What old school technical glitch/snafu/mess up used to crack you up?
Posted by debrisaway@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 39 comments
Before technology became relatively foolproof as it is today. In the wild west of digital technology in the 90s.
Like when landline cordless phones used to cross with your neighbors in close quarters (apartments, townhouses, dorms) and you would hear their calls.
Getting an electronic call from a modem or fax and hearing the garbled screechy sound.
When the visual adult content scrambler on cable channels used to drop, exposing all.
Tricking the satellite boxes to get free boxing and wrestling PPVs.
Your transistor radio picking up chatter from truckers, emergency services and other hobbyists.
emax4@reddit
Before we had grounded outlets, I remember my Dad shaving and using the cord or my mom running the vacuum, and the TV would show static lines over the broadcast.
More_Law6245@reddit
The jamming of the fax paper in the fax machine, the paper scroll ones. What I find really amusing is that they still use fax machines within the health industry.
I recently tried to roll out a multifunction (a business printer) enterprise solution at a hospital and anyone would have thought it was a show down at the O.K. corral, despite the fact that it was being turned into a digital hospital. Go figure.
Poultrygeist74@reddit
Russian woodpecker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar?wprov=sfti1#
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
And this affected you how?
Poultrygeist74@reddit
Heard it on short wave radio
WinnerAwkward480@reddit
Use an electronic garage opener, and watching a neighbors garage door opening or closing. Sometimes we would drive around the neighborhood pressing the open button .
dreaminginteal@reddit
Cleaning mouse balls.
Or replacing them-- https://www.thenextbigwriter.com/forums/topic3272-ibm-memo-on-replacing-mouse-balls.html
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
The satisfaction of getting the tiny reels of matted lint off the sensor/rollers inside the ball retainer! đ
MaximumJones@reddit
Mice needed clean balls back then.
runjeanmc@reddit
I miss cleaning those little guys!
StrictFinance2177@reddit
Walkie talkies. Picking up neighbors phone conversations.
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
Same! Was yours on a party line too?
SnooBooks007@reddit
Vertical hold.
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
Ooo! And the degaussing button! Pwoooom!
tanhauser_gates_@reddit
BSOD
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
That still happens though, doesnât it?
doublebr13@reddit
Worked at a convenience store when the free bottle of Pepsi promotion under the cap was in place. You could see the winners by tilting the bottle and looking under cap.
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
Ah simpler more innocent days. đ
Substantial-Wolf-883@reddit
I'll never forget this...
When I started hearing a neighbor's voice talking through the baby monitor about a double homicide on the corner and all the cops that were there.
He was on a cell or cordless call to someone else...I don't recall being able to hear them, but I'm not sure. Wife and I just looked at each other...then I went out front and could see all the flashing lights up the road.
2 people got murdered in a drug deal gone bad. Thankfully their 2 toddlers were not.
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
Holy crap. đł
CK_CoffeeCat@reddit
The kidâs toy walkie-talkies I had in the early 80s were able to pick up half of any conversations happening on the rural party phone line when pointed at the lines going to a house. Only the side happening in that house.
And in high school when we got a âMac Labâ with Mac Plusses that ran off floppy (no HD, just floppy for the whole OS and MS Word), we discovered that the âinfoâ for the Desktop file had a space that you could write in. We wrote things in the info boxes (coded messages, random bs about taking over the world, threatening each other with fireballs, standard teen crap lol) and basically passed notes without paper (or texted each other before texting existed, however you want to look at it. đ)
Badger242@reddit
In the 90âs I bought a 70âs vintage stereo and speakers at a yard sale. When I got it set up it would randomly start picking up police radio signals, even when it was off. First time it happened I was home alone and it freaked me out.
LassieDear@reddit
Oh good it wasnât just me
cgoldberg@reddit
making my little brother stand behind the TV holding the coat hanger antenna
LassieDear@reddit
My computer speakers in the mid 90s used to pick up police radio somehow
Ahodrian123@reddit
The instructional science films in class that had the rabid piece of dust or debris that spazzed across the lens seeming to attack things.
BrittaUnfiltered67@reddit
I had a little black and white tv that could pick up the neighbor playing video games and sometimes their cable.
MaximumJones@reddit
When HBO first came out, all you needed to do in order to get it free was unscrew the little scrambler from the main cable conduit.
dreaminginteal@reddit
There were also tricks with pressing multiple channel buttons at once on the boxes that had buttons. Or putting the slider in between detents on the boxes that had a slider.
GooseberryPotato@reddit
Letâs seeâŚ
I miss my cable cheater box.
I also remember paying the cable guy $50 to mark me as disconnected and not actually disconnecting me
I remember changing the font on the schoolâs computer labâs Apple 2es when I didnât want to do anything for a week or so.
I miss the chaos of an old fashioned reply all bun fight when the whole company would be included. It would always start as something stupid⌠âBracelet found in the parking lotâ meant for one location. and devolve into chaos from there.
debrisaway@reddit (OP)
You little devil
False-Storm-5794@reddit
The, "don't reply all," spam wars were so fun to watch!
BottleAgreeable7981@reddit
At the local mall's arcade, there was a game where the powder coating on the panel on the coin slots had been worn off.
You could take a quarter and tap the worn spot with it as you drug your sneaker against the carpet and the resulting minor static charge would give you a free credit.
We definitely took advantage of this.
runjeanmc@reddit
Not quite in the vein of what you're asking, but I remember a time I thought "dicks dot com" would take me to the sporting goods store website. It took me to a lot of dicks. At work. Right as the boss came up behind me. Just me, the boss, a client, and a bunch of dicks, popping up left and right đŹ
BrewCrewBall@reddit
I used to pick up my neighborsâ cordless phone calls on the âshortwaveâ radio on my boombox. I learned she was pregnant before her boyfriend did đ˛
La_Mano_Cornuta@reddit
Pringles can antennas
Sufficient_Stop8381@reddit
My neighborâs cordless phone would cross with our baby monitor and sheâd spend hours during the day while he was at work talking to her friend just dragging her husband into the ground.
Hib3rnian@reddit
Someone picking up the phone and dialing while the modem is running and crashing out your multi-player session.
littleoctagon@reddit
Not an electrician but had a roommate with a brother that modded cable boxes. I can remember watching The Fifth Element so many times (jumping in whenever on various PPVs) and then also getting to watch Tyson bite Evander's ear off. Good times.