# Technology Trad?



## GamecockGrad (May 8, 2012)

Is there such a thing as trad technology? 

I say this only because while walking past First Class the other day I saw the quintessential trad businessman hammering out an e-mail on a blackberry model that was a good 4-5 phones ago for me. It made me think, is there such a thing as trad technology? 

I would say yes and no, however there are definitely trad accessories such as the dodo case for the ipad. 

Thoughts?


----------



## dkoernert (May 31, 2011)

I have always and will always continue to use a basic flip phone. I have no need for all the crap that smartphones do. I also turn my cell phone off the second I walk in the front door at home, and I don't turn it on until i walk out in the morning.


----------



## Trip English (Dec 22, 2008)

It depends on what the technology is. There's a built-in lifespan to some core pieces like computers, but loudspeakers, telephones, and other less sophisticated pieces can often last as long as the user is satisfied with them. I work in the AV business and while some of the audio systems have aged due to digital music emerging, the majority of our products still offer decades of use.


----------



## hardline_42 (Jan 20, 2010)

Asking if non-clothing items are trad is a guaranteed way to incur the wrath of the forum. If "trad" extends to non-clothing items in the broadest sense (classic styling, built to last, made in USA) very few, if any, personal electronics fit the bill. I carry a Casio Commando because it's built to mil-specs. It's not trad by any means, but then again, neither is a dead phone after dropping it into murky, frigid water before sunrise while setting up decoys. Use the technology that fits your needs best.


----------



## arkirshner (May 10, 2005)

Trad technology- how about transistor radios?


----------



## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

I like that, transistor radios! Good one.

I have stereo speakers at least 30 years old. I, too, have not yet (as MUCH as I would like to) found a personal use for a smartphone. But they are neat, for sure.


----------



## Acme (Oct 5, 2011)

arkirshner said:


> Trad technology- how about transistor radios?


----------



## Flairball (Dec 9, 2012)

hardline_42 said:


> ?........ neither is a dead phone after dropping it into murky, frigid water before sunrise while setting up decoys. Use the technology that fits your needs best.


I'd have never had upgraded to a smart phone if this hadn't happened to me. This is also why you seldom see nice guns in the duck marsh. Hmmm,....trad shotguns? Maybe we shouldn't go there.


----------



## Starch (Jun 28, 2010)

Slide rule.

Phone-wise: no brand except Western Electric. I'm picturing the standard, reassuringly hefty rotary dial desk-topper. Perhaps one those old-school speakerphone units with speaker box and separate mic unit with a rocker switch on top, though even those may be too new.


----------



## Pentheos (Jun 30, 2008)

Thinkpads, of course...I'm currently setting up a new T530 for my wife as I type on a W520.


----------



## upthewazzu (Nov 3, 2011)

dkoernert said:


> I have always and will always continue to use a basic flip phone. I have no need for all the crap that smartphones do. I also turn my cell phone off the second I walk in the front door at home, and I don't turn it on until i walk out in the morning.


I'm with you on the flip phone thing, but my cell phone is my _only_ phone. So turning it off when I get home would be a no no.


----------



## BiffBiffster (Jul 2, 2012)

Silly questions beg silly answers.


----------



## jimw (May 4, 2009)

"Trad tech"? That's an interesting thought.... I don't think any of us eschew technology in absolute terms, do we? We all use technology, day-to-day, whether this be the cars we drive or the computers on our desks. 

I suppose it all comes down to a careful blend of archaism and the understated. I sell enterprise software solutions for a living, but am not constantly 'wired'; I also peddle ebooks, but wouldn't think of using a Kindle on my own time. I prefer analog radios (I have a nice Tivoli table radio) to more precise digital tuners, etc, etc.

It's a fine balancing act, sticking to principle and living in the real world, isn't it?


----------



## katon (Dec 25, 2006)

As mentioned by others, antique collecting is another hobby.  Besides, it would probably cause a clash between the Anglophiles and the Mid-Century Modern devotees. (Except for those products that manage to please both, such as the old designs.)

Mechanical watches would probably fall within the scope of "technology trad", though, especially tank and field watches. Brooks Brothers and L.L. Bean usually offered some sort of mechanical watch most years.









Brooks Brothers 1947, courtesy of Heavy Tweed Jacket









Brooks Brothers 1979









L.L. Bean, 1982


----------



## Acme (Oct 5, 2011)

Starch said:


> Phone-wise: no brand except Western Electric. I'm picturing the standard, reassuringly hefty rotary dial desk-topper. Perhaps one those old-school speakerphone units with speaker box and separate mic unit with a rocker switch on top, though even those may be too new.











Allen Edmonds made a pretty sturdy rotary dial oxford back in the day.


----------



## rhdeis (Feb 12, 2013)

Is the act of handing down items considered trad? I inherit my daughter's old cellphone whenever she upgrades. Tradly in reverse maybe :icon_smile_big:.


----------



## xcubbies (Jul 31, 2005)

I still use my Olivetti typewriter. I'll never use a computer.


----------



## teekayvee (Sep 13, 2008)

Robert A. Caro typed his epic bio of LBJ (and of Robert Moses) on an electric typewriter. He's as trad as they get. (In fact, his first drafts are in longhand.)


----------



## teekayvee (Sep 13, 2008)

teekayvee said:


> Robert A. Caro typed his epic bio of LBJ (and of Robert Moses) on an electric typewriter. He's as trad as they get. (In fact, his first drafts are in longhand.)


Here's a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/04/15/magazine/robert-caro-process-4.html


----------



## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

(In response to post #17)^^LOL.
I've hung on to my old SCM Electric typewriter and I do truly dislike computers, but I must admit to caving in and using the word processing capability of the computer, as my SCM gathers dust in the back of a closet! 



Trip English said:


> It depends on what the technology is. There's a built-in lifespan to some core pieces like computers, but loudspeakers, telephones, and other less sophisticated pieces can often last as long as the user is satisfied with them. I work in the AV business and while some of the audio systems have aged due to digital music emerging, the majority of our products still offer decades of use.


Trip's assessment of the projected longevity of vintage audio gear certainly rings true with my experience. Back in the late 1960's/very early 1970's my career choices afforded me the opportunity to purchase some pretty fine (at the time, anyway) sound systems (Pioneer reciever and power supply(s), Akaii reel to reel tape player, speakers that were bigger than today's end tables, etc.) at very reasonable prices. I just passed the last of those items on within the last decade and other that the reel to reel unit, it all seemed to be working fine when I passed them on. The new stuff has just gotten more compact and perhaps somewhat easier to use than the vintage components. I hope the new stuff lasts as long!


----------



## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

Interesting to hear mention of Caro's Moses biography; I cited this yesterday to a friend while in discussion on planning.

I have a 1970s era push-button phone in the kitchen: it has excellent sound quality to it (because of the copper?) and is nice and heavy so it doesn't flip off the table. It stays there. Heck, I've thought about putting lead shot into my desk phone to help it stay in place.

Last year I was fondly remembering my old GE flip clock radio, and I tried hard to revive a flip clock Sony Digimatic. The flip clocks have an electric rotor that tends to freeze up, causing clock fail, when the internal lubricant dries up. It's a tough fix. I had to give up.


----------



## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

Flairball said:


> I'd have never had upgraded to a smart phone if this hadn't happened to me. This is also why you seldom see nice guns in the duck marsh. Hmmm,....trad shotguns? Maybe we shouldn't go there.


The iconic Trad shotgun would either be an English double, preferably a sidelock extractor, or a Winchester Model 12 for the duck blind. Watch. This. Spot. :wink2:


----------



## phyrpowr (Aug 30, 2009)

Not so much Trad tech, as Trad thinking about tech: If what I have does the job, in a reasonably convenient manner, why on Earth should I buy something new just to "keep up"?


----------



## phyrpowr (Aug 30, 2009)

Oldsarge said:


> The iconic Trad shotgun would either be an English double, preferably a sidelock extractor, or a Winchester Model 12 for the duck blind. Watch. This. Spot. :wink2:


Maybe. Or a handed down/inherited 16 Ga. pump, no engravings but lots of meat for the pot over the years.


----------



## Trad-ish (Feb 19, 2011)

xcubbies said:


> I still use my Olivetti typewriter. I'll never use a computer.


Says the man that posts on the Internet.


----------



## Starch (Jun 28, 2010)

A few observations:

There's "trad" clothing/personal style, then there's full-on "retro." Maybe trad is a subset of retro, or one of a range of possible retro options: I'm not sure. Is steampunk trad? In any event, I don't think trad implies being generally retro when it comes to other things.

If so, it would imply driving a 1959 car. That would be kind of cool if it were Jaguar, I suppose, but outside of a few (generally expensive or finicky or both) options, I'd consider it more silly than cool.

When it comes to function: with rare exceptions, modern electronic devices are absurdly more functional than their predecessors. Yeah, I suppose an electric typerwriter works fine, if you don't mind retyping to make revisions, using carbons to have a backup copy, etc. Not to mention having someone else retype or scan the whole thing in order to publish it, using the exact technology you just eschewed as unnecessary (unless you can find a linotype machine or someone who sets type by hand).

In audio: you'll get disagreement, but I think the only vintage items that are of value today were professional items, not consumer. If your father had the good sense to buy a Neumann U47, a Helios desk or tweed Fender Twin, you're in good shape (though you'd probably have broken the desk up and sold its modules). A consumer mic, ancient mono hi-fi or speaker, not so much. There's a niche fetish for turntables and tube amps, but - outside of guitar amps and professional-level recording gear - that's just goofy. Reel-to-reel tape decks are dead (and I own three of them).


----------



## hardline_42 (Jan 20, 2010)

phyrpowr said:


> Maybe. Or a handed down/inherited 16 Ga. pump, no engravings but lots of meat for the pot over the years.


Browning A5. Belgian. Ain't nobody got time for a pump!


----------



## Tilton (Nov 27, 2011)

hardline_42 said:


> Browning A5. Belgian. Ain't nobody got time for a pump!


This. I still pass over my Benelli for the hand-me-down A5 Lightweight if I'm not in the kayak or laying out in a muddy field.


----------



## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

I've never been able to hit anything with an A5. No doubt some deficit in my coordination or something. I was always an o/u man until I developed rotator cuff problems in the right shoulder. So, Benelli with 3" mags on waterfowl or coyotes, Jeffery SLE with 2 1/2" international trap loads for upland.


----------



## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

GamecockGrad said:


> I say this only because while walking past First Class the other day I saw the quintessential trad businessman hammering out an e-mail on a blackberry model that was a good 4-5 phones ago for me.


Quite possibly, his employer provides him with the Blackberry, and picks up all expenses related to its use. I know people who have old, "out-dated" business cell phones and similar devices, which they use for business purposes, and which cost them nothing. Most of them have nicer, newer devices for their personal use, which they pay for (device and plan, with the plan usually being by far the greater expense) themselves.



> is there such a thing as trad technology?


Probably not. But that having been said, if an older piece of technology serves my purposes, I won't run out and replace it just because something "kewler" is now available. For example, I still make use of an HP-12c, which is a calculator older than many AAAC members. If trad technology exists, there are few better examples of it than the HP-12c. It's "ancient" technology, but still something of a standard in various business and financial fields.

But neither am I a Luddite. If a new piece of technology offers advantages which I value, I'll upgrade to it. For example, I use a Samsung S3 smartphone, because while I used a Motorola Razr flip-phone until last year, I discovered that the S3 actually does things which I find convenient and worthwhile. (dkoernert has a point, in that probably 95% of what the phone is capable of doing is, in fact, crap. At least to me. But among the remaining 5% are some absolutely amazing finds.)
-- 
Michael


----------



## Tilton (Nov 27, 2011)

Oldsarge said:


> I've never been able to hit anything with an A5. No doubt some deficit in my coordination or something. I was always an o/u man until I developed rotator cuff problems in the right shoulder. So, Benelli with 3" mags on waterfowl or coyotes, Jeffery SLE with 2 1/2" international trap loads for upland.


You can get close enough to the yotes to use a shotgun? Lucky you. We're .223, .338, and .30-06 for the yotes in VA.


----------



## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

phyrpowr said:


> Not so much Trad tech, as Trad thinking about tech: If what I have does the job, in a reasonably convenient manner, why on Earth should I buy something new just to "keep up"?


Exactly. It is not nostalgia, but immunity to marketing hype.


----------



## gar1013 (Sep 24, 2007)

If you're into early electronic music, check out synthesizers.com for modular synthesizer goodness. You'll feel like a "radiophonic engineer" the first time you patch one of these things.


----------



## L-feld (Dec 3, 2011)

gar1013 said:


> If you're into early electronic music, check out synthesizers.com for modular synthesizer goodness. You'll feel like a "radiophonic engineer" the first time you patch one of these things.


I've always wanted to pull the trigger on a modular. Is it tough to set one up for polyphony? I always imagined that having to route each oscillator through a separate filter would be a huge pain, especially with getting the settings for each voice to match.

I just got an Oberheim Xpander a little while ago and I'm hoping that will be sufficiently flexible for my purposes.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## gar1013 (Sep 24, 2007)

L-feld said:


> I've always wanted to pull the trigger on a modular. Is it tough to set one up for polyphony? I always imagined that having to route each oscillator through a separate filter would be a huge pain, especially with getting the settings for each voice to match.
> 
> I just got an Oberheim Xpander a little while ago and I'm hoping that will be sufficiently flexible for my purposes.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


Tough? Unless you're talking about playing constant fixed intervals or are employing sequencers, forget about polyphony on a modular.

That being said, they are still a lot of fun.


----------



## Shoe City Thinker (Oct 8, 2012)

A Sun Microsystems workstation built in the 80s and 90s. The UNIX operating system originated in the early 70s. UNIX is the backbone of the Internet. The hardware is over-engineered and will run for eternity.


----------



## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

arkirshner said:


> Trad technology- how about transistor radios?


transistor radios are definitely trad.


----------



## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

definitely The Sony Walkman.


----------



## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

Tilton said:


> You can get close enough to the yotes to use a shotgun? Lucky you. We're .223, .338, and .30-06 for the yotes in VA.


You need a good call and really good camo.


----------



## dkoernert (May 31, 2011)

upthewazzu said:


> I'm with you on the flip phone thing, but my cell phone is my _only_ phone. So turning it off when I get home would be a no no.


I still have a landline. But there are only 3 or 4 people with that number.


----------



## Tilton (Nov 27, 2011)

Oldsarge said:


> You need a good call and really good camo.


I guess they're just more timid out in VA. Great camo, good headwind, still looking at 100yds minimum. On the other hand, two years ago I got one with a bow from my tree stand at about 20 yards. I downed a doe and was packing up and getting ready to climb it down and I guess she thought I'd rang the dinner bell.


----------



## Youthful Repp-robate (Sep 26, 2011)

Well, I don't know if it's trad, but I shoot a lot of film. There's an aesthetic appeal to old cameras for me, which I think is tied into the reasons I like trad clothes -- there's heft and ease, plus a slightly out-of-time edge that amuses me.


----------



## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

I still use a 35 mm camera since it fits my hand so much better than the little current ones. I also like the film backup. And there is a definite fun element to using it!

I use a Buck 110 folding knife when camping. Designed around 1962, it's so well designed that it's hard to improve upon.


----------



## hardline_42 (Jan 20, 2010)

Captain America said:


> I use a Buck 110 folding knife when camping. Designed around 1962, it's so well designed that it's hard to improve upon.


A _folding _knife? That's just a fad that will die out soon enough. :biggrin2:


----------



## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

Shoe City Thinker said:


> A Sun Microsystems workstation built in the 80s and 90s. The UNIX operating system originated in the early 70s. UNIX is the backbone of the Internet. The hardware is over-engineered and will run for eternity.


I remember those. But I thought I was cooler than the guys on the Suns because I wrote my senior thesis on a NeXT.


----------



## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

I would describe sail boats as trad technology, especially given the cultural connotations today.


----------



## katon (Dec 25, 2006)

According to Brooks, if it is credit card sized it's OK, espeically if it comes with its own leather case. 








(1981)

(1988)

I also think this is why the Samsung SGH-P300 should be in the running for "traddest phone".


----------



## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

I get a kick seeing the old BB catalogues. I remember those, so it's not like those are old or anything. Eh?


----------



## coase (Apr 29, 2010)

The oldest bit of computer technology I've hung onto is my original IBM keyboard. No one has ever produced a better keyboard for touch typists. And the darned thing is so sturdy you feel it could survive a bomb blast. I believe that many Mac users use them also.


----------



## Pale_Male (May 20, 2013)

Youthful Repp-robate said:


> Well, I don't know if it's trad, but I shoot a lot of film. There's an aesthetic appeal to old cameras for me, which I think is tied into the reasons I like trad clothes -- there's heft and ease, plus a slightly out-of-time edge that amuses me.


There's an aesthetic appeal to film itself -- the chemical process -- that digital can only fake, and fake only at absurd cost at the high end. Superb lenses and bodies are also available for a pittance compared to original cost, so that appeals to the seeker of true value. That's pretty "Trad."


----------



## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

coase said:


> The oldest bit of computer technology I've hung onto is my original IBM keyboard. No one has ever produced a better keyboard for touch typists. And the darned thing is so sturdy you feel it could survive a bomb blast. I believe that many Mac users use them also.


Buckling spring? I was about to buy the modern version by Unicomp, but found a decent old beige Dell keyboard with ALPS-type switches in a drawer at work and figured free was best.


----------



## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

I often like to word process with my Flying Fish.


----------



## katon (Dec 25, 2006)

Pale_Male said:


> There's an aesthetic appeal to film itself -- the chemical process -- that digital can only fake, and fake only at absurd cost at the high end. Superb lenses and bodies are also available for a pittance compared to original cost, so that appeals to the seeker of true value. That's pretty "Trad."


 You folks might appreciate this then, a posting from Worried Man on The Other Forum; the Georgia Tech camera club, 1967:


----------



## rl1856 (Jun 7, 2005)

A working definition may be the continued use of individual tech items because they work, while resisting the marketing urge to upgrade to aquire features you may not need or ever use. 

I use a fountain pen because I like the way it feels in my hand and the way ink flows on paper. 
I use a razor and soap to shave because I achieve a closer and more comfortable shave than when I use shaving cream.
I wear a wind up watch every day. In the span that I have owned my present watch, my wife has gone through 3 quartz watches, while also having to change batteries every 2 years.
I prefer vintage tube amps and vinyl records to solid state amps and CDs. Not only do the former sound better, they also hold their value quite well over time. 

Sometimes a technological advance brings about increased convenience, but the convenience may be at the expense of quality. The wholesale conversion from film to digital is a prime example. It is much easier to shoot digital and have instant (or near instant) results with acceptable quality than it is to shoot film and then have it processed and printed. 

On the other hand, sometimes technological advances also improve general quality. Moving from picture tubes (both television and computer monitors) to flat panels represents a meaningful improvement in the quality of video reproduction.

And sometimes a technological advance serves no other purpose than to be "new". Every year computers become faster and more complex. However most people use a computer for basic word processing, data management, internet research and email. Unless you need advanced computing power and the abilty to render 3D CAD or some such, you would be perfectly served by a 10yr old PC running Windows XP.

Trads in general keep using what works, without worrying about what's new.


----------



## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

rl1856 said:


> A working definition may be the continued use of individual tech items because they work, while resisting the marketing urge to upgrade to aquire features you may not need or ever use.
> 
> I use a fountain pen because I like the way it feels in my hand and the way ink flows on paper.
> *I use a razor and soap to shave because I achieve a closer and more comfortable shave than when I use shaving cream.*


I use soap rather than shaving cream, mainly because I can't stand the stuff. Gave up with electric after having a couple that just made a buzzing noise, but found that they didn't actually shave.



rl1856 said:


> I wear a wind up watch every day. In the span that I have owned my present watch, my wife has gone through 3 quartz watches, while also having to change batteries every 2 years.
> *I prefer vintage tube amps and vinyl records to solid state amps and CDs. Not only do the former sound better, they also hold their value quite well over time. *


I'd certainly do that if I had the space and money. In the early 80s I used to work for a company that made valve/tube amps, so still have quite a fondness for them. The ones we made certainly held their value very well, having recently seen the prices they're going for on Ebay. The Radford STA25. Basically at the moment it's MP3s and FLACs on a hard drive, mostly downloaded from the interwebs.


----------



## MikeDT (Aug 22, 2009)

dkoernert said:


> I have always and will always continue to use a basic flip phone. I have no need for all the crap that smartphones do. I also turn my cell phone off the second I walk in the front door at home, and I don't turn it on until i walk out in the morning.


Sure a truly trad cellphone would be something like this...








The Nokia Mobira Cityman. 

TBH I couldn't actually do much of my business, or leisure, with just a basic flip-phone, or a brick for that matter. I have to have a smart-phone with internet. That's how most friends and colleagues contact me, via the internet rather than phoning me.

I will sometimes teach in a truly trad manner, using only a blackboard and chalk, when the power goes out and can't use the projector and laptop.


----------

