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Published On: May 10, 2004 06:50 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: May 10, 2004 06:50 PM
Electronic Nostalgia
I just had a minor, somewhat
nostalgic, experience ...
I just had a minor, somewhat nostalgic,
experience.
Now first of all, this is a week where I am intensively upgrading my computer at home, trying to stave off having to buy a new computer for another year or so. I replaced the internal 4GB harddrive in the G3 with an 80GB harddrive -- which makes for about four times the space I had on all three of my computers combined -- and I have a Firewire/USB 2.0 card on the way. I'm also taking the iBook and the G3 up to OS X Jaguar -- which I must say, after five years of using OS 8 and 9, rocks, even on these older machines -- and am upgrading all my software as well, to take advantage of the new OS. I also moved my Palm Desktop onto my desktop computer, finally, which makes more sense than the iBook did, to keep my Visor nice and up-to-date, and with the now huge tracts of disk space at my disposal, I'm finally beginning to MP3 all my CDs, with my eye on getting an iPod in the near future. They look so cool.
Now keep in mind also, I am a packrat. I hate to throw anything which might have any intrinsic value away. I have drawers full of little S-shaped Ikea tools I'll never need to use again. Sitting in various boxes I have a failing old Zip drive that's long since been replaced by a newer model; a uselessly redundant 4-port Ethernet switchbox; a few dozen old SCSI cables and ADB cords and an ancient black and white QuickCam and an old ADB GamePad that never really worked, and a hulking huge external 2GB drive that seems pathetic placed next to the streamlined new 80GB internal ... All stuff that at best I have no use for and at worst is horribly obsolete, yet I can't throw them away.
So this morning, as I was writing a birthday card to Mom, I reached in my desk drawer to pull out an inkpad and rubberstamp, when I noticed tucked at the back of the drawer a small, credit-card sized leather case. I pulled it out and discovered it contained a small electronic device entitled 'The Calling Card," something my father gave me probably fifteen or twenty years ago. It was given away as a marketing gift: the name 'Temco' is stamped on its face, a company that may not even exist anymore. (A web search reveals an midwest company that distributes level, flow, and pressure products. That may or may not be them.)
The device itself is maybe an eighth of an inch thick, with a membrane keyboard with keys for the letters 'A thru 'Z,' digits '0' thru '9', and a few operational buttons. It has a small LCD readout with two lines of that old-fashioned LCD text: The top line shows alphanumerics, the bottom line only shows digits. It can store up to 2024 characters of information, usually names and phone numbers, tho the small Hong Kong-printed pamphlet advises you can also store social security and bank account numbers. If desired, it featurs a 3-digit lockout security code. All data must be laboriously entered thru the tiny keypad, and there is physically no way to back up or export the data. It can also be used as a simple calculator. The two 3V batteries amazingly still carry a charge.
In its day, I remember this was a small technological marvel -- stores up to a hundred names, give or take a few! And to be just given away by a salesman at Temco, they must be rich! Nowadays, of course, it's utterly laughably useless next to my trusty little Visor Platinum. Even my nifty-but-dated StarTac phone has exponentially more functional power than this thing. My iBook would cheerfully insult its lineage, kick it in the groin and send it crying home to its mother.
And yet ... I can't throw it away! For gosh sake, it has a circuitboard in there! It would be a sin to just toss it on the junk pile! It never did me no harm! Stop -- I'll throw myself in harm's way before I let you crush its LCD screen under your boot heel!
I'm eternally torn. On the one hand I have a very strong underlying current of almost Ludite anti-technology mistrust running through my veins. At the same time there are certain gadgets I just love and can't live with out.
Well. Perhaps The Calling Card has a third-party FireWire adapter. I'll have to check on eBay ...
Now first of all, this is a week where I am intensively upgrading my computer at home, trying to stave off having to buy a new computer for another year or so. I replaced the internal 4GB harddrive in the G3 with an 80GB harddrive -- which makes for about four times the space I had on all three of my computers combined -- and I have a Firewire/USB 2.0 card on the way. I'm also taking the iBook and the G3 up to OS X Jaguar -- which I must say, after five years of using OS 8 and 9, rocks, even on these older machines -- and am upgrading all my software as well, to take advantage of the new OS. I also moved my Palm Desktop onto my desktop computer, finally, which makes more sense than the iBook did, to keep my Visor nice and up-to-date, and with the now huge tracts of disk space at my disposal, I'm finally beginning to MP3 all my CDs, with my eye on getting an iPod in the near future. They look so cool.
Now keep in mind also, I am a packrat. I hate to throw anything which might have any intrinsic value away. I have drawers full of little S-shaped Ikea tools I'll never need to use again. Sitting in various boxes I have a failing old Zip drive that's long since been replaced by a newer model; a uselessly redundant 4-port Ethernet switchbox; a few dozen old SCSI cables and ADB cords and an ancient black and white QuickCam and an old ADB GamePad that never really worked, and a hulking huge external 2GB drive that seems pathetic placed next to the streamlined new 80GB internal ... All stuff that at best I have no use for and at worst is horribly obsolete, yet I can't throw them away.
So this morning, as I was writing a birthday card to Mom, I reached in my desk drawer to pull out an inkpad and rubberstamp, when I noticed tucked at the back of the drawer a small, credit-card sized leather case. I pulled it out and discovered it contained a small electronic device entitled 'The Calling Card," something my father gave me probably fifteen or twenty years ago. It was given away as a marketing gift: the name 'Temco' is stamped on its face, a company that may not even exist anymore. (A web search reveals an midwest company that distributes level, flow, and pressure products. That may or may not be them.)
The device itself is maybe an eighth of an inch thick, with a membrane keyboard with keys for the letters 'A thru 'Z,' digits '0' thru '9', and a few operational buttons. It has a small LCD readout with two lines of that old-fashioned LCD text: The top line shows alphanumerics, the bottom line only shows digits. It can store up to 2024 characters of information, usually names and phone numbers, tho the small Hong Kong-printed pamphlet advises you can also store social security and bank account numbers. If desired, it featurs a 3-digit lockout security code. All data must be laboriously entered thru the tiny keypad, and there is physically no way to back up or export the data. It can also be used as a simple calculator. The two 3V batteries amazingly still carry a charge.
In its day, I remember this was a small technological marvel -- stores up to a hundred names, give or take a few! And to be just given away by a salesman at Temco, they must be rich! Nowadays, of course, it's utterly laughably useless next to my trusty little Visor Platinum. Even my nifty-but-dated StarTac phone has exponentially more functional power than this thing. My iBook would cheerfully insult its lineage, kick it in the groin and send it crying home to its mother.
And yet ... I can't throw it away! For gosh sake, it has a circuitboard in there! It would be a sin to just toss it on the junk pile! It never did me no harm! Stop -- I'll throw myself in harm's way before I let you crush its LCD screen under your boot heel!
I'm eternally torn. On the one hand I have a very strong underlying current of almost Ludite anti-technology mistrust running through my veins. At the same time there are certain gadgets I just love and can't live with out.
Well. Perhaps The Calling Card has a third-party FireWire adapter. I'll have to check on eBay ...
Posted: Fri - September 6, 2002 at 08:41 PM