What's obsolete in test, and what's not?

PC World recently published a piece called "Obsolete Technology: 40 Big Losers" citing things such as VHS tape, phone booths, dial-in bulletin boards, holding up a lighter at a concert, and getting an AOL disk in the mail. Well, VHS is alive and well in my home, but holding up a light is certainly out, at least at the Bruce Springsteen concert I recently attended.

In the test business, technology takes a long time to become obsolete. Here’s a list of things that I would call "obsolete" that are likely still in use somewhere.

* Parallel-port instruments
* Test equipment with red LED displays
* Resistance boxes with mechanical dials
* Digital oscilloscopes with CRT displays (new analog scopes still have them)

Technology that seems to live forever
* GPIB
* ISA instrument cards (yes, theire still manufactured and sold)
* GPIB
* RS-232
* GPIB
* Vertical and horizontal sensitivity knobs on oscilloscopes
* GPIB

Care to add to these lists?