Technology Review has a list of ten "old" technologies that survived modern revisions:
1. Analog watches represent time better than digital watches.
2. Dot matrix printers print much faster and much cheaper than inkjets and lasers.
3. Typewriters are faster at one-short forms, and don't catch viruses.
4. Broadcast radio is portable and free, and doesn't get overloaded during emergencies.
5. Pagers are cheaper and safer than cell phones.
6. Reel-to-reel tape apparently captures nuances better than digital recordings.
7. Vacuum tube amplifiers sound better than transistorized ones.
8. Fax machines transmit marked-up paper documents most accurately and quickly.
9. Mainframe computers perform large-scale dataprocessing, and fail once every 30 years.
10. Fortran programming language works.
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