I OFTEN WONDER about the useful life of technology I use every day. I started thinking about this when Conor O'Neill announced the arrival of his newest laptop. He speculated about its lifespan--hoping for more than three years--and I know I've never pushed a laptop through three years of daily use.
I currently have a Dell Precision M2400 laptop running with Intel® Core™2 Duo processors, an advanced 3D graphics card powered by an NVIDIA Quadro with 4 GB of dedicated graphics. It's the lightest workstation I've ever owned. Its Intel Core 2 Duo processors and 8 GB of system memory make it exceptionally responsive. But I doubt it will last until September 2014 because that would make it the longest-running laptop I've owned.
I'm using my Flickr photostream to look back four years to the technology I had in my life back then. We still have the Sony Ericsson K800i mobile phone in our kitchen gadget drawer because it shoots lovely photos. Before the iPhone, the K800i was the most popular cameraphone used on Flickr.
I still use Moleskine Reporter Notebooks because they need no power.
My primary phone in 2007 was the Nokia N70 but it left daily service within four months. My primary phone today is the Nokia E7.
My Sony ICD MX-20 digital dictaphone gets daily use and many of its unrendered sound files are more than four years old.
My mobile office was powered by a Sierra Wireless Card four years ago. I've moved two generations up from that card to a Huawei Mifi dongle today.
I need to totally unpack my Bihn bag and try to identify how long I've been carrying around other things to get the job done.
