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What is the most useless vintage computing item?

Stone said:
Have you actually done that? What program did you use? I didn't think it was possible. I'm curious even though I'd never do it since I have hundreds of new 1.2M disks.
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Of course it's possible, and then we'll have a 40 or 50 posts long thread about aligning or replacing disk drives, 1.2HD vs. 360KDD formats/densities/parameters etc. etc. with a few gratuitous M$ knocks thrown in when someone tries to read that disk.
 
Ole Juul said:
...should we disable auto repeat on half the characters because it's wasting resources? lol
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Sounds like we could remove all the function and control keys and most of the punctuation keys and most people wouldn't miss them unless/until their mouse broke.[/QUOTE]
 
Yeah, well for us losers with injured wrist and hands, it's a real pain in the tuckus to get a string of UUUUU if you have your finger on a key too long.
MikeS postulated
Sounds like we could remove all the function and control keys and most of the punctuation keys and most people wouldn't miss them unless/until their mouse broke
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I doubt most people would miss them then. Developing software occasionally entails the most unpleasant activities of watching what users do. Time and time again I see people clicking their way through real basic stuff like copy and paste. When, in the interest of time, I point out that they can use the keyboard to get it done a lot faster, I usually get this blank look I now understand means "But then I'm not clicking and dragging. Typing is sooo passé"
I've learned to keep my mouth shut when I watch them task switch without using alt-tab.

Chuck(G) pondered
Would an ISA SASI (not SCSI) adapter fall into the "useless" category?
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Wouldn't be useless to me, I didn't even know such a beast existed. I imagine Atari folks would be intrigued as well.
patscc
 
patscc said:
Yeah, well for us losers with injured wrist and hands, it's a real pain in the tuckus to get a string of UUUUU if you have your finger on a key too long.
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Some of my friends with MS use a plastic template with holes above the keys. That way one can hit a key with the end of a pen tied to one's hand and only hit one key at a time. Very handy and it really improves the aim. However the repeat can be a real killer for someone like that who cannot necessarily let go within a second or five. To overcome that (In the days of DOS) I used to install a program called ONEKEY which turns off repeats. Anyway, you are probably luckier than them. I just thought this was a place to mention that wonderful (for some) little utility. It even works with WordPerfect.

The more we continue this thread, the more it becomes obvious to me that uselessness is very personal, and even temporary. I used to tear off all the plastic bits like the front of 5150s because I saw no practical use for them and I'm not a fan of plastic bits. I'm still not, but now I prefer my 5150s to be stock. Go figure. :)
 
It's a great place to mention ONEKEY.
Hey, I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. It was touch-and-go with one for a while.
And you're right about it being personal, but I think there's a certain lure to stuff like this.
Worst smell ever: Pulp mill with to much softwood in the mix.
Worst TV show ever: Survivor
Worst pres ever...let's keep it nice,and non political.
Worst...
patscc
 
Bungo Pony said:
After giving this one some thought, I've finally figured out what has become truly useless (at least in my world) of vintage computing.... Double sided high density 5 1/4" floppies. I have absolutely no use for them. If the computer is new enough to have 1.2M floppies, why not use the 3.5" 1.4M floppies? Besides, if I REALLY wanted a 1.2M 5 1/4" floppy, I'd just format a double sided double density one. I have tons of those, and I need every single one of them since they work in my Commodore and Apple drives.
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I used a few 5.25" HD floppies back in the day and still have most of them, but while I stock 5.25" DD disks I don't stock blanks for HD (ofcourse I have HD and DD for 3.5").
 
How about the punch (mine was milled steel and heavy) that made the little square holes in the 720 KB 3.5" floppies and magically gave you a 1.44. That thing cost over $20 at the time and you could have done the same thing with a drill press. I suppose the drill press would have been difficult to toss in your briefcase. I still have a few of those old disks and they still work in spite of the tech articles that said it was a bad idea. Don't know what ever became of the punch.
 
Agent Orange said:
How about the punch (mine was milled steel and heavy) that made the little square holes in the 720 KB 3.5" floppies and magically gave you a 1.44. That thing cost over $20 at the time and you could have done the same thing with a drill press. I suppose the drill press would have been difficult to toss in your briefcase. I still have a few of those old disks and they still work in spite of the tech articles that said it was a bad idea. Don't know what ever became of the punch.
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They are selling for insane amount on eBay. At least the 5 1/4" variety is!
 
Shadow Lord said:
They are selling for insane amount on eBay. At least the 5 1/4" variety is!
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In the beginning when DSHD 3.5" floppies were about $50 a box at Fry's, I'd do the hole thing--but I'd just stack a bunch on the drill press and drill a 1/8" hole through the lot. Lots faster than punching.
 
What about mouse.com? Is there any situation where ctmouse isn't a better alternative? And DOS4GW should be replaced with DOS32/a anywhere you find it.


For hardware, this is probably pretty useless, since no one can figure out exactly what it is.
 
Shadow Lord said:
Selling, with intense bidding. I've seen them start at 0.99 and go for $36 + S&H...
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Makes me happy I snagged one on ebay years ago for a couple bucks. I swear the early 2000's were a gold mine for cheap old computer stuff nobody wanted (and shipping was cheaper too).
 
Ebackhus said:
I have one of the old 5 1/4/ 3.5" combo drives. I've never used it in any systems I own but I can't seem to get rid of it either.
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What? Those are great! Specially if you are short on drive bays. I own a couple and use them in system w/ XP and below.
 
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