Thu 10 April 2025

I saw this update to the "Blog Questions Challenge" format on jnv's blog, and without reading* it first (in order to not taint my own answers — I will definitely go back and read his), I thought I'd write down some of my own thoughts, for fun.

*I used curl, grep, and neovim to grab the h3 tags without reading the text ;)

When Did You First Get Interested In Technology?

I can't remember a time when I wasn't. I grew up in the twentieth century: we didn't have high technology bits and bobs all around us, saturating our pores with kit and "content."

A computer was a very rare and special item to have at home when I was a kid. It was rare and special even in a library. The only time you'd see a large number of computers clustered together would be at a (financially well-off) school or university, and just in one or maybe two computer labs for the entire school.

So, any bit of sufficiently advanced tech or machinery was interesting to me. I even found the household mechanical typewriter of particular enough interest to vaguely recall spending some time playing with it as a very young child.

What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology All-Time?

It's tempting to give a totally nostalgic, but not particularly meaningful/helpful answer, so I'll answer it twice:

Nostalgic/Personal

My all-time favorite tech item would have to be my Macintosh SE. I got it just before Christmas 1989, and it was my only computer (what we'd call a "daily driver" today, haha) until January 1994.

Its screen was monochrome, low resolution (175 glorious kilopixels), and small (9" / <23 cm). It was slow (8MHz, single core, haha), and had very limited RAM (1 MiB stock) and storage (20 MiB).

After I had it for about a year, its limitations infuriated me. Like any spoiled kid, I wanted more. Color! Bigger screen! More storage! ...for... something!

The 486 PC I received as its replacement was a technological marvel. 14" screen (13" viewable). True color (24 bpp) at 640x480, 256 color at 1024x768. It had a 300 MiB hard disk, and the 486 processor itself was incredibly powerful for its day.

But I almost never think about that 486. If you showed me a 486 today, I'd say, "cool!" play with it for a bit, and go back to what I was doing.

If you sat me down before a classic compact mac, I'd greet it like an old friend. The nostalgia factor is really something.

Sadly, I had to give up my Mac SE and a couple old tech-friends a dozen years ago during a move. My 486? I gave it away to a friend a mere four years after I got it, without thinking much about it.

Actually, I had kind of forgotten that. That really blows my mind. Today, I buy and happily use (daily-drive, even!) computers older than that. 😅

Practical/Categorical

I think my favorite piece of technology (as a category) would be the PDA, particularly the generation of PDAs just before the current style ("2007-," a.k.a., "iPhone-like") of smartphone came to dominate everything.

In short: "Pocket computers before they got handcuffed to late-stage capitalism."

PDAs were pocket computers that were really pocket computers, and not pocket televisions. I'd have to particularly highlight the Psion Revo and similar devices that were still pocketable, but had (almost) touch-typeable keyboards (never had one myself, but they looked amazing). Perhaps the traditional blackeberry-style smartphones, as well, although we're getting closer to iPhone-style territory, and its associated artificial limitations.

I had a Palm IIIx and a first-generation* Sharp Zaurus running Linux. They were both great little devices, although I do wish I could go back in time and get a Psion Revo when they were cheap used ;)
* (in terms of U.S. releases, that is)

What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology Right Now?

Off the top of my head, I'd have to say Syncthing. Syncthing has been an essential to freeing myself from surveillance capitalism by replacing 99% of my need for "cloud" service providers with an incredibly easy to use and easy to "host" sync solution that works effortlessly over the internet without having to worry about having an open port to the internet or hosting a server software stack that may or may not be secure.

I'm not saying that Syncthing "IS" secure, but so little of it is exposed to the internet that it's a great relief.

Another favorite isn't a piece of tech in itself, but just a hugely positive reality we're living in:

1. There's lots of old computing hardware floating around
2. Old computing hardware is so cheap, it's almost free
3. Free and Open Source Software enables you to derive incredibly great use and value from very old hardware.

I am, at this moment, typing this blog post on a fifteen year old laptop. Even though it's so old, it runs the latest version of the FOSS Operating System I've picked out for it (OpenBSD), and a very recent version of the text editor, programming language interpreter, Static Site Builder, Secure Shell client, and file synchronization tool that I use to write, build, and upload this website.

I could not have used a fifteen year old laptop (at least, not with anything remotely resembling joy) if I was writing it in a website window on a slow, and rapine-bloated proprietary operating system. It would have been miserable. And so, people toss their five year old computers, because, "Eww, that's so slow and crappy!"
No. Your entire software stack is slow and crappy. :D

Name One New Cool Piece Of Technology We’ll Have In 25 Years!

I am old enough to be able to look backward 25 years with great clarity of recall. The development and evolution of hardware is beyond my wildest dreams. When I see the industrial design of things like iPads, folding phones*, folding-screen laptops, and other recent developments, I am amazed.

* I'm not saying I don't think modern phones aren't terrible. They truly are. iPads, too, for that matter. But the industrial design is amazing.

I am simultaneously horrified at how software and digital ethics has deteriorated. Even something as basic as UI design seems to have gone mad.

When I first drafted this article, I didn't even realize that I had neglected to answer the question. The truth of the matter is, I'm afraid to look forward. I already have a lot of trouble to relating to where technology is already. But let me now call on my Star Trek-inculcated Science Fiction optimism:

The coolest piece of technology we'll have in 25 years is ubiquitous, distributed personal computing. Actually personal, not corporate-driven, and not entertainment-focused. You'll have a server in your pocket for everything you'd ever need. It'll be connected to a world-wide mesh network and only connect to corporate cellular or wifi for high-bandwidth tasks like video. Someone will figure out how to do handheld typing (like the twiddler that actually works well, possibly through a combination of gestures and button presses that takes only a few minutes to learn. People will take control of their digital lives again. People will use technology to think, to interact to be free.

Final Thoughts

As I learned nearly twenty years ago when I purchased a wacom drawing tablet, advanced technology itself does not convey skill. That has to be earned through practice and instruction. Neither does it convey virtue. Neither does it justify the excesses it enables in the realm of digital ethics, nor the injustices perpetrated on the ones who mine the materials, assemble the parts, or develop the code.

With or without hyper-advanced technology, human beings are still a dangerous, savage child-rac—
Uh, sorry. That's Q. But anyway!

I'm thankful for the technology. I am, however, eager to see true change: Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness. Without these things, humanity's technological developments are just impressive baubles around the neck of a feral boar.

100 Days to Offload 2025 - Day 19

Category: Tech Tagged: 100DaysToOffload BSD Computing Ethics FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Hobbies Non-religious post Non-technical post Retrocomputing