Geek Pop Quiz, or, Wherein I Am Bored.

[theweaselking]

I sent an email this morning that started "Hey, we missed a prerequisite on [thing]. Nobody remembered this requirement because it's not 2006 and nobody has seriously used [thing] in the last decade."

This was a followup on my yesterday suggestion, which was that everyone who seriously wanted to use [thing] should be told to go to [store] and pick up [off the shelf] instead, it would be faster, easier, and cheaper.

Pop quiz: What do you think [thing] is?

A shiny precious no-prize for the correct answer. A second one for the BEST answer.

EDIT: Hints pulled up from comments.

#1: [thing] is a software feature, but it's an obsolete one, with complex prerequisites, that requires vendor-side support. Multiple different vendors, in fact. Like, ACTUAL SUPPORT, not "I have to go to multiple web pages to download packages" but "multiple different companies have to change things ON THEIR SIDE to make this work, per user."

Meanwhile, COTS consumer-grade commercial devices, available EVERYWHERE (at least three places in any given shopping mall), do the exact same thing, better, simpler, requiring very little vendor support.

#2: in 2006 I, as a person who Fixed All The Things for employees of My Beloved Corporate Masters, dealt with [thing] on nearly a daily basis.

And by 2008 it was *dead*. In part because by 2008 I no longer worked for an international megacorporation, but also in general. Employees of international megacorporations probably still encountered occasional instances of [thing] in the hands of legacy users for years afterwards.

Comments

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought too, but decided to toss it out there for now. Brain not working too well over bawwwing about Nimoy.

Um, hmmmm. Now what the heck it could be... tape backup? Still in use, though, aren't they? And this is a software feature we're talking about, right?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Tape backup = another good guess, and yes, anyone who wants a tape backup SHOULD walk into a Costco and grab a 3TB USB external drive instead! But people still use tape backups in serious ways.

[thing] is a software feature, but it's an obsolete one, with complex prerequisites, that requires vendor-side support. Multiple different vendors, in fact.

Meanwhile, COTS consumer-grade commercial devices, available EVERYWHERE (at least three places in any given shopping mall), do the exact same thing, better, simpler, requiring very little vendor support.

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

...send a fax-button?

Shit. My brain is really working overtime trying to figure out WTF this could be.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The next hint is pretty much a dead giveaway. So I'll see if anyone else wants to guess before giving it. :)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Actually, came up with a less-obvious hint:

Faxes aren't it because those haven't been relevant since *1996*, let alone 2006. But in 2006 I, as a person who Fixed All The Things for employees of My Beloved Corporate Masters, dealt with [thing] on nearly a daily basis.

And by 2008 it was *dead*. In part because by 2008 I no longer worked for an international megacorporation, but also in general.

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

*twitch* Too close to midnight, I cannot brain anymore.

Because I do 3D art, my next (humorous) suggestion is "Make Art" button, plus "Render Faster" button.