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

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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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[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 37 points 3 weeks ago

Before transistors there were vacuum tubes which did the same thing but using very different principles (and were also way bigger, even than traditional transistors and billions of times more than the transistors in the most modern ICs)

Before electric milling or even steam milling, flour used to be milled using watermills and windmills which, IMHO, are way cooler.

[-] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 5 points 3 weeks ago

I love seeing old workshops where all of the machines are powered off of a single source of rotational energy. Just so whimsical and kinetic when everything is moving

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

a 127mm vacuum tube, quite large, is equivalent to 127,000,000 nm which is only 63.5 million times bigger than a cutting edge transistor so that estimate seems a little exaggerated.

[-] Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

That's just the length, if you are comparing volumes it's an under estimate.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Thats fair I suppose.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

I was too tired to go beyond "1nm = 10^-9^ hence 1 billion" and actually do the maths ;)

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

My mill grinds

pepper and spice

Your mill grinds

rats and mice

[-] pyr0ball@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Are you singing at your cat?

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Well, cats as a bit more on the slicey and dicey than on the grindey side of breaking up things.

(One shudders to think on what cats would do if they could actually use knifes)

[-] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

Steam millers sound way cooler than windmills

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024

441 points (98.5% liked)

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