• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

What's one major technological advancement you've experienced that you're really grateful for?

SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,499
Earth, 21st Century
Anyone remember burning CDs?

burning-cds.jpg


Fuck that. It took forever, the CD player was clunky as hell, and it barely held any music. Maybe 18 tracks or so.

best-music-player-apps-hero-01.jpg


Having infinite music available on a smartphone is paradise by comparison. Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, or even just pulling up Youtube will do the trick. And speaking of Youtube, its algorithms have allowed me to find countless amounts of new music that I love.

Smartphones and their apps are my answer.
 
Strangelove_77

Strangelove_77

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,392
I still have a lot of cds that I don't want but that I don't want to throw away either. I have no idea what to do.

Anyways, the iPod is my pick.
 
Last edited:
Rory

Rory

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,159
Given how much i suck in math: That i always carry around a calculator with me.

In all seriousness, its impressive how far computers got and how tiny they became. Given how huge hearing aids used to be im really grateful for that.

Given that digital hearing aids are still pretty new (1995) that's a frigging fast development going on there. Around the 80s you still had to wear a hearing aid backpack thing, now everything fits into a tiny device behind your ear or even in your ear.
 
Last edited:
Doom_Bringer

Doom_Bringer

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
3,181
CPAP machines - I suffer from severe sleep apnea, the condition destroys everything from the brain to liver and heart. Needless to say, my life has improved 110% ever since I started using CPAP therapy.
 
Mammoth Jones

Mammoth Jones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,296
New York
Artificial joints. I wouldn't be able to walk without it and the pain was so great prior to it my quality of life would be in the toilet.
 
Strangelove_77

Strangelove_77

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,392
I was under the assumption that this would be about consumer products, not fucking science and the internet. Fun stuff.
Those are cheap copouts.
 
ryseing

ryseing

Bought courtside tickets just to read a book.
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,546
For lovers
Maps on my phone.

I have no sense of direction. Zero. Google Maps came along just as I started driving, and I would be a lost soul without them.

^ Ah, beat me to it as I was typing.
 
weemadarthur

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,588
Since indoor plumbing was taken....
Ereaders. I used to run out of books if I traveled, and you can only carry so many in a suitcase. Now I can have LOTS of books at all times.
 
PanickyFool

PanickyFool

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,947
You ever try to coordinate meeting up with someone at a remote location before cell phones?

But microfilm was awesome.
 

Deleted member 13496

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,409
The Internet as a whole aside, it's easily digital music.

Every single day I'm aware of how fucking amazing it is that I have all the world's music at the touch of a screen.
 
Nude_Tayne

Nude_Tayne

Member
Jan 8, 2018
3,666
earth
"The internet" is too easy an answer, but I guess it's impossible to avoid. Getting more specific I guess I'd say GPS and real-time maps (aka Google Maps). It's hard to imagine being without it now. It's kinda fucking magic when you think about it. People who started driving and "getting around" on their own after the advent of smartphones just have no idea.
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,748
Imagine learning to change film reels blindly in a dark canvas bag, then (after a crazy process of developing the film) edit it by hooking the reels up to a big machine, scroll through it, cut the film and physically tape the ends together to make edits.

And to really give a sense of just how quickly things changed, I learned that in the year two fucking thousand.
 
Reven Wolf

Reven Wolf

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,563
Two things:

1. Allergy Medication.
Without this, I would literally not be able to survive the world as the allergies I have are literally unavoidable.

2. Modern toilet facilities.
I'm technically cheating here because I'm not only going to include internal plumbing (and thus not needing to go in a hole outside) but also modern toilet paper, which I would hope is clear in itself why, especially because when the quality of it started advancing people started using the term "splinter free!" as an advertisement.
 
hordak

hordak

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,532
Anaheim, CA
since i use this everyday, i would say the wacom tablet.

before i had one my wrist would hurt from editing photos. now i can get precision and no soreness!

51ZZPfTgqHL._SX425_.jpg
 
a Master Ninja

a Master Ninja

Member
Dec 11, 2017
4,824
GPS

I'd be afraid to travel anywhere new without them. Thankfully they became affordable right when I started to drive. Having to get directions from people sucked.
 
floridaguy954

floridaguy954

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,631
Nude_Tayne said:
"The internet" is too easy an answer, but I guess it's impossible to avoid. Getting more specific I guess I'd say GPS and real-time maps (aka Google Maps). It's hard to imagine being without it now. It's kinda fucking magic when you think about it. People who started driving and "getting around" on their own after the advent of smartphones just have no idea.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm 27 and I remember the transition from real maps that were updated every year, to printing out map quest directions and following them to the letter, to shitty Garmin car GPS', to gmaps.

Real time GPS with our handheld super computers, shit's unreal.
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,494
Indonesia
It has to be the internet really lol. Other than that.., smartphone, broadband (unlimited one :p ), non sms messaging and video calls, increase in HDD capacity and SSD maybe.
 
nemoral

nemoral

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,081
Fiddler's Green
The expansion of vaccination. The MMR vaccine came out when I was 1. Just before I was born, the rubella vaccine came out, capping off America's last great epidemic, the rubella epidemic of 1965, just five years before my birth. Vaccines went from a rarity to something every child had during the seventies, and because of that, two generations of Americans haven't had to worry about the scourge of childhood illnesses. There are tens of thousands of children not dead and millions not scarred, deafened, and damaged by these diseases because of widespread vaccination.
 
Pottuvoi

Pottuvoi

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,062
nemoral said:
The expansion of vaccination. The MMR vaccine came out when I was 1. Just before I was born, the rubella vaccine came out, capping off America's last great epidemic, the rubella epidemic of 1965, just five years before my birth. Vaccines went from a rarity to something every child had during the seventies, and because of that, two generations of Americans haven't had to worry about the scourge of childhood illnesses. There are tens of thousands of children not dead and millions not scarred, deafened, and damaged by these diseases because of widespread vaccination.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This, it was amazing leap forward.
 
Kenichiwak

Kenichiwak

Member
Oct 27, 2017
149
I agree with smart phones. It's crazy when I think about it. Real time GPS maps replacing physical maps, spotify replacing my CD collection, audible slowly replacing my books on CD, having all my contacts phone numbers at a click of a button rather flipping through an address book, having access to hundreds of TV shows and movies...it's pretty nuts. All in this tiny little device.
 
KtSlime

KtSlime

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,910
Tokyo
By experienced you mean living before and seeing the change the technology introduced? In that case the answer is the Internet.
 
kmfdmpig

kmfdmpig

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
19,347
Android Auto/Apple Car Play. It is a game changer for cars and makes their infotainment/nav features obsolete.
 
FaceHugger

FaceHugger

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,949
USA
Everything that allowed on demand, trivial video conferencing so I can catch a quick session with a physician for things that don't really require a full blown in-person appointment. At, say, 3PM I can fire up my healthcare app, talk to my doctor, and get a renewal on a prescription. No need for us to go out of our way to block off time and meet at an office. Just hey doc, still not sleeping well, here's the x y z. Ok, sent your approval to the drug store down the street - go get your Ambien.

This extends to work too. No reason for 20 people to drive to some place just to discuss something for 30 minutes.
 

Eugene's Axe

Member
Jan 17, 2019
3,611
Recently discovered that I can watch xvideos in slow motion.

But seriously, having internet access on my phone.
 
Septimus Prime

Septimus Prime

EA
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
8,500
The chickenpox vaccine wasn't available in the US until I was almost a teenager. When I was growing up, the way to get immunity was to just get the disease as young as possible because it would become more and more dangerous the later you get it. It felt so great when I finally got vaccinated and knew that I most likely won't ever have to deal with the disease itself.
 
Felt

Felt

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,210
Personally experienced? I mean I'm pretty happy for modern computing, smartphones, internet which enabled advances in every industry.

If I had to pick one for fun it would be GPS because I rely on that heavily every time I go somewhere new lol
 
excelsiorlef

excelsiorlef

Bad Praxis
Member
Oct 25, 2017
73,316
SolVanderlyn said:
Anyone remember burning CDs?

burning-cds.jpg


Fuck that. It took forever, the CD player was clunky as hell, and it barely held any music. Maybe 18 tracks or so.

best-music-player-apps-hero-01.jpg


Having infinite music available on a smartphone is paradise by comparison. Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, or even just pulling up Youtube will do the trick. And speaking of Youtube, its algorithms have allowed me to find countless amounts of new music that I love.

Smartphones and their apps are my answer.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


I miss burning mix cds and the weird song associations that got formed permanently in my head as a result
 
ArtemisLunar

ArtemisLunar

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Jun 13, 2018
597
Internet in general.
The possibility of making computing technology to be in your bare hands and bring with you anywhere (Yes, I'm still amaze that the Laptops and the Smartphone exist, leave me alone!)
Hear your music anywhere, at anytime without bringing with you other more your phone and headphones.
 
Terraj_RSL

Terraj_RSL

Member
Feb 8, 2018
866
Toilet and waste disposal system. It's something you never think about once you flush, but after watching this video on "How Tourists Turned Mount Everest into a Dump" it made me appreciate our waste disposal system even more.

Transistor said:
Considering what I just had done:

Lasik
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
How much did it cost for Lasik?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.