Post 200 and old tech.

I started this blog in April of 2008 without any clear plan of what it was going to be about. Nearly 5 years later I still don't have a consistent theme, so I'm consistent in being inconsistent. On the other hand I'm averaging about 40 posts a year, which for me is the epitome of consistency. (Doesn't say much for my epitomes, really.)

So. This evening, while scanning some paperwork, it struck me that we have an unintended shrine to old technology in the office, seen here in the glow of orange Xmas lights. 

On top is our old 'snowball' iMac, the first iMac that came with a flat screen. And it swiveled! Which was cool in 2002, and still is. This little guy processed hundreds of pages of manga and Disney pages in the 2.5 years I used it as my main machine. After I moved over to a G5 it sat in a corner for a while with a bag over its head, but when we remodeled our home office it took up duties as a scanner server and continues to be a good work-pony, almost eleven years after we bought it. It even traveled to Maryland and back in 2003-4 with no hiccups. 

Underneath Snowball is my Sanyo stereo receiver with dual cassette tape-decks. This was my dad's housewarming present to me when I moved to Prescott to work for Gladstone/Another Rainbow in August of  '87. Not seen, the two gigantic-by-today's-standards speakers, up on shelves to either side. This thing has served faithfully since the day I set it up (with G's help) and is still our main music machine in the office when we're not playing stuff through our desktops. Originally it had a turntable but that was given away a few years ago (we got a better one). 

Sitting on top of the Sanyo is our 2004 iPod, which still gets used as a music delivery device, although not so much the past year and likely it'll get permanently retired before long. Its display is crapping out, and even as a back-up hard drive it's just too clunky. 

Sitting next to it but not quite visible is the first CD player we owned, a Panasonic portable that was my Xmas present to G in 1991. It too still serves well, if not often. We have file boxes of cassettes and CDs, but these days we mostly stream or play MP3s. It's just…easier. Maybe that's why Americans are fat; we don't get up to turn records and cassettes over every 20 minutes like we used to. ; )

UPDATE:

As of last weekend the 2004 iPod has gone to silicone Elysian Fields to join our first Mac (a 1992 llci with a 256mb hard drive). 

It must have given up the ghost sometime in the past several months, but its time had come. When I tried to use it only to discover its demise, I spent a couple of seconds swiping my finger over its LCD screen before I remembered the scroll wheel. How soon we forget.