Napster
Disruptive? Napster was certainly that. For a whole two years, it turned the record industry upside down. And made lost songs listenable again.
The hitchhiker
They were once ubiquitous, normal, and accepted. Now, however, the hitchhiker really has vanished.
The Giro
It survives in letters on your paying-in slips. But the Giro as shorthand for a bleak life on benefits is fading from memory. Perhaps for the best.
BOAC
The BOAC logo is back. The airline that vanished in the 1970s recently touched down again at Heathrow.
Untangling the spiral phone cord
It was the activity that kept you from murder and mayhem as you waited on hold, waited for your caller to dry up, or listened to Greensleeves for the 96th time.
The Y2K problem
In the popular memory, the millennium bug was something that failed to come to pass. However, that is only because an army of coders made sure it didn’t.
Carol singers
Strangers standing on your doorstep singing about Good King Wenceslas? A vanishing rarity.
The Independent in print
The online newspaper The Independent used to be a dead-tree version, too. Is this a path other titles may be forced to take?
Disc cameras
Another example of The Future that remains firmly in The Past. But wait! Also an example of The Future hiding in The Past.
British Telecom
The name vanished in 1991. Except not quite…
