Obscure Technology

Floppy disk, the official device of size does not matter and the symbol of every saving icon known to man. Much how the death of Jesus became the symbol of saving us from our sins in trade for His blood on the cross, the floppy disk eventually died off and became our symbol of saving files and document. Sure that may be a very odd comparison to some, but there has to be a reason why this old tech is still remembered in an age where physical media is on the decline and most of our files, photos, videos, etc are in the cloud. No other piece of technology is so recognizable, yet so unknown to many. The floppy disk was first introduced commercially in the late 1960s and these disks were 8 inches in size! These disk were mostly used by IBM computers in 1971 and were later produced and improved by IBM and other companies such as Memorex. The floppy disk got it’s name from… you guessed it… because they wobbly and flexible, even though IBM originally called it “Type 1 Diskette”, creative...

Overhead projectors, the official device of puppet shadows and markers and spray bottles. These projectors though simple and prehistoric, uphold an image of higher position. Even by it’s blocky and dull aesthetics gives these projectors a sense of authority. It is like George Orwell in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” in which he had to look calm and had a mission to uphold his power in front of the natives, even though deep down inside he hesitated shooting the beast down. Maybe it is because of context in which these overhead projects are portrayed in, or much how we expect and officer to uphold the law. We expect these devices to teach us as much as the teacher operating them. “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the 'natives,' and so in every crisis he has got to do what the 'natives' expect of him... A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things.” - Geo...

Record players, the official device of sitting down after a long day of work and just listening to Imagine, while sipping on a nice cold beverage. There is no other iconic symbol like a vinyl record. Much how we associate a floppy disk with saving data, we associate the vinyl record as the symbol of music. Some may argue that a cassette could bring the same symbolic meaning, which I disagree with. A cassette could also mean a voice recording or, in other countries, a form of storing computer data. While with a record you get the sweet melody of music. The record player had its humble beginnings with the invention of the phonautograph by Leon Scott in 1857. Basic what it did was write wavelengths from sounds on a piece of paper with the help of a diagram that would vibrate with sounds. He merely did this just to examine these wavelengths with no intention of listening to them. It was not until 2008 when the world finally got to hear Scott’s recordings. Later on in 1877 Edison wou...

VCR the official device of 1st birthday home videos and loud “coming soon to own on dvd & video” previews. VCR stands for videocassette recorder and was introduced to the world by JVC. VCR came about due to the demand in which people wanted to watch or rewatch movies without the need of leaving home and sitting down in a movie theater full of anonymous people. So in 1975 this ignited the famous “format war” which would be later called. This so called war was set between Sony’s Betamax (do not worry not a lot of people know what this is) and good old JVC’s VHS in the show of dominance over which format will people set as the standard in their living rooms. Even though Betamax had superior recording capability… that is all it had going for it, and to add salt to the wound, people could not even tell the difference between the quality of the recording. While on the other hand VHS had lengthier record times with its 2 hour recording or, if you do not mind colored static, 4 hour record...

We live in a world in which if we had the desire to listen to a song or album while we jog or while we wait for the bus, we would just look it up on our phones really quick without hesitation, but not in the 80s. Before then the only real way to listen to music was through a “portable” radio or cassette deck. This is a time in which portability did not mean if a device could fit in a purse or pocket. The definition of portability in 70s and 80s meant if it ran on batteries it was considered portable (most of the time batteries would take up 30% of the device), so people would lug generator-sized radios in order to just listen to music somewhere else other than their house. Plus most of the time these bricks of a music player did not have a headphone jack, so this makes listening  to music by yourself impossible. Thus the Walkman by Sony came on the scene, it provided actual portable and was constructed just for people who just want to listen to music casually by them self without ...