What 100 Things Will Your Child Probably Never Know?
I came across an interesting article online today. With this week being the 40th anniversary of man landing on the Moon, many adults are nostalgic. Nathan Barry blogged on Wired, talking about the many things that kids today have probably never gotten to see and do – and likely never will.
But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks. That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias …
I couldn’t help but shake my head as I read down the list. I remember nearly all of these things. I recall the day Dad brought home our family’s first microwave, and proclaimed it to be the biggest piece of high-tech equipment the world had ever seen! For all of you other 30-somethings… remember the first CDs that came out? We happily traded our vinyl in for these little discs. These days, many kids just stare at you blankly when you mention a compact disc, as though you’re talking about some foreign object.
What other similar things do you remember? Leave me a comment, and share your stories of wonder and amazement, about the “best” and “awesome” gadgets and gizmos you recall seeing for the first time.
Take a read through the article, and then sit down with your kids (if you have them). Tell them about some of the advances in technology that you have already seen in your lifetime. Don’t let the strides that have already been made be swallowed and forgotten due to the ones yet to come.
Once you finish that, you might want to wander around on Geeks and Lockergnome. There is some excellent content being posted there, as well!
- If you drop big money on your computer – it’s a Mac.
- Silence vs noise – which suits you best?
- Freedom at Point Zero
- Has YouTube gone too far with their advertisements?
- Would you like to have full-on VoIP on your iPod Touch?
- Vanessa Williams was de-throned, but not daunted.
- What are you doing with your kids this summer?
- Does Microsoft need to rethink their niche?
- Why am I a slave to a stranger?
- Fiery iPods are no problem for the flame retardant.
- Many businesses will pass the next few months without changes – will you do the same?
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9 Comments
Andy Butler
July 24th, 2009
at 5:32am
I remember when my uncle (who sold cars for a living) had the only air conditioned car in town [year-1954].
David Wright
July 24th, 2009
at 7:04am
Component stereo: tuner, amp, speakers, turntable, reel-to-reel and/or cassette, with a CD player added on in the 80’s. You needed a special shelf for it all… mine is long gone…
Jack Teagarden
July 24th, 2009
at 7:45am
Things my kids don’t know (and will never know) about . . .
I still own a:
Iomega Zip drive
Sparq 1Gb cartridge drive
Travan 1/2 tape drive
Compaq luggable (suitcase sized 80286 w 6″ green screen
Mac SE30
SCSI cards
Sony TC-8, an 8 track tape cartridge recorder/player
I have a 1600 sq ft room filled with OLD computer stuff, some of which I don’t even remember the function of. And that’s just in the last 25 years.
socialnerdia
July 24th, 2009
at 12:08pm
Great list by Wired. Thanks for bringing it up Chris.
100 items always seems too long, but most are actually really good! With a few exceptions like #92, since checks are still widely used even if Mastercard pretends otherwise.. and #83, whch is a bit silly because KFC has changed its name back and forth several times..
Here’s my top 10 things I can think of right now:
1. Making VHS school presentations by recording the video with my very analog videocamera, and the audio with my friends’ very analog but older videocamera.
2. Polaroids. They were never very good but we all pretended like they were.
3. Minidiscs being the future and then being forgotten in about a year.
4. The Sega CD game console that my cousins bragged about so much.
5. The first Sony Vaio computer that my dad bought, and the endless amounts of jokes that my friends did about it. “A Sony computer? Do you have a Sony deodorant too?”
6. Geocities. RIP.
7. Learning HTML before I knew much about computers themselves. I was like 12 so I spent hours writing down strings of code on paper, and then spent hours typing it to create a web page.
8. Typewriters. I liked the noise they made.
My grandpa was a writer. He wrote a column for 65 years and not once used a computer.
9. Playing computer games from DOS. Entering “dir” was just so exciting.
10. Xbox LAN parties before Xbox Live. Using “Steam” into was so lame and yet, so much more fun.
Robert Lang
July 25th, 2009
at 6:08pm
OK, I’m dating myself here, but the first HP handheld calculator (yes, that was a big deal once upon a time) came out while I was in college. As an engineering student, I really wanted one, but being on a limited budget, the $400+ dollars (and, remember, these were in ancient times and this was considered a hefty sum then) was a bit out of reach. I still treasure (and use) my trusty HP-12C.
lenswipe
July 26th, 2009
at 8:31am
things my kids will never know?
probly that i used to use windows vista (its not something i like to really admit to…)
D Biagini
July 27th, 2009
at 8:43am
too many links – can’t find the article
Roelof
July 29th, 2009
at 5:49pm
You mean the link in the first paragraph of this post? (The page *is* a tad overcrowded, I’ll give you that.)
Ontopic: remember the time when it was übercool if you could say ‘I’ll send you a fax’. Wow! Only owning a Ferrari could earn you more cool points. It didn’t last long, though.
Dylan Spronck
August 5th, 2009
at 1:39pm
WOW I know a heck of a lot things that are listed there, and I’m only 14.