I liked stick shifts, but in my suburb with a stop sign every hundred fifty feet (no exaggeration; I just checked it on google maps) driving it is no fun. I still like dead tree books, but ebooks are just so convenient when traveling. But you can’t just leaf back 20 pages to check something. As for math that a couple people mentioned, the computer hasn’t been built that can do the kind I do. Not yet, at least. It is still pencil on scratch paper.
For keyboards, I once went to a concert in a park given by a new age composer. He used something he called a “sampled Bosendorfer” which used tones generated by playing notes recorded from a real piano, complete with the notes from all the strings that hummed sympathetically with the note struck. He said it wasn’t the real thing but as close as you could get from a keyboard you could carry into a park.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the really good sound libraries for electronic keyboards are now stunningly good. You can spend some big bucks for the good stuff, but some of them are worth it.
Maybe my word “toys” ended up being (for you) more off-putting than helpful. What I want to get across is that the key action on the best electronic keyboards is not just “somewhat lacking”, it’s shamefully incompetent. Musicians would play better and far more easily if their keyboards had keys that gave them better than the rough approximate control of the notes they currently have.
I remember reading a review of an American car, back when the “big three” were having serious quality problems, and the reviewer wrote “Have these people never been in a Honda Accord?”. I’m kind of saying the same thing here - have the electronic keyboard manufacturers never played a piano?
I agree that there’s no substitute for an old-fashioned acoustic piano.
I do wish to someday have the opportunity to play a Yamaha CP-80 though. With real strings and real hammers, that one looked like a nontrivial contender.
Actual metal keys to open doors and start vehicles.
Wall calendars. Give me something I can really look at.
Hand roll up vehicle windows. I don’t need another electric gizmo to break down.
On the other hand. I never use cash or checks, only my United Mileage C C. I fly to my place in Hawaii 3 or 4 times a year and never pay for the flight.
Gave up print newspapers long ago and only read them on my phone.
Faxes. I get data from agencies that still only use fax machines. I use an online service which email me the faxes as pdf files. I also use the fax service to send a whole bunch of letters to my congresspeople. I guess I’m kind of between being old-fashion and not.
I did apply “This book belongs to brachyrhynchos” label on the inside of my Kindle case. I like physical books but not when I travel.
I still use the same Kenwood stereo receiver I’ve had for the past 35 years. I don’t have a remote for it and I have to <gasp> get up to change the volume!
I still sleep in a bed instead of one of those levitation units. I climb stairs like a luddite instead of simply teleporting upstairs. I type stuff with a freaking keyboard instead of using the neural lace. And I haven’t even backed up my meatbrain to the cloud, so I’m going to die for good like a stupid animal.
I’ve never owned a car with an automatic transmission. I’ll shift my gears when I’m good and ready, dammit! No damned automatic transmission is going to tell me when they should be shifted!!
Besides, this way my girlfriend won’t ask to borrow my car.
Is a briefcase old fashioned? I carry mine nearly every day when I need to go out on business–it’s got everything I need for the day. Notepad, pens, pencils, highlighters, client files, research documentation, reading glasses; and occasionally, my laptop, power cord, earbuds, and phone charger. And then there are the “pleasantries”: candy, a snack, a crossword puzzle, a current magazine or two, and so on.
If a briefcase is old fashioned, then I am woefully behind the times, but I otherwise don’t know how to carry all the stuff I might need for my particular workday.
I always had manual transmission cars until this one. I switched to automatic because my knee is all worn out inside, and it was bothering me pushing in the clutch pedal. old, and decrepit.
I called it ‘kind of old fashioned’ because around here (Silicon Valley) it’s not common to see them, and I’m talking about leather ones like mine. More common are backpacks or, if the bag is shaped like a briefcase, nylon laptop bags that are smaller than my briefcase.
It’s probably a characteristic of location, and industry. In my 30+ years of tech experience I can count the number of briefcases I’ve noticed on one hand. Maybe two.
I also carry mine every day like you do, Spoons. We’re not woefully behind the times. We are classic and traditional.
Physical CDs and LPs are probably the biggest ones. I have nothing against MP3s, but they’re like the cassettes I used to make to play in my car: expendable copies with the real thing safe at home.
Physical DVDs are greatly preferable for things that I really enjoy. But I do very much like the fact that I can stream an entire TV series and then decide if I want to own it on DVD/Bluray.
I also use a shaving brush. I get about 6 months out of a $2 bar of shaving soap, and every time I shave it’s luxurious hot lather, not some foam from a can.
old, and decrepit.
