Obsolete Technology

Through the technoligical advances of the Internet, computer technology and science, our world advanced and left behind a trail of dusty 45's, 8mm film reels, and black and white televisions.

Looking around the house or office, so many other "new technoligical advances" were shelved to make room for faster, better and smaller models. Remember when the microwave took up an entire counter? What about the Amiga 2000 by Commodore? It was the machine to have in it's hayday. Those 5 ¼ floppy disks were gold in the eyes of a programmer. Even they got replaced by 3 ½ 's.

In the old days, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth, board games of wood, plastic and layers of cardboard, took up an entire closet in the home. Today, computer animated graphics fill the screen and a shelf on the entertainment center.

That's a whole other can of beans (do people still eat those?) when you talk about what happened to televisions . When Dorothy and Toto were following the yellow brick road on a black and white screen, no-one thought a digital remake would fill a 72 inch screen on the living room wall. Broadcasts were limited to three channels and you'd sit around an entire year to watch Frosty or Rudolph save the day...err night. Shows, now, are watch-on-demand through places like YouTube and Hulu or most of the network websites.

Speaking of television networks, the "Big Three" pale by comparison anymore. NBC, CBS and ABC do still exist, right? The newspaper, the printed editions, on paper, delivered to your house, used to provide one page devoted to what was on television for the week. Now you have over 900 channels and still nothing to watch. Yep, that was a technoligical advancement, alright!

So what about the other stuff like video rewinders or video cameras, the ones with that huge black tape cartridge, that you lugged around on your shoulder like a boom box, which got replaced by an iPod. At least with a boom box, kids knew how to spell, in tiny lettering, so every song on a cassette tape was listed on the front. Give thanks to Texas Instrument's Speak and Spell for that one and credit texting for people forgetting "later" is not "l8r" or "too" is not "2". Another advancement from days gone by. Have no fear, though. You can still find them if you haunt antique stores.