What old tech are you holding onto and why?
Every so often I'll fill out a survey of some sort that asks how tech-savvy I am, and one of the options will be something like early adopter or tech enthusiast: "I'm the first of my friends to have the latest gadgets and they come to me for recommendations/advice." I've finally accepted that I can't delude myself into thinking that still applies to me.
I don't like Android or iOS so my phone is ancient (I've had longstanding issues with both permissions and UI). I still use an mp3 player daily (lots of my favorite music isn't on streaming sites). I'm running Windows 7 and 8 on my two computers (until I take the plunge and switch over to Linux; Windows 10 can eat a fat one). I find that most consumer tech for at least the past decade does stuff I like but I either can't find new products that don't remove some functionality that's perfect for my use-case scenarios or privacy concerns make me shy away.
Adobe's CS6 software. It's about 8 years old now, but vastly outperforms the newer CC software packages.
I don't know why, but a lot of software packages (Adobe's, Office) are incredibly slow, even on high end hardware.
PS takes about 10 minutes to load a short 15-second video file to frames, as well as taking about 10 minutes before the Open... GUI even opens at all. It decides to live in about 8GB ram at most, even though I've got a lot more than that. There's space, try using it.
And Office programs....The programs already freeze if I try to resize the window or move them to a different monitor. Slow and uneccessarily bloated.
I held on to this for quite a while, but eventually it stopped working on my computer. (I think the 32 to 64-bit switch was the issue?) Now I've just moved away from Adobe completely. I'm not doing a subscription for that stuff.
Oh, me neither ;)
What do you use in its stead? I used to know my way around GIMP but that was probably ten years ago already.
Uuuhhh, I think he's...you know..."yaar harr fiddle dee dee"
Are you trying to say I pirate it? (If so, it took me quite a while to figure out that's what your comment meant.) If so, then no, I don't pirate it. If I wanted to use it, I would pay, but the subscription model for it is enough to turn me off. (The 30 year old UI doesn't help, either.)
I use a few different things. For doing bulk photo cleanup, I'm now using Apple Photos, which is not my favorite, but has come a long way in recent releases. I stuck with Aperture as long as it continued to run, but with the Catalina update, I no longer have that option. I have a supposedly "standalone" license for Lightroom, but a) I hate Lightroom's interface, and b) it's not really standalone. You still can't run it without having an Adobe account. So it's sitting in a closet.
For other stuff I've used Pixelmator Pro. I have a license for a few Affinity products as well. I really miss Aperture's organizational tools, though. I haven't found anything to replace those.
I think it's the DRM they use. IIRC I once saw a benchmark between a cracked-with-drm-completely-removed version of an unidentified Adobe CC program and a legit version, with the cracked version being vastly faster. But not only was the program not identified, it didn't even mention what was being benchmarked. So it could have easily been something someone whipped up in 2.5 seconds to try to say Piracy > Not Piracy.
I'm gonna be that guy and mention something that would make your eyes roll:
Despite all the advanced note-taking applications and outliners and even my own goddamn app, I still have a bunch of sticky papers and a pen on the table at all times.
The reason I think this is important to mention is 'cause there are no decent alternatives to it so far. Hoo boy did I look. The only thing close to the paper experience – at least according to the promises on the pre-order page – is this thing.
There's nothing out there that can simulate the note-taking experience based in paper, or at least in physical motion of putting the note down.
For one, having a separate thing to write on when you're the average user with fewer than two monitors is important for consolidating a workflow of any complexity. If I'm testing a game, I want a separate thing – not just a separate tab or a separate window – to focus on. The thing on the monitor is one; the thing to write on is another – but they're part of the same expanded work process. I find switching between tabs or windows confusing when comparing information or taking notes that's just occured to me.
Something like Intergrid is for dedicated work: you turn it on and you sit there for a few minutes or hours writing down whatever's on your mind. Maybe research something on the side occasionally if you have to. Your main focus is with the note-taker 'cause that's your workflow: taking notes. When taking notes about something – rather than focusing on your own mind – I find the need to refocus substantially, and having separate items helps a great deal.
Another thing is: apparently taking notes by hand is to great effect. From what I understand, involving physicality into your note-taking process makes your mind more engaged and more eager to retain the information. Maybe that's perfectly true – but it's also satisfying to take notes by hand. I dunno what it is about it, but I'd much prefer the physical process for shorter, temporary notes, even if it's slower than typing.
As far as I'm aware, tablets are unable to replicate the paper experience with any reliability. There's barely any feedback – and what feedback there can be is poorly simulated. You can't use it with ease: you have to consider how your hand lies on the device itself, which may cause false-input issues as well as put too much physical pressure on the tablet. (My hands are big and heavy. After months of use, it's going to have its effect on the screen curvature.) Altering the way you write because your writing base is too sensitive is not good user experience.
If that thing I linked to before is any indication, it could be done without the aformentioned issues. I sure would like to see if it's true when it comes out.
Then there's the permanence and the portability.
Some apps offer automatic storage sync for the notes you put down. I've never tried this, but I imagine sharing the note – if even possible (never tried!) – is not nearly as easy as passing a paper. Is it too much to expect from modern technology? I don't think it is. We have facial recognition and fingerprint locks in our smartphones as a default. Whatever UX to come out of this kind of creativity would at least rival that of the real-world thing. (And no, I'm not suggesting it's easy to replicate. I'm saying we have the capacity to produce something like that, as evident by the fact we've already produced incredible pieces of technology.)
It's also that the notes don't feel permanent. I've had my OS crash on my a few times in my lifetime, resulting in me losing all files. When transferring OSes on purpose, I'd at least once forgotten to backup an important set of data, which meant I lost it after the SSD overwrite. Whatever notes the app owner may have stored in their cloud is in their cloud – something that just plain doesn't sit well with me in terms of reliability. I want my notes to survive, and while paper is famously fragile to even mild damage, digital notes feel ephemeral by comparison. (It could be one of those near-sighted fallacies, like when people consider car to be the safest way to travel when it's actually airplane, but because we hear so much about plane crashes and feel so much less in control if it ever does... Biases are strong when unexamined.)
I'd be one of the first adopters to whatever technology can replace paper as a medium of note-taking. I'm a fan of the idea of e-paper, and I'm eager to see it develop to a point where you look at it and think it must be sci-fi except it's real life.
I'm with you for the most part, especially when it comes to the whole tab/screen switching. Your whole post, but especially the penultimate paragraph, hints at another issue with digital notes - I feel like they generally take more mental overhead. Yes, I still have notes from when I went paperless with an iPad Pro and pencil for an old job, but accessing them would be a pain in the tit if I switched back to Android. Portability is hugely important to me, so I journal with Standard Notes. But occasionally I think about their service going down. All good, I have backups, it's open-source, etc....but that's still overhead!
Then again, if I used paper and my house burns down....
...losing your notes would be among the least of your concerns, I imagine.
I gave Standard Notes a shot recently, and... their app is Electron. My laptop is slow. Therefore, I can't use the damn thing would another layer of overhead: having to wait for it to load, or having to close other applications to use it reliably. (Yes, I'm in that sorta situation. I'm not alone.)
Yes! I was going to say just that :-)
I use paper, primarily because I do a ton of math in real life for work, but I am also a heathen who codes on paper before typing it into a computer. I find it helps me organize my thoughts and think more critically because it takes so much more effort to write a line of code on a piece of paper than to blindly type on a keyboard.
I've found that thinking about stuff on paper (i.e., writing it down) really helps me think about algorithms and data structures a whole lot. Though what I've been coding doesn't really involve any thought that is exceedingly difficult, I imagine the process carries over well into tough problems.
Pen/cil and paper rules.
I use an iPad to take notes at uni and have since year 11 (so for 4 years total).
There are several reasons I prefer writing on my iPad and making stuff on the computer in general, I’m going to go through your points and explain why what you don’t like about tablets is actually a plus point for me or untrue (vis-à-vis resting your palm).
The primary reason is my notes are neater and easier to edit, I can achieve quality unimaginable on paper (for me).
Here is an important difference. I find notes on my iPad to be less ephemeral, because I can rely on them being there when I need them. Throughout my life, I’ve rarely “lost” a paper document, but frequently I’ve found myself needing one but not being able to find it. This makes them feel more ephemeral to me; I can write a paper document and then I might not find it until two years later.
Of course, to solve this I can manually organise paper documents, but this is also disadvantageous as implementing an organisation scheme takes a lot of effort (and I’ve done Amy Santigo-ish schemes). On my iPad I can choose not to organise my notes and just do a handwriting recognition search for them. If I want to organise them, it’s much more convient as compared to ruffling with paper.
I could lose all of my notes if my iPad breaks, and iCloud fails simultaneously; but you’re more likely to lose a single paper note than you than the alternative. In terms of app glitches, I’ve only had one case of data loss during the entire aforementioned period — where I lost a page and a half. This is as you acknowledged, the car-plane fallacy.
I don’t deny my iPad’s screen feels nothing like paper. It does take some getting used to, but for handwriting (especially mathematics) I prefer my iPad because it makes writing so effortless (due to the lack of friction); going to paper feels like switching from a rollerball to a fountain pen. The glide does make it harder to freehand polygons, but then I use the shape tool to obtain perfect shapes. In terms of putting my hand down, I do it all the time and haven’t had any associated issues these past years.
I’ve also tried the remarkable, and it doesn’t quite match the feeling of writing paper, it’s like a mix between sandpaper and writing paper but it’s coming very close. Personally, I wouldn’t buy one because I think it’s more important to render what you’re writing on the screen fast than it is to simulate the feeling of paper. I also think that trying to mimic paper might be the wrong way to go about it because paper hasn’t always felt like this, and actually varies quite a lot in terms of roughness even today.
This reminds me:
Editing is an important part of my note-taking process. My thinking is fuzzy, it continues even as I write things down, meaning I may want to edit the half-note I've just written. Digital notes make it effortless, which is one reason I may prefer those. Outlining is easy when you don't have to worry about editability. Paper loses this by failing to show up.
If I could replicate the paper experience with editability, you bet I won't be going to actual paper any time soon.
As for paper vs. tablet: I need feedback. It's why I don't like virtual keyboards: they provide no kinesthetic response to being pressed. Techies generally dismiss physical keyboards on smartphones because of their poor quality, but I'm convinced I'd prefer to have one because that's how I orient myself on a typing surface: by touch and spacial memory.
If tablets were able to provide me with the physical feedback of writing, that would eliminate much of my concern about tablets. Doesn't matter much whether it's freehand writing, virtual keyboards, or a different method entirely, as long as I can feel material resistance. For that matter, I'd even consider Mass Effect-like magnetic-resistance finger implants for non-physical (i.e. holographic and the like) keyboards. That should clarify just how much I need to feel the touch.
That's good to know. Perhaps the technology improved from the last time I checked it. I'd like to give it another shot if I get to use someone's tablet for half an hour.
Retro gaming consoles. I still get so much satisfaction playing SNES, N64, PS1/2, Sega Genesis, etc., although more recently, I've been all about old PC games. My brother and I have been playing some AOE online during the quarantine.
Oh, I also have an original dumb Panasonic plasma screen TV that is heavy as all get out but an amazing piece of equipment. Plus three 2008-2009 MBPs with upgraded RAM, SSDs, etc. that still run nicely.
I still use a Dell 2007wfp monitor mainly because it has composite inputs that I could hook my PSX up to. I finally bit the bullet and started selling off my collection a few months ago though, I'd just had it in storage for a couple years by that point.
I'm on the 4:3 version of that monitor! It really is great - it's one of the last high res 4:3 ones you can buy, it rotates and adjusts in height, and I use the S-Video input for my GameCube. You can even do picture in picture with it, which is awesome for following along with a guide or playing while waiting for a compile to finish. Truly a great device, I fucking love mine so much, and I'm going to be so bummed when the lightbulb burns out one of these days.
You have some awesome games there - Ape Escape is so so incredibly underrated! Also, FIFA 97 was the first game I owned for PS1, and my brother and I, both in our 30s, still quote it to each other. Whenever you take a shot from way out, John Motson says, "that was a bit optimistic."
Thanks... sigh. I keep telling myself I've made peace with not getting around to actually playing some of them. I still have most of them though, hopefully not for too much longer.
It doesn't really count, but I've got a modded iPod 5.5 Video (4x micro SD, 2000mAh battery) that I use every single day.
The old iPods are great. Parts are cheap, so if something breaks or I just want a different color, it's a breeze to swap out.
Not that old, but I'm hoping to die with my iPhone SE and will take as long as humanly possible to replace my late 2013 macbook pro. For the stuff I do (design, basic video, and spreadsheet stuff), there's no reason to upgrade. I barely use the phone.
I've also got an old Sansa Clip+ (both of these run Rockbox) that I keep in the car. It's tiny and sounds great.
It's survivor-bias, but old tech is the best :)
Of course it does. It's technology, and it's more than a decade old. That makes it an antique by IT standards!
oof... fifteen years! That went by faster than I thought.
Yup I still have my fifth gen iPod Video and a second gen iPod Mini, both work fine and I use them semi regularly.
If you’re up for a little project, modding the Ipod video is a breeze and you end up with a 60+ playtime battery life, not to mention the ability to have a terabyte or whatever for storage (JBOD)
I am/was a member of the anything-but-iPod brigade (for which there used to be a dedicated website). My Cowon J3 is possibly my favorite ever device and still going strong, it's a shame they never got around to getting Rockbox stable on it.
ha. that's awesome. It looks like some folks have worked on it over the years, but yeah, nothing stable.
It's a shame that there isn't a larger market for offline PMPs these days. It's such a waste to drain a phone just because you can't survive without music playing all day. :)
You’re pretty much me except I have a Thinkpad from 2013! I also got 512GB card for the iPod for an absolute steal, so I only have that in there on its lonesome.
I have three Clip Pluses as they’re absurdly expensive, so I buy them when they appear cheap. Being in Australia means this isn’t often.
Rockbox all day...
Rockbox really is the best, eh.
It's insane how expensive the Clip+ is. I got mine for a song and suggested it to a bunch of people --- then I saw that people were trying to sell them for $80. At least with the Clip+ the internal storage doesn't matter, so we don't need to get the 8gb or whatever like we most likely have.
Thinkpads are my overall favorite. A few years ago I needed a good on-the-town laptop and I was so close to buying this heavily modded t420 for about $300 or something silly. The mods alone cost more. I ended up getting a chromebook to run Xubuntu on, which was a good choice, but I still wish I had a Thinkpad kicking around. I miss trackpoint and the older keyboards.
The iPod is pretty awesome, I was looking into doing this a few months back. Unfortunately, I dumped those plans once I really got into using spotify.
I only recently got into Spotify. I love it! I used to be die-hard against streaming and all that... but this just works. I love sharing playlists, etc. It won't replace my good ol' iPod, but it really wants to :)
Everything? All of it? All my tech is old! :)
I still have a VHS player, because I still have some old movies and personal recordings on VHS.
I have a clock-radio my parents bought me on my 16th birthday back in the 1980s. It's practically an antique, but it still works. I keep it for sentimental reasons.
I only just retired (literally 2 weeks ago) a microwave oven that has given me more than 30 years' service without a hint of trouble. The only reason I retired it is because it has acquired rust on the inside of the door, which seems like a safety risk. I bought a similar model by the same manufacturer but, sadly, I know it won't give me 30 years' service like the last one did.
My desktop computer is 11 years old, and is running Windows 7. It's never given me any trouble (except that the CD drive sometimes won't eject when it's empty).
I just don't throw things out when they get old. I keep them as long as they work. I also don't like the consumerist philosophy of discarding and replacing things regularly. That's wasteful in so many ways.
When I bought a mobile phone a year ago (the old one was getting screen burn), I deliberately bought a retro-style phone because I hate the modern style of phones which are just boring bland sheets of glass.
I wouldn't say "holding onto" as I just purchased it about a year or two ago, but at work I use an IBM Model M keyboard manufactured in 1989 (at their South Carolina plant, if I recall correctly). I bought it from Clicky Keyboards. They refurbish them and sell them. I had to buy a PS\2 to USB dongle to plug it into my Mac Pro, but it works like a charm. (Oh, I also had to convert the Caps Lock into the Option key because there's no key where Option should be.) It sounds like a machine-gun when I type, but it feels so good.
Thank you for the intro to Clicky Keyboards! (Gonna save that in my bookmarks for when i need a keyboard!)
Sure thing!
My Dad gave me an IBM Model M keyboard. I still use it to this day (with a PS/2-USB adapter) for two reasons: I think it's cool to have an antique piece of equipment that still does its job; and it reminds me of my Dad, whom I really look up to.
If he owned it back in the day, I'm assuming he owned an actual PS/2 at one point? Or were there really people who bought IBM keyboards to go with compatibles in the 90s? I've honestly always wondered if that was a popular thing to do, or if it's more of a modern thing to cherish model M's because current keyboards aren't as good.
He worked with old IBM machines (well, they were not that old at the time, of course). I think the Model M is great, though I understand that some people prefer a quiet keyboard. I also know that you can buy a modern keyboard that has a similar key action, but, as I said, I like the antique quality of the Model M.
Makes sense that he got it from working with IBM, seems to be that most people I've talked to who actually held onto IBM stuff worked there.
Still though, I don't suppose you know if he kept anything else? You could always restore an old PS/2 or whatever he has from that era if you're looking for retro/antique appeal. There's quite a few communities out there to support that hobby.
I’m holding on to a broke ass iPhone 5 for reasons of poverty.
My knee-jerk reaction to this was "iPhone 5 is old tech now?".
I have a 5C. I've also had a brickphone for a while. I cannot stress enough how much more advanced even this ostensibly old model of iPhones is to a brickphone.
Back when I had the brickphone, I had a groupmate send me MMS with an image of the classes schedule... to which I had to reply "Sorry, my thingie doesn't support MMS". I've had phones more advanced than this all the way back in the early 00s.
To be clear: my gripe is with the notion of obsolescence, not with the fact you consider it true.
iPhone SE here, not because I can't get a newer phone but because I prefer smaller iPhones, ones that actually fit in my hands and pockets. They're also quite thick compared to newer models, I really don't like the flimsy stuff since someone decided 'we' want a phone that's as thin as possible.
I have my old-ass laptop that I started college with. I tried to set it up as a homeserver but it overheats easily and my router's not forwarding the port, anyway.
I also have a 1st-gen Raspberry Pi that's mouldering doing nothing. Maybe I should set it up as the homeserver, haha.
You could turn that Pi into a Tor relay node if you've got spare bandwidth and it isn't illegal in your jurisdiction.
What if I don't want the feds knocking on my door because some pedophile's CP went through my node on its way to his computer?
That's why it's a Tor relay node instead of an exit node. Relay nodes only ever forward on encrypted data packets and can't actually know what they contain.
Encrypted or not, I don't want those bits passing through my network under any circumstances.
While that's entirely your prerogative, you would never be able to tell exactly what bits are passing through and that you are forwarding on.
Just my opinion, but if one truly believes that freedom from persecution of the contents of your speech, thoughts, and ideas is a fundamental human right, then the existence of Tor is a necessity. In order for the tool to fulfill its purpose, I can pass no judgement over the bits that pass through my relay.
ooh that would be interesting. do you know how I'd find out if it's legal or no?
The EFF has a pretty good legal FAQ guide for relay node operators, however it looks like it hasn't been updated in years.
I have a ~13 year old Toshiba Portege R400 (Windows Vista OEM) that I installed Linux Mint XFCE onto for playing around with/learning Linux on without potentially breaking my main PC. It struggles just running the GUI, and completely crashes when I try to open Firefox so I mainly do things through a virtual terminal where I can - I also had to install Elinks for textmode browsing since rendering modern webpages through Firefox or Chromium seems to be out of the question :/ Works well enough as a GUI-less Bash terminal though.
Linux mint xfce is light on resources; but i believe there are other linux distros out there that are even lighter, which might help you. Have you considered trying other, different linux distros which might be better suited for "legacy" or more modest (resource-wise) systems? One that comes to mind is Lubuntu . Obviously, that is not the only option; there are many other choices as well. Also, i have not tried Lubuntu in many years, so not sure if they still as good as they used to be. See also DistroWatch for help choosing other linux distributions. You are not alone in getting legacy devices to get "resurrected" by a linux distro. Good luck!
Thanks! I tried Lubuntu already from a friend's suggestion and got similar performance, that's definitely something I should look into more though. If only Damn Small Linux didn't go dark for 7 years :P
You should try out puppy linux, that's usually one of the go tos for older hardware. Arch might be worth a shot as well. It runs well enough on a laptop of mine that's around the same age and specs, though for a first time user, the install process can be a tad intimidating.
I'll check out puppy linux for sure :) I think it's struggling with the desktop and certain programs like Firefox more than anything else, not sure switching to Arch would do it much good but might still be worth trying at least? I think the bottleneck is the integrated graphics rather than something like memory usage.
My laptop is a Thinkpad X62—an X61 (circa 2007) with custom internals (late 2016). Prior to that it was an X201s (2010). All run the current Debian Stable. Somewhere between five and ten years ago, every laptop manufacturer switched to chiclet keyboards, and since they're fundamentally unacceptable and the keyboard is by far the most important touchpoint on a laptop, I'm apparently never going to buy a newer laptop.
My cell phone is a Galaxy S7 (2016) running LineageOS 17 (n.b. this is a bad combo—you need the international S7 because the US version has a locked bootloader for reasons far too stupid to get in to, and it's not well-supported; there's one unofficial build). Prior to that it was a Nexus 4 (2012), also running Lineage.
My home router is a Buffalo WZR-600DHP (2012) running OpenWRT. Prior to that was the famous WRT54GL, also running OpenWRT, but the hardware is inadequate for the last several OpenWRT major versions. I have a home-built NAS (built in 2012, memory upgraded since) running FreeBSD and a Raspberry Pi (1 B, 2012) with Raspbian running Homeassistant for me to play around with.
The general trend is older, high-quality (flagship/prosumer/professional) hardware running up-to-date free software operating systems/firmware. Free software tends to be more resilient to Wirth's Law than proprietary, and high-quality hardware is reliable and cheap on the used market.
On the other hand, my desktop (home-built in 2011 and steadily upgraded since) is cutting edge—but it's used 90% for gaming, where high performance isn't really negotiable (though thankfully the pace has slowed immensely in the past decade or so), and for the remaining 10% I find it extremely useful to have a high-performance machine in the house.
I am definitely not, in the strongest terms, an "early adopter" or "tech enthusiast", even though I'm one of the tech-savviest people I know. I strongly discourage everyone from closely following tech trends. It's just a Silicon Valley obfuscation of regular-old consumerism, with the anticonsumer wrinkle of generally selling buggy or incomplete products as well.
I'm an enthusiast in the sense of keeping tabs on consumer tech and my willingness to learn about and tinker with my stuff, but I've never been supportive of that type of consumerism either.
Physical books. Much more ceremonious to open a book, take in its typography and design, smell the pages, and flip the pages than opening an ebook on an ebook reader. Makes me feel more devoted to the book and I'm able to take it in without digital distraction. The tactile nature of a physical book can't be beat. Plus, you get to put them on a shelf and appear much more cultured to any visitors.
I've long had an Austrian-made pair of AKG K240 MKIIs. The cable is frayed (it's replaceable but I haven't come around to it) and the mesh protecting the drivers has fallen off, but I'm still hanging on to them.
A Fender Dynatouch Plus Princeton 65 that my mother bought for me (with financial help from various family members) for a birthday in 2002-3? will be with me forever, despite the fact that the input jack is clunky and a knob or two has fallen off. It's been my only amp since then.
The sum total list of decorations in my apartment right now:
Honestly, if it weren't for books there wouldn't be a single decoration in my apartment I wasn't forced to have. (The painting itself was a gift I was socially required to bring with me.)
I don't really know if this is what you were going for, but I still own paper maps for a lot of places. GPS wasn't really a thing for most my life, either because the tech didn't exist, my family couldn't justify spending money on it, and at the end my dad's stubbornness. I will use Apple Maps for specifics, but on any trip where I'm not 1000% familiar with the area I'll bring a physical map for in case my phone dies and I'll do a bit of map marking before I leave to make sure I am not going in blind. I have books of maps for the state I live in now, my home state, and the state I go on vacation the most. Just feels safer. Once the pandemic is over I want to buy a map of my city including all the public transportation routes to use for day-to-day stuff, just to flex that muscle a bit and work on spacial reasoning.
I'm running through a lot of "old" laptops at this point too. My partner has the most $200-est walmart laptop from 10 years ago that I just installed Ubuntu-MATE on because Windows was too resource-intensive for it, and I'm typing this on a $200 lenovo something-or-other that I took from my parents because they don't use it anymore and put Ubuntu-MATE on that too. Both work mostly fine for my needs. I have my macbook pro for all my work stuff, and my personal computing is mostly small example apps for learning Rust, playing MtGA, and then reading MtG Lore and building decks and looking at stats on mtgarena.pro.
You know, I have to say I really can't fathom how we all made trips to places we didn't know before GPS and cellphones. I grew up long before they came about but it seems so natural now.
It’s definitely been a while since I had to depend on one for something complicated!
Public transportation providers will usually have maps of their routes available on their websites (at least, the ones around me), so you should be able to print those.
Yeah its was mostly laziness and cheapness before and now it is COVID. Now its just that I don't own a printer ;_;
That's funny, before all this pandemic business, I actually had "buying paper maps" as a to-do item. Beyond the need for guiding myself, I also wanted to flex my "mapping" muscle. Kudos to you for having these maps!
(I did grow up when maps were the main method to orient one's self; and later in life i was too poor/cheap to get actual GPS devices...until mobile phones nowadays anyways.)
You should try to navigate somewhere using only a map and compass. I was born in the early 90's so I grew up just in the beginning of handheld GPS's, so never really had to use a map besides in the backcountry. My dad took me on a backpacking trip and made me navigate to a specific point on the mountain using only a map and compass. It remains one of the most useful and enjoyable memories I have of being outdoors. It's genuinely challenging but fun to figure it out.
Especially if you only take it out once you're lost, like we did. Took us hours of walking back and forth to figure out where we were :)
I still have a first gen Kindle, with e-ink. The thing is awesome, and a great way to read. I don't use it that often these days, but I have more books on it than I do physical books.
Do you find it comfortable to read? Is it more comfortable compared to your average paper book?
The feel in your hand is about the same as a thin book, and the screen was designed to look like a page from a book too. The only downside is there's no backlight, so it's tough to read on a plane at night. What I like about it vs a real book, is that my Kindle is actually a couple dozen books, and it's linked up to Amazon so I can always get a new one. If I'm taking it on vacation, I can wait until I get to the airport to decide what to read.
Edited to add: you can download any public domain book for free, which includes a lot of the classics.
I have a Kindle Paperwhite (more modern, E-Ink ereader) and it's far, far, far more comfortable to hold than a book. First of all, it's backlit so you don't need to be under a lamp. The fact that you don't have to hold the pages open makes it easy to hold the device at any angle with minimal effort. I read it in bed above my *face every single night. The newer models are even waterproof and even have bluetooth for audiobooks (I've never used). Plus there are multitude of features available like long-pressing on a word brings up the definition or Wikipedia article. It makes reading far more enjoyable for me.
I've had two Kindles now, as the first one died randomly after 5 years of use. I can't imagine reading any other way, and at the risk of sounding completely millennial and ridiculous, books are so cumbersome and difficult to read. I can't stand reading paper books now.
edit: added a word
How's the battery on that thing? Bluetooth, backlight, Wi-Fi connection... Not exactly energy-efficient parts for a digital device.
I keep it in Airplane mode 99.9% of the time to extend battery life as well as make the ads go away. I use my device at least an hour a day, usually 2-3 lately. With this pattern my battery lasts about 10 days. If I only read for an hour before bed it lasts months.
You can pay $15 more to get a Paperwhite with no ads on lockscreen, either at purchase or any time you have the device. They're not that intrusive so I chose to save the $15. They're black and white and are only there when you're not actually using the device, so not a big deal.
Case in point for why I'm often dissatisfied with newer tech... I forgot those freaking things show ads. I try to minimize my exposure to advertising as much as I can, and then I end up forgetting the rest of the world doesn't. I nearly flung my then-gf's Kindle across the room in disgust the first time I noticed one on her lockscreen.
Hahaha, I totally know what you mean. Anytime I use a friends device without an adblocker I nearly drop the thing in disgust, I forget how disgusting and invasive advertising is. I've so thoroughly removed it from my internet experience I often forget how pervasive it is.
I read somewhere you can hop on a chat with Amazon and politely ask them to remove the ads from your Kindle. Just say you would not like to pay the $15, and they'll do it.
I've heard about this and been meaning to do it but just never got around to it. Honestly, I leave airplane mode on 99.9% of the time so the ads don't bother me.
Is this a thing only in US? I have a Paperwhite 3 and it shows no ads (Brazil).
I think I will never turn airplane mode off just to be safe. Maybe it will appear in a future update.
Vacuum tubes! Have a set of them on my headphone amp paired with some DT880s. Went through quite a few amplifiers that never paired quite right with them, but the tubes did the trick and kicked up the bass, toned down the high frequencies, and smoothed out the sound a bit. Essentially, traded some accuracy for a sound that's much more enjoyable. Now it's the best of both worlds with rich engaging sound, and while retaining a huge soundstage that's always impressive during gaming (DT880s are reference headphones for studio use).
Have half a dozen sets of those tubes just in case the world ever runs out!
I've always been an android phone guy...Not so much as a fanboy of android...More a little bit poor, and a little bit philosophically opposed about paying so much for apple devices. But at one point, i had the resources to buy an iphone SE, and sort of got over my slight annoyance at apple price tags...And then held the iphone SE in my hand, and fell in love with the form factor! I never pulled the trigger, never swicthed over to apple iphone ecosystem because had heard word that SE was going the way of the dodo bird; that apple was no longer going to support this phone, etc. Well, i dislike buying phones all the time; very much a fan of logevity with my phones (and other devices). So, considering that apple was supposedly going to kill off the SE - i held off buying it. Now, i regret it. I could've gotten at least a few years of good use out of it. And, things have flipped recently for me: i somewhat disdain android phones (for privacy/philosophical reasons). I'm not up on any new SE models coming out...but if they do release a new one - in a similar form factor (the smaller, the better) - then I might consider getting one. But to one of your points, many of the people i know would - weirdly enough - consider the SE "old tech" - which is ridiculous (i don';t think that its old tech, but whatever).
I've a LaserJet III (released 1990) that I just got started using again. I picked it up in college off of a fellow FreeCycler, used it a bit, then stopped since I didn't need to print as much. Now that we're on lockout, wife needed a printer at home, and I found it's easy as ever to use this one, even on Windows 10. It came with a USB-parallel adapter that's plug&play, with just having to install drivers from Windows Update for the printer itself.
The guy I picked it up from gave me a bunch of old half-used toner cartridges, and I haven't had to buy any since I've had it.
As someone else already said, it's not really holding onto if you bought it recently but I actually collect and restore old computers. I have about four IBM computers I've collected, but I have more than just IBM systems. My oldest computer is an Apple II+ from 1979, and my newest is a Compaq server from 1998 for example.
My real pride and joy though is my IBM 5170. It came to me in pretty poor condition to be honest, and it had a few immediate problems I had to fix. Ironically, it seems to be in good shape internally because its previous owner(s?) couldn't get it to work. Still, the appearance is kind of rough, and it's missing an actual IBM keyboard or monitor. I managed to scavenge era appropriate hardware for it, but my dream is to get it back to original IBM condition, with manuals printer and everything.
On another note, it's funny to me that there's only a couple people talking about vintage PC stuff so far and they're both about IBM keyboards. In my experience it's near impossible to actually find them in the wild. I found an IBM PC-XT keyboard in the wild once but passed on buying it because I didn't have an XT or PC at the time. I've since come to regret that immensely lol.
My only "smart" device is a Nexus 7 tablet. It still works, so I haven't replaced it yet. Mostly I just use it to check my email, listen to audiobooks, or play a round of Desert Golfing.
I don't use it that much nowadays but my only ever tablet is a Blackberry Playbook. I only really use it for Jetpack Joyride and streaming videos from my main PC while I'm in the loo. It's got the best speakers I've ever heard on a tablet though, still going strong.
I'm writing this post from a 2012 MacBook that I'm using as my daily driver while I'm holed up at my SO's place, away from my ~'06 (iirc) tower desktop. Running Debian on both, and they suit me just fine--I don't do much in the way of gaming, and I'm too poor and cheap to build a powerful setup on the off chance I get back into making computer music. Newest piece of tech I have is a 2016 Galaxy J3 that doesn't even have a SIM card in it--that dubious honor goes to my BlackBerry Curve (roughly 2010).
I also have a Sansa Fuze running RockBox, which is a really nice little machine. With a fat SD card you can have a ton of music on that thing.
I have used an old mid-80s stereo/boombox to route my speakers (connected to an amazon echo) for all my audio (TV, Computer, Phone, &c) for about 15 years. They are connected to two large 4' standing speakers that I got from my dad around the same time (12-13yrs) ago and were already 10 or so years old when I got them.
I picked it up at a neighbors garage sale when I was a kid, he gave it to me for $2 and it has a CD player, cassette player, aux-out, a full equalizer, radio, and two speakers that can be 'slid off' and disconnected on the sides (disconnected a the moment and in storage). I have never found anything that could quite match it, it has a few issues and needs to be repaired - but rubber-bands and pins in the right spots and a jiggle or two gets it back to good enough.
I have an old casio calculator wristwatch I wear a few months out of the year as well.
I own an ipad 1, which I still use daily to read and display stuff, and this ipad is so much faster than almost every other current idevice that now exists... And less bloated.
I also own an asus eeepc that I keep as an alert dashboard / answer tool, with a minimalistic software in an X server.
What iOS version is it on? I've got an iPad 4 which I like to read on sometimes, but it's gotten a bit slow on the latest iOS. I need to see if I can downgrade it to get it faster again.
I'm stuck with iOS 5.1.1, for which I'm desperately trying to find a way to develop on without buying some overpriced apple hardware.
I mean for iOS 5 which was released in 2011 you should be able to find a used Mac Mini from that era for a couple hundred bucks. Looking on eBay, they go for $50-$150 these days.
The thing is, I don't have a lot of money to spare for that, so my best bet would be to find a linux-compatible SDK, maybe going through cydia
Gotcha. That makes sense. Another option, if you already have a PC you might be able to build a Hackintosh out of it. I've not done that so I don't know the specifics or costs, though.
I tried and tried, and never managed to make a working one, so I dropped the idea.
Have you tried a VM with old version of macOS?
Yup, I tried with mountain lion, lion, and more recent versions like high sierra. Even a VM on my work macbook is hell to set up..
I have
Do you still play games on them? I have a DS Lite and 3DS, but they got a lot less use after I got a switch.
I still use my DS lite fairly regularly, but mostly as an easily rechargeable GBA
I have a Radio Shack pocket PDA thing from the mid eighties I think. It probably still works but it'd need new batteries. I also have an AMD HD6950 and an R9 290 that I have no idea what to do with. Also 3 3TB WD Red hard drives, dunno what to do with them.
Hard-copies of music and video content.
Why don't you prefer to rent the privilege of accessing your favorite media like "everyone else"?
Ooh. I forgot about this! I have shelves and shelves of DVD, Blu-Rays, CDs, and print books.
My main computer right now is a ThinkPad x220 tablet. It was cheap (100 USD) and works basically just as well as my (dead) $800 PC I built, minus gaming. I also have an old 4th generation iPod Touch which I don't use, but I do power it on now and then for nostalgia's sake.
I was using an x200 until about last month! Excellent machines, and they don't make keyboards like that anymore.
I have a lot of the same gripes about smartphones. What was your experience like with the OnePlus One?
Not sure if this counts, but IRC. I just love the simplicity of plain text chatting and never really liked Discord that much.
I appreciate the improved appearance and aesthetics of modern chat offerings like Slack and Discord, but what I really miss about IRC is the ability to script with your IRC client for filtering, highlighting, text replacement, and triggering. Can't do any of that with these modern things.
I was holding onto a PSP 3000, but unfortunately due some water damage (courtesy of my younger siblings) the screen died on it. I was holding onto it for the home brew aspect. It worked great as an emulator for GBA and similar era systems. It was especially great since it had a back light!
I finally decided to replace it (it died a couple of years ago) with this:
https://retrogame300.com/products/rg350?variant=31846486736974
I just ordered it on Saturday so I'm excited to get it and see how it performs.
Until recently, I had an original Google Pixel before it took the long restart. I still have an Amazon Fire 5 from a clearance black Friday sale because there aren't that many tablets anymore, and I like it for media and I have this pillow with a slot for a tablet that makes it very comfortable to use.
I still have a Powerbook G4 from 2004. I have installed MorphOS to keep it lightweight and play some old Amiga games.