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Marc Clifton wrote: RS232
Maybe the main loss of most modern PCs : the RS232 connector.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Preaching to choir, USB-RS232 can be awkward at times (i.e. "Well that blew up, was it the Device or the driver?) 
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Here we still have old W2000 PCs only for flashing SW on the microcontrollers, because they have a native RS232 port.
Yes, there are cards out there, yes, there are usb converters, but these definitely add a level of awkwardness, so our good'ol' machines still are the best solution.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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At home I have a Win2000 box with a parallel port for just sort of thing. The PCI to RS-232 cards are 'dodgy' you can't be sure they will work as quickly as one on the motherboard. Parallel ports are another one of those use things that have gone. 
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Ha, I once took a tech support call from a guy at NASA. On his new Pentium 166Mhz computer, he had hooked up an oscilloscope to confirm that the signal to the parallel port was delayed compared to his old computer. 
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Mmm, dangerous, feel like I ought to site a Dilbert comic but can't be bothered. The delay in getting the port to respond is a vital thing for real time systems (bet you he wasn't running 95, some roll your own Linux thing)
mind you if he was calling Tech support for it, what an earth were you to do ? 
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Yeah, I responded that it was outside the specs of the basic business computers that we sold. At the time, I didn't think much about it, but it probably had to do with the increased bus speed of the motherboard and the more complicated controller for all the ports. It was one of the first systems with USB.
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It was a handy little friend, for so many reasons.
I think I miss the old parallel connector as well - there were so many things you could do with it.
But not floppy drives.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Floppy drives are good for one thing a good motor! really I don't miss them as they were so small. You couldn't really fit much more than one Word doc if you were lucky.
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Aye: but it's cheaper to buy the motor than the drive!
glennPattonWork wrote: You couldn't really fit much more than one Word doc if you were lucky.
In the days when the floppy was king, you fitted your whole operating system on it, plus the apps, and (if you were seriously unlucky) you data files as well! 1.44Mb was a lot of space, once. (The first HDD I bought was 32MB, and it cost 4 times what I recently paid for a 4TB USB3.0 drive! Even more if you translate the cost into "modern money" - beer was under £1 a pint in those days, and so was a gallon of unleaded)
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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OriginalGriff wrote: beer was under £1 a pint in those days, and so was a gallon of unleaded
I for one preferred a beer.
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I preferred both, but not in the same glass.
I used one to get me to the other! 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Shirley you meant to write
Nagy Vilmos wrote: I for one preferred a gin. beer
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A gallon of unleaded for less £1?, 4* surely?
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Nope. When I first started riding motorcycles, fuel was 39p a gallon - and I could fill my tank and get drunk for under a fiver. Mostly because I could get drunk on very little alcohol - I hadn't built up the tolerance I developed in later years! 
Hang on - I see what you mean. 4* - probably was in those days, yes. I remember buying 4* in preference to unleaded because it made the engine a little more powerful (and in those days every 1/2 mph counted!)
I assumed you meant "four times" as a rough conversion of litres / gallons 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Yup I meant 4 star, just trying to be hipster on the keyboard!...
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IIRC beer was around 70p/pint when I first started going to the pub aged 18 in honestlyofficeritwasmybirthdayjustlastmonthIwasborn18yearsagohonest. I would go to the pub with £2 and often get laruped. This was not, as some may think, after two pints but more often 4-5. It was a buggerement that the guy I worked for also drank in the same pub and thought it funny to see how badly my head hurt the next day.
I would never condone operating a cement mixer with a hangover.
[edit]
This[^] is the b'tard! I'd recognise him anywhere!
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Never tried to operate a cement mixed hungover, I had difficulty focussing on the loo I had my head down, mostly.
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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It was not funny. Nor was hitting ladders with a hod on each shoulder when I could barely stand up.
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Hod on each shoulder ? No way
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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You doubt me? 10 bricks a hod, one on each shoulder, ladder at the right angle that you can climb without using your hands. I believe this behaviour is now shunned under elf n safety.
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Jesus, in my short building career I really struggled carrying one of them, it wasn't the weight so much but the hod rubbing on my collar bone and the shaft chafing the inside of my arm, I was obviously carrying it wrongly. Kudos to you carrying two.
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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I never said it didn't hurt!
I was at college at the time and I laboured in the holidays and sometimes at weekends. The guy paid me based on how much work he did. He could lay bricks as fast as I could get them to him, so my day was 8 hours of mixing muck and carrying bricks. Fittest I have ever been!
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Ditto ( I was at college ) and I'd not long broken my collarbone so all in all not a very wise choice of jobs - good fun though "proper work" not messing about with bits and bytes.
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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