There are a whole lot of great gadgets available on the market today. All created by industrious engineers looking to take advantage of new technology. Sure the old stuff works just fine until you try some of those new bells and whistles. Star Trek was great TV show, but the DVD has made it a far better experience. I liked the games that I played on my 286 machine, but the Pentium made games far more challenging and the graphics are incredible. We often scoff at new technology until we have experienced it. That six year old pone that weighs two pounds may work great, but a new smart phone will free you of also having to carry around that PDA and digital camera. Best of all you won’t have to worry about your pants falling down.

I loved my old Nokia and had no intention to replace until I lost it. Since my carrier no longer sold that model I was forced to pickup a fancy new phone with all the stuff I didn't need. Now that I have had the new phone for a couple of weeks I wonder why I held on to that old technology for so long.

I once posed the question "What's the oldest piece of computer hardware you still have in use?" and one smart aleck replied "The power cord!" But me, "heat seeker" (someone who loves to upgrade to the newest hardware just for the sake of doing so), I still have a circa 1997 56K modem in my P4 3 GHz box that I built two years ago, for the rare case that my cable modem goes down and I need to connect to the net... And one monitor has lasted me through 4 computer upgrades, that is, until I wanted a 19" flat LCD screen. The monitor is still being used, on a computer I bought 7 years ago, in the spare bedroom.

In think that in the process of keeping some old equipment until it truly dies keeps us on our toes and allows us to contrast and compare how good/bad the new stuff really is. In the case of computers, there are services and or chores that can be offloaded the new system and handled well in the background at the "slower" speed.

When I started my current job, the G.M. laughed that I still used an HP 200LX palmtop PC and told me to get a Palm Pilot at company expense. Is still use the 200LX (now at least 12 years old - it runs DOS 5.0) for my address book and calcuator. It's that calculator that keeps this oversized PDA around - I have dozens of equations in the solver that I use regularly and I keep adding equations. I don't see similar sophistication in any current PDA or phone. I guess I'm an early adopter (I bought one of the first HP-35's), but not very trendy.

I had a Windows 3.1 computer at work until a few months ago to write PLC programs. I changed my phone after 5 years last week still with the origional battery . My home computer was purchased in 1997 and still provides all that I want to do. And finally my car is 1994 and stills runs perfect !.

I still have a 1996 Apple Mac 6112 with an upgraded G3 processor, larger hard drives, and extra memory on extender boards as well as upgrades from OS 7.5 to 9.2. I got a new Powerbook G4 in 2004 to be able to run OSX, which totally blows Windows away. But the old Mac still runs fine and does many ordinary tasks well and provides occasional access to old files. I can move them to my new Mac as needed using iDisk.

Why in this wasteful society do we feel compelled to replace things that don't need to be replaced? As long as it works, I'll keep it. There is plenty of time to fill up the landfills.

I agree with the post above me (Bill S.) I still use 98FE and an kerio 2.1.5 firewall and an palm IIIxe, had a zire 31 which one day using program to test the stability of the palm, it crashed the palm, changed the battery around so I couldn't charge, it changed it to drain.. :( I had the usb hotsync cord plugged in tho, well it went out and I am stuck now with a IIIxe, my father brought me a IIIx, then on ebay I found two palm a m105 with two cradles a palmpix camera and a IIIxe with a palm pix camera the m105 software and kodak CD, and yes the IIIxe had its own cradle for 30 bucks including shipping and handling.. :) didn't say they worked, just listed the items, however the m105 has the drain problem and the IIIxe looks like it was opened up. I opened up the IIIxe to take a look inside, and it looks like the ribbon is glued.. :/ anyway works fine and plus I did change the IIIxes' back (had a broken corner, with no screw, oh and the screws I took out had some white stuff on them.. :( ) anyway like I was saying took the back off and switched it with my IIIxs' one, so now the back of the IIIxe is grey.. :D, oh and I did switch the stickers of the serial numbers.. :), also I put up some bandage tape or whatever around the contrast button to keep me from turning it, and yes It works, as the contrast is just right for all conditions (I hope)=so far so good.. Oh boy does the extra 4mb or just about make a great deal of difference.. so as you might of guessed yes I still have an SD card with my old items on it and a backup of my zire 31. :) however no way to access it, unless I buy a card reader... My first palm experience was with a palm IIIx, MADE IN USA BABY AND STILL WORKING.. :) oh and so is the IIIxe.. there is my little tale of/from my world.. :D