The Not So Modern Guide To Life
January 31st, 2008 Davis Posted in Technology, Media |
Ten years ago, someone gave me a book called The Modern Man’s Guide to Life. It’s basically a how to guide for surviving as a bachelor. It features advice on everything from fixing a leaky faucet to crash landing a plane if the pilot dies. The book was originally published in 1987, so some of the advice is a little out of date, but most of their tips have stood up against the test of time.
One area that could probably use some updating though, is their technology section. When I recently found the book in an old box, I got a real kick out of looking back at the issues that tech enthusiasts struggled with, during the 1980’s. Here are few of my favorites entries.
-Record Storage- The ideal containers for record storage are plastic milk crates - although not all sizes will work, and neither will all shapes (square ones are better than rectangular ones). The crates are stackable, but to preserve the records, set the boxes on their sides. Never store records stacked one atop the other.
-Har, Jim Lad- It’s a pretty lame copy of piracy, maybe, but the smart money plays a disk once and records it at the same time. Cassettes are much hardier than records. The notion that this is an abridgment of copyright is nuts - unless, of course, you start selling your taped copies.
-Antennae- The Best FM antennae are the sort that look like TV antennae and are designed to sit on your rooftop. Even indoor directional antennae, as a second choice, are far better than a simple wire - or nothing at all.
-Format- Go for selection. The choice is VHS or Betta, and if you are at all interested in watching rental videos of current films, you’ll have a much better chance of finding the movie you want on VHS, simply because it’s the overwhelmingly favorite format. New formats are rolling out all the time, but with the enormous catalog of VHS films already on hand the format seems likely to remain the home format of choice. The new 8mm formats are still too new to evaluate.
-Programmability isn’t- So you can program twenty different shows over a seven year period. So what? All VCRs have some programmable recording feature. Don’t get more than you really think you’ll need.
-Psycho Kilobytes- The internal memory of a computer is only important if the software is memory based. If the software is disk-based, storage is more important than memory.
-Info Please- If you system has a communications device called a modem, you’ll be able to subscribe to one of the national information services, such as Compuserve or the Source. You can research obscure topics, flash stock quotations, book airplane seats and exchange electronic mail - but if you really want to show off, make sure you acquaint yourself with the instructions in private, or you’ll look like a bozo.
-Universal Film and Processing- If you’re ever in doubt about which brand of film to buy or where to get it processed, go for Kodak. They’ve maintained a consistently high standard of quality and their labs are everywhere.
February 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Mr S. had this book when we first started dating. Not very interesting I know.. but thats all I got. You comment section seems lonely lately.