Still this thing, 20 years on:
Kinda true, how this thing even worked, nobody knows
The tape head is basically a small and really sensitive electromagnet. Magnetized tape creates small disturbances in the magnetic signal. Amplify those disturbances and you get sound. Similar to an antenna, but only works in close proximity.
This also works in reverse. Feed an audio signal through the electromagnet, and the electromagnet will create the disturbances in whatever is next to it. You can do this to record to a tape, or you can do this to pass sound to another tape head, which is how these aux cassettes work.
You can build one yourself really easily. Just take the tape head from a broken player and solder to an aux cable. Take a cassette, remove the tape, and put the tape head in the middle portion so it comes into contact with the player tape head.
Of course it’s Technology Connections. Who else would make a video about a (now) useless piece of 80’s tech with enough content to satisfy any level of curiosity.
I think of it as extremely 00s. It’s the “I only have an mp3 player/phone and my computer doesn’t take aux” device
If you shop around you can find a Brother (B&W) laser printer for about $100.
Imagine this weird future: Printers that always just work no matter what type of computer you have or how long they’ve sat since you last used them. And the “ink” cartridges last forever. And you can buy 3rd party refills or even refill them yourself. Plus it’s completely reliant on microplastics to do its job, what’s more futuristic than that?
Imagine this weird future: Printers that always just work no matter what type of computer you have or how long they’ve sat since you last used them. And the “ink” cartridges last forever. And you can buy 3rd party refills or even refill them yourself. Plus it’s completely reliant on microplastics to do its job, what’s more futuristic than that?
I lived in the 90’s, when office work was a tad more reliant on printers and late stage capitalism wasn’t as bad. My dad had a laser printer for his business. Very reliable, fast, never needed anything.
I remember that as the past, is my point.
I’ve got one of those and I’m pretty sure I’ve been using the same toner cartridge for like a dozen years.
3 sea shells.
A bow drill fire starter.
…I suppose it depends on what you assume the future will be like…
Barring that, you can get some small vials of tritium gas for under that price.
What would one do with small vials of tritium gas?
Not much really. Looks cool though. I suppose it’s more of a decoration than “tech.” About the only practical application of it is a tool to terrify the uneducated. The quantities of tritium the average person can buy are beyond harmless. You could breathe a hundred vials of the stuff and be completely unaffected. If you drank nothing but tritium water for several weeks, you would have some issues. But tiny vials with micrograms of tritium vapor inside? Utterly harmless.
Or, I suppose for the criminally minded, you could find some evil uses for it. You could probably rob a bank with it. “Give me all the money or I break this vial of radioactive vapor!” That would probably get you a wikipedia page, if you’re just dying for your 5 minutes of fame. You could go down in history as, “that mad scientist that robbed a bank using radioactive gas.” Of course it would be a bluff.
Though if you’re just going to bluff your way through bank robbery, you can just stick your hand in a hoodie pocket for the same effect.
I suppose you could use it for other similar criminal acts of varied nobility. You could probably use the same bluff to create a hostage situation to bring awareness to whatever political/religious cause is your cup of tea. Ultimately most people are very ignorant of nuclear science, and simply the words “radioactive tritium” would cause people to shit themselves. And that fear could be harnessed for all sorts of malevolent purposes. (Even better as you can actually show people the faint glow from it, and prove that you do have something radioactive.)
Hmm… what else could you use tritium for? I suppose you could use it for religious purposes. Absolute quantities really don’t matter much for that.
What else? You could tie it to a keychain and be able to find your keys in a dark room.
But really, it’s mostly a novelty. I think small amounts of it can be used for gun sights. But in any quantity the average person could afford or legally be allowed to purchase, it’s a harmless novelty. Larger quantities can be used in fusion reactor experiments and nuclear weapons. But if you try to acquire that much, you better have a budget in the millions, and the NRC is going to be on your ass. The average person can get a small vial of it that faintly glows blue in a dark room. It looks cool embedded in jewelry, but it really doesn’t have much practical purposes beyond perhaps terrifying the ignorant. But I really don’t consider malevolent uses to be truly practical applications.
(In case it isn’t obvious, I do not endorse using radioactive tritium in the commission of any crime or act of violence or threat of violence.)
Lmao I love that this became a thought exercise on the nefarious uses of tritium. Thanks for the info! I’ll keep all of these in mind when trying to determine what to do with my newly acquired tritium. >=)
^^^ Umm, FBI, if you’re reading, it was all their idea! ^^^^
°_°
How many vials of tritium do I need until my bluff in the bank lobby is no longer an empty threat?
Umm, contact (202) 324-3000 and ask them. They’ll know for sure.
There was a TV show. Stephen Fry 100 greatest gadgets.
For 1 he told a story about how some guy was talking to a largely uncontacted tribe and they were really interested in their tech.
So he knew they would have a supply drop and took them out to see the plane for the first time ever. The tribe was remarkable unimpressed with the sight.
The guy asked what was up and they came back with the reply “You can make fire from your fingertips. Of course you can fly”
He named the lighter the number 1 gadget.
I suppose it really depends on your perspective. If you’re that uncontacted tribe, you see birds all the time. The idea of a creature being able to fly is pretty mundane. Humans can’t naturally fly like birds, but neither can they naturally wield knives as long and sharp as tiger claws. But flying is ultimately just duplicating something already found in nature.
But the ability to instantly and effortlessly summon fire? The closest thing in nature is the bombardier beetle, and that shoots boiling acid. Impressive, but it’s not true fire. There are no creatures in nature that can just summon fire on command. From a natural perspective, instantly creating fire is a lot more impressive than a flying machine.
A 1-terabyte MicroSD card
For under 100$ ?
Yeah, as low as $61 on Amazon for 1TB. Pretty amazing if you’re old like me and remember diskettes.
Those can’t be real
Most of the ones on Amazon aren’t trustworthy. Especially at high capacities. But apparently you can get up to 2TB now, at least in theory. I imagine the support for them is pretty limited though still.
Official “support” just means the biggest size they tested. The current SDXC standard has supported up to 2TB since the standard was released. Any device supporting SDXC should work just fine with a 2TB card even if they don’t specify it as officially supported (assuming they didn’t deliberately nerf their driver for some unfathomable reason).
In the uk I can get 1TB for 95gbp from sandisk website.
So probably less than 100 usd in usa from a reputable seller.
They’re sold as 1TB for that price. But if you actually write that much, you’ll find that only part of your data is there. The rest is garbled or zero.
There’s tools to restore this (on windows/linux), and it’ll show up as a smaller size when you run them. You can also use such tools to set any fake size you like
$61?!?!?
Bro. $12 at Microcenter.
Amazon is doing you dirty.
$12 for a 1TB MicroSD card? Are you living in the future? :P
I am now!
Yep https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-microSD-MicroSDXC-MB-MD1T0SA-AM/dp/B0CWPNS8JY $99.99 it shows for me - not sure how taxes work on this (I’m not American) but that probably counts.
A knife. Futuristic in that it will be handy for hunting and self-defense after the future collapse of civilization that results from our insatiable appetite for consumption - of, among other things, useless gadgets.
It’s interesting the difference in what people think a collapsed civilization will look like.
Some people think we will “return to monke” where wilderness survival skills will be essential and people who have them will be the “main characters.” That would probably be the easier and better future.
The more likely option will be technofeudalism where rich people have small, brutal armies and control localized power grids, farming operations, and politics with tech as mass migrations happen and wildlife becomes all but extinct outside of human cultivation. Survival skills won’t matter when all land and food scarcity is controlled by a rich few with absolute control. The average survivalist will be wiped out with the first natural disaster or by the feudal lords with drones. Return to nature might only come after 50 years when chip supplies and power grids have dried up and fallen apart, but it would just as likely be mad-max as oil could likely still be used.
Who knows. Fascism might take over with how it is going now and solve the climate crisis with mass genocide and forcing green energy for all we know.
I see you’ve read Yanis Varoufakis. In all realism though, a fallen society is most likely to be a result of climate change. First it gets too hot for Africans, so their only option is to move northward and eastward to the Middle East. This results in tightened borders and the death of many due to heatstroke and dehydration - I also don’t doubt a slave trade-like and human exploitation era might come about because of this. Increased demand for AC’s in the west will also be a byproduct of this. Melting ice caps will also increase the danger to many of those living in coastal regions - Florida probably sinks faster than we’d predicted.
All of this I project to happen within the next 50 years where the problems are left for Gen Z and further generations to deal with.
It’s more or less an inevitability at this point, regardless of what we do. Really we’re just trying to get corporations and countries to make changes so it will be Gen A’s (or the following generation’s) problem instead of Z.
Normalcy now has an unavoidable term limit. The question is if we’re going to shorten how long that timespan is by desperately holding onto normalcy now for as long as we can, or if we’re going to start making things harder, more challenging, and less normal sooner to make the transition less painful and give it a longer on-ramp.
Currently we seem to be choosing option A.
For what it’s worth, I’ve seen some friends take things a little more seriously when I’ve explained that currently we’re going to see abrupt and incredibly disruptive changes at the point in our (Gen Z and Millenials) lives when we’re at the age when we’ll be least able to tolerate the changes and most reliant on others. In 40-50 years, Z and M are going to be senior citizens at best. While we may be full of distracted, dopamine-seeking denial now, by the time shit really starts hitting the fan, we’re going to be extra weight on the generations struggling desperately to survive.
Don’t expect a happy retirement.
A full working computer, more powerful than what we used to go to the moon, and using less power than a light bulb.
It can take many forms, like smartphones, SBCs or older PCs/laptops.
By that logic, a lighter. Better than smashing two rocks together, that’s how we used to make fire.
One of those fancy plasma lighters, sure. But butane lighters have been around for decades
I once found a curved 4k monitor at my local thrift shop for $70.
lighters. fire on demand! for all of preindustrial human history these things would be worth more than gold
Bluetooth headphones/headset/earpiece. You too can look like Uhura from Star Trek by sticking a wireless speaker in your ear!
She is hearing always in mono. Maybe she lost one of them?
what is “futuristic” in this context?
A calculator is pretty futuristic depending on where you start
I was thinking of something that would be considered futuristic to an average person today. So, maybe something uncommon, with impressive capabilities, but still affordable?
Not sure if many items fit that criteria, but was curious if any!
Poop knife, it’s the future I tell ya!
Get one in damascus for really deluxe poop cutting experience!
A smartphone
What smartphones are you buying for under $100?
A stolen one
“previously owned”
Low end phones aren’t that bad, if you are willing to make some sacrifices, like an uglier screen, worse camera.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy A05
This would have to be some burner or 2nd/3rd phone cuz there’s a lot more than worse screen or worse camera. The only A series phone i would consider using would be the A54/55/73.
Well no shit it’s not great.
It’s still pretty damn impressive that you can buy smartphones for that cheap at all.
… So am I the only one that whenever I want a new phone, I just look for highest rated phone under 100 dollars? Been doing that for years, generally it’s just always just like top of the line models from 3-4 years ago.
Been doing it for years and I’ve never really had any complaint with my phones.
How often do you buy phones?
I’ve had maybe 3 phones in last 10 years?
I normally check whatever was the flagship 2-3 years ago and buy it refurbished.
Not a bad strat!
£76.77
A 1TB micro SD card
