A big fan of old technology
I was clearing some closets recently and discovered that I have a veritable graveyard of old technology. Starting with a Palm V (anyone remember those?) through a mini-laptop and external drives. I also found a box of old drive cables, including a serial bus cable.
I remember when each of these was new, and how excited I was to get them. The Palm V was supposed to replace my paper diary (it didn’t, not completely) and keep me more organized. I did use it for the scheduling functions, but it often ran out of power. I think I spent more time playing solitaire on it than tracking my activities.
Then I had my MP3 player. I opted against the iPod, because I had a Zen that provided everything the iPod did for much less. I used it almost daily for over a year — I even upgraded it — and then it fell into disuse when I changed offices and lost access to the radio feature. My mini-laptop was my choice over a tablet; it was smaller and lighter than a traditional laptop, but lacked the touchscreen of a tablet.
And so on... looking at these, I wonder to myself about what I have lost over the years. In part, there is a lot of data that was never backed up — all tech people preach about backups and are often guilty of not doing them! There is also the media that was used for storage. I found a box of 3.5” diskettes (anyone?) that may hold some documents from my early youth. There are also CDs which hold photos that were digitized from film. There’s potentially lots of information that’s no longer available. Who knows? Perhaps I have the draft of the next Game of Thrones in my files! It’s far more likely, though, that I have multiple copies of the same photo of me looking young and silly!
The old technology is on its way to a recycling facility. The closet looks less jammed, and I’m eyeing the box of old DVD movies next... I haven’t watched many of them, even now, and I think that they might get a better home or be turned into something funky by someone more artistically inclined than myself. Meanwhile, I’m resisting the urge to buy a new computer (laptop, really) while I try to pry myself loose from my iPad a few times a day.
Anyone else have a shrine to old technology?
I remember when each of these was new, and how excited I was to get them. The Palm V was supposed to replace my paper diary (it didn’t, not completely) and keep me more organized. I did use it for the scheduling functions, but it often ran out of power. I think I spent more time playing solitaire on it than tracking my activities.
Then I had my MP3 player. I opted against the iPod, because I had a Zen that provided everything the iPod did for much less. I used it almost daily for over a year — I even upgraded it — and then it fell into disuse when I changed offices and lost access to the radio feature. My mini-laptop was my choice over a tablet; it was smaller and lighter than a traditional laptop, but lacked the touchscreen of a tablet.
And so on... looking at these, I wonder to myself about what I have lost over the years. In part, there is a lot of data that was never backed up — all tech people preach about backups and are often guilty of not doing them! There is also the media that was used for storage. I found a box of 3.5” diskettes (anyone?) that may hold some documents from my early youth. There are also CDs which hold photos that were digitized from film. There’s potentially lots of information that’s no longer available. Who knows? Perhaps I have the draft of the next Game of Thrones in my files! It’s far more likely, though, that I have multiple copies of the same photo of me looking young and silly!
The old technology is on its way to a recycling facility. The closet looks less jammed, and I’m eyeing the box of old DVD movies next... I haven’t watched many of them, even now, and I think that they might get a better home or be turned into something funky by someone more artistically inclined than myself. Meanwhile, I’m resisting the urge to buy a new computer (laptop, really) while I try to pry myself loose from my iPad a few times a day.
Anyone else have a shrine to old technology?
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