Guinea Worm. And that’s something we should celebrate!
Damn, wish I didn’t read this.
Ditto. Removal takes several DAYS!?!?
during which I imagine you have a worm dangling out of your ass or knee
Accompanying their loved ones to the departure gate at the airport.
Or walk into the cockpit of a commercial flight while in flight to see how pilots worked
That was super cool for me as a flight sim enthoustic kid.
They will occasionally let a kid visit the cockpit while boarding if they show interest and the crew is extra nice
And you can ask for a trading card of the plane from the oilot as well
Cool, probably very dependent on the airline. I’ve never had one of those.
And it’s all fun and games until you bring out that 737 Max card …
A year as cool as the one they were born in
Having to wind back a cassette or vcr with a paperclip or spoon if the strip got tangled, or even just having to wait for the player to forward/rewind
-
Privacy
-
Peace & Quiet
- Easy access to dark skies for stargazing.
-
A time when AI wasn’t involved with everything.
Remember that time when humans had to do everything, and if there weren’t enough people around to do it, then nobody do it.
Carrying over heaps of computer equipment (including the mega CRTs before their demise) to your friends house for an all night LAN party that you guys had been prepping for. Then having a blast while parents look at you funny for being into computers.
Oh, and seeing a new BBS at a bus stop that you’d need to go dial into and check out.
I’m commenting too much in these replies because I remember too much, but I’m going to share one last anecdote. For a while I had a case with a bolted on handle to bring to LAN parties. Then I read in a magazine where people were building computers into hard shell backpacks to take back and forth and that changed the game. If I had to guess that was 98 or 99.
Those things were super expensive at the time. I took a seasonal second job to buy one and mount my system in it. The cooling was garbage but I sure thought I looked cool dragging it to LAN parties.
In 2004ish I set up a dial up server so my dad and I could play Battle for Wesnoth. We lived across the country from each other and neither of us had reliable broadband available. However, he had free long distance calling so it was (and remains) a way to keep in touch and hang out without actually having to talk to each other because we’re both terrible at that.
I really enjoy these types of anecdotes. Was the case with a bolted-on handle military themed? My buddy had one of those!
Not on purpose, but it did look like an extra large ammo can by accident. I had green and black spray paint so I painted it green with black stenciled letters on the side.
Beautiful. That’s exactly what I was imagining!
Oh, no, whatever you’re imagining it was much worse. However, I will always love it. I’ve built a lot of ugly but functional things in my life, but that’s probably the first significant one.
Being able to chalk off the often embarrassing or cruel lessons of childhood as something personal, rather than something someone saved in video, to hound you with for the rest of your life.
Living off the grid. A world where AI and data collection wasn’t so massive that even not participating in anything they will have a full profile of you. Data will become compromised until everything leaks out everywhere. When abusive powers will mathematically make future decisions for you, e. g. a. negative personality-health profile which makes a college dropout almost certain and therefore deny you the choice. People think in absolutes and not even partial success is viable. Just like now big corporations have such narrow application profiles that every human not built in a genetic factory is not worth it. I think the world becomes rapidly more hostile to neurodivergence. And all will suffer from it, because thinking diversity is key.
Snow days. Instead it’s now "pull out your laptops to get on zoom. I once was off an entire week or so bc of a massive snowstorm. Downside, the sewer line underneath our apartment burst and we couldn’t stay home that entire week.
Walking in to an honest-to-god Toy Store as a small child.
R.I.P. Geoffrey
Snow days
That feeling of hope as you listen to the radio during breakfast as they read out the names of which local schools are delayed and closed. Even more the excitement when your school changes from delayed to closed.
If not for climate then because of remote learning.
They can be forced to stay home when it gets too hot instead.
How hot is too hot? Our kids were in 43° last month (109°F).
Ours didn’t get to stay home, but they weren’t allowed outside at lunch the other week when it was over 40. Lucky for them the school has air con in all buildings.
Either one they get, they’ll just have “school-from-home” now, which is a shame.
IQ has been shown to be affected by AQI. We probably should hold school on very high AQI days.
Or too cold. Seems like some parts of the world at least are getting more of those polar vortex, ultra cold days. And if climate change shuts down the gulf stream, maybe Europe gets a lot for cold days, too
deleted by creator
Fidget Spinners
Cleaning out a ball mouse.
My 14 year old son recently picked one up out of this big pile of old computer treasure I was given by a client and said “What’s up with this mouse?”
Trackballs still need to be degunked though and they are alive and well (and superior imo)
As an old school retro enthusiast I can assure you a good laser mouse is leaps and bounds better than a trackball any day easily. I still love the track ball though because I was there gandalf. I was there 3000 years ago.
Couple this with defrag, a nice relaxing time.
Pfft, cleaning it out. Just hard boil an egg and take the yolk.
Calling your friends house, and asking if they were home and could talk.
Or going to their house and yelling for them from the sidewalk
