[SIGCIS-Members] Telegram service ending soon - have any other info technologies actually died?

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello everyone,

 

Slate has an little interesting story, framed with the idea that "dead"
technologies take a very long time to actually depart. Apparently the last
telegram will soon be sent, as India is discontinuing the service as a
result of widening losses.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/17/death_of_the_telegraph_wo
rld_s_last_telegram_to_be_sent_in_india_on_july.html. According to the
original story
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0614/India-to-send-wo
rld-s-last-telegram.-Stop the system was down to its last 998 workers and
was handling only about 5,000 messages a day.

 

Of course, it's only really with a service based technology that an actual
date of death can be established. Something like a PC can just go into the
attic and might one day come out again in working order. Even pneumatic
tubes, a retro technology favorite, are still in use in some settings.
Punched cards are still used in voting machines. Vacuum tubes are still used
in expensive amplifiers. According to Wikipedia even semaphore flags are
still "used during underway replenishment at sea."

 

So, can anyone come up with another information technology that has
definitively and verifiably vanished completely from use? Specific products
don't count.

 

Tom

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