, ticking away. It's even quite accurate. It had a y2k bug - it thought it was not a leap yer.
Re:My Casio Databank Watch! (Score:2, Interesting)
About switching batteries, next time buy a CR2032 instead of a CR2016 -- it will last much longer. The battery will fit into the watch case (with a tiny amount of force). According to the specs [panasonic.com], the CR2032 has a capacity of 220 mAh, while the CR2016 only has a capacity of 90 mAh. The only physical difference is the height, of which the CR2032 is 3.2 mm vs. 1.6 mm for the CR2016. It will fit though, trust me.