Retro
Not long. As a matter of fact, even *newer* technologies are hitting the bricks at lightning speed. For instance, someone asked The Mayor the other day if he could fax them some information. The Mayor told them he has his fax machine stored in his basement next to his Sony Walkman, set of encyclopedia Britannica’s, and rotary dial phone. Some things are fading out so gradually that we don’t even know the’re going or gone. Like phone booths – have you seen one lately? Or travel agents. Or post cards.
Even email is going the way of the dinosaur. It won’t be long before the Nigerians start texting us and telling us how they have access to $50 million in an offshore account, if only we can send them $2500 to release the funds…
August 16th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Uh oh, you found 9gag, eh? Big trouble.
I STILL drive a car with rollup windows by the way.
August 16th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Ain’t it the truth, Mitch!
I remember well the first fax machine I ever saw. It was in an attorney’s office in Little Rock stinkin’ Arkansas. It must have been about 1984. I was trying to wrap up a lease on a commercial building, and…well…never mind.
Anyway, the secretary explained to me what it was, and how it worked. I was like, “But, the other guy you’re sending this to has to have a thousand dollar machine like this to get it?” Yep.
Dude, it makes my rapidly balding head swim to realize that technology is advancing as it is.
I actually do see telephone booths (well…not “booths,” but payphone stand-ups at gas stations). The phones have been removed, but I guess they didn’t take the time to rip the structure out of concrete. I actually thought about this very thing yesterday when I saw one of those. When I was working “on the road” even in to the late 90’s, it seemed that I was always hunting a “pay phone” to make contact with my customers ahead of my arrival.
MAN! Times changed quick…
As you know (maybe), I do all of the bookwork for my Dad’s business. He deals with a lot of gubmit agencies, school districts, non-profits, etc. Believe it or not, bunches and bunches of them are still using fax machines. But, I threw his away a few years back, and went with an online fax service…8 bucks a month, instead of $24 per for a dedicated line (It’s toll-free, too!).
More and more of his purchase orders come in as e-mail attachments now, and I’m pretty sure that we’ll even be able to drop the fax deal in a year or so.
Side note: After having to change the power window motor in the driver’s side door of my Mercury about a month ago…and all the hell that it caused me…
…I’m lobbying for the comeback of crank winders. Just sayin’…