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Technology from past Technology is amazing and the rate at which it evolves is mind blowing. At home I have multiple items that used to be common but nowadays are obsolete. Well, this sounds like I'm really old. Sadly I haven't held punch cards in my hands, though I would buy a pack (and maybe a reader? 😄). The items that come to my mind include CPUs floppy disks (different sized) EEPROMs logic gates (you know what's a logic gate, right?) This beauty below was rather easy to reach - it was protected just by a metal case on top. You see the little traces and paths in the chip above? These are wires! By the way, it looks big but in reality, it's tiny. The width of what you see is something like 7 mm (for the Imperial unit users - about a quarter of an inch).
You probably noticed how my previous paragraph started with the fact that reaching the chip was easy. Well, this is because... modern chips are made indestructible! I'm not joking! You can read about all kinds of stories and crazy experiments - from boiling in concentrated sulphuric acid to producing fuming nitric acid in a home lab... well, this latter part is something I'm not willing to try. At least not in my kitchen. Oh, and if you're wondering what's fuming nitric acid... you don't want to know. The toxic corrosive reddish brown fumes of nitrogen dioxide coming out of the equipment tell enough about it. I managed to reach the one below, though, and I'm really happy with the result. It came from an old SD card. The major part of the memory card is a repeating structure when data gets saved. But a memory card is not just the storage space - there is a controller that tells it what to do. And this is what the controller of my SD cards looks like.
I have more to tell about chips and the beautiful colours produced on the silicon surface but that deserves a separate article. At my parents' place I have more old treasures like a Walkman audio cassettes VHCs a video cassette player Also I have a tamagochi, well, not an original one but a cute electronic pet. When I was a child I really wanted a tetris, too, but I never got one! Mommy... ;( I was thinking whether to add CDs and DVDs to the list, too. I've used them massively but nowadays computers no longer have a CD drive...
This turned out to be more of a visual article than informative but I'll write more on microchips in a future article.
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Oh I remember floppy disks, I had some but I don't know how to transfer content somewhere. 😊 I also had video and audio cassettes, walkman... I liked listening to the walkman very much. Few months ago I transferred one audio from the tape to the usb. It is audio where I speak something when I was 4 years old. I was very happy when I heard that. 😊
There certainly are people who still have a computer with a floppy drive. My old computer from 15+ years ago still exists! My first association with the Walkman is the cassettes that came with my English textbooks. I started listening to music regularly fairly late. But video cassettes are a dear memory from my childhood. Our video cassette player was able to record, too, and so I wanted to record every single episode of the cartoons I was watching. And of course then I was re-re-re-rewatching them...
I also was recording episodes of cartoons... And video cassettes are for me every nice memory...
I remember technology in the past. I had a lot of audio and video tapes. I had a walkman and later a discman. It was very expensive then and I was very happy when I got it.😊
Oh, yeah, a discman, I remember that my friend had one. Latest technology is always expensive at its time, then we end up calling it primitive. That's how it goes. I remember when once I got a 128 GB memory card as a birthday present. That was huge at the time and I was so happy to be able to record longer videos on the camera. And, well, it was quite expensive, especially for its size! :D
You didn't happen to post it on Read Cash? I'd like to see them. I have an article talking about my belongings like this on my profile.
I didn't think about it. Maybe I will. 😊 I will also read your article.
It would be great if you could post it, so we can share experiences and anecdotes about these issues. Try to read my article.
I remember your article. And actually, now I realised that I missed an important type of old tech that I have... I use film cameras regularly! :D To me they're the usual tool to have along on my trips. This summer I ended up taking more film photos than with my DSLR. I will write about them sometimes.
I would like to see it, my friend 👍
I just love these things, I think things from the past have their appeal and fascination.
Me too! There's some special character and charm to them. I can't throw them away.