Tech sounds that have gone bye-bye

[zuben el genub]

Say Goodbye to the Tech Sounds You'll Never Hear Again | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

They are right about the phone - slamming down was very satisfying.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Say Goodbye to the Tech Sounds You'll Never Hear Again | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

They are right about the phone - slamming down was very satisfying.

So true...

 

[Davdi]

Bowing a 1KHz whistle in an acoustic coupler to see it the computer on the other end responds, doing the same with a FAX machine.
The sound of a punch card reader, a chain impact printer or the bip-bop of an original Pong machine.

 

[double b26]

Yes, hammering the End Call button with rage doesnt even come close to an enraged triple slam hangup of the old corded phone!

Ahhh... those were the days!

 

[mplevy]

On the camera one, DSLRs still click and there's no way out of it. I think mirrorless cameras click with no way out of it, I'd have to check when I get home.

 

[SamuraiBigEd]

DSLR's still have a mirror that flips up and a mechanical shutter, the sound won't go away till those do.

 

[mikedt]

I still hear tape hiss regularly, as well as having to periodically untangle the things when they get chewed-up. However it's not Nirvana , it's much more likely to be kindergarten songs or People's Education Press elementary school materials.

In the UK this summer I actually was friction shifting a bike. :bike: I borrowed an old '80s Peogeot ten-speed from a friend, that had the gear levers on the stem. Very enjoyable as well, much better than these modern made in China mountain bike things, that usually weigh a ton and fall apart after a year.

You can still buy new CRT TVs in China. They're the cheapest sort. Although they are definitely an endangered species.

 

[Revenant Ghost]

I remember having to blow on the cartridge in order to make the game work. *sighs* Those were the days.

 

[nickdalzell]

The spin-up and Init sound of an old Seagate 20MB ST-225 hard disk drive. seemed so futureistic back then

I am sure no one would ever miss the sound of a 56K modem dialing up

 

[MoodyBlues]

The spin-up and Init sound of an old Seagate 20MB ST-225 hard disk drive. seemed so futureistic back then

I remember very clearly holding my hand on the outside of computer boxes to see when their drives started/stopped spinning up.

I am sure no one would ever miss the sound of a 56K modem dialing up

I always silenced mine, after initially testing them. I hated that screeching sound.

 

[FishenFool]

I always silenced mine, after initially testing them. I hated that screeching sound.

Always kept mine noisy because it was easier to diagnose connection issues.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Always kept mine noisy because it was easier to diagnose connection issues.

I didn't have those. Once set up and tested, they just worked. Thank you UNIX and Linux.

 

[9to5cynic]

I have my dial up modem to quiet, because I usually listen to music on my computer when surfing the web.

 

[nickdalzell]

the only thing i needed for diagnosis of my dial-up connection back then was waiting for the loud relay click followed by hard drive chatter then a very blunt 'GOODBYE!'

 

[mikedt]

I didn't have those. Once set up and tested, they just worked. Thank you UNIX and Linux.

I always kept the modem noises on, to ensure I had a good connection, and that the K56-flex and later V90 was connected ok. Basically because software or even Linux can't fix a mediocre phone line.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I always kept the modem noises on, to ensure I had a good connection, and that the K56-flex and later V90 was connected ok. Basically because software or even Linux can't fix a mediocre phone line.

So true.

I was lucky, I had good phone lines. Of course, this was in Tornado Alley (Dallas), so there were many...many...times I sat twiddling my thumbs...either the electricity was out, or the phone lines were down, or both... *sigh* I don't miss that at all!

 

[nickdalzell]

during the days of AOL one needed the modem sound on during dialing to be sure they weren't hearing busy signals--in the mid-90s AOL had this insane issue with busy signals when trying to dial in.

Another old tech sound i recall was the curtis-mathes top-loading VCR in PLAY mode. it had an almost music-like sound when it'd start playing a movie or rewinding a tape. it also had a weird cash-register shuffle as it ejected.

Another was the Magnavox Touch-Tune color TV we had in the living room--made in 1978 and the first TV with an on-screen display/tuning. when you'd hit channel up or down, it'd make an audible click, a short SSSSS! sound (with snow) and then show the next channel. ah, analog!

the Touch-Tune was a tech marvel in its day, and is very rare to find an OSD variant anymore.

I am not sure if this qualifies but who has had the Speak n Spell toys? speech synthesizer, vacuum fluorescent display, expandable modules, in 1980! the sound alone was perfect enough! they also had a Speak n Math and Speak n Read (although i never had the Read)

 

[mikedt]

Speak n Spell is great, especially when combined with a record player, a coat hanger and an umbrella.

 

[nickdalzell]

Android even has an app for that (the Speak n Spell)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.id.weston.scott.SpeakAndSpell&hl=en

They even have the Little Professor (the Speak n Math's more silent 1970s predecessor)

 

[mikedt]

Android even has an app for that (the Speak n Spell)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.id.weston.scott.SpeakAndSpell&hl=en

I've just given the school office a blast of it....LOL... They never heard anything like that before.

The TI Speak n Spell was quite amazing really, 32 kilobytes of ROM and they managed to fit in the entire software, along with around 200 spoken words, phrases and letters.

There's plenty of info about TI's Speak n ***** products here. Never a Mandarin Chinese version though...hmm.
http://www.datamath.org/Album_Speech.htm

They even have the Little Professor (the Speak n Math's more silent 1970s predecessor)

It was kind like a calculator in reverse, it gives you the sums to solve, rather than the other way round.

Ti's other educational products like the Computer Fun and Touch n Tells, that type of educational toy is still very popular now, especially here in China. Although they're not made by TI.

EDIT:

I just remembered Radio Shack(probably something from Hong Kong) did sort of cheaper/inferior version of the Little Professor called the Monkey See. Which was another educational calculator type thing but without a display. It just had two lights.

Think the idea was you entered a sum along with what you though the answer waa. So something like "2+2=4" would give you a green light, but entering "2+2=5" would give you a red light. And that was it.

The Radio Shack Monkey See....looks kind of expensive doesn't it?

 

[kct1975]

Android even has an app for that (the Speak n Spell)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.id.weston.scott.SpeakAndSpell&hl=en

They even have the Little Professor (the Speak n Math's more silent 1970s predecessor)

Thank you so much for posting that!

Download it, and am loving it!

It brings back good childhood memories!

 

[nickdalzell]

for me, those toys were my childhood. anyone remember the Talking Whiz Kid? my cousin had one but i never saw one working. every time it was 'missing cartridge'. never did get to see that one in action because at the time it was uber expensive.

a bit of trivia. the 1985 Chrysler New Yorker (built off the K-Car platform) Turbo had an 'Electronic Voice Alert' using the exact same TI Synthesizer chip used in the Speak n Spell and various Speak n products. i hope i am not the only one who has heard the infamous 'beep! beep! beep! Your washer fluid, is low!' or 'Don't forget your keys!'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIpfUuRg1VE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL2k1Gp8ywE

I wish i had one of these, it was around the same time as the Little Professor (1978). it looked like something out of Battlestar Galactica, too. that alone makes me wish i had one or an app emulating it:



And, for anyone who missed out during the innocent age of the late 1970s, early 1980s, this is the Little Professor. like the Speak n Math, it taught basic math problems (sans voice). i think it just kept playing whatever game you selected (and its current difficulty level, and believe me this thing gets freaking hard!) infinitely until you shut it off. if you made a mistake, it just said 'ERROR' in the same vain as the TI-30 calculator.



This is the Talking Whiz Kid. at the time it seemed more neat than any of the above, totally expensive though. my cousin had one non-functional missing the cartridge for i suppose the game it was meant to play. but anything with a dot-matrix LCD was cool for the time. i suppose i'll never know what exactly it did. even in Goodwill stores i have yet to find an example that does not die with 'insert cartridge' showing up. they are all missing that one vital component:

 

[mikedt]

for me, those toys were my childhood. anyone remember the Talking Whiz Kid? my cousin had one but i never saw one working. every time it was 'missing cartridge'. never did get to see that one in action because at the time it was uber expensive.

a bit of trivia. the 1985 Chrysler New Yorker (built off the K-Car platform) Turbo had an 'Electronic Voice Alert' using the exact same TI Synthesizer chip used in the Speak n Spell and various Speak n products. i hope i am not the only one who has heard the infamous 'beep! beep! beep! Your washer fluid, is low!' or 'Don't forget your keys!'

I know the TI speech chip was used in a few coin-ops and pinball tables, Paperboy and Gorf were two. Very distinctive sound, recognisably TI.

Talking of TI, I recently purchased a DLP mini-projector, turn it on and I see "Picture by Texas Instruments". Even though it's a Chinese one, bought in Shenzhen.

Speak n Spell was also used by Kraftwerk and OMD in some of their music in early 80s. Computer World by Kraftwerk(1981) is full of Speak n Spell beeps and words.
Pocket Calculator_

1987 Chrysler New Yorker Voice Alert (EVA) - YouTube

Speak N' Spell commercial 1980 - YouTube

I wish i had one of these, it was around the same time as the Little Professor (1978). it looked like something out of Battlestar Galactica, too. that alone makes me wish i had one or an app emulating it:

Ah the Dataman...forgot about that one.. LOL.. yeh great design though.

And, for anyone who missed out during the innocent age of the late 1970s, early 1980s, this is the Little Professor. like the Speak n Math, it taught basic math problems (sans voice). i think it just kept playing whatever game you selected (and its current difficulty level, and believe me this thing gets freaking hard!) infinitely until you shut it off. if you made a mistake, it just said 'ERROR' in the same vain as the TI-30 calculator.



This is the Talking Whiz Kid. at the time it seemed more neat than any of the above, totally expensive though. my cousin had one non-functional missing the cartridge for i suppose the game it was meant to play. but anything with a dot-matrix LCD was cool for the time. i suppose i'll never know what exactly it did. even in Goodwill stores i have yet to find an example that does not die with 'insert cartridge' showing up. they are all missing that one vital component:

The "Whiz Kid" toy educational laptop. That type of thing is very popular here, basically for teaching elementary English, Mandarin, maths and other subjects. Simple inexpensive device, matrix screen, keyboard, although the Chinese ones don't generally use removable carts.

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Childrens-learning/p/sm/1061305377.htm

BTW Chinese kids start learning English at the kindergarten level,

 

[mplevy]

And, for anyone who missed out during the innocent age of the late 1970s, early 1980s, this is the Little Professor. like the Speak n Math, it taught basic math problems (sans voice). i think it just kept playing whatever game you selected (and its current difficulty level, and believe me this thing gets freaking hard!) infinitely until you shut it off. if you made a mistake, it just said 'ERROR' in the same vain as the TI-30 calculator.

I remember those!

 

[nickdalzell]

my cousin had one of them as well, sans batteries and cover. until i got an app for it i never really knew what it did--just figured it a child's first calculator similar to the 'My First Sony' line of toys