dont forget laserdisc, and the hoops one had to jump through to get those to play sometimes.

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Sorry it took so long to respond but the Smith-Corona that I comment with doesn't have an F5 key. And the E sticks.

I stand by my earlier assessment. I want to see this kid post onto a BBS using a modem with an acoustic coupler, hammering out a post on an IBM Model M keyboard on a 286 with a CGA monitor.

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Or how you helped a little girl fight back against the local nuclear power plant owners capitalization of the news media?

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Sometimes, growing up in the suburbs during the 80's doesn't seem like such a bad thing.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to listen to "True Blue", a vastly underrated Madonna album.

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I'm of the belief, not that global warming doesn't exist, but that it does exist and that thanks to rapid industrialization of China, and India, that we are past the point of no return.

We'll be lucky to be around in 100 years.

Couple this with a decline in build-quality in consumer electronics coupled with a general acceptance of planned obsolence by consumers and you'll see one way that a 1985 Walkman trumps a 2009 iPod. I remember countless times that I dropped my Walkman. Why is a 3' fall onto concrete a relevant standard? Because that is what happens when the player comes off the belt. Walkman could survive a fall like that.

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@OMG! Ponies!: Who cares if a kid of today doesn't know how to use a bunch of antiquated technology? It's not like any teenagers NEED to know how to use a record player... why would they need to? What's the point of learning how to type program paths and directories in DOS? If the common teen is never going to be using those, why is it so important to know? Just because you grew up on those things doesn't mean they're the best solutions.

And like someone said before, you could just keep saying the same thing about every generation - how many geeks (no matter what age) know how to hunt, kill, and prepare their own food? How many of us know how to farm, build a house, shear a sheep, etc?

The point is, there was once a time when people needed to know how to do ______ because it was part of the mainstream societal need... but all these things are no longer applicable to the common person. And Why should they be? No person can or should be expected to know how to do everything; people just need to know how to do simple modern tasks, and specialize in whatever they want to be good at.

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Really? Walkman is better than iPod because it can take a fall better? You must be lying to yourself by thinking that any amount of case-by-case hardware fragility could even compare to the superiority of digital media vs. analog!

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But you know what? I can also use a typewriter and sew on a Singer sewing machine, both of which are more than twice my age old. And they are more reliable than half the crap out there. And when I have a kid, they too are going to learn how to sew and type on a typewriter.

You are correct that no person should be expected to know these things, but they can. And by knowing those things, they will be better than a person who does not and be more valuable. Let's not forget that many things are still out there that aren't current spec, and someone who can work on it is valuable. Think about how many people have a job b/c someone doesn't care enough to know what every button does.

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