I still drive ..
... a Morris Minor Traveller at weekends! Yes it's older than me, yes it's slow (unless going downhill with the wind up it's tailpipe!) but it's the one little bit of my history I've managed to hang on to now both 'rents are gone (they brought it new in '71). It's great fun to drive, with none of this modern stuff like reversing lights, brakes etc etc! I do have indicators though ...
(annierat1 doesn't have anything interesting to add on, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:48, 9 replies)

The last game I bought for my PS3
Was the Ultimate Mega Drive collection. 40 Classics on one disc.

You say GTA - I say Alex Kidd.
You say COD - I say Streets of Rage.

Well, you get the idea with that...
(ConanTroutman thought we would free the vulture, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:36, 3 replies)

Morse Code (CW)
much prefer it to Voice, it goes further with less power. On 10 watts I can work the world direct.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjQfaX_Lkxw&feature=related

Actually I'm too embarrassed to add anything else except dah di diddle dit dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh FTW !
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:25, 17 replies)

You should see the struggle I have
forcing my twelve year old to use an encyclopaedia or in fact any reference source whose name doesn't start with. Google or Wiki
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:20, 5 replies)

A Propelling Pencil
I write all my notes and letters in pencil at work, and steadfastly refuse to move to an electronic diary. There is one, page-a-day ESPO diary, and woe betide anyone that puts their appointments in pen! My pride and joy is a silver Waterman propelling pencil, which I love to bits.
( The Lone Groover has mal des nuts., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:15, 1 reply)

My house
is 400 years old. It has various examples of living through the centuries. My favorite is the 1900's ipad that is the cupboard door. I still use it to this day. Pic to follow laters.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 20:06, Reply)

Fountain Pens & Calligraphy
I still use a fountain pen to write with on a day to day basis. I find them infinitely more comfortable than a biro (not that I actually do all that much writing daily.)
Also, I recently picked up a Calligraphy kit, and started learning the italic and blackletter alphabets because I thought it would be quite interesting. It is, but it is also a very slow way to write something. It's good for relaxing and the end result is very pleasing when it all comes together.
I appear to be about a century behind the times when it comes to writing!

I'll try and attach a sample for your perusal - any suggestions for what to write?
(Ryushin, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:55, 11 replies)

Playing with my dog's head
My dog learned long ago that a doorbell means someone is at the front door, which provokes him to bark. I learned that my doorbell's wiring was old, and these days improperly-grounded, so by shaking two wires hanging from the ceiling in the basement, I could get the doorbell to ring, and thus get my dog to bark at ghosts.

I feel like a character in the movie "Brasil", hiding down in the basement, grinning and waving wires around, just to toy with my dog upstairs.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:53, Reply)

Why would I need an iPad?
When I have this:

www.thimet.de/calccollection/calculators/hp-95lx/HP-95LX-1-S.JPG
(hadr0n Craic whore, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:48, 2 replies)

I read books.
Made of paper.
(hadr0n Craic whore, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:42, 1 reply)

I just bought
Pop up pirate for my Nephew.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:41, 4 replies)

Is it me
or are all my myspace friends ignoring me. :(
(shake'n'bake Tally Ho, Biatch!, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:27, Reply)

videos instead of dvd's
i recently bought the scream trilogy for less than £1, silence of the lambs for 25p, the exorcist for 50p, from dusk till dawn for 30p and lots of other great horror films from a charity shop... who gives a flying shit about high definition when its so cheap!
(bamslower i like cheesecake..., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:24, 5 replies)

Old tech to fix new problems
Work are building a new head office for us. It's going to have all the mod cons, a gym etc.

It's also going to be an environmentally friendly, eco building, 99% recycle, etc.

So some new tech for heating and lighting will be introduced to reduce A/C and daybulbs - manually adjustable ventilation and a natural lighting system.

What is this wonderful new tech? Windows without tinted glass and that can be opened by people sat next to them!! I'm not sure this kind of technology will catch on.
(Wooden meal is. Or is he?, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:10, 1 reply)

my car had a manual choke
i say had, because a couple weeks ago some twat nicked the car and crashed it about. So much so, my poor car is now at the scrapheap *sniff*

Back onto the choke though. When i first started driving the car it took me a while to get used the choke and that it was my first car. So still getting used to driving aswell. This resulted in me forgetting that the choke was on and so often the engine became flooded and stalled regularly...

One of the major bonuses about living in Basingstoke is the seemingly infinite number of roundabouts. I stalled after accidently flooded the engine at one as I went to drive on to it. It was a big roundabout. It was also rush hour. Lots of angry drivers...

Cue my two mates having to push my car off the roundabout up a small incline as I didn't yet know how to get it started again(I know now fortunately!) Lucky for them it was only a small car so didn't weigh much. One of them did almost throw up though... hehe...
( DUM4S5 =], Thu 4 Nov 2010, 19:00, Reply)

PS2
Yes, even though I have a PS3, Wii and other fun toys I still use my PS2. My PS3 doesn't have backwards capability so I must use my PS2 but I use it gladly if I might add. Play Station Store is being a little bit kind by re-releasing PS1/2 games for the PS3 platform. But why re-buy your favorite game when you already own it and have a working PS2? With my lappy at home I use XP and for added bedrock capabilities I use my trusty rice cooker where you have to press the lever down (oh the strain!). Unlike those fancy ones where you can have it cook all by itself via digital timers and such. And to impress you B3tans further I write to my friend with paper and pen!! (please insert impressed sounds here)
(ButacuP As yoooo wish!!, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:54, 6 replies)

Fighting fantasy.... Books
Picked up my first one on a family outing to Bath. The Dead of Night. Scared my eight year old self silly in the car on the way home in the dark. Thank you Mr Jackson and Mr Livingstone.

Not exactly technology I know, but they've started to release them on the iPhone. Just won't be the same I'm afraid.
(Deskbound You insignificant speck of dust, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:52, 12 replies)

I got a Rio PMP300 for my birthday.
A whopping 32 Mb of storage! That's almost 20 whole songs!

I thought I was the bee's knees until I realized I could fit more songs on a CD, and if I had a CD player, I could bring extra CDs and not be stuck with the same 20 songs all day.

So I pawned it and bought a half ounce of weed.

Sorry Uncle Chris, but it's the thought that counts, right?
(raulduke, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:49, Reply)

Mobile phone
I've never owned one and hopefully never will.
It also forces friends to be so old fashioned that they actually have to stick to their plans to meet me 'cos they can't ring at the last minute with lame excuses for lateness.
(strangely brown, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:43, 1 reply)

How quickly things age
I've recently been flicking through Belle De Jour (B3ta was the first site to link to that blog, which she has verified on twitter once, which means us alone are responsible for her entire success) anyway - it's a period piece of technology that's slipping away.

She's snapped for tart photos using rolls of films, she meets a client in a CD shop (complaining that it's mostly DVDs these days) and she uses an A2Z rather than whipping out her iPhone and pressing the "where the fuck am I?" button.
( rob, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:40, 4 replies)

Just found my Amiga A500 in a caravan in my folks garden
Along with around 2000 disks, and a staggering 1\2MB RAM upgrade for it, I fully intend to plug it all in just to play:
-Cannon Fodder (Coz War has never been so much fun)
-Syndicate (Gatling guns, muthafuckaz!)
-Turrican 2 (Best soundtrack of any amiga game)
Wonder if I can connect it to a VGA monitor though - anyone know?
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:40, 13 replies)

Tranny
I still listen to my transistor radio but will not be able to for much longer as the analogue signals will be phased out in a couple of years. Not only will that make millions of perfectly functional radios useless, it will also cost me a fortune in batteries. The digital radio I bought, for areas where I can't pick up Test Match Special on LW, has a battery life of about 12 hours compared with the 6 months of regular usage I get from the old radio. Progress?
( stopmeandslapme Cometh the hour, cometh your mum, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:37, 4 replies)

Redundant tech? No such thing, my 60-year old razor technology is still cutting edge.
Long ago I found a thing called a Rolls Razor in a junk shop. It was basically a truncated straight razor in a fancy frame that enabled a perfect shaving angle without slashing the precious facial skin. Or other skin, come to that.

Additionally, it came in a snazzy metal case that contained both a honing stone and leather strop strip, and a mechanism that again presented the optimal angle for sharpening the beast.

Sadly over the course of time, the likes of Gillette and Wilkinson Sword produced better, lighter safety razors, but I still use mine occasionally when I'm in one of my more Luddite moods. Or when I want to show off.

Skin? Smooth as a baby's bum.
(wertperch is losing his hair, marbles and patience., Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:23, 6 replies)

Sort of redundant
Is my Boss GT-6 guitar effects pedal. It's been superseded by the GT-8 and 10, and soon the 12, as well as numerous other competitors, and is fairly recent in terms of technology, debuting in 2002, but I love it. It was virtually indestructible despite me standing on it every day for the last 5 years, sometimes catapulting myself off it on to the top of my amp. It's survived boots stamping on it, being dropped, drinks spilling on it, fags being dropped on it, and it still works like new.

I could replace it with a new, shinier version that works a lot better. I could do that, and take the time to reprogram all the patches to my own personal settings. I could fuck around with the tone settings and everything to recreate the sounds, if not get better sounds from the new shiny bit of technology.

But I'm not going to. Not until my GT-6 dies, which at this rate, will be sometime around 2112. But it's already redundant.
(Ghost Atreides enjoying incontestable health benefits on, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:22, 5 replies)

Ancient valve radio
It's an old bakelite Philips valve radio (LW & MW only) which I picked up at a car boot sale 17 years ago for a fiver. It takes a good ten minutes to warm up, gradually changing in tone from very thin and quiet to louder, bassier and richer in harmonics.

It has RCA plugs on the back for amplifying external sound sources, so I used it as a guitar amp for a while with a hacked lead and an effects box. Wasn't powerful enough to make decent feedback but the clean sounds were really nice, with just a hint of lovely warm overdrive if you pushed it enough.

I've even listened to the actual radio on it - during the Euro 2004 our Sky conked out during France v England. My huge fancy FM tuner wasn't wired up to the building aerial as we'd just moved in, so out came the Philips and Five Live. Tuning drifted around badly but got to hear the game.

In that time not a single valve has burned out and it still works despite crossing the Atlantic twice in a ship. I have since taken it apart to clean it, which was when I looked at the wiring properly for the first time. Safety standards were different back then, because there's no earthing at all and the metal parts of the case are live *all the time*. I put a multimeter on it to check, and sure enough the chassis is at a nice 240VAC. I try not to think about the hours I spent with my guitar plugged into it.

I still stupidly do listen to in occasionally, but as soon as we have kids I will disable it. I like to think of it as like a family Rottweiler: loyal and docile and friendly, but poke a finger in the wrong hole and it's game over.
( Scrumper, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:22, 2 replies)

I use this while jogging
images.cafepress.com/image/22028109_125x125.jpg
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:18, 1 reply)

new phone
With eveyone getting a new phone and them being all singing all dancing, I got myself a new one.
BNIB t-mobile MDA PRO, circa 2005/2006. It does everything and is massive. Weighs about 14 ounces with the extended battery. Makes me walk in a circle its so heavy. Measures when fully open 6" x 5.5" thats inches!
Now have yearnings to try and find a bigger one.
www.pocket-lint.com/review/1227/t-mobile-mda-pro-smartphone-3g
(Captain Spacker I lick windows, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:18, 3 replies)

Dragon 32
complete with tape recorder, working games on a single tape and an indestructible joystick.

Best retro games nights ever (just add beer).
( Claws of Doom I am no longer infected, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:17, 3 replies)

I lost a job
A few months back I got a interview with a massive internationally renowned chemical company.

Being the kind of organisation that has to deal with lots of applicants, part of the interview was to prepare a presentation on a technical topic of your choice.

Eager to impress I pulled out all the stops to produce a all singing, all dancing masterpiece. I stood up in front of a section of top brass and fired up powerpoint.

Causing the office2000 software on their network to crash.
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 17:55, 2 replies)

Thank God for books
Books are great. I like some parts of the e-reader concept like the abilty to store a few books for a holiday so saving space, but everything else about it is negative I reckon.

I love the tactile involvement of a book - the feel, the smell, the weight of it. I love the fact that I can read one on the train platform and not worry about some chav snatching it out of my hands. I like the way I can drop it on the floor and not break electronic internals or LCD screens. I like the fact that leaving it on the train by accident will not bankrupt my wallet and might just make someone else happy. I like the way I can lay one aside on a sandy beach and not worry about fucking it up. I like having one to hand when I am in bed and spot another Spidersaurus Rex on the wall...is there an app for squishing insects with an Ipad? I like the ability to pick a book up at short notice - Next time my connecting flight is delayed and I find myself with 7 hours to wait in Luton airport (dear God, that was grim) I want the comfort of being able to browse WHSmith for an hour, choose a book and read it in a quiet corner without worrying about the bloody battery going flat. I like having piles of books in the house - they look nice and are a good conversation starter.
No reader gadget will replace any of that.
(dave likes cheese, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 17:54, 6 replies)