Next big things that never lived up to the hype, failed, or disappeared without a trace... What do you remember??

[Tenkaykev]

You must have been one of the few. Wasn’t that Red Robbo’s era?

Yes, Red Robbo indeed. Most people don't appreciate how vast the site was, 3 canteens ( one with a Silver Service restaurant for senior management which also staged boxing matches)
Many entrepreneurial employees, one older lady in the upholstery department was sacked ( and then reinstated) for having what would today be described as a " Side Hustle " selling condoms, usually to the apprentices).
Seeing it as a 22 year old it wasn't at all as the press at the time would have you believe, it was very much a cat and mouse game on both sides. If the work force was temporarily laid off due to no fault then they were paid 80% of their wage. Of course management knew well in advance of any glitches or component shortages that were coming up so would engineer a situation to provoke a walk out and avoid having to pay. There was the usual mix of characters, both good and bad on both sides, but far from how the situation was painted in the press. I stuck it for 10 months as the money at the time was very good and it was the opportunity to earn enough to put the deposit down on a house, but soon went back to my job in Electrical Engineering.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

sounded like a good idea at the time: Getting public to name significant projects eg "Boaty McBoatface". I still think we should be doing it more often.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

The Brabazon
TSR 2
ZETA nuclear fusion (take note, ITER)
The Maginot Line
Walter hydrogen peroxide submarine engines
Gas-turbine cars

 

[Alex321]

We keep a UK road atlas in ours.

Sat Nav is great but an atlas gives more context in unfamiliar parts of the nation. Especially for planning longer excursions, etc.

Sat Nav is not so great when you divert because of notice of long delays a couple of junctions ahead, because it will try to take you straight back to the motorway.

 

[DRM]

Sat Nav is not so great when you divert because of notice of long delays a couple of junctions ahead, because it will try to take you straight back to the motorway.

This, you have to learn to ignore the Nag Nav, as it does try to get you back on it's route, Google Maps does seem to guide you away from blockages though, as long as the data has. been updated , it seems a bit quicker now it's tied with Waze

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Sat Nav is not so great when you divert because of notice of long delays a couple of junctions ahead, because it will try to take you straight back to the motorway.

Not sure if the current one can do it

but the previous SatNav had a facility where you could say there is a blockage/delay x miles ahead and it would flag it and find a way round

2 problems
a) when you come up to a blockage - you are generally in a queue and cannot be sure where the actual blockage is to tell the SatNav
b) as you don;t do it often you would have to spend quite some time working out how exactly to do it

by which time you have either pulled out (on a non-motorway) and spent more time doing it than you would have saved or you have now passed the junction that you could have come off at and by-passed the problem.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Last week I came unstuck with both an atlas and satnav. I had searched for Redwings horse sanctuary, this was with Google maps on the car. Sure enough there were quite a few listings and I chose the one with the Norfolk postcode, just off the A140. However, it said that I had reached the destination but I had`nt, I was still ON the A140 and about 5 miles where I should have been. it was not on the atlas either. In hindsight I should have noted the night before the postcode proper.
When I think back to the days of driving across London and up to Manchester without a satnav and without getting lost. I always wrote the directions down, simples !

I did not survive very well before G maps. My sense of direction is appalling. I would write down directions but would then get paranoid that I was going the wrong way so would have to pull over every 5 mins to read my notes. Often I would just follow signs (detour) to the nearest big town or city, then try to go from there. But in those days, allowing extra time for journeys was more common, especially in my case

 

[Shearwater Missile]

I did not survive very well before G maps. My sense of direction is appalling. I would write down directions but would then get paranoid that I was going the wrong way so would have to pull over every 5 mins to read my notes. Often I would just follow signs (detour) to the nearest big town or city, then try to go from there. But in those days, allowing extra time for journeys was more common, especially in my case

Funny, how we are all different. I mostly had a sixth sense if I was going in the wrong direction but sometimes could be fooled if a road seemed to go in the wrong direction. ie where there is an intersection and the road you are on veers off before getting back on track. Panic, I am on the wrong road, panic over as the road then straightens and gets on track.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Funny, how we are all different. I mostly had a sixth sense if I was going in the wrong direction but sometimes could be fooled if a road seemed to go in the wrong direction. ie where there is an intersection and the road you are on veers off before getting back on track. Panic, I am on the wrong road, panic over as the road then straightens and gets on track.

Yeah - I was always pretty good at general directions

I could be fooled by a bendy road if the sun was hidden behind clouds but generally I could go in generally the right direction

As a kid I used to go out on my bike nad wander all over The Wirral
I got home by feeling
and after a while by the design of the houses - especially counsil houses

I noticed a lot about houses in different parts of the place
e.g. council house in Wallasey had far less room in the front - so no room for cars
but in Birkenhead there was more room and even places to park a car in spite of them not being very common at the time
but Wallasey built them slightly before Birkenhead and the concept of what was needed changed

 

[No Ta Doctor]

^^^Full possible length thread title that^^^ 😆

EDIT: Who shortened it? 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, Segways for a start, but there will be many, many other things, like Advantex cameras, iPods, Blackberries, etc.

What do you remember?

You can go on a Segway tour of Copenhagen
In fact, Tripadvisor has a page that ranks the top ten Segway tours of Copenhagen

 

[Sharky]

You can go on a Segway tour of Copenhagen
In fact, Tripadvisor has a page that ranks the top ten Segway tours of Copenhagen

Also popular at Leeds Castle...

 

[ianrauk]

Also popular at Leeds Castle...

View attachment 809587

Did that there with Jnr. Great fun. Quite easy to master. Of course him quicker then me.

The company that runs them are at Rochester Castle Fair every Christmas

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Time travel. You do not see the machines anymore.

 

[Sharky]

Time machines

I've got a time machine on my wrist and one on the mantle piece.

 

[cisamcgu]

When I was working in IT in the 1980s/90s lots of "the big new thing" came along and then

went

mostly very technical and better than anything else
until another company came up with a better idea

I have recently heard that OpenVMS - an operating system - is being discontinued
it was always massively better than anything Microsoft came up with
(even when then recruited the person who wrote it!!)


but marketing won out as usual

sorry - probably means naff all to most people - but VMS being kicked out means ANOTHER load of my memories, expertise and experience is now as much use as if it was based on designing new Steam Trains

I retired a few years ago, but I understand your pain - it was the greatest OS ever written, and the manuals arrived on a pallet (at least in the 1980's) - every.single.thing was fully documented