Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

[najaB]

I had a Stop Lock in the 1990s. One day, the key didn't unlock it anymore. It took me about 20 seconds with a big screwdriver to break the hinge. With practice, it wouldn't take much longer than using the key.

Probably true, but the point of that kind of device isn't to make the car impossible to steal, but just to make it harder to steal than your neighbour's car.

 

[Trackman]

Pub jukeboxes.
I personally don’t know of any pub in my area which has a jukebox.
By a jukebox I don’t just mean the classic disc jukebox of my younger days, but also the modern box on the wall music from the ‘cloud’ or wherever it comes from.

Loads of them still about, my local doesn't have one, plus it doesn't have gaming machines. Talking of which of a lot of pubs use those video gaming machines that dont have physical reels that spin around so to speak.

Car steering-wheel locks, I thought we're a thing of the past, until I saw my neighbour applying one to their electric car this morning.

Those big yellow discs?

A Crooklock, I think. We had one for our Mini from 1974!
couldn't you run it from te steering wheel to the accelerator pedal instead?

Blimey, I remember them. Doesn't take much to remove them though if they are after the car though.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Blimey, I remember them. Doesn't take much to remove them though if they are after the car ththough.

My father used to put one on our family's Morris Marina L.
It used to bemuse me - let's face it, the  last car a 1970s thief will want to drive off in, is a Morris Marina L...

 

[cool110]

Those big yellow discs?

That, or the big yellow bar

 

[Trackman]

That, or the big yellow bar

Big visual deterrents are the best these days.

Very popular on Range Rovers…

Have they not sorted all this out now, security wise?

 

[GusB]

There were also gadgets that were placed over the handbrake lever and hooked around the gear lever. I can't imagine there's much call for them these days with so many vehicles having neither a manual handbrake nor a gear lever.

 

[Harpo]

Given how easy it is to hack the keyless entry system on modern cars a mechanical lock makes sense.

Averages about 30 seconds to be gone from videos of keyless thefts that I've seen, including one from a family member's doorbell camera that helped police identify the thief of their neighbour's JLR product.

 

[Ediswan]

My father used to put one on our family's Morris Marina L.
It used to bemuse me - let's face it, the  last car a 1970s thief will want to drive off in, is a Morris Marina L...

I had one of them. Chosen for its relatively cavernous boot. The car never went missing. The toolbox in the boot did.

 

[AndrewE]

Averages about 30 seconds to be gone from videos of keyless thefts that I've seen,

I had one of them. Chosen for its relatively cavernous boot. The car never went missing. The toolbox in the boot did.

which reminds me that my son said his work van was electronically "broken" in to, he only realised it when a piece of kit he wanted turned out not to be there and nobody else in the company had used it. It seems that lots of electronic keys had been cloned, or a manufacturer's universal code had got out into the underworld.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I had one of them. Chosen for its relatively cavernous boot. The car never went missing. The toolbox in the boot did.

My first car was a Rover SD1 2600. It was a bit of a "BL Friday afternoon" build, where every panel had a different threaded bolt.
I never worried about it getting stolen, as I knew the thief wouldn't have started it by the time I got back to it.

 

[AndyPJG]

There were also gadgets that were placed over the handbrake lever and hooked around the gear lever. I can't imagine there's much call for them these days with so many vehicles having neither a manual handbrake nor a gear lever.

nor taking the rotor arm out either!

 

[D6130]

Edmondson card Tickets....and their big clunky cast iron date stamping machines.

 

[The exile]

Spawning a Doctor Who plot line…. (This should have been a reply to the “plastic daffodils at garages” observation - but the quote didn’t work)

 

[Merle Haggard]

which reminds me that my son said his work van was electronically "broken" in to, he only realised it when a piece of kit he wanted turned out not to be there and nobody else in the company had used it. It seems that lots of electronic keys had been cloned, or a manufacturer's universal code had got out into the underworld.

Someone inside the industry told me this, with particular reference to Transits - I can't substantiate it. For delivery, they can be opened by either the coded key the customer eventually gets, or a universal key. The universal key is used for delivery and moving around in storage obviously to avoid the distributors' staff having to have loads of keys.
What should happen is that, before sale, the dealer deletes the coding for opening by the universal key, but sometimes this seems to be overlooked. Anyone with a universal key can then gain entry.

 

[GordonT]

Also pet dogs which are let out to roam in the morning, returning home in the evening of their own accord in much the same way as outdoor cats. The practice had almost died out by the 80s (I knew a couple of dogs as a kid which fell into that category), but my dad told me it used to be very common.

Remember it well. My family didn't. It may also be the reason why there seemed to be more mongrels and cross-breeds than there are now. Cockapoos and labradoodles may have existed then but they were almost certainly a "happy accident" rather than the result of any selective breeding process.

 

[BingMan]

Big visual deterrents are the best these days.

Large noisy dogs are very good too.

 

[Trackman]

Anyone remember those security cameras in some high street shops - like a black dome with about 4 camera lenses with red lights hanging from the ceiling? Looked quite menacing, like something out of doctor who.

 

[Ediswan]

Anyone remember those security cameras in some high street shops - like a black dome with about 4 camera lenses with red lights hanging from the ceiling? Looked quite menacing, like something out of doctor who.

They were so conspicuous, I always suspected some were dummies.

 

[gg1]

Anyone remember those security cameras in some high street shops - like a black dome with about 4 camera lenses with red lights hanging from the ceiling? Looked quite menacing, like something out of doctor who.

They always reminded me a little of Sputnik.

 

[Dr Hoo]

It's a bit of a shame really because a row of parking meters did at least prevent pavement parking.

I was surprised to see some still going strong in Greenwich, in August 2021.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

They always reminded me a little of Sputnik.

They were certainly called "Sputniks" on the Underground, which used to have them all over the place.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Anyone remember those security cameras in some high street shops - like a black dome with about 4 camera lenses with red lights hanging from the ceiling? Looked quite menacing, like something out of doctor who.

These ones? If so, Big Clive disassembled one on camera a good few years ago. Very interesting to see what the gubbins are like.

 

[Yew]

People moan about younger generations job-hopping nowadays and decry the death of 'loyalty'. Fact is, it's impossible to climb a ladder in a company that simply doesn't exist anymore.

Companies like such churn, it makes it easier to push down conditions of employment.

 

[najaB]

Companies like such churn, it makes it easier to push down conditions of employment.

There's that. But on the flip side it's bad for productivity since people don't stick around long enough to build up organisational knowledge and become subject matter experts. This results in companies making the same mistakes over and over.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

These ones? If so, Big Clive disassembled one on camera a good few years ago. Very interesting to see what the gubbins are like.

I don't remember seeing any like that - the ones I remember, which sound like the black domes @Trackman mentioned, were black hemispheres hanging down from the ceilings.

 

[gg1]

I don't remember seeing any like that - the ones I remember, which sound like the black domes @Trackman mentioned, were black hemispheres hanging down from the ceilings.

These are the sort of thing I was thinking of when I read the initial post:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=147376

 

[Peter Mugridge]

These are the sort of thing I was thinking of when I read the initial post:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=147376

That's them!

I couldn't find any images online; I think the ones on the Underground had lenses that were flush or nearly flush with the dome body, but that might be my memory playing up after half a century since the things were commonplace at the stations.

 

[Trackman]

These ones? If so, Big Clive disassembled one on camera a good few years ago. Very interesting to see what the gubbins are like.

These are the sort of thing I was thinking of when I read the initial post:

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=147376

That's the one I was thinking about!

Is there a name for these cameras? , don't think it was photo-scan as in the blurb.

 

[bspahh]

That's the one I was thinking about!

Is there a name for these cameras? , don't think it was photo-scan as in the blurb.

This is a video of a Photo-Scan Dalek one from 2017

 

[BingMan]

have those shoe shop x-ray machines been mentioned?
Properly called shoe fitting fluoroscope. They may have givrn you a dangerous radiation dose but they certainly made sure that your shoes were comfortable

​