Terms Which Have Disappeared

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There’s a distinct lack of people addressing each other as measures of liquid.

a tall drink of water

a slurp

or a personal favorite from Laura Ingalls Wilder:
“little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up”

 

[skydog757]

I've also heard "Aren't you a cool glass of water".

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Get a load of the little squirt."

 

[OldStrummer]

"Floppy disk." If I had to guess, I think people today would think you were using a porn term.

 

[Zombie_61]

"Floppy disk." If I had to guess, I think people today would think you were using a porn term.

"Flash drive" doesn't quite conjure the same type of humor, does it? "Memory stick" maybe, but you have to work harder for it.

 

[OldStrummer]

"Flash drive" doesn't quite conjure the same type of humor, does it? "Memory stick" maybe, but you have to work harder for it.

Well, humor aside, flash memory and memory sticks are current technology. Even the youngsters know to what you are referring. Floppies are truly a thing of the past.

 

[scottyrocks]

Well, humor aside, flash memory and memory sticks are current technology. Even the youngsters know to what you are referring. Floppies are truly a thing of the past.

Yeah, but he had to work the joke in.

 

[Upgrade]

Technically, “floppy disk” refers to the original massive 8 inch version which is even more obscure. The more common 3.5” is the “floppy diskette”.

However, it still manages to anachronistically live on as the Save button mostly because people haven’t figured out a good replacement.

I’ve also heard flash drives being referred to as jump drives.

 

[OldStrummer]

Technically, “floppy disk” refers to the original massive 8 inch version which is even more obscure. The more common 3.5” is the “floppy diskette”.

However, it still manages to anachronistically live on as the Save button mostly because people haven’t figured out a good replacement.

I’ve also heard flash drives being referred to as jump drives.

Don't forget the 5.25" floppy diskette, which the first PCs used, since hard drives were too expensive. (Image of IBM 5 Megabyte HD being delivered in 1956).

As for "jump drive," I believe that's an offshoot of "jump box," which is what many organizations used to use for added security: Log on to your pc, then connect to a "jump box" which allowed access to enterprise resources, applications, etc. No danger of downloading/uploading proprietary data or malware...

 

[1967Cougar390]

How about the term “clicker” for the TV remote. I remember my grandfathers TV remote clicking different sounds to make the channel change up or down.

Steven

 

[scottyrocks]

Technically, “floppy disk” refers to the original massive 8 inch version which is even more obscure. The more common 3.5” is the “floppy diskette”.

However, it still manages to anachronistically live on as the Save button mostly because people haven’t figured out a good replacement.

I’ve also heard flash drives being referred to as jump drives.

Or 'thumb drive.'

 

[3fingers]

How about the term “clicker” for the TV remote. I remember my grandfathers TV remote clicking different sounds to make the channel change up or down.

Steven

My parents had a small B&W set in their bedroom to watch Johnny's monologue before going to sleep. My father would turn the TV on every morning when he raked his change off of the dresser to put in his pocket. I soon figured out how to change the channel by shaking a few coins in my hand, which I may or may not have done while my sisters were trying to watch something.

 

[Zombie_61]

Well, humor aside, flash memory and memory sticks are current technology. Even the youngsters know to what you are referring. Floppies are truly a thing of the past.

True, but I suspect it won't be much longer before the next technological innovation comes along and flash drives/memory sticks take their place next to floppy disks in the Museum of Recent History.

Yeah, but he had to work the joke in.

I plead guilty, Your Honor.

 

[OldStrummer]

True, but I suspect it won't be much longer before the next technological innovation comes along and flash drives/memory sticks take their place next to floppy disks in the Museum of Recent History.

Too true. My newest computer (MacBook Pro, purchased last April) has no USB ports. Actually, it has four USB-C ports, for which I can find no accessories that use them. The only benefit I've seen is that the power cord for the computer can plug into any one of them.

 

[skydog757]

I remember the jump from tube radios and tvs to solid state/transistors. Things was, you could replace the tubes yourself from the local drug or hardware store. They even had tube testers right on the counter so you could bring them in yourself and see which which were good or bad and replace them for pocket change. Not so with transistors; the only real advantage they offered was that you didn't have to "warm up" the tv for a minute plus before you got a picture, rolling and fuzzy though it was. Three channels on a good signal night.

 

[Upgrade]

Too true. My newest computer (MacBook Pro, purchased last April) has no USB ports. Actually, it has four USB-C ports, for which I can find no accessories that use them. The only benefit I've seen is that the power cord for the computer can plug into any one of them.

The theory is that USB type C ports can be plugged in upside down or right side up (along with some data transfer speed improvements).

This still is an infuriating problem with most USB devices that have the classic type A shape.

Type C is supposed to be the last USB standard, but given the plethora of “USB standards” (type A, B, mini, micro etc.) this is unlikely to remain so.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The thing with those drugstore tube testers was that they were easily calibrated by their owners to show "Bad" even if a tube was good -- they were intended primarily as merchandisers, not scientific instruments, and that being so they were a lucrative bit of sideline for dealers in factory-second tubes.

Many poor-quality tubes were sold in the Era by sharp operators, leaving set-owners holding the bag. Even some of the name-brand tubes weren't all that good -- many of the metal-shell tubes sold by RCA were very unreliable, especially the power audio tubes: their seals would fail from overheating within a few months of regular use, and the sets designed to use them often had the circuits rigged in such a way that you couldn't simply substitute a common glass tube. You had to keep shelling out for the metal ones, only to have them keep failing. Racket, racket, racket.

 

[Upgrade]

Is that still a problem for people restoring radios today?

Although there is another modern problem with Nixie tubes due to the popularity of using them to display the time. Prolonged powering to show a rarely changed digit causes “poisoning” or metal whiskers growing until the tube no longer lights up.

 

[Fading Fast]

The thing with those drugstore tube testers was that they were easily calibrated by their owners to show "Bad" even if a tube was good -- they were intended primarily as merchandisers, not scientific instruments, and that being so they were a lucrative bit of sideline for dealers in factory-second tubes.

Many poor-quality tubes were sold in the Era by sharp operators, leaving set-owners holding the bag. Even some of the name-brand tubes weren't all that good -- many of the metal-shell tubes sold by RCA were very unreliable, especially the power audio tubes: their seals would fail from overheating within a few months of regular use, and the sets designed to use them often had the circuits rigged in such a way that you couldn't simply substitute a common glass tube. You had to keep shelling out for the metal ones, only to have them keep failing. Racket, racket, racket.

It seemed there was a time when some companies were smart enough to capitalize on the greed, perfidy of these ⇧ type of companies.

I don't know about the tube market, but back when I was growing up, companies like Sears, LL Bean, Sony, Maytag, Volvo and Brooks Brothers were known for putting out high quality products at their price points. For some of their products, you paid a bit more than other "middle-to-higher-middle market" brands for that quality, but you absolutely got higher quality and service and were also not paying top-of-the-market / luxury good prices.

The "cheater" companies created an opening for decent companies to build a reputable business. It seems there was more of that approach back then than I see today. Today, companies seem to change almost from year to year. One year they put out a quality product at a fair price, then the next year they don't, and, then, maybe they do again the following years. But you never know - it all changes quickly and seemingly without a lot of long-term thought or attempt to build a long-term reputation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have a restored RCA console from 1938 in my office that I listen to for a couple of hours every morning, and it uses a metal 6F6 audio final -- that tube burns out every six months and has to be replaced. It's turned into a bit of an experiment -- I've tried old stock RCA new-in-box tubes with manufacturing codes dating from the late thirties to the mid-seventies, I've tried military surplus WW2 new in box tubes, and I've tried RCA 1621 tubes -- the industrial high-performance version of the 6F6. All of them have failed within six months.

I think some of this may be poor circuit design in the radio -- they're driving the speaker with a single output tube rather than using twin tubes in push-pull, and it by design runs hotter than it should. But the metal tubes, because they dissipate heat so poorly, seem like they were designed to fail sooner than later.

RCA pushed these tubes hard during the late thirties as the next big thing in radio, with a notable lack of success in doing so. I suspect their reputation for poor durability was established early on, but they had invested so much on development and advertising that they had to push forward even though the product was inferior to glass tubes. I have an RCA table model from a couple years earlier in my bedroom, using a very similar circuit except with a smaller speaker and a type 42 output tube -- which is basically an earlier, glass-envelope, six-pin version of the 6F6. I listen to this set for a couple of hours every night, and the output tube is the same one that was in it when I bought the radio thirty-three years ago.