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What's a technology that was cooler in its older iterations? (pawb.social)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by VinesNFluff@pawb.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I don't mean BETTER. That's a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That's just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

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[-] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 33 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Older forms of computer RAM.

Before integrated circuits, we had core memory which was a grid of wires and at each intersection was a little magnetic donut that held a single 1 or 0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory

Before that they had delay line memory, where they used vibrations traveling down a long tube of mercury, and more bits meant a longer tube to store a longer wave train.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory

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[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago

Also, waving a magnet around a crt was fun.

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[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago

Interchangeable automotive/bicycle parts.

Or for that matter, interchangeable anything parts.

Both cooler and better at the same time. Interchangeable parts made it easier to both customize and repair your own stuff..

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[-] Rebels_Droppin@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Did someone say CRT??? https://lemmy.world/c/crtart

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this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024

449 points (98.5% liked)

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