Spyke
lemmy.blahaj.zone

The 3.5mm audio jack. It's so fundamentally simplistic from a manufacturing standpoint and circuitry standpoint that any headset you throw at it will work identically without fail (the key innovation being the speakers or headphones where the analog signal is sent to).

106
oryginreply
piefed.social

I disagree. The connector is fragile, subject to dust, contacts can wear out and audio quality suffers. Faulty connection means you have to twist it the correct way to have audio. Tug on your cable the wrong way and the connector on your phone is broken. Multiple standards for pinout for microphone and stereo. May cause shorts because every ring touches when plugging in. Disconnects too easily if the connector is fatigued, no locking mechanism.
At this point it would be better to reserve a few pins on a USB C connector to pass audio data. But not sure if analog can transmit fine with all the serial cables around it.

7

Yes, and there are examples of headphones that do so, but it puts a lot of strain on the USB-C connector (and the audio quality is reliant on the phone's internal DAC, which can suck).

4

Wow, things really haven't changed all that much, haha. Pretty sure you can get essentially that exact same design at outdoor stores.

8

Ones today would be mass produced from cheap materials though

4
lemmy.ca

The Bic pen. Sure, you can make it better, but then the price has to go up. You can still buy a nearly unchanged Bic pen from any office store for cheaper than any other writing tool, nearly identical to what they looked like when they were first invented.

62
over_cloxreply
lemmy.world

I'll add Bic lighter to this list too.

What else does Bic make? 🤔

28
lemmy.world

I was curious too so I looked it up.

Pens. Lighters. And razors for shaving. Mostly the single use ones.

But also

BIC has drawn criticism for maintaining its business operations in Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

:C

23

But did they stop selling in the USA after e.g. the invasion of Grenada and Iraq and civilian bombing of Yugoslavia?

And obvious question is whether they still do business with the Zionazis...

3
HouseWolfreply
pawb.social

I'll see your Bic and raise you Zippo!

Just got my first one a while back, I bought it 2nd hand and it's 7 years older than me and works better than any lighters I've borrowed off people over the years.

Replacement parts and even completely new lighter inserts still fit the original cases from the 1940s until now. And if something does break beyond you ability to repair, They got a lifetime warranty with no proof of purchase needed!

11

I had a chrome Zippo XIV, one of the models you just don't fuck with.

I loaned it out one day to light fireworks. Somehow they overheated and ruined the flint wheel..

Anyways, if I catch you swapping Zippo parts, I'm gonna melt Frosty the Snowman..

6

I have a zippo, I like that it's easy to pour in liquid fuel and they are somewhat wind resistant but the fuel does evaporate away over time. I keep it in a plastic bag which does slow the rate of fuel evaporation though.

Not sure what cheaper fuels could work well in it, that would reduce the cost of fuel that just evaporates then and I don't use it that often so I suspect more is lost to evaporation than usage.

4
lemmy.world

Microwave oven. It sort of just...appeared, and the design didn't change much.

51
lemmy.world

In my Flat we still have a microwave that does not have a rotating plate. Insteadt it has a spinning rotor in the roof that deflects the waves in order to cook food evenly. It works well but it is needlessly complicated compared to modern microwaves.

21
lemmy.world

Most microwaves have a spinning wave stirrer in addition to the rotating plate. From the description here, it just sounds like either your plate rotation motor is broken or you've got a weirdly simple microwave.

7
Melonpolyreply
lemmy.world

This is the first time I've heard that they have a wave stirrer. I've never seen one in person.

7
lemmy.world

Usually it's not inside the same chamber as the food as then it would be a nuisance to clean. You need to take a microwave apart to see the wave stirrer.

8
lemmy.world

But maybe don’t take apart a microwave unless you absolutely know what you are doing. Otherwise, what you find may be shocking.

3

Of all the dangerous devices to disassemble, they're one of the safest. A phone charger might still have 400V across one of the capacitors ten minutes after unplugging it (if you're in a 230V RMS country, so have more than 400V peak-to-peak), but a microwave's high-voltage section is only powered when it's plugged in, and microwaves are so long wavelength that even if you reassemble the waveguide or outer case badly and leave gaps, there probably won't be dangerous levels of microwaves escaping as gaps much smaller than the wavelength in question don't compromise the Faraday cage.

1
Melonpolyreply
lemmy.world

The diagrams I've seen show the wave stirrer on the roof. The microwaves I've seen have the ceramic plate on the side where the magnetron is so there's no space for a stirrer.

2
lemmy.world

if the diagram's any good, it should show the wave stirrer in the roof rather than on the ceiling of the food chamber. There's typically a waveguide to take the microwaves from the magnetron to the top of the chamber, then the wave stirrer is at the end of the waveguide to vary the angle that microwaves enter the chamber at. There's usually something to stop food splashing/spraying into that section, though, e.g. an extra few centimetres of waveguide afterwards with a bend in it.

1

I understand what you're saying, I've just not seen one with any indication of a wave stirrer. They all just shoot the beams from the magnetron through a ceramic plate on the side if the microwave. The top interior of the microwaves I've used (even one ones from Samsung and LG) had no holes or vents. Maybe it's just an American thing?

1

Well at first it looked and had a UX more like a regular oven, but yeah idk how much the internal tech has changed.

1

Potato peelers. The ergonomic handle was a big step forward, yes. But the basic design hasn't (and likely won't) change.

35
runner_greply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Show this to a person from 1900 and other than the plastic, nothing has changed.

15
lemmy.ml

I would happily argue that the plastic is a step down; metal potato peelers last a lot longer.

11
piefed.zip

The MIDI protocal. The technologies that use it have evolved in all sorts of ways, but the protocol has remained unchanged.

32
scytalereply
piefed.zip

That’s fair. But the fact that MIDI 1.0 isn’t going away anytime soon shows how good it was from conception. From Sweetwater:

Because MIDI 2.0 coexists well with MIDI 1.0, it’s likely MIDI 1.0 devices will continue to be produced in the future if MIDI 2.0’s features are not needed for a particular application. In developing MIDI 2.0, backward compatibility with MIDI 1.0 was always a priority.

MIDI 2.0 is not about replacing the original specification but about adding features that enhance the spec with features users have wanted almost since MIDI 1.0 appeared.

16

The best inventions do progress with backwards compatibility

8

MIDI protocol for users might be good enough but for developers is a nightmare if you want to do advanced synthesis

3
startrek.website

Maybe not perfect upon conception, but after a couple of decades from common adoption, the bicycle really didn't change much. Sure, you can use lighter and more advanced materials, you can add an electric motor to it (though I wouldn't classify it as a bycicle) but you can probably take a 100 years old bike and it would work just as good as a modern one.

28

It also too about 100 years to reach the modern design of rubber tyres and a drive train, with the rider sitting slightly forward of the rear axle and well behind the front wheel.

18
kossareply
feddit.org

Well, my bike looks exactly like that. It's just carbon all the way down now 😄

2
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Have you seen belt drive bikes? Not the electric ones. Pretty cool stuff, much lower maintenance. Also internal gear hubs. There's still innovation happening in bicycles to make them stronger against abuse

10
Korhakareply
sopuli.xyz

I did almost consider an internal gear hub for my bike but they are not common so not sure if parts of maintenance may be difficult to come by. Also not really sure how I could fit one myself. Maybe some day though, I think some can manage quite a few gears.

Fine with a chain though, mine is wax instead of oil lubricated.

4
semreply
piefed.blahaj.zone

They are a pain if they ever break. You basically have to replace it or get a specialist to work on it.

4
Korhakareply
sopuli.xyz

Don't they last a long time though? Presumably even more so if you are someone that benefits from a lower maintenance option. I use my bike multiple times a week, cleaning it after every use is just impractical and I often go out when it's raining.

5
semreply
piefed.blahaj.zone

Yes they do last a long time. They can be a great option. Just not easy to fix if something goes wrong.

You don't have to clean a regular chain that often, but it will last longer if you do. A regular chain is perfectly fine to use in the rain / snow/ etc.

In my mind, I know the chain and cassettes will wear out, so when they do, I would rather have ones I can replace myself. But an internal geared hub is a great option as well. It is lower maintenance, but with the trade off that it is difficult to work on.

3

I looked at prices for internal hubs with a decent number of gears, ahh fuck that! Its more than half the cost of my entire bike.

Think I will stick with what I have now then, I get the full gear range at like a tenth of the cost. Learning to do maintenance on it sometime might be a good idea though.

2

I only bought it because it's necessary for belt drive, and I wanted a maintenance free commuter. My coworker also has one as a daily commuter, though on a traditional chain drive, and hasn't had any issues with it.

Mine is new so I can't speak to maintenance

2

I think sewing machines would count? They certainly got a hell lot more "portable", but the basic design hasn't changed much since the 1880s. Those things are little mechanical marvels

27

Well, for "normal" ones they changed a lot about the lower thread. Also there came overlock machines to make life easier for certain stitches.

But nonetheless, they are marvelous machines, I love them so much. It is mechanic porn, and granted, the design of the old ones was perfect. Don't need all that plastic 😅

5
Annareply
lemmy.ml

If you think C is perfect then I think your mother dropped you one too many.

-10

Lego. Lego from now will still mate with Lego from 40 years ago without a problem. Apart from a growing number of shapes, the basic blocks are still the foundation of everything sold today.

24
sopuli.xyz

Dinner plates. Wooden, marble, ceramic or whatever it's made from, it does it's job perfectly.

EDIT: Yes, I'm hungry

22

Solid body electric guitars- the first models have been in continuous production and are still available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Telecaster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Les_Paul

There were earlier "electric guitars" but I'm thinking all inventions build on previous creations. I don't think you'll find many pure answers to OPs question. I think the closest you'll find is going to be an advancement that produced a single step change in design that flattened the innovation curve forever after. I think the microwave oven was a great example.

Electric fuses also come to mind. Little has changed since 1890.

22
lemmy.world

Since you mention the d-pad. It was patented, so all the big companies had their own legally distinct spins on it. Nintendo has their cross; sega had a circle thing; Sony had discrete buttons, Microsoft had a different circle thing.

The Nintendo patent actually expired a number of years ago now, so nowadays the cross is showing up more places.

29
notarobotreply
lemmy.zip

Really? I tried a bunch of time and don't see the appeal. I haven found any like category filtering so I can't subscible to like just tech or whatever. I think I'm doing it wrong

1

I want a scrolling news crawler thing on my home assistance dashboard and getting a functional rss integration working with it has been more challenging than anything else I’ve done and I’ve automated a lot, put together an entire camera and alarm system together for my residence, made a little dopamine game that shows me my daily score for Todoist tasks I get done, etc, etc. I think it frustrates me so much because I thought it would be a fun side project to work on between more challenging pursuits while learning the system and it’s all that still persists.

Edit: looks like this guide just came out a month ago, maybe it will help me get there. https://youtu.be/CK5tyvrt7pw

2

The goal is to treat the various sources as potential sources, just like you subscribe to communities here. Instead of subscribing to a tech community, you can subscribe to the various tech news sites that you enjoy.

5

I read your last sentence as "good girls" didn't change much :3

3

🧷 Safety pin. There has been a little change in the safety cap but that's to save material not functionality or manufacturing.

The entire process is the same:

  1. Take wire, cut it
  2. Smash one end flat
  3. ?? (Bend the wire and fold the smashed end)
  4. Profit
15
lemmy.world

I don't think QR codes have changed at all. Only the tools we use to scan them have

14
over_cloxreply
lemmy.world

Did you know that you can halftone dither two different but same size QR codes on top of each other?

I wish I had a link to the article handy, but yeah I've tried that myself and it totally works! You basically get a 50/50 chance of one or the other code scanning. It's literally two QR codes in one!

And no, that's not some new special QR code format either, it's basically taking advantage of the nature of the scanners plus the built in error correction.

12
fulcrummedreply
lemmy.world

What’s a use for an ambiguous QR code panel where you can’t predict which of two codes may be scanned? I’m struggling to come up with anything that makes sense where the mechanism potentially slightly favours one or the other depending on the scanner/ tones used.

3

The two QR codes could be totally related, like two different versions of a rickroll, or two different versions of bad apple.

You just never know exactly which one you're gonna get...

Hint, in my experience testing that, it partly depends what angle you're holding your device when scanning such combo QR codes.

3
lemmy.world

On a high level, all simple machines.

The wheel

The lever

The pulley

Etc.

All other machines (except maybe things like computer chips) are just a variation of simple machines, or a combination of them.

13
balsoftreply
lemmy.ml

Wheels have definitely changed a lot though.

2
lemmy.world

Wheels are fundamentally the same, mechanically.

How they're made changes, and what they're made of changes, but they are fundamentally the same mechanically for how they function

1

I would argue that Wi-Fi is also fundamentally the same as it was invented, it's just network packets sent over high-frequency radio waves, but there has been a lot of changes in specifics. It's the same for wheels, while the fundamental principle is the same, the differences between a wheel 4000 years ago and today are staggering.

1
lemmy.ml

Wireguard. I haven’t heard of any huge changes to it over the years. And it somehow just works

13
lemmy.dbzer0.com

My work WiFi blocks WireGuard and OpenVPN connections, which is a huge bummer. I just want to be able to connect to my NAS while I’m at work, but IT doesn’t want to hear that.

At least I can still use IKEv2 with my commercial VPN, so my employer can’t see how much I browse on Lemmy throughout the day.

6
zephirizreply
lemmy.ml

I may be wrong on how they "detect" VPN traffic but the lazy way would be to block the common "default" ports used by those services. If they are just blocking this port you could change what port you use. While it does come with its own issues as its a common scanned port changing the port to something like 80 or 443 and "look" like normal internet traffic. Might get around their block.

4
pishadootreply
sh.itjust.works

There's a few ways to "detect" VPN traffic, and you're missing some but port blocking is one of them. Rerouting over 443 is a possible workaround, but depending on the network architecture they can still detect VPN traffic using deep packet inspection.

Blocking ports is a very simple mechanism to prevent things and it doesn't take long for a business to grow into IT management that involves more sophisticated methods like DPI.

VPN protocols have distinguishable packet headers/metadata/handshakes/etc. DPI can easily identify and block those, or any other known protocols, if they have it configured to do so.

5

Ah nice to know. I'm just an amateur hobbyists. I just remember years ago the company I worked for(somewhat large) blocked ports 80 and 443 but left almost everything else open. Stop employees from browsing the web. I went home hosted a web page served on some random high port that worked as a proxy and loaded pages I wanted then used it to play flash ( shows my age) games at work to kill time. Looking back guess I could of gotten into some shit but no longer work for them. It was a fun time though.

1

The ones that maintain a whitelist of connections are the hardest to get through

1

Meanwhile I just tried to set up a VPN connection for my laptop and can't get wireguard to work properly

2

No, it was later improved by using different materials, better tools to make it and hardening it with fire.

11
Korhakareply
sopuli.xyz

Bendy sticks and string to launch them over 150m away.

2

It's very niche, but the only thing I could come up with is Kvevri, a traditional Georgian winemaking vessel. They're sold today (and still used for their stated purpose, aging wine), I've personally seen kvevris with the exact same shape buried in a wine cellar of 12th century monastery, and at least going by the article they're like 8000 years old, and haven't changed much in that time.

My other ideas were:

  • Bricks (turns out the earliest sun-dried mudbricks, which are very different from modern ones)
  • Concrete (turns out it changed a whole lot since the Romans, modern concrete is much easier to pour, sets faster and is much stronger)
  • Nuts & bolts (initially were hand-crafted and non-interchangeable - yuck!)
  • Knives (I'll let knife enthusiasts speak about that one)
11

Maybe FM synthesis, it revolutionised the sound of the 1980s and music production as a whole

10
piefed.social

[off topic?]

I can't remember the exact quote, but Robert A. Heinlein said of the DC-3 that it was the best airplane ever built, and that the only way to improve it was to completely redesign it.

I just like the idea that some things are perfect the way they are.

9

The line is in 'Glory Road,' a great fantasy book that takes pretty much every fantasy trope and kicks it to the curb.

2

I mean this thread is about tech that was perfect from it's inception to the point where it didn't or barely improved. Nothing could be further from the truth, transistor tech has had literally trillions of dollars and millions of smart people's careers poured into it, and semiconductor IC manufacturing is now the most complicated single activity that our species does.

2

Lots of weight-training equipment. Bars, manuals etc.

6

Alternator Since its invention, the basic principle remained same, we are just finding a fancier ways to rotate it

5

I'm surprised that I'm the first to say "p-trap" drain. Self-maintaining, no moving parts, affordable as anything, protects the indoors from sewer gas, catches rings. Chefs kiss 200 years old and still great

4

Not because it's perfect but because its wide deployment means it takes a lot of effort to replace

1