FlightRadar24.com<\/a><\/p>\nSo what problem does it solve?<\/p>\n
Have you ever wondered, \u201cWhat airplanes are overhead and where they are going?\u201d Open FlightRadar24 and it will let you know that and more.<\/p>\n
If you are stuck at an airport and wonder if your delayed plane has even left its previous airport? Type the flight number into FlightRadar24 and click on the live map.<\/p>\n
On Thanksgiving Day I was waiting in Antalya for a delayed flight. As I wrote to Alison on Telegram to remind her about a visit to the Hollywood sign seven years ago, I watched my delayed aircraft leave Istanbul. I mean literally, I could see a little aircraft icon move along the runway as they departed and to me, that is really cool!<\/p>\n
But how do you know which flight comes before your flight? Quite easy: You search for your flight, e.g. TK2409, then tap \u201caircraft info\u201d. This will show some useful info about your aircraft: things like the aircraft type, registration, and even a picture. But more importantly for this use case, the other flights the aircraft has recently been on.<\/p>\n
FlightRadar24 also offers a lovely \u201creplay\u201d feature, which will let you relive your epic flight to someplace far away and help you identify that landmark, which you couldn\u2019t readily identify. All you have to do is remember the time.<\/p>\n
The app\/website operates on a freemium model and I enjoy the \u201cbusiness account\u201d, as I have a little Raspberry Pi that serves as one of the nodes providing data to their service.<\/p>\n
\nThere are quit a few aircraft enthusiasts in the NosillaCastaway community (especially Allister Jenks) so this is really cool to learn about it, Claus. One of my favorite things about the Internet is that we can now point our phone’s camera at a flower and know it’s proper name, or have our devices listen to a bird and tell us what it is, or even find out what plane is flying overhead.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Berger on 30GB iPod Classic<\/h4>\n
Kenneth Berger brings us the next I’m Still Using It. He says:<\/p>\n
We won\u2019t discuss the AirPort Express that I decommissioned a number of years ago, but we will talk about my 30GB iPod \u201cClassic,\u201d which was called a \u201cVideo\u201d iPod when it came out.<\/p>\n
I bought it around 2007, which was about 2 years after I bought my first Mac. Both of my sons had Mac computers before that, but my 2005 iMac was my first one, after spending about 10 years living with those wonderful Blue Screens of Death on several Windows PCs.<\/p>\n
Although I didn\u2019t know what a playlist was, I managed to figure out how to download music to the iPod that I had ripped from an assortment of CDs.<\/p>\n
This now brings us to what I call \u201cThe Great Podcast Conspiracy.\u201d I had heard of podcasts, but I didn\u2019t really know what they were, and I certainly didn\u2019t know how to put them onto my iPod.<\/p>\n
One day, after I completed my daily syncing process, I noticed something that I had never seen before on the iPod. It was something entitled \u201cTWiT: This Week in Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what it was and how it got there, but I listened to it. It appeared to be some type of panel discussion. I listened to the whole program and didn\u2019t quite know what to make of it.<\/p>\n
The following week, another episode appeared, and then I was hooked. My podcast list is now quite extensive. It might have been on TWiT\u2019s \u201cMacbreak Weekly\u201d that I heard about the \u201cNosillacast,\u201d so I\u2019ve been hooked on that, too.<\/p>\n
My first iPhone was the 3GS, which I bought in 2009, so I no longer needed to carry my iPod anymore. Instead of retiring it, I bought a Sony \u201cDream Machine\u201d stereo clock radio, which has a 30-pin connector, and I set its sleep timer every night at bedtime and fall asleep to music being played by that 15-year-old iPod!<\/p>\n
Thanks for the show and have a wonderful holiday season!<\/p>\n
\nWow – this is the week of \u201cI\u2019m still using this iPod\u201d! I love your conspiracy theory on podcasting. No one has ever caught on that it was an insidious plot hatched by me and Leo. Looks like it worked!<\/p>\n
While I don\u2019t listen to music myself, I\u2019m so glad that after 15 years, the iPod Classic is still singing you bedtime lullabies.<\/p>\n
Kevin Jones on the Abacus<\/h4>\n
I didn’t know what to expect when I threw out the idea to the NosillaCastaways but the next entry from Kevin Jones was probably the biggest surprise. I thought the most ancient tech was going to be Bruce on emacs from 35 years ago, but maybe not.<\/p>\n
When I was in elementary school, a talking calculator with the four basic functions cost $500, so in fourth grade one of my teachers taught me how to use an abacus. This was huge because math on paper in braille was slow, difficult, and cumbersome.<\/p>\n
Several years later Sharp released a basic talking calculator costing $70, affordable to most people including my parents for Christmas when I was in high school. Calculators were not allowed while taking the ACT test so I took in my abacus. The Procter was convinced it was electronic and took 5 minutes trying to find where the batteries were, they finally gave in and let me use it.<\/p>\n
More recently, I found I could do math in binary on an abacus, and used it on Cisco networking exams. No subnet calculators are yet allowed on those either.<\/p>\n
With several computers around me as I write this, I still have an abacus on my desk. It\u2019s still more efficient for me to grab it and add up a few numbers than to open up a calculator program and leave where I\u2019m currently working.<\/p>\n
I know the abacus hasn\u2019t been updated in decades, but it still gets amazing batter\u2014no, still no batteries. When Allison asked for examples of old technology listeners were still using I just couldn\u2019t resist.<\/p>\n
\nIsn’t that crazy? I had no idea that an abacus could still be handy. I’m adding it to my list of “things I want to learn”. Thanks so much for sending this in, Kevin!<\/p>\n
Terry of Palo Alto on Brother Daisywheel Printer<\/h4>\n
Terry of Palo Alto brings us another blast from the past.<\/p>\n
As a US Government certified old person, I\u2019m still using some vintage technology. For instance, I\u2019m typing this on a 35-year-old Northgate 102 keyboard that has served about 20 computers along the way. Also, I\u2019m proud to say I still own and maintain my first car, which is a 1972 Datsun, and I play a 1952 electric guitar.<\/p>\n
These items are examples of superb engineering lasting over the years and enjoyed by lots of folks today. The car and guitar are now considered vintage and collectible, and at least Steve Gibson and I prefer the old Northgate 102 keyboard.<\/p>\n
Now, let me turn to a piece of tech gear that is approaching 40 years old, and is still working on a regular basis. But this time, I\u2019ll argue that it may be the last working example and that I may be the last person on the planet using one. What is it? Let\u2019s start with some clues first.<\/p>\n
It was purchased in 1983 as part of my first computer system, an IBM PC with two floppy drives instead of just one. About 20 years ago, it suffered a catastrophic component failure but was fixed by a small piece of wood with a DIY repair. I use it on a monthly basis, and it would be hard to replace it with modern technology.<\/p>\n
So what 1980s technology could survive 40 years and still be uniquely useful? Pause
\nGive up?<\/p>\n
Well, it is a Brother HR15 daisywheel printer.<\/p>\n
In 1983, I was working at the Stanford Accelerator Center and was the third person to venture out and purchase a \u201cpersonal\u201d computer. My goal was to support a side-line business, and I needed to write technical proposals. The computer was just to run a word processor, and I got a daisywheel printer instead of a dot matrix so that my proposals would look more formal.<\/p>\n
In those days, Brother made traditional typewriters, and the engineers simply made the HR15 by removing the keyboard on the front and installing an LPT port on the back.<\/p>\n
All was good writing proposals, but as business needs grew, my attention turned to managing inventory and finances. In those days there was not much commercial software available, outside of Lotus and a few word processors. I heard that there was something called dBase, which had no useful user interface but could be programmed to make your own. So, propelled by my intrinsic laziness, I started automating all the typical business processes like inventory management and financial control. The best part is that I could design my own user interface and get things done with the absolute minimum number of key presses.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long to include printing checks in my chain of laziness. With one screen entry, I could capture the expense, print the check, log it in a searchable database, update account balances, and print out a yearend report for the accountant. Thus began my long relationship with this printer. My dBase programs have evolved over the years, and they still manage all my financial records. The HR15 still prints checks every month.<\/p>\n
But sadly, about 20 years ago, it could no longer print. The printer used a hard rubber cylinder as the \u201chammer\u201d that struck the daisywheel, and over years, it cracked and fell off. There didn\u2019t seem to be any prospect to get replacement parts, so I just gambled and made an identical shape out of an oak dowel. I installed the oak striker, and it has been working fine ever since.<\/p>\n
And so is the story of the venerable Brother HR15, still pounding on after all these years.<\/p>\n
\nThis is epic, Terry. I found the DaisyWheel Printer in the Computer History Museum<\/a>! I loved the part of the story where you made a replacement part with an oak dowel. That\u2019s simply awesome. You also solved a mystery for me. Remember what I said about learning vi in response to Bruce and emacs? I said that I used a device that was kind of a cross between a computer and a typewriter. I do remember it had a flat, plastic typewriter print wheel that you could change out. It was a DAISYWHEEL printer! I’m so happy that you solved this for me. Now if I could just remember what was driving the printer at the time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Part 3 of our “I’m Still Using It” series, we’ve got some golden oldies from the lovely NosillaCastaways. Lynn York on 5th-gen Click-wheel Video iPod Lynn York has a great I’m Still Using It it for us Hi Allison, We are still using a DLO HomeDock that we purchased in 1\/2006, with 5th gen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[5632,5633,1598,885,5631,5630],"class_list":["post-27533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-abacus","tag-daisywheel-printer","tag-flightradar24","tag-hazel","tag-ipod-classic","tag-ipod-video","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Im-Still-Using-It-Logo.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27534,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27533\/revisions\/27534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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