c/tech-you-missed

Thought I scored a deal on a Palm Pilot, now I just have a paperweight

Bought a Palm Pilot Vx at a garage sale for $15 last weekend. Found out the hard way you can't sync it with anything modern without a serial port and ancient software. Anyone actually found a use for these things that doesn't involve hunting down a Windows 98 machine?

3 comments

the_max•13d ago

Why does nobody talk about how quiet old IBM Model M keyboards actually are?

Honestly, I picked up a dusty Model M from a thrift shop in Akron last month for $15. Everyone online says they're super loud and clicky but mine sounds more like a gentle thud, not a clack. I think the previous owner swapped in some rubber dome sliders or something weird. Took me 3 evenings to clean it with compressed air and a dental pick. Has anyone else found an old buckling spring board that's way quieter than expected?

2 comments

alicemurphy•18d ago

Finally got my old Palm Pilot to sync after 6 years of sitting in a drawer

Spent last Sunday wrestling with a serial-to-USB adapter and some ancient software on Windows 98, and now my 2002 calendar with dentist appointments is backed up on a modern laptop - who else still has a graveyard of PDAs they can't bear to throw out?

3 comments

grantt39•19d ago

My vintage Palm Pilot screen went black and I fixed it with a potato

Last Tuesday I was showing my old Palm Pilot m505 to my nephew and the screen just went completely black after 5 minutes. I tried the reset button on the back, pulled the batteries, nothing worked. Found some forum from 2002 saying to rub a raw potato slice on the battery contacts to remove corrosion. I actually tried it, let it sit for 2 minutes, wiped it off with a napkin, put the batteries back in, and the thing booted right up. Has anyone else used weird food tricks to fix dead electronics?

2 comments

lily_torres31•19d ago

The day I found a box of old floppy disks at Goodwill changed my mind about backups

I was at the Goodwill in Columbus, Ohio last Saturday and found a box of 5.25 inch floppy disks for $2. I used to think physical media backups were useless, but then I remembered my dad lost all his tax files from 1998 when his hard drive died. Now I'm keeping those floppy disks as a reminder that paper or disk is safer than cloud storage sometimes. Has anyone else found old media that made them rethink their backup strategy?

3 comments

umar49•19d ago

Swapped my old CRT monitor for an LCD in 2007 and lost 30 FPS on Quake III

I mean, maybe it's just me but I swear the refresh rate lag was brutal. My CRT could do 120 Hz at 800x600 and the LCD capped at 60 Hz with visible ghosting. Anyone else stick with CRT way too long for gaming?

3 comments

elliotm57•26d ago

Why does nobody talk about how hard it is to find a working USB 2.0 hub anymore?

Spent 2 hours last Saturday digging through a drawer of old cables and adapters just to plug in my vintage Palm Pilot, only to realize none of my modern USB-C hubs actually talk to it. Finally found a dusty Belkin hub from 2008 at a thrift store and it worked first try. Anyone else keep a graveyard of old peripherals just in case?

3 comments

amy_craig28•28d ago

Hot take: I used to think zipping files was a waste of time...

For years I stored everything as huge uncompressed folders on my external drive. Then I tried to email a batch of 50 photos to my sister in Chicago and Gmail laughed at me. The file was 180 MB and I couldn't send it. After 45 minutes of frustration, I finally learned how to zip them down to 22 MB. It was like a lightbulb went off over my head. I wasted so much time before because I thought compression was just for tech nerds. Has anyone else stubbornly avoided a simple tool like that for way too long?

3 comments

kim.nina•28d ago

Spent $35 on a used Palm Pilot at a thrift store, now I'm hooked on distraction-free scheduling

I found a Palm Pilot Vx at a Goodwill last weekend for 35 bucks. Figured it would be a funny paperweight but I actually charged it up and it still works perfectly. I've been using it for my daily to-do lists and calendar stuff and honestly it's kind of freeing not having my phone around. No notifications, no scrolling, just a stylus and my schedule. The sync cable took forever to find on Ebay for another 12 bucks but now I can backup data to an old laptop. Has anyone else tried going back to an old PDA for organizing your life, or am I just being nostalgic?

3 comments

laura_chen41•29d ago

That old DVD player from 2002 ate my disc and I lost a weekend fixing it

I dug out my ancient Toshiba DVD player to watch a movie and it just grabbed the disc and refused to spit it back out. Took me 4 hours with a paperclip and a YouTube tutorial from some guy in Poland to get it working again. Has anyone else had a device just decide to swallow your media whole?

3 comments

anna491•1mo ago

Shoutout to anyone who still keeps a CRT monitor around for retro games

I finally dug out my old Sony Trinitron from 1998 to play some PS1 games, and the difference from my flat screen is night and day. PS1 games look like jagged messes on modern TVs, but on the CRT they look crisp and smooth like they did back in the day. I spent like two hours just messing with Gran Turismo 2 and it felt way better than any emulator I've tried. Has anyone else gone back to old hardware and noticed the same thing?

3 comments

aaron_perry•1mo ago

Found a box of old Zip disks in the basement, realized I have no way to read them anymore

I was cleaning out my parents' garage in Milwaukee last weekend and pulled out a case full of 100MB Zip disks from the late 90s. My uncle used them for backing up his small business records, and now I can't find a working drive anywhere online under $60. Has anyone figured out a cheap way to pull data off these things or are they just fancy coasters now?

3 comments