Technology

SUMMARY: Expensive and lying around everywhere.

UPDATE Nov 29, 2020: I just uploaded all the photos you see here!) 

We here at Taj MuttHall (that is, Human Mom, 2 dogs, and Mr Fox No.12) have the following in the way of "high tech" gear used for communication currently or at one time:

• A 2017 Macbook Pro that was working perfectly except for occasional extremely irritating and often challenging sticky keys (which Apple finally acknowledged in June was their problem), which I took to the Authorized Dealer yesterday for the warranty repair with a promise that it would be done by the end of the day, but it failed diagnostics, so they were going to try again, so I have no email, no applications that read my actual current data...like that. Back to the stone age. Only web-based apps for me today.

  

  2017: Brand new MacBook Pro, in Space Gray.
  Just out of the box with protective cover still on it.

  
  
• This Mac Mini (that I am using in the interim and it is slowww and has no current software) from wayyy back. 
• A Mac 512K ( that would work fine if it had a working floppy drive into which to insert the System diskette but I cannot get one of those, nor have the ones I have be repaired, which is why this original was retired).  It lives on in my attic and on Wikipedia.

  

  2004: My original Macintosh, 512K
  In 2004, it hadn't worked in probably 14 years.

  
  
• A slew of Macs of various models who remain here only as ghosts.

  

  2009: Older Mac crashing. A lot.
  

  
  

  

  2008: My original Macbook, bought in 2000.
  I think it was a 1999 model. Lots of people at this event also had Macbooks--
  NONE were old enough to be black.
  This was still convenient for basic stuff but really couldn't run newer things
  And not long after this, it refused to power up.

  
  
•  A 2011 MacBook Pro that works fine (although had been getting slower over time) but sometimes doesn't work at all, so it must sit in the corner and ponder its sins. 

  

  2016: The 2011 MacBook Pro.
  

  

  2017: 2011 MacBook Pro also -- odd things happened to screen
  And then it repeatedly started not starting up, or shutting down for no reason.

  
  
• A 2011 MacBook Pro whose screen broke so you can see only the left 1/3 or so (actually handed over to a friend recently for homeopathic therapy (so I don't expect any cures any time soon)).
  

  

  2014: 2011 MacBook Pro with damaged screen--
  Note lower right corner--the colored arc is the crack
  Note whole right side of screen is slowly being eaten away.

  
  
• A Windows laptop running Vista that I haven't needed in 2 years (my company provided it for some contracts) and that's likely well over 10 years old.

  

  2016: Windows PC (huge and heavy)
  with the too-too-familiar blue screen of death.

  
  
• Another Windows system running I don't know what but probably more recent OS than that. It was my dad's and I have it to, in theory, be working on converting all of his vast numbers of Word Perfect files (all of his books and everything else are in this) to Word so the rest of us can read them.

  

  2020: Was Dad's newest Windows PC.

  
  
• One home phone, the main line, with a wireless handset and a base with answering machine (digital, not tape) that hangs on the wall in the kitchen and does not have caller ID or any other such new-fangled features. I have a wired-to-the-wall-and-coiled-handset-wire phone in my bedroom also on that line. You would maybe not be surprised how many people say, "but I texted you!" And I say, "How--you don't have my cell number," and they look at me blankly and say, isn't this your phone number?  Yes... yes, it is.
  
  

  

  

  2020: Kitchen1998 model wireless phone. Note antennas everywhere.
  Note there's no window for displaying phone numbers and such. Just how many messages.  
  Well, the base isn't wireless--connects directly to phoneline in wall.
  Handset is huge and heavy.
  
  

  
  
• One office line that's for work, nominally. Internetz come through there. Has a pretty modern phone with a limited display (and digital answering machine) and also TWO bases and wireless handsets--very handy to have the extra one in the living room during the recent years when that's where I was working because of my back. And bluetooth if I could figure out how its new-fangled ear piece works.
  
  

  

  

  2020: Office phone 2013 model. Little window displays all over.  
  Handset is thinner and lighter, and the keys light up.
  
  

  
  
• A printer...  a printer for goodness sake... that's also connected to the interwebz and is wirelessly operated, which is also very convenient from the living room or from my renters' phones. It's also a scanner and a fax. I got it to replace my old dead fax. Ask me how many faxes I've sent or received in the last couple of years. (Hint, fewer than 1.) 

  

  2020: HP all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax, 2013 model. Wireless.
  

  
  
• My regular flip cell phone that my so-called friends deride regularly. 

  

  Flip phone compared to inherited iPhone (next photo).
  

  
  
• An inherited iPhone 4 with an actual service plan that isn't being used, following my model for Netflix (sure, I'm paying every month, because someday I might use it) and Dish Satellite (sure, I'm paying every month, because someday I might use it). 

  

  My first iPhone/My first smartphone
  

  
  

However, since I successfully cancelled my Dish subscription this past week, I think I'm going to bite the proverbial technology bullet and get a new cell phone.

What's the world coming to?

UPDATE Nov 29, 2020: I *did* go get a new cell phone--iPhone of course!

(AND--I just uploaded all the photos you see here! You're welcome!  I have photos of many of these but not easy to post at the moment, so tune in later.)

Nov 2018: Shot this photo of my first iPhone next to the 2 latest models.
Immediately after which I bought the model in the middle.
Much bigger but thinner and I think lighter.