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Still (Oddly) Analogue

I want everything online, everything mobile. I’m land-line-less, paperless and in-person-less as much as possible. Except for a handful of analogue devices I just can’t let go of.

I was resizing some images for this blog a few days ago, and as Preview makes me do the math when I do that, I needed a calculator. (Boy, do I waste my Mathematics degree!)

Did I grab my phone? No. Did I open Calculator on my Mac? Nope. I went to my drawer of outdated-but-still-useful items and pulled out this:

2013-09-22 11.03.01

I know. But hey, it was early in the morning and my first cup of coffee still hadn’t kicked in. I needed help dividing by four.

I'm so mobile-centric, but for reasons I can't explain, I much prefer my trusty TI-80 than some on-screen version. And my calculator isn’t the only thing.

  • An audiophile, I still buy vinyl records and prefer physical CDs over downloads (even when, say NIN's latest album is available in Apple Lossless and FLAC). There is something very special about holding, reading and studying an LP cover as you listen to the album – something a digital version can never match. No MP3 will ever warn you "This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with. If you are in possession of such equipment please hand it into the nearest police station." Plus, with classic albums, vinyl gives you that great, warm sound—and ensures you are not a causality of the loudness wars.
  • I still carry a mini Moleskin notebook at all times for various scribblings. At work, I still go through huge numbers of notebooks, but thanks to Livescribe and Evernote, at least they’re synced to the cloud, and I don’t need to keep my draw full of old notebooks (just in case...)
  • I still have real Post-it notes attached to my laptop. I know! But Evernote’s Post-it integration might save me.
2013-09-26 15.31.14

Are there any analogue devices you still use (irrationally), or am I the only one?

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