Things that have changed for the better....

[Compo 10,328]

I suspect there will be little input to this topic since practically nowt's changed for the better but I'd like to begin it with Bicycle lights. In the old days bike lights used up batteries like they were going out of fashion. A battery would last me just a week when using my bike to get to work every day. The cost was staggeringly high for a miser too! These days the new LED bike lights are very small and lightweight and use practically no battery power.

Here's a photo of a pair of 1960s bicycle lights:

[Smiffy49 590]

When I first started work I used to a 50 mile round trip by cycle.

As you say batteries were a drain on your pocket and often the lighting system would suffer in poor weather.

A strip of emery cloth was part of the saddle bag kit to clean the contacts from time to time.

I unvested in a dynamo but the resultant wear on tyres did not improve things.

Also when slowed up by steep hills this reduced the light to a dull yellow flicker.

Saw a cyclist the other evening with "indicators" on top of his jacket !

Smiffy

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

T.V. sets our first T.V. in 1962 was a 17" B&W(obviously) while the picture was good for the time by todays standards it was rubbish.

I now have a 42" H.D. 3D(optional) set with surround sound(through Hi-Fi )

And to be honest there is no comparrison really.

Shame about the "carp" programmes

[Lotuskid 9]

Childhood was no bathroom and the toilet in the backyard with the Evening Post cut into squares, now it's instant hot showers and Andrex. AHHHHH.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

The early 1960s was waking up to frost on the inside of the bedroom window. Now it's central heating.

[... 1,411]

Plasters have come down in price compo,they make them out of Different material now you know,did you buy them cycle lights at the same time you last bought a plaster.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Childhood was no bathroom and the toilet in the backyard with the Evening Post cut into squares, now it's instant hot showers and Andrex. AHHHHH.

Quilted toilet paper .....What next?

[loppylugs 8,429]

Communications technology of all kinds. Never knew anybody with a phone in the house until I met my girlfriend. Now folks sit around tables in restaurants with their eyes glued to a smart? Phone. Maybe that really isn't a change for the better.

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

If things hadn't improved, we wouldn't have internet forums where we could say what had improved.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

[colly0410 1,181]

I've now got a car that starts in the morning, not like the Triumph Herald I had that did if it felt like it, usually it didn't..

[... 1,411]

I do have a bit to spend on luxuries now and again .and cliff ton can find information he's had no warning about within seconds ,relevant excellent photographs that I could never find ,and I thank cliff ton for that.

[Trevor S 2,003]

However, some things will also disappear in our lifetime as this story out of the U.S of A. advises us. How true these predictions are? Only time will tell but personally, I see these changes occurring now, to varying extents, here in Australia: -

Ten Things To Disappear In Our Lifetime.

Although this is USA oriented; Canada, Australia and Britain, plus the rest, will not be far behind. Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.


1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheques by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would go out of business.

3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy.
The price is less than half of a real book and think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for the extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes .

6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music the public is familiar with, the older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit.

To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers and they're playing games and doing lots of other things to take up the time usually spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" You Own
Many of the very possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be but, all of this is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." It means when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet.

If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud and you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. This is the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out a photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Joined Handwriting
Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because, nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended)

10. Privacy
If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you may think. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.


All we will have left with, and can't be changed, are "Memories"

I am unable to provide an author or source of the above at this point in time. The friend who forwarded it to me is endeavouring to provide those facts.

[banjo48 928]

Trevor

As you rightly say, most of those things are no longer relevant to us.

1 Rarely use the Post Ofice and most gear I buy online seems to arrive by courier.

2 Not had a cheque book for years now, never miss one apart from the cost and taxes.All banking done online.

3 Not bought a newspaper for years and probably never will again.

4 Have Kindles so would never buy another paper book. Don't buy many anyway, wink wink nod nod.

5 Not had a landline for 4 years, we both have and use mobiles only.

6 Download any music we may feel like, bit like books.

7 Record any commercial tv then blast the adds to where they belong.

8 We live "lightly" as we are full time on the road travelers, got rid of most excess items three years ago.

9 Never been good at handwriting, give me a keyboard any day.

10 Privacy, well IMO It's been long gone, big brother is watching, probably more so in the UK than Oz, but we are catching up fast.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

I disagree with two points banjo48

1) I like books & most of what I buy are not on Kindle & never will be so OK a lot of what I buy is second hand and some years old. I also prefer my books in HARD copy please.

I have over 250 books & booklets on Nottingham(& shire)alone(+ a few hundred other books) & vary few are on Kindle.

2)Again I prefer my music to be on hard copy and would not want my music to be at risk because someone nicked my computer.

P.S. My Oldest Nottingham book(original not a reprint is 1803)

None of my directories are on Kindle & some are not even available on DVD.

[Blondie 1,392]

Things have certainly changed in my life for the better over the years as I was born in 1945..........We had an outside toilet with cut up newspaper, no bathroom, the tin bath outside the back door, bathed once a week, had to wash nightly in the kitchen.......No central heating, or electric blankets, frost and steamed up sash cord windows......Washing drying on clothes horses in wet weather........No car, no fridge, no dryer.......A big English electric telly, black and white with 2 channels.........No telephone, always queues at the phone box..........No supermarkets, the same old meals........... Chilblains..................holiday week at Skeg. or Brid. once a year in pit weeks, one set of best clothes and shoes..............Women were 2nd rate citizens, but mum was always at home when we got back from school........

Now we can have more than one bathroom and indoor loo and bedrooms with en suits and shower daily, soft toilet paper, nice toiletries - More than one car in a family - Automatic Washing Machines, Dryers, Microwave Ovens, all mod cons - Double Glazing - Central Heating - Own Phones - Wide screen tellys with dozens of channels, we can have whatever we want with a credit card and go abroad when we like..........Women are equal..............The only thing I miss are the big coal fires, (my dad was miner), we always had plenty of coal, our terraced house was always warm and welcoming in winter, didn't have big bills........The Christmas's were always fantastic too, treats were something to look forward too..............Still some fond memories to be had.......

[DaveN 1,118]

Don't know if I've posted this before but each year I include a list or poem in my friend's birhday cards. Here's the one I wrote for this year's and I thought relevant to this thread.

Let’s take you back to your younger days
When there were loads of chip shops but no takeaways
At school you probably wore a gymslip
Went to Mablethorpe or Skeggy on a day trip
From a bottle of ink your pen you did refill
And listened to music on vinyl
No car lift to school –you had to walk
You didn’t have butter you had Stork
You did sums without a calculator
Walked up stairs – no escalator
At school if you were naughty or didn’t pay attention
You got the strap, cane, lines or detention
Had blankets and eiderdown – no duvet
Monday was always mums’ washday
You hated vaccinations and the nit nurse
But gas at the dentists was much worse
There were farthings, pennies, bobs and tanners
You were told to be polite and mind your manners
A Pac-a-mac to keep you dry in the rain
But the water down your legs did drain
Only one or two channels on the B & W TV
You went to the pictures to see a film not a movie
Chimney sweep, milkman and coalman
Two deliveries each day from the postman
Smith’s Crisps with salt in a little blue bag
Behind the bike shed you had a crafty fag
Stiff Izal toilet paper to wipe your bum
And even newspaper was used by some
Your mother darned holes in jumpers and socks
No such thing as radio alarm clocks
Shire horses pulling Shippo’s drays
Most shops were closed on Sundays

[Blondie 1,392]

DaveN - Brilliant, just sums up my childhood days........

[ChrisB 150]

The early 1960s was waking up to frost on the inside of the bedroom window. Now it's central heating.

Didn't it used to make wonderful patterns on the glass!

[DaveN 1,118]

Blondie - I'm just putting the finishing touches to next year's which is a continuation from the one above.