What's a technology that was cooler in its older iterations?

Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 448 points –

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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Interchangeable automotive/bicycle parts.

Or for that matter, interchangeable anything parts.

Both cooler and better at the same time. Interchangeable parts made it easier to both customize and repair your own stuff..

I love that Replaceable Parts is a technology you can research in Civilization. The first time I saw it I thought it was kinda stupid until I thought "Oh wait, does that mean that there was a time when replacement parts just wasn't a thing?"

Used to be where Mongoose, Huffy, Schwinn, etc bearings and stuff were interchangeable. Used to be where NVidia GPUs could run in an AMD motherboard. I happen to own older things on both ends of that compatible spectrum.

Used to be where an Idle Air Control Valve from a Chevy would fit an Isuzu...

Used to be where NVidia GPUs could run in an AMD motherboard.

They still can.

Oof, wait. I mean when AMD processors were actually compatible with nVidia motherboards.

A8N-SLI Deluxe

But that's not a thing for intel CPUs either, at least not anymore.

I'm not sure why, but Nvidia hasn't been making chipsets/motherboard sfor quite a while. Or was there a point in time when it only made chipsets for intel CPUs?

Used to be where NVidia GPUs could run in an AMD motherboard. I happen to own older things on both ends of that compatible spectrum.

I don't know what you mean by that. The protocol for communication of computer parts is open source. Desktop computers are a great example of interchangeable parts. An Nvidia GPU that can't run in an AMD motherboard is either not from the same era (so an equivalent AMD GPU wouldn't work either) or a different form factor (e.g. trying to plug a laptop GPU on a Desktop)

The protocol of communication of computer parts is open source? Since when?

What the fuck is USB? And why is that proprietary?

Regardless, AMD vs nVidia might work together, but not optimally these days.

The protocol of communication of computer parts is open source? Since when?

Since forever, which protocol do you think it's not? For a few examples here's PCI and DDR5

What the fuck is USB? And why is that proprietary?

USB is a standardized connector, with again an open source protocol. Here's the specification in case you're interested https://www.usb.org/document-library/usb-20-specification

Regardless, AMD vs nVidia might work together, but not optimally these days.

I would need a source for that, I've had AMD +Nvidia up until very recently and it worked as expected.

USB is absolutely not a standardized connector, otherwise it would only be one type of connector, not the dozen or so they've made over the decades. There's nothing universal about it.

And if it was open source, then why doesn't VirtualBox release the source code for their USB extension package?

USB is absolutely not a standardized connector,

USB is absolutely standardized, I even sent you the 2.0 spec, you can get the spec for the other versions on the same website.

otherwise it would only be one type of connector, not the dozen or so they've made over the decades.

Different versions/connectors have different specs, all of them open, otherwise different manufacturers wouldn't be able to create devices that use it.

There's nothing universal about it.

That's ridiculous, first of all the name relates to the fact that it can be used for any data transfer as long as it's serial. Secondly the sheer amount of different devices from different manufacturers that can be plugged via USB should give you a hint of just how universal and open the standard is.

And if it was open source, then why doesn't VirtualBox release the source code for their USB extension package?

The standard is open, implementations of it are not, it's like OpenGL or Vulkan.

USB 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, A, B, C connectors, large and small.

Not even counting the various charging rates and voltages..

So? What's your point? All of those are open specifications.

Next you'll tell me that Linux is not open source because Debian, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, Slackware, X32, X64 architectures, server and home versions. Not even counting the various distros derived from any of them nor the different kernel versions.

Regardless, AMD vs nVidia might work together, but not optimally these days.

And yet most of the time in the past 2 year the best choice for a gaming PC would be a 3D cache Ryzen with an Nvidia GPU. Is there something particular you have in mind that supposedly doesn't work with an AMD chipset and an Nvidia GPU?

PCI-Express is not an open standard but both AMD and Nvidia are members and it's what both use for their GPUs and AMD for it's chipsets (as well as Intel). It's certainly not a secret cabal.

The concept of having interchangeable, standardized parts is actually kind of a new idea from the Industrial Revolution. Before then, everything was custom-made to fit. The example that comes to mind is firearms. All of the muskets and rifles used in the revolutionary war, for example, were hand-made and hand-fitted. The lock from one rifle wouldn’t necessarily fit on another. If your stock broke, you couldn’t just go get a new stock and slap it on - you had to bust out the woodworking tools and make a new one.