Getting Almost Up to Date
People laughed at me because I didn't have a smartphone. I had one of the "small brick" cell phones that was about 15-20 years old. T-Mobile shut off my pay-as-you-go plan because, even though I refilled my minutes a couple times a year, I never used them.
So now I have ... almost a smartphone. Couldn't risk a contract, and even the current pay-as-you go plans seemed beyond my means, and I figured I'd have problems qualifying... and, obviously, I hardly ever talk on the phone. So I opted to go with "make VoIP calls over wifi when I can find it" and got a Nexus 7 tablet and a Google Voice number. Haven't actually used the "phone" to talk to anyone yet, but jwgh and I were able to send SMS messages, so that seems to be working. I'm waiting for a Bluetooth headset I ordered before I try making actual calls.
The other thing that's really old is this computer. It's a 10-year-old (or more) HP Pavillion and it's been getting slower and slower. The PS/2 port went out, and I think there's a problem with some of the USB ports and maybe even the RAM. Also, the hard drive it came with died maybe 5 or 6 years ago and I replaced that. It seems about to die for good, now; I'm certainly having trouble getting work done on it. So I bit the bullet and ordered a tower computer, which should be arriving in a couple days. It's probably a tad behind the times (a quad-core AMD) and certainly no where near top of the line... but based on crude CPU comparisons, it looks like it will be 12 to 15 times faster than my current computer. Well, faster that it was originally.
So, soon, I will be almost as up-to-date as everyone else.