The Bic pen. Sure, you can make it better, but then the price has to go up. You can still buy a nearly unchanged Bic pen from any office store for cheaper than any other writing tool, nearly identical to what they looked like when they were first invented.
I’ll add Bic lighter to this list too.
What else does Bic make? 🤔
I’ll see your Bic and raise you Zippo!
Just got my first one a while back, I bought it 2nd hand and it’s 7 years older than me and works better than any lighters I’ve borrowed off people over the years.
Replacement parts and even completely new lighter inserts still fit the original cases from the 1940s until now. And if something does break beyond you ability to repair, They got a lifetime warranty with no proof of purchase needed!
I have a zippo, I like that it’s easy to pour in liquid fuel and they are somewhat wind resistant but the fuel does evaporate away over time. I keep it in a plastic bag which does slow the rate of fuel evaporation though.
Not sure what cheaper fuels could work well in it, that would reduce the cost of fuel that just evaporates then and I don’t use it that often so I suspect more is lost to evaporation than usage.
I had a chrome Zippo XIV, one of the models you just don’t fuck with.
I loaned it out one day to light fireworks. Somehow they overheated and ruined the flint wheel…
Anyways, if I catch you swapping Zippo parts, I’m gonna melt Frosty the Snowman…
I was curious too so I looked it up.
Pens. Lighters. And razors for shaving. Mostly the single use ones.
But also
BIC has drawn criticism for maintaining its business operations in Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
:C
But did they stop selling in the USA after e.g. the invasion of Grenada and Iraq and civilian bombing of Yugoslavia?
And obvious question is whether they still do business with the Zionazis…
surfboards lol https://varialsurfboards.com/best-foam-surfboard/bic-review/
It’s very niche, but the only thing I could come up with is Kvevri, a traditional Georgian winemaking vessel. They’re sold today (and still used for their stated purpose, aging wine), I’ve personally seen kvevris with the exact same shape buried in a wine cellar of 12th century monastery, and at least going by the article they’re like 8000 years old, and haven’t changed much in that time.
My other ideas were:
- Bricks (turns out the earliest sun-dried mudbricks, which are very different from modern ones)
- Concrete (turns out it changed a whole lot since the Romans, modern concrete is much easier to pour, sets faster and is much stronger)
- Nuts & bolts (initially were hand-crafted and non-interchangeable - yuck!)
- Knives (I’ll let knife enthusiasts speak about that one)
I’m surprised that I’m the first to say “p-trap” drain. Self-maintaining, no moving parts, affordable as anything, protects the indoors from sewer gas, catches rings. Chefs kiss 200 years old and still great
ramps
deep-frying
the D-pad
Since you mention the d-pad. It was patented, so all the big companies had their own legally distinct spins on it. Nintendo has their cross; sega had a circle thing; Sony had discrete buttons, Microsoft had a different circle thing.
The Nintendo patent actually expired a number of years ago now, so nowadays the cross is showing up more places.
It was patented? Fucking hell, today I learned
Less surprised it was Nintendo lol
I don’t think QR codes have changed at all. Only the tools we use to scan them have
Did you know that you can halftone dither two different but same size QR codes on top of each other?
I wish I had a link to the article handy, but yeah I’ve tried that myself and it totally works! You basically get a 50/50 chance of one or the other code scanning. It’s literally two QR codes in one!
And no, that’s not some new special QR code format either, it’s basically taking advantage of the nature of the scanners plus the built in error correction.
What’s a use for an ambiguous QR code panel where you can’t predict which of two codes may be scanned? I’m struggling to come up with anything that makes sense where the mechanism potentially slightly favours one or the other depending on the scanner/ tones used.
The two QR codes could be totally related, like two different versions of a rickroll, or two different versions of bad apple.
You just never know exactly which one you’re gonna get…
Hint, in my experience testing that, it partly depends what angle you’re holding your device when scanning such combo QR codes.
The new 50/50 lol
Oh, but they have, and they still are.
There are so many 2D barcode formats.
Dinner plates. Wooden, marble, ceramic or whatever it’s made from, it does it’s job perfectly.
EDIT: Yes, I’m hungry
Do they make marble dinner plates? Would be cool
The simple amphorae
Saw a post just today with a 1000 year old folding chair. Looked pretty much identical to the ones used today. Lost the post but kept the picture.
Wow, things really haven’t changed all that much, haha. Pretty sure you can get essentially that exact same design at outdoor stores.
Ones today would be mass produced from cheap materials though
Maybe not perfect upon conception, but after a couple of decades from common adoption, the bycicle really didn’t change much. Sure, you can use lighter and more advanced materials, you can add an electric motor to it (though I wouldn’t classify it as a bycicle) but you can probably take a 100 years old bike and it would work just as good as a modern one.
Have you seen belt drive bikes? Not the electric ones. Pretty cool stuff, much lower maintenance. Also internal gear hubs. There’s still innovation happening in bicycles to make them stronger against abuse
I did almost consider an internal gear hub for my bike but they are not common so not sure if parts of maintenance may be difficult to come by. Also not really sure how I could fit one myself. Maybe some day though, I think some can manage quite a few gears.
Fine with a chain though, mine is wax instead of oil lubricated.
They are a pain if they ever break. You basically have to replace it or get a specialist to work on it.
Don’t they last a long time though? Presumably even more so if you are someone that benefits from a lower maintenance option. I use my bike multiple times a week, cleaning it after every use is just impractical and I often go out when it’s raining.
Yes they do last a long time. They can be a great option. Just not easy to fix if something goes wrong.
You don’t have to clean a regular chain that often, but it will last longer if you do. A regular chain is perfectly fine to use in the rain / snow/ etc.
In my mind, I know the chain and cassettes will wear out, so when they do, I would rather have ones I can replace myself. But an internal geared hub is a great option as well. It is lower maintenance, but with the trade off that it is difficult to work on.
I looked at prices for internal hubs with a decent number of gears, ahh fuck that! Its more than half the cost of my entire bike.
Think I will stick with what I have now then, I get the full gear range at like a tenth of the cost. Learning to do maintenance on it sometime might be a good idea though.
I only bought it because it’s necessary for belt drive, and I wanted a maintenance free commuter. My coworker also has one as a daily commuter, though on a traditional chain drive, and hasn’t had any issues with it.
Mine is new so I can’t speak to maintenance
It also too about 100 years to reach the modern design of rubber tyres and a drive train, with the rider sitting slightly forward of the rear axle and well behind the front wheel.
Well, my bike looks exactly like that. It’s just carbon all the way down now 😄
At least urban tank drivers can see you before they obliterate you
Who needs gears when you can build the mechanical reduction into the wheel size.
Maybe FM synthesis, it revolutionised the sound of the 1980s and music production as a whole
You.
No, you are!
The pointed stick.
No, it was later improved by using different materials, better tools to make it and hardening it with fire.
Steel capped ends
Bendy sticks and string to launch them over 150m away.
Ah yes, trebuchets. A fine choice.
Internet Protocol.
ipv4 remains dominant.
tcp and ip merged in like 1973, and it lived in labs till 82 or 83. after that its been 40 years of nearly perfect ip spec
I think sewing machines would count? They certainly got a hell lot more “portable”, but the basic design hasn’t changed much since the 1880s. Those things are little mechanical marvels
Well, for “normal” ones they changed a lot about the lower thread. Also there came overlock machines to make life easier for certain stitches.
But nonetheless, they are marvelous machines, I love them so much. It is mechanic porn, and granted, the design of the old ones was perfect. Don’t need all that plastic 😅
nearly
If you think C is perfect then I think your mother dropped you one too many.
“nearly” is, by definition, not.
How many sequels has it had? C++ (and Kava and C#), D, etc.
I thought it changed a bunch through the years. Small changes tho
🧷 Safety pin. There has been a little change in the safety cap but that’s to save material not functionality or manufacturing.
The entire process is the same:
- Take wire, cut it
- Smash one end flat
- ?? (Bend the wire and fold the smashed end)
- Profit
