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Retro items that don't make sense anymore


RickR

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Posted

First, a story.

 

I was telling a co-worker my tale of tragedy.  I had been pulled aside in a TSA line at the airport to have my bag thoroughly searched!  It turned out they saw my digital travel alarm on the x-ray and wanted a closer look.  The agent had no idea what it was, and I had to explain it to him.  "It's a clock, and it has buttons to set it to different time zones.  I use it to wake up at the right time".  Honestly, I was stuck there for a good 30 minutes explaining it. 

 

Anyways, I'm telling this story, and my co-worker has the same look on his face as the TSA agent.  It then dawns on me...this guy is 20 years younger than me.  He stated very simply "why don't you just use your smart phone?"

 

Well crap.  There it is.  I never even thought of that!  And now I have no defensive reply.  Just "I guess you're right". 

 

So my fancy Seiko travel digital travel alarm that I got as a high school graduation present...has been relegated to a drawer.  Never to travel again. 

 

Who else has something they loved that can't be used anymore?  Like maybe a printer that you can't buy ink for anymore, or whatever.

Posted

I had the same thing happen at MSY. I have an old wind-up clock and the metal detectors spotted it in my carrying on bag. They asked me to open the bag and instead of looking inside it, they swabbed the inside of the bag and use a machine that told them it was a wind-up clock. But it didn't take too long.

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

Posted

Well, its pretty hard to imagine why people still use pagers.   I guess they are easy to pass to different employees.

"For you - Rowsdower from the 70 - have been appointed Omnivisioner of the Game Grid."  ~ Atari Adventure Square

Posted

I have in my collection two modems:.  A Commodore VIC-Modem (300 baud) and an Atari SX212 (1200 baud).  Curiosities now, as they will never be plugged in and used again.

Posted

I always tend to see those pocket dictionaries and it always kind of catches me off guard because you have to think that not very long ago, we had to have these special dedicated devices just to digitally store the entire dictionary on and spellcheck whatnot. Same goes for the digital Rolodex.

 

"MOM! The internet is going to be down this week, have you seen the pocket dictionary? I need to check something." said no kid, ever. lol

7800 - 130XE - XEGS - Lynx - Jaguar - ISO: Atari Falcon030 | STBook |STe

 

Posted

I always tend to see those pocket dictionaries and it always kind of catches me off guard because you have to think that not very long ago, we had to have these special dedicated devices just to digitally store the entire dictionary on and spellcheck whatnot. Same goes for the digital Rolodex.

 

"MOM! The internet is going to be down this week, have you seen the pocket dictionary? I need to check something." said no kid, ever. lol

 

And the little black book. Writing down someone's address & phone number? Absurd!

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