Lifestyle
Lifestyle
Because it’ s almost the end of the school year, a lot of people may be saying,“ Hang on, dude! We’ re almost there!” In other words, a lot of us are telling each other to persevere. And since I’ m the sort of person who likes obsessing over unintelligible jargon and gizmos that seem to have come from the future, I began to wonder … are there any specific technological inventions / gadgets that have lasted the years? Old technology and perseverance … is that possible? It turns out that it is.
Amazing Pieces of Technology That Has Lasted Over The Years By Jin Do Lee
Let’ s look at laptops. A journalist named Nathan Heller wrote an article about revisiting his old, square, IBM laptop. This laptop was introduced to the computing world in 2005. Heller observes that his old laptop " bears the marks of [ its ] experience. The A, S, E, D, C, O, L, N, and M keys are worn down to a point of near-illegibility." He describes the experience of using his old IBM as " trying on those weird pants that you wore in high school: memories rush back; habits return; a mind-set reasserts itself, mocking the progress that you thought you’ d made." Although the laptop no longer serves its purpose in Heller’ s life, he marvels at the fact that this laptop still works even though it has been through four years of“ college wear and tear,” two years of travelling abroad, and two years of sitting on the dusty shelf in retirement. Now that’ s what you can call endurance.
Speaking of portable devices, it’ s worth mentioning phones in this article too. All the futuristic smartphones of today can easily break from a foot-high drop. But what about old phones? The most classical indestructible-phone jokes pertain to old Nokia 3310s. What has caused this phone, which was introduced five years before the IBM laptop, to become a meme on the internet? It’ s because of its seemingly indestructible casing. According to the people on the internet, a 3310 will make a hole on a cement ground if it is dropped. Of course, the 3310 is not that indestructible. Nevertheless, it is still one of the phones that withstood time and constant abuse, and yet it still works thirteen years later! Not a single crack was found on its casing after all those years. Even its battery lasts a little less than two weeks, much longer than today’ s average of thirty-six hours. This is the reason why people describe Nokias as“ indestructible.”
However, none of these would even compare to the“ Gulf War Game Boy.” An unnamed soldier had an original during the Gulf War around 1990. That’ s ten years before the 3310, which makes this particular Game Boy twenty-three years old! Apparently, that soldier was a hard-core Nintendo fan, and actually brought his Game Boy in the war. Both the soldier and the Game Boy were able to survive the war. That may not sound very interesting until you hear that both of them survived a bomb. The Game Boy still works even to this day, despite the fact that it has almost been blown to pieces. As for the soldier, he was able to live through the war and tell the tale of his indestructible Game Boy. This is the definition of perseverance.
So there you have it! Three pieces of early technology that have given so much to our modern world today. Without the 3310, the square IBM laptop, or even the original Game Boy, many of our modern gizmos won’ t exist. Maybe these old devices aren’ t so useless after all. All of them teach us an important lesson: persevere. If inanimate objects can survive constant wear and tear, so can you! Our school year is almost over, so finish strong! And don’ t forget this old proverb that applies not only to computing, but also to life itself: press save.
Sources: http:// www. newyorker. com / online / blogs / books / 2013 / 01 / hello-laptop-my-old-friend. html http:// www. g4tv. com / thefeed / blog / post / 709457 / nugget-from-the-net-the-game-boy-that-survived-the-gulf-war /
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