Things that are better than they used to be

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Capt Worley PE

Run silent, run deep
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
13,369
Reaction score
649
Location
SC
As much as I pi55 and moan about how crappy things are today, things are generally much better than they used to be.

1) Road markings - I grew up before reflective paint and Bott's dots. Driving on a two lane country road at night, in the rain, was an adventure, one that ended badly far more than it does today.

2) Headlights - Kinda related to 1). before 1984 or so, headlights were required to be sealed beam units and halogen lights were forbade. The headlights flat out sucked compared to the lights nowadys (except, over time a lot of the cheap plastic gets cloudy).

3) Word Processing - Put tons of secretaries out of work, but it sure was a huge step up over the typewriter when it came to revising your work or correcting errors.

4) Cheap foreign made clothing - complain all you want about the loss of American textile jobs, but foreign workers produce good of simillar quality at much lower prices. Enables you to spend less income on clothing and more on other stuff.

5) Industrial farming - I remember all the laments of the small farmers in the 80s, and all the Farm-aids, etc put on by Willie and John Cougar, but holy cow, we are growing so much food the government pays folks (and, yes, big agra) NOT to grow food. Think about that.

6) Heart Medicine - When i was a kid in the seventies, heart attacks were usually fatal...and out of the blue. That isn't the case these days, and there are all sorts of meds out there to lower bp, lower cholesterol, and after the fact (or pre attack) surgery has made great strides.

 
military ordnance: back in the day a bombardier sighted drop and hoped he hit his mark. Today, we have laser guided missiles, and even some with cameras on them so we can watch the $h!t blow up.

 
Kids' TV shows. Not only has the animation gotten significantly better thanks to CGI, there's an actual intent to instruct while telling a good story. Examples: My Little Pony, TMNT, Bubble Guppies.

And Stephen Colbert's a lot funnier now than when he was on The Daily Show.

 
-Data connectivity and all your information within arms reach.

-Internet speeds

-Tech advances with computers

-Digital broadcast TV (w/ high def)

-Cell phones

-Laser/InkJet printing

-Online education programs

 
I was going to say the economy, but this looks like a serious thread. So I'll go with porn.

 
Internet - used properly, it makes you look much smarter than your predecessors (of course the opposite holds true, too)

On-line education - I am able to attend a top rated graduate program from half-way around the world. Pretty damn cool.

 
TVs - $350 would get you a 19" crt back in 1989. Now it'll get you a 32" flat screen.

Anyone remember those godawful console TVs?

 
^console TVs rocked, IMO. sure lasted longer than todays plastic-fantastic-3yrs-&-done stuff

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dunno...I have a 1992 crt that is still going strong.

Jury's still out on the flatscreens, though. Oldest one I have is...maybe six?

 
Old TV's never Die.. I still have a 25" RCA color console TV with remote that I got in 1983 at Kmart for $550.00. It had a hard life, but now it seldom get used.

 
Dunno...I have a 1992 crt that is still going strong.

Jury's still out on the flatscreens, though. Oldest one I have is...maybe six?
agreed. I bought a Samsung 32" LCD in the beginning of 2007 and it lasted until June 2013.
NO!!! don't say such things. I don't want to have to buy two tvs this year. we got our LCD tv 6 yrs ago.

 
Kids' TV shows.


Seriously? Some of the stuff my niece and nephew watched were tolerable, but some of the crap is unwatchable. Give me some 80's GI Joe, Transformers, and TMNT over any of that crap.


Try watching that 80s stuff now and tell me what you think. It's probably a lot better in your memories.

I have to admit though, the toys kicked more ass back then. They were mechanically clever, whereas now they just make noise and light up.

 
I have 3 seasons of fraggle rock, 3 seasons of duck tales, a box set of carebears, the she-ra movie, a box set of the smurfs. They are awesome and way better than the Computer animation of today

 
Kids' TV shows.


Seriously? Some of the stuff my niece and nephew watched were tolerable, but some of the crap is unwatchable. Give me some 80's GI Joe, Transformers, and TMNT over any of that crap.


Try watching that 80s stuff now and tell me what you think. It's probably a lot better in your memories.

I have to admit though, the toys kicked more ass back then. They were mechanically clever, whereas now they just make noise and light up.


Transformers and Voltron yes, but DuckTales, like snickerd3 said, was and still is awesome.

Dunno...I have a 1992 crt that is still going strong.

Jury's still out on the flatscreens, though. Oldest one I have is...maybe six?
agreed. I bought a Samsung 32" LCD in the beginning of 2007 and it lasted until June 2013.
NO!!! don't say such things. I don't want to have to buy two tvs this year. we got our LCD tv 6 yrs ago.
Same here, I bought our 52" Samsung LCD in 2008. Though it will be nice to not to have to pay $2000 for another one.

 
Back
Top