What's the oldest piece of technology you use everyday?

[Caspar]

I have a lamp which is also a globe with a map of the world from back when the Soviet Union still existed. I got it from my great grandmother who was a teacher. It's from the 70's, I believe. I use it as my night light since its light is relatively faint.

 

[Ross_Я]

New day - new retro tech problems...
So, thing is, I bought myself a Namco NegCon about a year ago or so. It was a bargain, I checked it on a seller's PS1 to see that everything works and then laid said controller aside. It might sound unbelieveable, but I do not play games as often as I want to, so, yeah, it just laid around for a year. I finally decided to try it with WipeOut 3 on a DuckStation emulator today and... I failed. Miserably. Turns out neither of my PS to USB adapters work with NegCon for whatever reason.
The adapters I have are funky, granted. Both are modern chinese cheap no-branders - one is translucent blue with two inputs which supports my Wu-Tang PS1 gamepad and the other is simple black short single PS to USB which works fine with my PS2 gamepads. Do note that they do not work the other way - translucent blue doesn't work with PS2 pads and simple short black one doesn't support Wu-Tang pad. I do not know why, but I was still dead sure that out of these two at least one will work with NegCon.
Well, fuck.
Looks like my best bet now is to find a vintage RadioShack adapter which, apparently, works with NegCon. Either that or pray to God that these guys will have a re-stock one day:

raphnet. - PS1/PS2 controller to USB adapter

An USB adapter for Playstation 1 and 2 controllers, featuring low latency, multitap and memory card support.

www.raphnet-tech.com

Frankly, if they will have a re-stock I'll likely buy one off them either way - it looks like a piece of tech I have to have.
Need I to say that I still have huge troubles buying anything from overseas since I am russian? Darn it.
All of it are minor nuisances, of course, but nuisances nontheless... I love old tech, I just want to use it like it's 1999 again. And sometimes it feels like the whole universe is against it.
In a world arguably made to make the life as comfortable as possible, I, quite frankly, often feel myself rather uncomfortable...
More news at whenever I'll get myself one of those adapters.

 

[containercore]

New day - new retro tech problems...
So, thing is, I bought myself a Namco NegCon about a year ago or so. It was a bargain, I checked it on a seller's PS1 to see that everything works and then laid said controller aside. It might sound unbelieveable, but I do not play games as often as I want to, so, yeah, it just laid around for a year. I finally decided to try it with WipeOut 3 on a DuckStation emulator today and... I failed. Miserably. Turns out neither of my PS to USB adapters work with NegCon for whatever reason.
The adapters I have are funky, granted. Both are modern chinese cheap no-branders - one is translucent blue with two inputs which supports my Wu-Tang PS1 gamepad and the other is simple black short single PS to USB which works fine with my PS2 gamepads. Do note that they do not work the other way - translucent blue doesn't work with PS2 pads and simple short black one doesn't support Wu-Tang pad. I do not know why, but I was still dead sure that out of these two at least one will work with NegCon.
Well, fuck.
Looks like my best bet now is to find a vintage RadioShack adapter which, apparently, works with NegCon. Either that or pray to God that these guys will have a re-stock one day:

raphnet. - PS1/PS2 controller to USB adapter

An USB adapter for Playstation 1 and 2 controllers, featuring low latency, multitap and memory card support.

www.raphnet-tech.com

Frankly, if they will have a re-stock I'll likely buy one off them either way - it looks like a piece of tech I have to have.
Need I to say that I still have huge troubles buying anything from overseas since I am russian? Darn it.
All of it are minor nuisances, of course, but nuisances nontheless... I love old tech, I just want to use it like it's 1999 again. And sometimes it feels like the whole universe is against it.
In a world arguably made to make the life as comfortable as possible, I, quite frankly, often feel myself rather uncomfortable...
More news at whenever I'll get myself one of those adapters.

Was always curious about the NeGCon because the Wipeout series supported it and may have been designed with it in mind. Very interesting design.

 

[containercore]

This counts as technology right? OP didn't say electronics so I think I'm good.

I use a Tru-Point "Model D" lead pointer (which is what a pencil sharpener for 2mm mechanical pencils is called). This is truly one of those relics of a bygone world. A more real world, where things were built with permanence in mind. Quality like this, it just can't be had anymore, it could only be found up until the middle of the 20th century.

The deluxe version has an adjustable feed that determines the taper of the point. The Tru-Point company licensed this pointer to a number of different drafting supply companies over the decades, the red one was made for the Frederick-Post company which later merged with Teledyne to become Teledyne-Post in 1970. So the red one is from some time in the 60s and the blue one from the early 70s. The metal feed will cut an ugly groove into an aluminum leadholder, so the plastic feed is preferred and that's why I own two. Unfortunately the lid is all plastic on the blue one, whereas on the left it's die-cast. Up until the late 70s/early 80s the body of the pointer itself was made of cast iron, but they replaced it with a plastic design that had a steel weight in the foot. The early 70s Teledyne-Post version of the Model-D pointer is without a doubt the greatest pencil sharpener ever made.

It works by rotating the pencil round and round this changeable cup lined with sandpaper. It's kind of jank in action honestly, but it works somehow. The result speaks for itself

The Tru-Point company folded in 2007 so the replacement cups have become very expensive. Only available from people sitting on old inventory. I'm wondering if I should take the measurements of the cups and have a 3D model made so that a replacement could be 3D printed and lined with 220 grit sandpaper.

It was worth tracking this thing down because there literally is not a pencil sharpener out there that let's you set the taper in the way this patent from like 1949 does. There's all kinds of luxury pencil sharpeners out there yet not one is capable of a point like this.

 

[Lamp Fool]

I have a Brother AX-28 electric typewriter/word processor, probably from the late 80s or early 90s. Instead of ink it uses heat to stamp a black substance off a plastic cassette tape onto the paper. They occupy an awkward middle period between old mechanical typewriters and the widespread adoption of PC printers. Surprisingly, you can still buy ribbon cassettes for them, without which they would be totally useless. I use it to make shopping lists, mostly.

It prints crisper than a mechanical typewriter, since it doesn't use liquid ink. It has a memory so you can save and edit documents, and then re-type them automatically, which can be pretty convenient. Also I just like to hear it go whrrrrrrwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwak

 

[Ross_Я]

Well, I got some troubles with my oldies...
I've noticed that the wire on my TDS-6 headphones can actually be pulled out a little. And if you pull it out, the left ear stops working. You can push it back in and then it starts working again, but... it's definitely wrong. As much as I do not want to disassmeble them, it seems like it is the only right way to go. Needless to say, I'm rather anxious about that - I know how to solder and what not, but I definitely do not have nearly enough practice to feel myself comfortable.
The battery on my N-Gage... shrinked a little? That's the first time I see such a thing - usually the batteries just expand from old age, but this one definitely shrinked a little. I can tell, because the phone started to power itself off after a good shake, And I fixed that by sticking a tip of a toothpick between the battery and the body of a phone. Works fine as a temporary fix. I need a new battery, it seems. Though, perhaps, it can also be a spring problem? Those connectors that touch the battery, I mean - they are basically springs and it might become a bit, uh... soft from the old age. Still, I'd rather order a new battery first. After all, a spare one wouldn't hurt me. And, in the end of the day, a piece of a toothpick is a solid fix in this case, so it's not a big thing in any way, just a minor problem.
As for my NegCon, I'm still awaiting for the converter to come. It's gonna take a while. Meanwhile, I locally bought a converter that supposedly allows you to connect NegCon to XBox 360, but I haven't had time to test that yet. I hope it works, would be very interesting to try NegCon with Forza Motorsport - online videos assure me that it is possible.
As I managed to make my camera work with my capture card again, it is about time to launch my old disc players again, and I kind of dread that day... Those things are never plug and play. Especially the vinyl player. It is a belt-driven one, and every time I launch it - there is some new trouble with it. And even if there are no troubles, I still have to spend about an hour to set the speed as close to correct one as humanly possible. Boy, I hate vinyls.
Finally, I'm thinking about acquiring an old disco lights system. I do not want no LEDs, so it seems the best option to aim for is the soviet one from the 80's - that would cheap, relatively reliable, relatively easy to fix and retro. We'll see where this desire of mine will go...

 

[Captain]

This counts as technology right? OP didn't say electronics so I think I'm good.

I use a Tru-Point "Model D" lead pointer (which is what a pencil sharpener for 2mm mechanical pencils is called). This is truly one of those relics of a bygone world. A more real world, where things were built with permanence in mind. Quality like this, it just can't be had anymore, it could only be found up until the middle of the 20th century.

The deluxe version has an adjustable feed that determines the taper of the point. The Tru-Point company licensed this pointer to a number of different drafting supply companies over the decades, the red one was made for the Frederick-Post company which later merged with Teledyne to become Teledyne-Post in 1970. So the red one is from some time in the 60s and the blue one from the early 70s. The metal feed will cut an ugly groove into an aluminum leadholder, so the plastic feed is preferred and that's why I own two. Unfortunately the lid is all plastic on the blue one, whereas on the left it's die-cast. Up until the late 70s/early 80s the body of the pointer itself was made of cast iron, but they replaced it with a plastic design that had a steel weight in the foot. The early 70s Teledyne-Post version of the Model-D pointer is without a doubt the greatest pencil sharpener ever made.

It works by rotating the pencil round and round this changeable cup lined with sandpaper. It's kind of jank in action honestly, but it works somehow. The result speaks for itself

The Tru-Point company folded in 2007 so the replacement cups have become very expensive. Only available from people sitting on old inventory. I'm wondering if I should take the measurements of the cups and have a 3D model made so that a replacement could be 3D printed and lined with 220 grit sandpaper.

It was worth tracking this thing down because there literally is not a pencil sharpener out there that let's you set the taper in the way this patent from like 1949 does. There's all kinds of luxury pencil sharpeners out there yet not one is capable of a point like this.

Dude! I had those things in drafting class in the 90's. I forgot all about them. I loved those things. It's a shame they don't still make them........it's a shame pencils are dying lol