Old Dog New Tricks

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

I know what you mean. I’m still playing Infocom games that I first bought in the 1980s. I no longer rush into the games. Now I wander into the mazes Infocom constructed and just play around.

On the other hand, I don’t know how many Windows machines I’ve had fail on me. I finally gave my last one to my wife and got a Mac Mini. The last time I was in Costco I looked at a Windows 8 laptop and only shook my head. My wife refuses to dump that old Windows Vista machine and get a Mac even though it’s crashing almost every day now. It was upgraded to Windows 7 a couple of years back in an attempt to make it behave itself but if you’ve ever tried to reinstall Windows from disks 2 or 3 versions back, you will understand why she keeps pulling the plug to get it to restart instead of reinstalling.

There is a case to be made for junking old stuff, too.

Now then, if you’re talking about eReaders, I have to admit that Kobo has seduced me with its brilliant implementation of The Book. Like Amazon they are working to make the hardware disappear and succeeding: the Kobo Aura HD is the best reading experience I’ve had.

My Palm Treo finally died so I recently got a Samsung Note II. Works great as an eReader although I had to hunt to find software I liked as well as MobiPocket. I'm still learning how to do other stuff on it. It took over a year before I really knew how to work with my Palm, I see no reason the learning curve for Android should be shorter.

As for computers (and I suspect it'll be true of Android too) lifespan depends more on what you do with them than on the OS. I had a Windows 98 system I used for probably 7 or 8 years. Rebooted it maybe three times/year. But one thing I didn't do was try out a lot of new software on it. I had my production software & that's what I used. It was solid and stayed that way. I could probably still be using it today if I hadn't run out of HD space. (I'll note that as a tech I had multiple PCs-and I did mess up my testbeds regularly trying out new hardware & software. But my production PC I kept stable. And that, I think, is the great thing about Macs-they're so hard to upgrade that people don't mess them up trying new stuff.)

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

My Palm Treo finally died so I recently got a Samsung Note II. Works great as an eReader although I had to hunt to find software I liked as well as MobiPocket. I'm still learning how to do other stuff on it. It took over a year before I really knew how to work with my Palm, I see no reason the learning curve for Android should be shorter.

As for computers (and I suspect it'll be true of Android too) lifespan depends more on what you do with them than on the OS. I had a Windows 98 system I used for probably 7 or 8 years. Rebooted it maybe three times/year. But one thing I didn't do was try out a lot of new software on it. I had my production software & that's what I used. It was solid and stayed that way. I could probably still be using it today if I hadn't run out of HD space. (I'll note that as a tech I had multiple PCs-and I did mess up my testbeds regularly trying out new hardware & software. But my production PC I kept stable. And that, I think, is the great thing about Macs-they're so hard to upgrade that people don't mess them up trying new stuff.)

Yes, so many people have to have the latest updates even if they offer no improvements that they actually need... I like to use my computers, readers etc and generally go for "If it ain't broke, don't fix it..." and "KISS" as they seem to keep me doing things I want to do rather than continually wasting time on fixing things...

[xendula]

I remember those old SM cards. Heck, I remember my first thumb drive. The employees in the electronic store didn't even know what it was!! I remember us looking at the package together and me telling them that it sounded like it could be an external hard drive, and they thought that was a ridiculous assumption and that it was clearly an adapter for something! I paid $179 for 16 MB!!
I still have my iPaq 3870, first PDA to have Bluetooth! What a gorgeous device for its time, though I have not touched it in years.

I don't really use any of my old devices any more, but just don't have the heart to part with them. Does anyone remember the Nokia N-gage? That phone meant so much to me at one time, that I still keep it safe in a box, though I locked myself out of it a decade ago.

[Jessica Lares]

I had an iPAQ too. It's still sitting around somewhere. My dad dissembled it to fix the port. Was my Christmas gift in 2002/3. Lovely device. It was like what an iPod Touch would be today. I used to use it for instant messaging, drawing, listening to streaming radio with RealPlayer, and all that good stuff.

Highly modern Windows Mobile was at the time. Really wanted a Palm Treo with it for my first phone, but my parents said no and got me a Sanyo instead. Hated it so much, I didn't even bother making them pay for it after a few months. Went a year or so without a phone again and then got the iPhone after it was introduced (and paid for most of it and the bill). Loved it to pieces, literally.

[danskmacabre]

I probably still have my old Psion series 5 laying about somewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5

A great little device, I think it took 2 AA batteries.
It'd probably do a half decent job of being an ereader I suppose.