Those Kids Just Don’t Know

RSS feed links to blog posts, podcasts, and more. This is the only forum visible to non-registered guests. Includes posts from RobOHara.com, Podcast.RobOHara.com, and BigRobsVan.com.
Post Reply
User avatar
m00npie
Posts: 933
Joined: April 23rd, 2010, 7:27 pm

Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by m00npie »

Title: Those Kids Just Don’t Know
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2017 02:22:28 +0000
Link: http://throwbackreviews.com/those-kids-just-dont-know/

Description: We’re back!!! On this episode Sean & Rob talk about some of the things that their kids will never understand, some technology, commercials, Christmas traditions and they briefly touch on the Star Wars film The Last Jedi (no spoilers). Please consider using our Amazon affiliate link when making those last minute holiday purchases or any time […]
User avatar
k8track
Posts: 375
Joined: January 17th, 2015, 7:16 am
Location: Illinois

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by k8track »

I enjoyed the heck out of this episode. It really resonated with me and I can completely identify with it.

I should probably go back and listen to it again and take notes (I listened to it in my car so I couldn't do that) because it seemed like there were several things I wanted to comment on. One thing that stood out is that you used the term "boombox." I am not sure if that term existed back then; was it applied retroactively? I can only speak from my own experience; I never heard that term until years later. At the time, we always called them "ghetto blasters." I always wanted one of those. I had a lesser version, but I wanted a really huge one. I remember going to Sears in our local mall and drooling over his massively huge one with three huge speakers (and only a single cassette deck). I would still love to have one today, but I think the authentic vintage ones would cost a ton.
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

We always called them ghetto blasters too. Like other terms from our childhood (see: sitting "Indian-style"), I believe the term "ghetto blaster" was deemed non-PC (there being some implication in regards to the ghetto) and so "boombox" was deemed a more-PC term. I am always torn on these things; I don't like retroactively altering history, but I also don't want to offend people who live in the ghetto. So, "boombox" it is, although I still let "ghetto blaster" slip from time to time.

I too thought it would be neat to own a vintage boombox again. I have bought three so far and none of them have had working cassette decks. Two flat out didn't work and the third was very warbly. I am told this is due to the rubber bands and belts inside that drive the mechanisms. I am sure there are some survivors out there, but so far I haven't had good luck.

I just spent a few minutes going through Google images and found the ghet... boombox I had growing up.

Image

This is a Sony CFS-45. If this isn't the exact model, it's very close.
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

Actually, I found it. It was a Sony CFS-43.

Image

Here's a screen grab from an old home movie of me and my radio.

Image
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
k8track
Posts: 375
Joined: January 17th, 2015, 7:16 am
Location: Illinois

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by k8track »

Passed out on the floor. You were hardcore.
User avatar
obliterator918
Posts: 1306
Joined: June 21st, 2012, 9:17 am

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by obliterator918 »

Flack wrote: I am told this is due to the rubber bands and belts inside that drive the mechanisms.


This concerns me about all of the floppy drives I keep in my attic. I don't have anywhere else to store them, and the swing from 0 degrees to 120 degrees can't be good on those things.

I had a really cool CD changer. (remember how awesome it was to be able to put all 20 of your favorite CDs in the player at once, and spend five minutes selecting the one you want?) It was probably 10-12 years old when I threw it out -- one of the bands inside of it broke so it wouldn't load discs any more. And to be honest, it was always more trouble than it was worth.

When I worked at RadioShack, we had a catalog of those rubber bands (I believe the official term is "belt") so they could be ordered for DIY customers fixing stuff that used them...
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

k8track wrote:Passed out on the floor. You were hardcore.


This was from the end of a music video a friend of mine and I recorded. I wanted the audio to stop at the end of the video and I could tell he wasn't going to kill the video on time so at the end I dove out of camera range and reached for the pause button. Then he followed me with the camera and I didn't know what to do so I played dead. A cinematic ending for our version of "Mr. Roboto."
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

obliterator918 wrote:This concerns me about all of the floppy drives I keep in my attic. I don't have anywhere else to store them, and the swing from 0 degrees to 120 degrees can't be good on those things.

I know you know this, but yeah, that's about the worst place for them. Those hot summers can turn those belts to goo, or make them brittle so that they snap the first time they're engaged. I used to think the main issue with carrying vintage hardware into the future was simply saving it from the dump. Now, parts of it are literally disintegrating before my eyes.

obliterator918 wrote:I had a really cool CD changer. (remember how awesome it was to be able to put all 20 of your favorite CDs in the player at once, and spend five minutes selecting the one you want?) It was probably 10-12 years old when I threw it out -- one of the bands inside of it broke so it wouldn't load discs any more. And to be honest, it was always more trouble than it was worth.

The first CD changer I had was one of those "tray" models that connected to a component stereo system. I see them all the time in thrift stores for $5-$10 but I think I paid $300 for mine, haha. The five trays were arranged in a star pattern, so if the unit was playing disc 1 and you hit eject, you could access trays 3 and 4, and then you could rotate it to access trays 2 and 3, or 4 and 5. This allowed you to load 4 CDs while playing the fifth. You could use the display on the front to program tracks from each CD, or there was also a random/shuffle mode. The only time I really used that thing to its full potential was during our wedding reception, which I also DJ'ed. And by DJ'ed I mean, played music on that CD changer. I would load up five CDs, go dance and mingle while those five songs played, and then run back to the table and put in five more to keep the party grooving!
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
obliterator918
Posts: 1306
Joined: June 21st, 2012, 9:17 am

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by obliterator918 »

Flack wrote: yeah, that's about the worst place for them.


Yes, and I feel terrible about it. :-) I do keep the most important stuff in interior closets.

This reminded me of a funny thing. I bought a SX-64 off eBay and the dude who sent it to me did the absolute worst job ever of packaging it. And when I opened it, it was as if someone spilled urine and tobacco all over my carpet or something. You know that aweful smell chain smokers leave in their cars-- it was like that. It was so bad I couldn't keep it inside the house.

It also had a bad PLA chip. It survived a "turn it on" test, which is enough for eBay, but didn't really work.

It really, really smelled BAD. It was a piece of hardware, not cloth, but somehow the smell absolutely PERMEATED the whole thing. I took it apart and I tried to clean it with alcohol and stuff. I couldn't get that nasty smell out. I gave up.

So I stuck it in the attic and figured I could maybe pull a chip out of it if I needed to some day. No way I was keeping that rotting stench inside my house.

And you know what? A couple of years later, after a couple of Oklahoma Summers in the attic (it gets over 120f in there every year)... the smell was gone. Completely gone.

I took it out and replaced the bad PLA and it was perfect after that.

So at least for this SX-64, the attic was the best place to keep it for a couple of years.
User avatar
obliterator918
Posts: 1306
Joined: June 21st, 2012, 9:17 am

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by obliterator918 »

I found a picture somebody posted of the cd changer model I first bought-- an Optimus Pro 25 CD changer. In fact, this was the first and only non-portable compact disc player I owned, I think. The best thing about it was that it wasn't a cartridge-based changer. And it looked awesome in the rack. 25 discs, baby. (Of course, it was totally up to you how you could figure out which disc was which out of the 25, LOL! But it could shuffle-play between all of them...)

Image

I am pretty sure this was a re-badged Pioneer. My first surround-sound receiver which we used for nearly 15 years was also an Optimus (got it about the same time as this CD changer) and it was also a re-branded Pioneer piece.
User avatar
obliterator918
Posts: 1306
Joined: June 21st, 2012, 9:17 am

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by obliterator918 »

Yuep! Same one!

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbXoxmFOQ3w[/media]
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

I always wanted one of those high-capacity changers! My friend Jeff has one of those 100 DVD changers. I think you could even daisy chain them multiple units together, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, here's a picture of my old CD changer. I took a picture before I donated it.

Image
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
AArdvark
Posts: 1449
Joined: April 23rd, 2010, 10:06 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by AArdvark »

My boss was getting rid of his stereo system and he knew I was into "retro" stuff so he gave me everything, including this 200 cd changer.

Image

It came with a big binder that holds 200 CD covers so you can cross reference the cover with the CD slot in the machine. I just put it on 'shuffle all' and let it go.
User avatar
Artisian78
Posts: 59
Joined: August 10th, 2020, 6:43 am
Location: Texas

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Artisian78 »

Flack,
I never had a 100 CD disc changer. But I remember a few years ago at the Goodwill, I saw a standalone stereo CD burner for about $25 or so. I remember I used to work retail at Macy's and one of my coworkers wanted a CD Burner for Christmas. I know his mother, who also worked part-time at the store, bought her son a CD Burner. I guess it must have cost about $300 or so back in 2000 or so.
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

Hey Artisian, just a head's up -- I am having to edit your posts because the way you are manually pasting other people's text (generally mine) into your posts makes it very confusing as to what you have typed and what you have cut/pasted from other posts. If you want to quote someone else's post, it's just easier to read if you click the "quote" button while responding. That helps people keep track of who said what, especially in longer threads.

CD burners are definitely something that plummeted in price. I think my first CD burner was almost $500, and my first external DVD burner I bought a few years later cost almost as much. I can't remember the last time I bought one. Now they just seem to come with computers, and I rarely use them anyway.
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
Artisian78
Posts: 59
Joined: August 10th, 2020, 6:43 am
Location: Texas

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Artisian78 »

I just do it that way, because some of the older forums don't let you make a new post, they were locked.


>Hey Artisian, just a head's up -- I am having to edit your posts because the way you are manually pasting >other people's text (generally mine) into your posts makes it very confusing as to what you have typed and ><what you have cut/pasted from other posts.

I see. Ok.

>If you want to quote someone else's post, it's just easier to >read if you click the "quote" button while responding. That helps people keep track of who said what, >especially in longer threads.

I agree with you about this.

>CD burners are definitely something that plummeted in price.

I see. I think my first CD Rom reader cost about $100. That was back in 1992 or 1993. I was using it with my 386SX PC. But I used it as an external drive.

I didn't get a CD Burner until college. I agree that they used to cost at least $100 for a 2x or 4x drive.

>I think my first CD burner was almost $500,

I see.

>and my first external DVD burner I bought a few years later >cost almost as much. I can't remember the last time I bought one.

I see. Yes, I still use a DVD burner to make backups of my files.

>Now they just seem to come with computers, and I rarely use them anyway.
User avatar
Artisian78
Posts: 59
Joined: August 10th, 2020, 6:43 am
Location: Texas

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Artisian78 »

I guess at least on the newer computers, you might find a Blue Ray burner bundled with it. But I still
don't have a Blue Ray burner yet. Oh well.
User avatar
Flack
Site Admin
Posts: 7034
Joined: April 22nd, 2010, 9:42 pm

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Flack »

Artisian78 wrote:I guess at least on the newer computers, you might find a Blue Ray burner bundled with it. But I still
don't have a Blue Ray burner yet. Oh well.

I don't either, and I'm not that interested in owning one. Most of the early CD-ROMs I burned have gone bad, and some of the DVDs I burned have too. I don't have a lot of faith in burned discs as a long term storage solution.

Looking at Amazon, it looks like blank blu-ray disks are a little more than $1 each for 25GB of storage. I also see 64GB USB thumb drives for $6-$10, which isn't much more when you do the math per gigabyte of storage. And while USB thumb drives may not be a permanent long term solution, I feel like they're more better off than a burned disc.
Flack
www.robohara.com | www.facebook.com/robohara | www.twitter.com/Commodork
User avatar
Artisian78
Posts: 59
Joined: August 10th, 2020, 6:43 am
Location: Texas

Re: Those Kids Just Don’t Know

Post by Artisian78 »

I see. I have the same feelings that you have about not getting a Blu Ray burner.

I agree with you that flash drives are a little better than a burned disc.

Flack wrote:
Artisian78 wrote:I guess at least on the newer computers, you might find a Blue Ray burner bundled with it. But I still
don't have a Blue Ray burner yet. Oh well.

I don't either, and I'm not that interested in owning one. Most of the early CD-ROMs I burned have gone bad, and some of the DVDs I burned have too. I don't have a lot of faith in burned discs as a long term storage solution.

Looking at Amazon, it looks like blank blu-ray disks are a little more than $1 each for 25GB of storage. I also see 64GB USB thumb drives for $6-$10, which isn't much more when you do the math per gigabyte of storage. And while USB thumb drives may not be a permanent long term solution, I feel like they're more better off than a burned disc.
Post Reply