The Verge bids farewell to tech writer and editor Walt Mossberg by talking to him about his favorite bits of gadgetry.
Walt Mossberg is retiring this year — he's already written his last column, hosted his last Code Conference, and taped the final episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete in front of a live audience in New York. But Walt's also assembled an impressive collection of notable gadgets over his two-decade run as a reviewer and columnist, and we asked him to talk us through some of the more notable items as he cleared out of his office.
This isn't everything — there's far too much for that. But there's nothing quite like Walt talking about gadgets and what they mean, and we tried to pick a few that defined their moments in a way few products now seem to do.
[There are 16 tech items in the linked story's photo — how many can you identify? --martyb]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @11:16PM (1 child)
Still stinking up the place like a loose stool that clogged the shitter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @12:11AM
yeah that guy... the fact he got replaced by farhad manjoo at the NYT pretty much summed up why i don't read tech stuff in major publications.
enthusiast users in a world of wizards, helping people consume more products.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday June 15 2017, @11:31PM (3 children)
From the title I thought this was going to be about shotguns, I never even heard of this Walt guy -- I guess I don't read enough WSJ. That said most of the items on the big image (- the once mentioned in the article) are fairly easy to identify since you can read the labels or they just are not that old. The only one I can think of that was a bit hard, if you hadn't owned one, is the ZX81 with the memory expansion -- even tho I don't recall there being blue text on mine, perhaps this was some American feature cause I have distinct memory of it being written in red on mine.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday June 16 2017, @01:50AM (1 child)
Sometimes I dream that I never left the Green site. Corporate shilling. Literal hunting of heads. Capitalist values, Venture/Vulture capitalist values. And then I remember, it is all about the marketing. It always has been. Those of us interested in tech are not profitable enough, because we are too smart and able to subvert the entire marketing process. So, whenever I read Remington, I think "typewriters". Is that wrong?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @07:04PM
I think of the widow with the weird house that was never finished.
Superstitious people with excess wealth make for weirdness.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday June 16 2017, @08:12PM
It's red on my ZX81.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @01:51AM (2 children)
I only see black squares - javascript required or sumthing, eh?
I guess, no pics for me then . . .
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:29AM
I see black people!
Niggers! Niggers! Every where!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @07:16PM
While the page does contain 10 scripts, none are required to see the content.
You must have the (single useful) image [vox-cdn.com] blocked in some other way.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Friday June 16 2017, @02:50AM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @06:19AM
Get out. The oldest items are trash80 and timex-sinclair.
(Score: 2) by randmcnatt on Friday June 16 2017, @04:45PM (1 child)
Identify? The real question is, how many do you still OWN? Somewhere out in the barn I've still got my Sinclair, TRS-80/100, and Apple IIC. Anybody still crank up their Mac or PC once in a while?
The Wright brothers were not the first to fly: they were the first to land.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @11:09PM
Anybody still crank up their [ancient] Mac or PC [...]?
If you wait too long, you could end up with a pile of junk.
An electrolytic capacitor uses electricity to "form up" its dielectric.
If you let those go too long without applying juice, the 'lytics can go bad.
Slapping full juice to them can then cause them to rupture and puke their innards all over the place or just plain not work.
If you have something really old and you value it, take it to an electronics repair pro before just plugging it in.
Someone with a DC power supply can gently bring up old 'lytics that haven't been energized in ages and save a catastrophe.
N.B. Things with switching power supplies are more tricky.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]