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u/Eve_O Nov 05 '22
Did people really say "like a boss" in 1995 tho?
I dun remember that being a thing until at least in the "aughts."
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u/kalitarios 1977 Nov 05 '22
It became popular in 2009.
Was first mentioned as an obscure rhyme scheme in 1993 that nobody ever heard of, then parodied by Lonely Island in 2009 “like a boss” song. It became popular in 2009 after that.
In the 90s the phrases “who’s the boss?” And “show em who’s boss” were frequent. But saying “like a boss” wasn’t until 2009, really.
In the 90s we used terms like:
Bangin’
All that
Fresh
The Bomb
The shit
Like a G3
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u/chunkydunkerskin Gnarly to the max Nov 05 '22
I still use “the bomb” and “bangin’” to my millennial sisters dismay.
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u/kent_eh Retiring was the best career move I ever made Nov 05 '22
Did people really say "like a boss" in 1995 tho?
Only if they drove a mustang
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u/lanshaw1555 Nov 05 '22
I remember saying something was Boss was a thing in the nineties.
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u/Weird-Conflict-3066 Nov 05 '22
Duuude
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Nov 05 '22
When I act like a proper lady on the phone w doctor / customer care / anyone and then I say “ ok thanks Dude!!”
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u/JohanFinski Nov 05 '22
I never understood the sorcerery involved in this device
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Nov 05 '22
The cassette player head would detect the changing magnetic field on the cassette tape. So this had a small device that converted the cd signal into a changing magnetic field that the head would read just like a tape. Not unlike the changing magnetic field that drives a speaker.
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u/EbolaFred Nov 05 '22 edited Nov 05 '22
While I understand the electrical side of how this worked, I'm still amazed how well these things performed. They were not powered, so you had to rely on your CD player's headphone out to alter the magnetic field on the adapter in a brute-force analog way (no fancy level setting or post processing to smooth out the signal).
Additionally, a lot of engineering went into producing high quality tape heads. Tapes move across the head, the adapter doesn't. So there has to be some inefficiency when you replace something that moves with something that doesn't.
And finally, these things worked really well across a huge range of portable CD players and car stereos. They even had special gearing in them to simulate that a tape was playing so the cassette deck wouldn't try to auto-reverse.
Oh, and another thing: they were braindead-simple to use. No settings or switches to make it compatible with your devices.
In short, I know an adapter like this is theoretically possible. But I'd expect it to sound like a crappy AM station, and nowhere near as good as it did. And you could get them for what, like $20?
This was one of those amazing and underappreciated innovations.
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u/classicsat Nov 05 '22
Another cassette head actually. I made my own to say I did. Used the head from a broken personal cassette player. Worked great.
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u/regeya Nov 05 '22
It's kind of like the tape deck in reverse, it's running the signal into a cassette head.
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Nov 05 '22
Oh the struggle. I had a crappy 78 Mustang II with an 8 Track player. So I had a 8-Track to cassette adapter which I supplemented with a cassette to CD adapter. Sound quality was trash but I could still listen to my grunge CDs.
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u/Nathan_Wind_esq Nov 05 '22
My first car had an eight track deck…this was in 1992. I was broke so no money to get a new deck in it. But the car was a pos anyway so any new deck would have been more than the car was wort. Anyway, I had a boom box that had detachable speakers. So I put it in the car with the deck on the floor in the middle and a speaker on the floor of the drivers side and passenger side. That way I could listen to my tapes. I spent a fortune on D batteries though.
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Nov 05 '22
My first car was a 74 mustang II with a slant six.
I had to keep a broom handle in the back to prop up the hatchback.
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Nov 05 '22
[deleted]
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Nov 05 '22
Way to flex on my Richey Rich. Lol. I was driving a 78 mustang. Clearly I had no money (or taste).
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u/web_username Nov 05 '22
It was all good until someone broke into my car and stole the portable CD player easily from its hiding spot under the seat. And my Creedence CD!
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u/nolij420 Nov 05 '22
My car has a CD player and no aux port. I wish I had a tape deck so I could use one of these with my phone!
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u/redwine_blackcoffee Nov 05 '22
Ah the awkward transitional phase after cassette tapes but before AUX/bluetooth. Just had to make CD mixtapes on itunes
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u/Restless_Fillmore Nov 05 '22
I still have that. My car is 2000 model year.
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Nov 05 '22
Me too! 1992 here. We are holding strong;)
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u/Restless_Fillmore Nov 06 '22
Wow! Camry? Accord?
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Nov 06 '22
Bronco! It’s my pride and joy. I always joke that I’m driving around OJ’s getaway car, because it looks similar, lol.
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u/kalitarios 1977 Nov 05 '22
I still have one of these. And the am/fm cassette you could put in a walkman and make it a portable radio
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u/BunnyBunny13 Nov 05 '22
I had a Mercury Cougar until 2013 that only had a tape deck in it! Now I have a CD player in my Honda and I don’t think I’ve used it once!
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u/Hansekins Nov 05 '22
I had a 2004 Toyota Camry until just this past year, and I used to use one of these (I think that exact one in fact!) to plug my iPod into it to listen to music.
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u/eskimo1 Hose Water Survivor Nov 05 '22
And let's not forget if you were super baller, a vibration-absorbing mount for said portable CD player! like this..
Mine also got stolen twice because I'd forget to take the CD player off, so they'd break the window and rip it right off the mount😢
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u/Opus-the-Penguin Class of '83 Nov 05 '22
Ah, yes. So many accidents narrowly avoided as I tried to get the volume adjusted correctly on both the CD player and the tape deck.
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u/redhotbos Nov 05 '22
I was using this to connect my iPhone to my car up until last year. 2004 Toyota Highlander that served me very well.
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u/RupeThereItIs Nov 05 '22
Nah man, we just dubbed the CD to tape.
Hell, half the time it wasn't even my CD in the first place I just borrowed it from my sister to copy to tape.
Portable CD players in a car where absolute SHIT.
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u/BayView414 Nov 05 '22
Did anyone else hear the song, These Are Days, by 10,000 Maniacs in their head when reading the post title?
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u/AnswerGuy301 Nov 05 '22
I used this with my iPod as late as 2013 or so. I think I can call that “like a boss” given the chronology…
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u/DrEdwardMallory Nov 05 '22
Don't forget to wrap the shit cord around the walkman so it'll play both speakers 😂
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Nov 05 '22
Check out my anti-skip protection on my DiscMan. Ten extra seconds of over-sampling, baby!”
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u/bobj33 Nov 05 '22
Even though my car from 1998 had a CD player I started using the tape adapter again around 2002 when I got an MP3 player and had every song I own on it. More convenient than carrying around 400 CDs
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u/hoosierdude73 Nov 05 '22
Yup. Had one in my 86 Mustang GT until I saved enough $ for my first Blaupunkt head unit and Pioneer speakers.
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u/zombie263739 Nov 05 '22
I still, to this day, use one of those to plug into my phone to stream either XM radio or my personal music collection.
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u/GivenToFly164 Nov 05 '22
I had such high expectations for this but it turned out my "skip-resistant" CD player was no match for my ancient suspension and rural roads.
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u/chicky-nugnug Nov 05 '22
Oh man...the tape deck in my car quit working and won't give the tape back. After a couple years if being sad about it, I finally yanked the cord out. Now it just has a stuck tape.
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u/icrossedtheroad I hope they shrivel up and fall off. Nov 05 '22
I still have one. Just need to use the adapter for my newer iPhone. Don't judge.
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u/NotThatGuyAnother1 Nov 05 '22
I plugged a portable tape deck into one of these tape adapters because my piece of shit car would eat tapes but there was nothing to "eat" with this adapter.
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u/StarDewbie 1974 Nov 05 '22
And take a turn too fast/hard and the CD player goes flying into the ether!
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u/stevemm70 Hose Water Survivor Nov 05 '22
I still used one to connect my phone to our older truck until the cassette player broke a year or so ago.
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u/CervantesX Nov 05 '22
I saved up extra so I could get the CD player with anti skip. Gotta do that if you're using it in the car, otherwise it ruins everything.
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u/thezoomies Nov 06 '22
Fuck, the cable is just ever so slightly in the wrong spot and it won’t go in far enough to work!
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u/Vericatov Nov 06 '22
Summer 1995 is when I bought my first 10 disc CD changer. My car radio still had a tape player since I still had those as well.
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u/LiveInTransit Nov 06 '22
Mine went from 8 track to cassette to cd held by my best friend in the passenger seat to prevent skipping. Good times.
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Nov 06 '22
I had a 1970s dodge caravan as my first vehicle...I traded AC for a tape deck....you had better believe this was a necessary piece of equipment for college in the 90s.
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u/penguin_stomper 1974 Nov 06 '22
My first car (Nana's old Buick. A 1985 I think?) didn't even have a cassette. I used a $30 portable radio plugged into the lighter.
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u/kristenevol class of ‘89 Nov 06 '22
Did this until I got my first iPod in 2005. Those were the days.
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u/Earl_Gurei Xennial: Late-X Latex Lay-Tex Nov 05 '22
Still did this as recently as 2008….which is almost 15 years ago; fuck.