<p>When my kids were in elementary school we took a cab in Mexico that the old windows you had to roll down. They thought it was pretty cool too. </p>
<p>We had roll down windows for my kids’ entire childhoods–first old used cars, then low-end minivan we bought in 94 and just junked last year. It did have power locks, though, so we thought it was pretty fancy.</p>
<p>I was walking through town with my BIL a couple of weeks back when a teenager came up and asked us what time it was. BIL showed him his dial watch. The kid just looked at us blankly, so I told him it was “10 'til 4.” He thinks for a second, then asks, “What time is that?” </p>
<p>Three-fifty he understood.</p>
<p>If Apple iWatch lives to its expectations, it could bring the old clock back. :)</p>
<p>I bought my kid a (cheap) analog watch for her standardized tests this year after she complained that she could not see the wall clock from her assigned seat.</p>
<p>In D2’s crowd, big clunky costume jewelry type watches are popular, and they are all analogues. They all seem to be able to read them. </p>
<p>LOL, I LOVE this thread!!</p>
<p>HImom, you don’t eat toast? ::::puzzled::::::</p>
<p>I absolutely LOVE maps,can look them over for hours.</p>
<p>I also love maps. When H and I are on road trips, we bring a great big (paperback) atlas. I hate getting directions from GPS, it makes me anxious not knowing what my route “looks” like.</p>
<p>We’ve had this discussion with the kids many times over dinner…how now you say, “Who played XX in YY movie?” and then someone Googles it. Or, “What was the name of the band that sang XX song” and you Google it. Back in the day, you’d ask that question as a rhetorical, and you might NEVER KNOW. Because who has time to go the library and paruse around in the Readers Guide?</p>
<p>H and I just did that recently re selling a motorcycle “when selling a motorcycle how do I protect myself against theft during test rides?”</p>
<p>I have to agree about maps. I find that the gps systems are great at telling me where to go but not how I am getting there. I need the map to give me the big picture. I like knowing where I am relative to where I’ve been and where I’m going.</p>
<p>I am struggling a bit with a technological dilemma at the moment. I receive a newspaper both on line and in digital form. I’m old enough that I prefer the tangible feel of the newspaper, however, my delivery person often gets it to my house late enough that I cannot get it read before I leave for work. I leave at 7:10 AM and they used to get it to my house by 6:15, for the past few months it’s been closer to 6:45. If it’s not read read before I leave then it will likely not get read. With the digital version I can adjust the font size, I get it whenever and where ever I want, I don’t have stacks of paper to recycle, I can save, archive, send and post articles. It’s also cheaper. What it doesn’t do is give me that satisfying “Ahhh” that I get when I can read the paper with my breakfast in the morning nor can I share another section of the paper with my wife. It seems expensive and wasteful to continue purchasing a paper I get to actually read once or twice a week because of the time it arrives. I suppose I could complain but I’m not sure the merits of going digital do not outweigh the few positves. </p>
<p>There was a song that came out when I was about 5. It was a minor hit, but I loved it, just loved it. For years I would listen to oldies stations hoping they’d play it. I scoured record stores for 45s, to no avail. Then YouTube and iTunes came along and lo and behold, the song was there. So I bought it (so excited!) – listened to it a dozen times in a row – and promptly was sick of it! </p>
<p>Pizzagirl, it is funny you mentioned that, because just yesterday I got my fill of 80s hits on You Tube. I like doing that every couple of years.</p>
<p>One thing I noticed today while I was fixing a printer/computer problem was how the focus has changed from hacking the machines and fixing mechanical and software bugs to making apps and connecting data sources. We can’t do much inside a machine now and some aren’t really even openable and if you do crack one open there isn’t much to do. I remember soldering memory to boards and clipping various resistors to rework the logic board. But I can’t imagine doing something in an iPad. Remember, Jobs et all were phone phreaks.</p>
<p>But it’s now unbelievably easier to write software. You don’t have to draw every bit of your interface. You don’t have to set aside memory and then clean it out. I remember when Jobs talked up Objective C as like starting with something like 16 floors already built in your building but now there’s massively more all done for you.</p>
<p>E.g., writing a web browser is very hard but you can take a sourced project like WebKit and make your own wrapper for it and have one you could name after yourself. Back when Id came out with Doom, there was a market in the polygon making software that could generate reasonably realistic scenery for 1st person shooting games. Now … it’s like you’re in a movie and you can use these engines. </p>
<p>Wow! I’m not the only one who went on a YouTube 80s hits binge recently! 
</p>
<p>I had a kid ask me the other day how to address a letter. Written mail is just something they don’t do anymore.>></p>
<p>My girls wrote thank you notes after every job interview, whether or not they were offered the job. They also wrote them to people who helped them network. This was just in the last couple months. They also write thank you notes to relatives for gifts.</p>
<p>With a quill pen?</p>
<p>“But it’s now unbelievably easier to write software. You don’t have to draw every bit of your interface. You don’t have to set aside memory and then clean it out. I remember when Jobs talked up Objective C as like starting with something like 16 floors already built in your building but now there’s massively more all done for you.”</p>
<p>For non-computer people, this is all gobbledygook anyway. </p>
<p>Re 80’s binge…check out the book Ready Player One…just came out and really good.</p>