There is some cool stuff in the obsolete tech thread, but what are you seriously glad to see the back of? Stuff that really is obsolete, that in hindsight made life harder or is really ugly compared to shiny new things. Here are my choices, for what it's worth:

First generation electric kettles. Ugly lumps of white plastic, kettle on a stove is so much nicer. Don't have a gas stove anymore, though, so got a cool see-through kettle that glows blue. Making making a cup of tea ever-so-slightly slightly funkier, at a kitchen near you.

Par cans. Great heavy fragile light bulbs, with heat and waste, and stands that weigh a ton. Can't pack them away 'til they cool, coloured gels get grotty and do the same disappearing act as socks when you need them. Lightweight low voltage programmable LED lighting banks are an absolute godsend to travelling musicians, one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Manual lawnmowers, 'nuff said. Life is far too short and harsh anyway to ever get that tired when electricity and petrol motors exist.

Yours? And what loveliness have you replaced your eyesores and junk with?

I replaced my Windows computer with a Mac.

I think cars, for me. A lot of people remember their early cars with fondness, they had personality and engines that could be tinkered with for those so inclined. Thing is, they had too much personality and engines that often needed tinkering with if the buggers were to start. And then you'd wrestle with the manual choke, flood it and regardless of what you did, resign yourself to trying again in 15 minutes' time. Or more.

No, give me today's cars without their "Prince of Darkness" Lucas electrics, thanks, and that have enough power that you don't have to worry about whether they'll go uphill with two people in the back.

Two things that I'd like to see consigned to history.

I'd like DRM to be consigned to history.

That and "energy saving lightbulbs" useless things could barely light up dogs kennel.

Oh heavens yes. We've just had new 'energy' saving lightbulbs, they are rubbish terrible, horrible, gastly. Girlfriend actually went online and ordered some non-energy saving ones.

Boybands.

Do we need to have a session where you can adequately rant about this?

I use energy saving light bulbs and I like 'em, Paying $150.00 Electric bill while my neighbors are paying like $500-$1000 puts a smile on my face everytime .

It's weird that incandescent bulbs are now considered contraband. In order to have the same level of light as before we've been buying halogen lights, but since most are directional we need several of them on the go and consequently use twice as much energy as before. I also wonder how many of these lovely mercury-containing "green" bulbs end up in landfill as people toss the bloody useless things in the general rubbish?

New washing machines, too, with the compulsory water-saving features. Now we have to run it twice, the second time to properly rinse the clothes so that we don't spend all day itching, and the lack of water and concentrated suds seems to be blocking the drains. And toilets with six-litre flushes that need to be flushed two or three times to have the same effect as the old tried-and-tested nine-litre flushes.

LED lights are the way to go.

I like them, but they're pricey, and the last ones I bought (halogen fittings) all developed faults within a few weeks, which was quite annoying... I sometimes think at this rate we'll be going back to using candles and oil lamps.

durable consumer goods..




thank gawd we have all these wonderfully nifty disposable consumer goods that I can happily replace every year due to my brainwashed fanatic love-filled affection for brandname products...

oooh lookit, I'm hemorrhaging cranial fluids from my ears again.

Those cardboard cartons milk from supermarkets used to come in.

Mythbusters did an experiment on those and although pricy at the store, they make up for it via electic bill. I'll have to invest in a couple of LED lights the next time I change my bulbs .

Oh you...

Reduced sugar cereals also. I'm eating it because I need the extra sugar on top of the fibre.

Please cereal manufacturer's. Stop assuming that I give a crap about lifestyle magazines and their branded diets and want to be a skinny rake to be advertised at. I'm a guy. And I am hungry! Leave the sugar and salt alone!

Physical storage mediums for software.

I have my electricity bill to pay, and soon. God knows what it would be without low energy bulbs, and the amazing ability of children, who are incapable of turning lights off, to turn them all on.

I think our combined bill just went up to ￡190 a month. I need to change to a different supplier. Good customer service seems to have been pretty well consigned to history...

On the contrary, I'm glad to be rid of incandescent bulbs. No more dead filaments or hot bulbs to deal with, and I prefer the pure white glow as opposed to that yellow glow.