Retro for practicality

There are some (and you know who you are) that think I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy because in many instances I will champion older tech over new. Maybe you think I pine for the days of olde when times were simpler. Wrong. I prefer older tech in some instances because it simply works better and lasts longer.

Before getting into the old stuff, there is new stuff I do sincerely appreciate. I would never go back to CRT computer monitor, ball mouse, rotary phone or yesteryear microwave. Some newer stuff does make our lives easier. However there's quite a few items from the old days that are still the best you can use. Here's a few examples.

Tower speakers

Using speakers of this type was the de facto setup for around 30 years. What killed the tower was the introduced of what I call the separated setup. Instead of having 3 or 4-way standard towers with an optional pair of surround speakers, this was replaced by skinny boxes with no bass speakers, mids and tweeters up high and a subwoofer on the floor.

There are those who say the newer separated way of doing it sounds much better. Wrong. What happens with a separated setup is that the natural combination of low, mid and high was now separated into something digitized. While it may sound crisp and clear, the sound is completely flat. The reason? You traded your tower boxes that could move real air for something that can't move anything.

Old-style 3 or 4-way cabinets produce what I call a "round sound". It is a warm rich tone that skinny separated boxes simply cannot reproduce because they can't move air. If you want the real round sound, tower cabinets are required. A subwoofer won't save you because all that does is shake the floor badly and sounds like a log just pulled out of a swamp.

Corded big-button touchtone phone

Every person should have one of these on their nightstand. It never needs batteries. It will work even when the power is out. It's easy to dial just by feel alone (you can dial without even looking at it). The ringtones on phones like these are warmer sounding because of the larger chassis. The handset is easy to lean on if you want to lie back in bed while talking to someone. The handset also sounds better because it has a larger speaker in it. And there is no possible way to lose the handset because it's always attached.

If you have a landline, get one of these. They still sell them new even though it's an older technology. You'll be very happy you did when the moment comes that you can't find your cell or cordless phone handset, because you know the one on your nightstand will always be there and ready to use. Pick up, dial and be happy.

Large outdoor thermometer

Available at any Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Target or K-Mart, the outdoor thermometer is very old but very good tech. It always works and never fails - and yes you can put an absolute like that on outdoor thermometers.

There have been many instances where companies try to sell you digital outdoor thermometers that require a battery-powered outdoor sensor that transmits every minute or so to the indoor unit. This is convenient, but does not beat the convenience of a well-placed large outdoor thermometer considering it never needs batteries because it doesn't require them.

What I mean by "well-placed" is to have it mounted somewhere where it's easily viewed from almost anywhere in the house. If you're really smart about it, you'll set up a network of strategically placed small mirrors to bounce the image to other parts of the house where it can't be readily seen.

There are those that would argue it's just as easy to find out how hot or cold it is just by looking online or using a smartphone app. The problem I immediately point out with that is that it's not accurate and can be off by as much as 5 degrees in either direction - and that is the difference between wearing a coat or not for a lot of people. You need to know the temperature as it is at your house, meaning not at the airport and not some random PWS 15 to 20 miles away.

Once you go with the big red needle, you never go back. It's literally a set-it-and-forget-it thing. The only time is breaks is if some wild storm comes back and knocks it off its mount. Other than that it's 99% maintenance-free. The only thing you have to do for upkeep is clean off the lens once a year, which takes all of about one minute.

Travel Atomic Clock

I own one of these. Do I travel with it? Nope. I have it mounted with double-sided Velcro on the bottom right of my bathroom mirror. It's the perfect size for a bathroom clock, sets itself so I never need to reset it and runs on a single AA battery that only needs replacement once every two years.

The reason the travel atomic clock is perfect for the bathroom is not only because of its small size, but it also tells you something other clocks don't - the date. When you're in the bathroom washing your face, shaving or whatever and are still knocking the cobwebs out of your head from just waking up and forget what the hell day it is, the clock will tell you.

Travel atomic clocks are the only kind of clock of its size that actually states the date.

I've had mine for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 to 7 years. Still runs perfect, and thankfully they're still for sale - especially since they're considered retro now.

At one point in the future my home will have nothing but atomic clocks in it, because I hate having to reset clocks every time the power goes out. The microwave clock I can deal with, but as for the others, I'd prefer them to reset themselves.

Yeah, I know, you're probably going to say "Just use clocks with a 9V battery sentinel in them." All well and good, but have you priced out 9V batteries lately? If you haven't, prepare for some sticker shock. Replacing the clocks all with atomic ones pays for themselves in less than two years considering the cost of 9V batteries which you're supposed to replace every six months.

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The above are just a few examples I can think of off the top of my head. Believe me, I have plenty more retro items that I intend to find and use. It may take a while to hunt around and find them all, but once found and bought it will be very unlikely that I'll have to buy them ever again - or at least not for at least a good 10 to 20 years.

And yes I am saying that we should expect our tech to last at least a decade. That whole planned obsolescence thing is enough to drive anyone to drink, so I purposely avoid tech products I believe are designed that way.

Why I don't post to Reddit or Digg

The two hot sites of the moment for posting "what's cool now" stuff are Reddit and Digg, in that order. Digg just had a major redesign, which of course led it to being spammed like crazy, leading many to believe that the site is ultimately going to be major-media-territory-only. When that happens (and it will), it will be nothing more than a spammy mess. Actually, it already is a spammy mess, now that I think about it.

Of course, biz-savvy techies ((heart)) Digg a lot because, well, it's a free way to spam. They of course will call it "marketing". Um.. no. Spam is spam. Calling it that M-word doesn't make it right.

Basically speaking the only site worth posting to that isn't going down the shitter is Reddit. However I don't post there and won't. The reason is because most "Redditors" only care about scoring system points (or karma) and nothing more - and I'm not in the business at all of trying to get a bigger e-Penis. Nerd cliques annoy me to no end, and Reddit is nothing but cliques, if not one big clique.

I will give credit where it's due - Reddit comments are much more tolerable because of their scoring system and the fact its community pounces anyone who trolls to a quick, swift e-Death. This is not to say that Reddit is free of trolls, because there are plenty on there, but the point is that the likelihood of one staying on the top of the charts for very long is slim at best. Reddit does prove that when you have a strong community, it can police itself quite well without the need for Draconian measures.

I will also give credit to the fact you can sign up for a Reddit account without an email address, and that's a rare thing these days. How long that will last I have no idea, but it seems to be working well for them thus far.

Speaking of working, Digg at the time I write this isn't:

Thaaaat's.. juuuust.. ducky..

Sigh.

It's more than an axle that broke. Of that I'm sure of.

Anyway, if you want to score a bigger e-Penis, go post on Reddit. If you want to spam, go to Digg.

I don't do either of those things, so I don't use either site. Read them, yes, but post to them? No way.

Network

Network is a movie from the late 1970s which, shockingly, I hadn't seen until very recently. It's shocking because it's the type of film that's right up my alley especially considering my college degree is in Video & Radio Communications. Come to think of it I'm puzzled none of my professors ever mentioned Network as it is a damned good movie and shows a lot of what happens in a live television news production studio.

The famous scene from Network that people refer to (for those that know the film) is the "Mad as Hell" rant by the character Howard Beale - but when taken out of context and seen as the scene without the storyline of the film it can be lost in translation easily. It is fortunate however that even if you had seen that clip (as I had before watching it), nothing is spoiled. If anything, watching the flick fills in all the missing pieces as to why Beale ranted like he did in the first place.

Network holds a special place for me because it is set in the pre-cable era. Generally speaking there wasn't any wide availability of Cable TV until the 1980s. For example, MTV did not exist until 1981.

Imagine for a moment that your only choice for television entertainment was over-the-air. Your choices were 12 channels on VHF, of which only 9 or 10 channels had broadcasting affiliate stations, or UHF which were non-affiliated local-yokels that gave you maybe 4 or 5 more. The combined total was around 15 channels. That was it. Of those 15, less than half of those had decent reception. What that means is that in reality you only had 7 channels, most if not all of which were in the 12-channel range of VHF.

And for those of you saying, "There were 13 channels on VHF!", no there weren't because there wasn't a channel 1. Only 2 through 13, remember?

It's also important to note that home movie rentals on VHS and Betamax videocassette also didn't gain mass popularity until the 80s, so in the 70s it was all about network affiliate broadcast television and literally nothing else when talking about the tube.

By the mid-70s there were only three major affiliate broadcast television networks: ABC, CBS and NBC - all of which were media powerhouses, and as such all had gobs and gobs of cash. We're talking so much cash it was just plain obscene. Each network produced everything in-house, well before the days of freelance videographers. They had their own complete staff, studios, talent, you name it, they had it.

Today's national over-the-air networks are nothing but a former shadow of what they used to be. Instead of The Big Three it's now The Big Five. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and Ion. "The CW" is a joint venture between CBS, UPN and WB. In fact, "CW" literally means "CBS and Warner Bros." MyNetworkTV/MyTV/MyNet/MNTV, which you also may have heard about, is owned by Fox. Ion is what you used to know as PAX when it was formerly Paxson Communications, then Independent Television and finally Ion Television. And yes they have the least viewers.

And of course there's still PBS. They're not commercial - but they do have the most viewers, roughly 2 million more than NBC, its closest competitor. You'd never think they'd hold the top spot for the most viewers, but they do year after year.

What Network tries to do is let you know how evil major broadcast television can be. Evil in the respect that you will believe anything the glowing box tells you. Evil in the way parents raise their kids on it. Evil in the way that few if any people actually question what they see on said glowing box - or in this day and age, glowing slab. I think the movie pulls it off fairly well, however it's very obvious the movie is dated.

The dated nature of the flick comes into play for the fact cable television isn't in it at all because it didn't exist as we know it back then. And it goes without saying that nobody had Internet back in the 70s.

Crazy as this sounds however, the message during several of Beale's rants do touch a nerve or two. He goes on about how the dollar is worthless and our country runs on oil. Sound familiar?

I do recommend watching the flick if for anything to see that history always repeats itself.

And for the fact seeing a 35-year-old Faye Dunaway is one of the hottest things you'll ever see in your life. When you see her, remember: No Photoshopping, no "enhancements", all woman. Knockout gorgeous.

(Anti)Social updates, uninstalling spree and other stuff

Concerning Twitter and Facebook: If you're trying to contact me that way, don't. Use email. If you don't know my email address, use my form.

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For whatever unknown reason my Y! Messenger stopped notifying me of new emails. Why I have no idea. The only reason I had that client installed to begin with was as a mail notification tool, but now.. doesn't work. Uninstalled it. I check mail manually now. Not a big deal.

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In addition to uninstalling Y! Messenger I also uninstalled Windows Live Messenger Beta, Pidgin and Miranda. I kept them installed just in case I ever wanted to use them, but seeing as I never did.. um, yeah.. gone. :)

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I decided it was long enough to wait since I whacked my Google account, created another one using my Y! account and applied for AdSense again.

I purposely configured my new Goog account to be Gmail-less because I have no interest in using it being I already use Y! Mail and am happy with it.

Hopefully my AdSense stuff will work this time around. I remain hopeful. :)

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Concerning ICQ and QQ, I made no formal announcement of this (until now), but I stopped using both services a while ago. Yeah, it was fun chatting with folks from other continents but it got boring because all the conversations were almost exactly the same. Hi / how are you / where are you from / blah blah blah. Same old thing over and over again, so ultimately I stopped using both.

I still load up ICQ from time to time, but only on an infrequent basis at best. My main messenger now is AIM.

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I've been reading a crapload of Reddit lately. Weird bunch. Nice bunch.. usually.. but still weird. As in Internet weird - and I'm not going to explain what that means because either you get it or you don't.

I will say that Reddit is about, oh, a billion times (give or take a million) more interesting than reading people's boring-ass shit on Facebook. Every time I login to Facebook and take a quick glance at what people are saying I just want to puke.

The thing about Reddit that gets me is the unbelievable amount of nerdiness on that site - and it's everywhere. I'm actually shocked so many from my generation and older post there as often as they do. If you do a search for, say, princess bride (in reference to that movie, of course), whammo, nostalgia aplenty.

It is the best site on the 'net to get your entertainment, no doubt. Good or bad thing? Good - for the moment.

I'm trendy and didn't even know it

Per a few articles I've been reading recently about how microblogging is a totally uncool thing now (geez no kidding because it always sucked), the "in" thing is to be a internet social recluse. I'm going to have to spell out what that means because it's screwed up in the way it works - although I totally understand it.

Being an internet recluse does not mean completely hiding yourself while online. It means that you pick and choose your communities carefully and completely avoid all share-friendly stuff. This means no Facebook, no MySpace, no Twitter. In other words, go back to exactly the way things used to be in 2005 - but blog.

Well son-of-a-gun I've been pretty much doing that right along.

Yep, I'm totally Mr. Cool Guy now.

Nah, not really. :)

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