Episode: 1271
Title: HPR1271: Out of style or retro chique.
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1271/hpr1271.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 22:43:53

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Out of style, or retro chic.
Annual neighborhood garage sale, the sign read on the side of the road.
As we whist by at 50 miles per hour, it was a little hard to read out the final lines
of where exactly this event would take place, but I was quick enough to take down the date.
My trusty nexus mod phone provided me with the correct information and walking directions
on how to reach this event, and it was pleased to know that not only was it within walking
distance, it would also be an ideal way to spend a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
So my slumbering crave to become the next Indiana Jones collector of forgotten cult memorabilia,
read old Transformers, GI Joe's and the Holy Grail vintage Star Wars toys once again
proved hard to resist. A couple of hours later, armed with some music, headphones and
a camera, I was ready to go shopping.
Being able to hold an event like this on a sunny Sunday afternoon is a blessing for
any neighborhood committee, and it was nice to see that they got a nice turnout.
The wonderful thing about garage sales is that you can not only rummage around an old
junk, but you can also see the people who have owned it.
As I spot two sweet young ladies sitting side by side on a comfort lawn chair, my camera
snaps up a shot of two discarded walkmans in their original packaging.
In my mind I go back a couple of years and see the teenage versions of these charming
lads, sporting races and pressing rewind and play over and over and over again, just
to hear their favorite song from their favorite band.
Take that.
As my efforts to find a Chewbacca action figure in mint condition turn out to be a quest
for another day, I mentally rummaged through my own collection of stuff that sits discarded
in my drawers, old gadgets and forgotten pieces of tech that might just be something I could
sell off. As I head home, I make the promise to clean up my closets and see what I could
sprawl out on a blanket along the side of the road.
A couple of hours later a small line of technological legacy sits on my desk, old USB sticks,
discarded 250 gigabyte ATA hard drives, bunch of cables, an old beige box, a ton of SD
RAM and some more. Most of these items have been sitting here for quite some time, the
base of progress too fast for them to keep up as they slide into oblivion.
From the side of this little pile, sit two more items that somehow stand out. An old
Nokia 3610 phone and my very first 30 gigabyte iPod video.
I roll them around in my hands and together with a sense of familiarity, memories, conflushing
back. Back to the times when I got these Nokia I had discarded, yet always kept close
as a backup phone. To times when it worked as a field engineer in a large industrial
plant and how I used to have this iPod on me for about 10 hours a day playing podcasts
non-stop. I close my eyes and let my fingers slide over the tactile touch ring, still
be able to operate both devices completely by touch. A privilege which is lost on Mother
Day smartphones and iPhones with their touch screens only.
Before I chuck them on the pile of strange thawed crosses my mind. Why should I? Why would
I throw out these gadgets who, despite their age, have not lost a single shred of their
functionality? Would I still be able to use these devices today? As for the Nokia 3610,
it would be possible. I would be in the possession of a phone that could only be able to have
a data communication through the primitive functionality of an infrared daylight modem
at a speed that is considered slow even in third world countries today. I would have
to use a numeric keyboard and T9 text prediction to compose SMS messages. I would be unable
to access Twitter, Facebook, email and the other countless social networks that comprise
the main share of my interaction with the outside world today. It would be a device
where people could reach me when they really urgently needed me by actually calling me.
It would be a device that would give me digital solitude while still keeping open that one
essential line of communication used in the most dire of circumstances, an actual phone
call. I wonder if I would look out of date answering the standard Nokia monotone ringtone
with a simple hello and starting a conversation. Would planting my phone on the table alongside
sweet black squares of magic be considered outdated or hipster retro? It gives me food
for thought and perhaps even the grounds for a little social experiment.
The second device, a white 30GB iPod, pulls fuel on this fire and actually lets me come
up with a nice re-implementation of the device. My beloved has just acquired her new set of
wheels. A Fiat 500, the NCC N701A of the legendary Fiat 500 line. The car is a tribute to a beautiful
design of another time. It's modern retro chic. And somehow the old white iPod would fit
in perfectly. Not only can it be directly accessed through the car's entertainment system
and far outclasses my wife's 8GB iPhone 4 in storage, it is also safer than the average
touchscreen only device should the need to arise to manually operate it. Instead of trying
to angle out galera while I'm trying to push my new icons on the touchscreen while driving,
this iPod video will give us the ability to be handled by touch only. Play, pause, forward
back. Her eyes can be on the road as the old but thrusty jogdale helps her find the right
tune. I punch up an eBay auction and spend $5 on a batteryable placement kit for the iPod.
It's battery is utterly and completely dead. And look forward to installing the renovated
iPod in her modern classy car. Here the question of outdated versus retro is a non-issue.
It would fit perfectly and perform all the tasks that would be required in its second
lease of life. And thus I wonder, with the great waves of innovation crashing on the shores
of struggling times, how many of our old gadgets are actually still functional? How many of them
have we discarded because something new was on their horizon? How many of them could be considered
retro chic? With the average norm reaching the latest and hottest thing on the shelves,
without having an inkling why he does it, would we geeks be considered hip if we started to use
retro gear? My mind goes back to the two young ladies at the garage sale. How would they look
today if the two walkmans could be strapped to their sides? Their headphones with orange earmuffs
contrasting with their dark hair. The tinny sound of a rick Ashley bleeding out of the speakers
as the volume is set to maximum. Never gonna give you up. Oh, a fitting tune. I wonder,
would the girls be out of style or retro chic?
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