Living in small-town USA has it’s disadvantages when it comes to things like high speed internet. You see, unless you’re living inside the loop, you’re connected to an overloaded RT, or if you’re too far outside town, you’re connected to, well, nothing.
I happen to live just outside the loop. And when I say that, I mean I can see it from my house. I could tell you what model of car just passed by if it weren’t dark outside.
Anyway, I’m a couple hundred yards from a reliable internet connection. It isn’t at all unusual to be without internet service a couple hours every few days. So, when I got home after lunch and discovered my internet was down, I was ticked off annoyed, but figured it was a regular outage and it would be back on real soon. I put my kid down for a nap. I did everything a person can do online from a smartphone. I printed business cards for a client. Then I got bored and took a nap.
When I got up the internet was still down so I called the provider. Turns out, there was no outage in our area. The technician was very kind and didn’t treat me like an idiot. When I told him I’d rebooted my modem and my wireless router, he believed me, and he didn’t make me do it again just to prove to him that the problem wasn’t on my end. Instead, he got started right away on ‘provisioning’ the modem. He tried over and over to connect and said he could see that the service was fine, but the modem seemed stuck. He tried something on his end, had me reboot it, and the problem was the same. The modem kept getting stuck at step 5 out of 6. We came to the conclusion that my modem is shot.
That’s right. Dead.
The tech then said he had a really stupid sounding question to ask…
Do you, by any chance, have a spare modem??
I wanted to laugh out loud. I think I probably giggled a little bit. I told him I didn’t, but that his question wasn’t all that crazy… had we not just had a yard sale and sold the last one, I could have produced at least three DSL modems. No Cable Modem
I was given a couple options and decided to purchase a new one from a local store. I thanked the kind tech support guy and hung up, frustrated that I’d have to spend money I hadn’t planned on spending and I’d have to leave the nice warm house and make the track to the store. In the cold wet weather. With a two year old.
I started supper then started the movie, UP. Lil Man and I were about half way through watching the movie when my husband popped on on Skype.
WHOA!
So, for the past few hours I’ve had internet. I have no idea how long it will last before my modem starts sticking again, but for now, I’m online.
So, I thought I’d ask, what kinds of things are in your closets? Do you keep the half-dead tech items you’ve replaced with newer technology?
C’mon, tell me about them and I just might give you a peek into my inventory!!
That is if my internet still works.
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I keep all sorts of things. Last year some time I knuckled down and threw some stuff away. Had 5 1/2 inch floppies, and 3 1/4 inch stiffies. In fact I threw out sealed software, dBASE V DOS version
I'm terrible for keeping old stuff. Still have a pentium 1 server in the closet somewhere, as well as a 486 and 386 somewhere
Hounds of Hades you've hit a sore spot here. I still have an old Psion credit card sized modem for a laptop that died years ago, an old Psion 3a organiser, cables, connectors, software, promotional USB memory sticks …
I’m pretty good at throwing things away (my wife hates clutter!). She's trained me well.
But I do have an old laptop – about 20 years old. HP I think. It's hidden away, under the stairs cupboard. It weights about 20kg and is a 286. I used to carry it around. I’m thinking one day it might be worth something (but in reality I don’t suppose it ever will be).
Every year, I’m invited along to the local college to talk about IT and I take it along. The 18 year old students are amazed, how old and antiquated it looks. It's actually older than them.
I also have a spare printer in case my current one breaks down. Oh and I've kept the PC before my existing one. Just haven't got round to deleting the software from it.
Andrew
I have pretty much all electronic gadgets, computers and gaming consoles I've ever owned still with me (in the closet). Starting from Commodore 64, going through 486 PC, Pentium Pro 200 Mhz, Dreamcast, original XBox x2, and yes old ADSL and cable modems too. Oh and I have old floppy disks, video recorders and VHS tapes that don't even work anymore! I guess I should throw something out..
Eh… I don't appreciate you calling me out for the packrat I am. I represent that!
Seriously though, I do need to go through my storage room (too much stuff for a closet) and purge quite a few items, including the Yamaha System 45 PC sound system that's now about 8 or 9 years old.
We're coming up on another new year so maybe I'll get rid of this stuff this time for sure. This post is a great reminder for us to part ways with some of the older technology gadgets and such. I mean really, haven't we moved on?
Yes I have a cupboard full or sound cards, keyboards, cables, VHS converter, a few LAN cards and I think perhaps a hard drive or two.
Jimi,
I always thought women were the packrats. I absolutely hate clutter, and most of the 'junk' in our closet I would gladly part with, but alas, my husband takes after his father and keeps everything cause ya know “we just might need this someday” ARRGGG lol
My ideas of getting married and having my own home, free of clutter were crushed when we moved in together and I started unpacking our stuff. I soon realized he had about 5 times as many boxes of 'stuff' and sentimental items as I did.
Guess it's not a female thing afterall!
You and my husband would be great friends, I can tell!! lol I am pretty sure that without my nagging he would never throw away, give away, or sell anything we no longer used. He says he hates clutter, and as soon as the house starts looking a little messy he goes nuts. But, I'm running out of closet space for all the things he wants to keep.
Granted, I'm guilty now and then, but I live by the idea: If I haven't used, worn, or needed this item in the past year, I can live without it.
Sounds like you have your tech-clutter under control!! I admire that. We have a very old Apple keyboard from my husband's family's first Apple computer. My son now uses it. He calls it his computer. hehe (He's 2)
We do normally keep the previous model of whatever we've replaced, just in case. But, I see no reason to keep things beyond the second replacement. haha
Hehe. So far, no one's list has been as long or as extensive as mine will be once I take inventory. You guys will feel very good about yourselves once I post my list!!!
Oh dear. We still have boxes in the garage with old floppies, zip drives, etc. Heck, we have software we can't even install on the machines we have. I would gladly throw it all out, but I have a husband who is even geekier/more of a packrat than I am who would die if I made him part with his stuff. hehe
We once bought a whole bunch of old Macs. I mean, OLD. Green screen macs. To sell on eBay And they were piled in our closet. They may still be there in Arkansas, somewhere.
We used to have a bunch of old servers, too.
We're all awful packrats, but moving around so much has us downsizing a bit. But we still have things in storage in every country we've been to!
Oh man! I think I'd take a roadtrip and clean out all those storage spaces. Who knows, if you sold the stuff you're not using you might make enough to pay for the trip. haha
So glad you stopped by and shared your story. Now I don't feel so bad.
LOL! We have a few tivo's and I don't know what else, but my hubby saves those things as well. We probably have a laptop or two that aren't being used and we have all the boxes from all the electronics “just in case.” This story cracked me up!
LOL! We have a few tivo's and I don't know what else, but my hubby saves those things as well. We probably have a laptop or two that aren't being used and we have all the boxes from all the electronics “just in case.” This story cracked me up!
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