What's Your Most Pathetically Out of Date Piece of Technology?

[Jason Dunn]

I tend to upgrade my technology fairly often, but only if it's something that I've actively using. When I was working on Faster Smarter Digital Video (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735618739/jasondunn-20) (affiliate) back in July of 2002, I needed a DVD burner for the book. I contacted Pioneer, but they were all out of review units for the media. With my one chapter a week deadline looming, I didn't have much choice: I went to a local computer store and bought a Pioneer A04, a blazing 2x DVD-R burner, and paid $585 CND for it (about $450 USD). Ouch! I don't burn that many DVDs, but I'm starting to do more of it, and for some reason the A04 will only burn at 1x when I'm doing DVD-Rs, so it's getting REALLY painful. :? Given that 12x drives are starting to ship, my 2x DVD-R is my most pathetically out of date technology. What about you?

[entropy1980]

Having just upgraded my system to an Athlon64 the oldest piece of hardware (actually the only piece that made it from my old box) is my Radeon 9500 Pro....I know not that old :)

[Ed Hansberry]

I am the proud owner of a circa 1995 Canon Bubble Jet 200e (not even an "ex") printer. I can still get refill cartridges for it at my local Staples. I'll use it until it either breaks or Microsoft stops shipping BJ-200 drivers with their operating systems.

Any longhorn beta testers out there? Is the BJ-200e still supported? :D

[Gordo]

My HP IIIP laser printer. paid $2,000 CDN for it years ago, and it is still going strong. About the only HP product that I am satisfied with.

I to purchased the Pioneer DVD drive that Jason has, installed it externally on Firewire, and I think I have burned three DVD's since. I purchased it after reading Jason's book. I now have my new Shuttle up and running with an LG DVD Multi burner. I can't wait to get the rest of the software installed so I can start to make DVD's of my Vacation movies, using my new upgraded Muvee software.

[Raven]

Interesting question!

When I came to the US three years back, the only two devices with me were my 1992 scientific calculator and my 1999 Sony MZ-R55 (http://www.minidisc.org/part_Sony_MZ-R55.html) minidisc player. The calculator has long been relpaced, but I still pull out the MD player every now and then, if nothing else, just to admire the feel and the load/eject mechanism. The battery is dead and I have to use an external AA pack to power it. I still love that thing. Present day MD players can boast of faster USB transfer, but there's little else the R55 can't do. Maybe its time to revive it...

[The Yaz]

My oldest piece of computer equipment is an internal zip100 drive. I believe I got in circa 1997, and it's resided in three computers so far. I'm just starting to run into situations where people hand me zip250 disks with their reports.

My 2nd oldest is my Casio E-125 which my kids use on car trips. Each night my oldest reverently places it on its base to synch/recharge.

Otherwise I've got two 15" monitors sitting in a closet just in case something happens to my LCD or the kid's 17" monitor.

Steve 8)

[Tim Williamson]

My oldest piece of tech in my PC is my Soundblaster Live! Value card which has worked great for me in the last three of my computers, including my current PC.

[Russell]

Actually, I believe what we have (still working) is a 1986 Macintosh ED with a screaming 8Mhz processor. BTW, how about prizes for the best "Out of Date" technology.

[Tom W.M.]

Ancient Tandy mouse. Serial interface, infared wireless. Driver came on a floppy. I've never even used it, 'cause Win2000 doesn't like serial devices. I just play with the mouse ball. :D

[Janak Parekh]

Technology you are actually using, or any technology? If it's the latter, we have a number of C64s in the attic... ;)

--janak

[groan]

not sure how old they are, but i have an old Voodoo 5 card that i paid well over $400 CDN for (ugh) and a 500 MhZ Celeron CPU and Board hanging around.
I think that is my oldest!

[crstbo623]

My Jornada 545, one of the original PPCs. I need to upgrade to a new one, cause all I use it for is as a MP3 player, and it is too big to be of any use.

[Gary Sheynkman]

my PC probably

PIII 650mhz


512ram
14bg
geforce 3 128

the card and ram are ok...but everything else is slooow

[Jason Dunn]

Technology you are actually using, or any technology? If it's the latter, we have a number of C64s in the attic... ;)


Yeah, I meant still using or still in active service (connected and ready to go)...

[David Horn]

My 56k modem? OK, not for much longer 'cause broadband is coming my way, but that's pretty ancient. ;)

[EscapePod]

Now that I have disconnected my Zip100 and Pinnacle 5" glass optical drives, it becomes a toss-up between my HP 4P LaserJet printer and my Gateway 2000 Vivitron 21 monitor (in which one of the guns screeches for approx 15 minutes every once in a while).

[ctmagnus]

I am the proud owner of a circa 1995 Canon Bubble Jet 200e (not even an "ex") printer. I can still get refill cartridges for it at my local Staples. I'll use it until it either breaks or Microsoft stops shipping BJ-200 drivers with their operating systems.

We've got two of those! :D But IIRC, we got them before 95.

[Lotto]

Hmm...outside of my potato masher, I'd say it would have to be my trusty old TI-99 4A. A Texas Instruments computer, just to clarify for you youngsters that think Texas Instruments only made calculators. :wink:

[oopl]

If you think your DVD burner is old, try my 10X Sony CD-R/W. I paid around $400 for it back then. It does 10X 4X 24X

I've thought about upgrading it many times but honestly, I like keep my digital media on my computer to allow easy access through network shares. For the times I need to burn stuff, waiting is not that big an issue. I much rather buy bigger hard drives than a faster burner. However, I may soon get a DVD-R/W to replace this aging piece of technology.

[SassKwatch]

The list of things that are *NOT* dated would be easier to provide. Basically, just my iPAQ 5555 and the 1.6gHz Athlon laptop. And some might argue those.

DVD burner? I'm still waiting for prices to come down to affordable levels. :)

[Russell]

The list of things that are *NOT* dated would be easier to provide. Basically, just my iPAQ 5555 and the 1.6gHz Athlon laptop. And some might argue those.

DVD burner? I'm still waiting for prices to come down to affordable levels. :)

Staples has been selling 8x DVD burners for $90.

[Jason Dunn]

I am the proud owner of a circa 1995 Canon Bubble Jet 200e (not even an "ex") printer. I can still get refill cartridges for it at my local Staples.

Wow....that was the very FIRST printer I ever purchased, and it went alongside my 486 SX 33mhz computer with 16 MB of RAM! WOO HOO! :lol: I remember being thrilled with the 200e because it could print out pictures that looked 500% better than a dot matrix printer...I also remember going through an ink cartridge within a week. 8O

[Suhit Gupta]

Wow....that was the very FIRST printer I ever purchased, and it went alongside my 486 SX 33mhz computer with 16 MB of RAM!
That's hilarious as that was my first printer as well. It was such a pleasure not to have to go to my dad's office to print on their awful dot matrix.

Suhit

[Suhit Gupta]

So this post has been up for quite some time now and I have spent quite a bit of time thinking of what my oldest piece of hardware is, but it turns out that I am quite aggressive about throwing out old hardware, mainly because I don't have much space in my apartment. So my HP LaserJet 6MP printer is the oldest tech that I have, i.e. something that is less than 5 years old, pretty new considering Janak is still spending time with his C64s in his attic. ;-)

Suhit

[Janak Parekh]

pretty new considering Janak is still spending time with his C64s in his attic.
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/twak.gif At least I have an attic. Your apartment would fill up rather rapidly if you still had C64s. :lol:

Seriously, I stay pretty up-to-date hardwarewise myself. All of the active hardware I use is not more than about two years old.

--janak

p.s. Re ancient printers: no one had a daisy-wheel printer around here? Or at least a 9-pin dot matrix printer? (Not talking about those newfangled 24-pin dot matrixes... ;))

[Jason Dunn]

p.s. Re ancient printers: no one had a daisy-wheel printer around here? Or at least a 9-pin dot matrix printer? (Not talking about those newfangled 24-pin dot matrixes... ;))

I remember having several dot matrix printers growing up, and I remember the thrill of going from B&W to colour dot matrix printing, but I don't remember the models or pin-count of them. ;-)

[ctmagnus]

I'm pretty sure we had a nine pin printer. And I think we hung onto it through the 24 pin era (never had a 24 pin printer) until we got the first BJ200e.

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm pretty sure we had a nine pin printer. And I think we hung onto it through the 24 pin era (never had a 24 pin printer) until we got the first BJ200e.
My Panasonic KPX-1081 still works great but there are no drivers for it anywhere. Worked great with my old C64 though.

[dr_doak]

I've got an IBM PS/1 (286) from 1991 still running up in my room! It's got a whopping 30MB! It's the only way to go to run "The Quest for Camelot." The original keyboard, mouse, joystick still work. I seem to recall that it has a sound card that can actually play voices! Oooh!

I also have a button I got from IBM years before that even, while not usable in any way, it does have a one MB chunk of memory embedded in the plastic dome (just the silicon chip). It's something like 60 square mm.

[mrkablooey]

my PC probably

PIII 650mhz
512ram
14bg
geforce 3 128

the card and ram are ok...but everything else is slooow

Gotcha beat there. My main computers are a G3-800mhz ibook and G4 400Mhz Cube. These aren't the problem.... they're plenty fast.

The PC I use for my geocaching software and MS Streets & Trips is an IBM P-II 333Mhz (not IBM clone) with 256mb RAM. Don't know the HD space as I don't have all that much software on it. It's running Win98 (not SE).

I've thought of replacing it but since it only gets used a couple times a week I don't feel like spending the cash.

[mrkablooey]

...went alongside my 486 SX 33mhz computer with 16 MB of RAM!

You got the 33mhz model?

:oops:

[Littleshmee]

Alright, I don't know what counts as "technology", but at my parents house our CD player, record player, and tape deck all play through a radio/receiver and speakers from 1976. I've been trying to convince them to get new speakers for years, but they claim they don't need bass. Also, I'm not sure how old it is, but our Acerscan 310P has been going for at least 6 years. It broke after 2, a friend fixed it with scotch tape and twist ties, and it's still pumping out its fabulous 300dpi scans. :roll:

[jake080]

ive got this freaking heavy 2.x GB IBM HD that came out of an old PC running the Mac Os, i believe it had been updated to like version 8...
also an old 4GB Quantum Fireball :P
neither are in use, as they are rediculously small!
the next best thing is the old dell llx or something, with a PIII 500Mhz, as well as a 4+ year old sound card (works nice too ;) ), yeah, thats enough i guess!!!

~Jake

[edited] oh, almost forgot, i have an old m105 i got used for like $30 like 2 years ago :P [end]

[Jon Westfall]

My oldest is a printer as well. Panasonic KX-p4455 laser printer. The version number for the driver is v51.4 I believe - now when you get to version 50... that's old.

[James Fee]

No one still using Syquest drives?

My old Syquest 88 drive is still connected to my old Mac running OS 8.6. 8)

Still has my thesis on it. Guess I should get that off of it an on to a CD at this point. My wife's thesis is stuck on a old word processor floppy. She says it isn't any good, but we will never know since we can't figure out the format.