I remember the slow eject cassette was the height of cool. Still floats my boat but I haven't used a cassette for yonks. found some old C90s the other week and had to explain what they were to my kids!

Bought my daughter a mobile phone a couple of years back and she turned to Mrs White and asked when did you get your first mobile mam?

'bout a year before you did….came the reply

Some of those are wrong IMO

There will always be a place for a map and compass – nothing much to go wrong there. Relying on a electronic / battery powered thing when in the mountains is not safe and you often need to see rather more than even your computer screen to plot a route – certainly you can't plot a route on a small screen.

Books – there will always be a place for paper books. No electronic reader is as satisfying as a book.

I remember the first digital watches, pocket calculators and remote controls for your telly – and I am 48. I look after a woman who is 111 yrs old – born during Victorias reign. she remembers cars appearing, the excitement of the pioneering aeroplane flights. Radios were rare even

One thing for sure – predictions of the future are always wrong. There will be something coming that no one has forseen that will change our society in ways we cannot imagine. I do expect the energy crisis to have effects we dont forsee

nickc – and when the battery fails or you drop it and crack the screen?

How did you plan the route – on a 3 inch screen?

A gps is a nice toy and can be easy and fun to use – but no way is it as good as a map from a safety point of view.

things i remember that seem weird (or old) now, i'm 32.

wired remote controls

first mobile at 19 (and it was a brick)

CD's, don't own any now.

you have heard of scrolling old man 🙂 or even planning your route before you go and saving it to the gps 🙂

RS – you still need a map – I have a big screen for my puter and memory map but for routes of a decent length maps are easier. I have the whole of scotland on one wall in 1-250 000 for touring routes and the local area in 1:25 000 for plotting local routes.

I have twice been out in the hills with folk with GPS – both times they went wrong 'cos they blindly followed the gps.

KISS – its a rule for a reason.

A compass? A little needle floating in water?? Madness I tell thee.

Can't go wrong with a good sextant and a nautical almanac.

Letter writing – shame that, but it's already happening.

I like to write letters. With a nice fountain pen.

Pity everyone just emails or texts me to say thanks for the letter….

🙄

Once eBooks get enough momentum going, the cost of publishing real books will go up and up and up – at some point it will become economically unfeasible. Which will be a pity, as I love books.

I never liked ebooks but I recently found one that was more useful then the paper version because it allowed be to quickly flick between pages and enlarge diagrams.

The lifespan of GPS is now more or less measured in months seeing as the US has no launch vehicle available to replace the first 3 or 4 satellites which are reaching the end of their operational life. It's going to be interesting to see how people who can't read maps navigate (not that many people could before GPS).

TJ, what happens when your map blows away (as I've seen happend when I've been out on the hills, years before GPS was around)? Maps are just toys too (my point being that just because you call GPSs toys doesn't mean that's what they are).

I've done my apprenticeship with maps and compass and I'm damn good at it if I say so myself but that doesn't mean that everyone else has to pay their dues too.

Plenty of expeditions to far flung places now rely on GPSs (though typically they'd take three of anything that's critical) for routes that are life/death critical, particularly as there are often no reliable maps available and also that they're damn hard to use in jungle as you can't see anything to triangulate with. If they can do that, then I reckon your trifling toy touring could manage just fine with GPS alone.

As to it failing next year, well, we'll see. I can't help but feel that with the criticality of GPS to US military action (since many soldiers use their own private GPSs) they'll find a way to make sure it doesn't happen.

They have also said that it won't fail (though I understand that's not a guarantee…)

http://www.physorg.com/news162133400.html

I got all excited when I got a portable minidisc and a cable to hook it up to my stereo, that didn't last long did it.

I believe there's about 27 in orbit isn't there? (I could well be wrong)

I remember being told to maintain current levels of accuracy you need at least 24 in orbit and once you go bellow this magic number the service doesn’t pack up all together, you get a drop in accuracy, and more periodical loss of service, but not total failure of the GPS system.

The various GPS devices about need to see anything from 4 to 7 satellites in order to function. GPS is actually a very robust system.

Plus the Yanks aren’t the only lot able to put satellites in orbit… the end isn’t nigh just yet…

The best bit of navigation kit ever has to be the SR71/A12’s “Astro-Inertial Navigation System”;
There were no satelites at the time and they were the highest, fastest thing in the air, so they had a computer that watched the stars in order to position the aircraft, how cool is that?

Kids these days may well have access to lot’s of technology, but how many actually understand it in any meaningful sense? A very small minority I would guess… A generation of consumers does not make a world full of Engineers and Scientists, any **** can operate an Ipod, how many can repair a broken one?

As for Working from home? What a crock of shit! I’ve yet to meet anyone who genuinely “Works from home” it’s middle management speak for Skiving, generally the email arrives about 16:45 on a Thursday informing the rest of us that “Tommorow I will be working from Home”…

Not going to happen. It's not just there for "toys" for lost mountainbikers you know, it is an integral part of civilian & military aircraft and shipping, not to mention being fairly essential for modern warfare (connected battlefield, UAVs, guided missiles etc)

Hello! 😀 I'm a software engineer. I spent all last week and the first half of this week working from home. I'll be doing today and Friday in the office then probably more from home next week.

I still have minidisc in my car, use it everyday, quality is great.