February 18, 2005
Gadgets
Mobile PC has a list of the Top 100 Gadgets of All Time. The Swingline 747 Stapler (Milton's beloved gadget from Office Space) comes in at number 99. Apple's hugely influential PowerBook 100 comes in at Number 1.
My personal favorite is the TRS-80 Model 100, which I used to connect to Michigan Tech's mainframe for programming classes in the early 1980s.
87. RADIO SHACK TRS-80 MODEL 100, 1983
Not the first portable computer, nor the most advanced, the Model 100 distinguished itself through simplicity, ruggedness, and portability. For $800 you could outfit yourself with this 6-pound mobile typing machine (a real featherweight compared with the 20-pound Osborne and Kaypro portables). The specs weren't impressive: 8KB of RAM, an eight-line-by-40-character display, no hard drive, a 300-baud modem, and a 2.4MHz Intel CPU. But two AA batteries gave it enough juice to run for 16 hours, and it was tough enough to ward off falls, bumps, spills, and filthy language, making it a perfect choice for newspaper reporters and cops. Radio Shack sold 6 million between 1983 and 1991.
The Silva Compass comes in at number 45. I had one of those at Michigan Tech as well, before I was invited to consider leaving the university--partially because I couldn't figure out how to worked the damned thing. Both in a course in orienteering and one in geological field mapping.
[via Boing Boing]
Posted by johndan at February 18, 2005 10:50 PM | TrackBack