One More Thing… While walking to work the other day, I stumbled upon what might be my favorite Sad Electronics find yet… That is an Apple Power Mac G4. My freshman year of high school, the school opened a brand new computer lab, with fresh drywall and wet paint, that I helped set up. We hauled a few dozen of the big CRT iMacs in and set them up, but we also got a few of these Power Macs, too. I remember being super envious of the teachers who got to use them, even though I had very little appreciation for what the difference actually was. Not like we really needed them. We were perfectly content to watch videos of the first Halo on the iMacs. In 1999 the iMacs shipped with 32mb of RAM, while the Power Macs shipped with 64mb and were expandable up to 1gb. The idea of having a gigabyte of RAM back in 1999 is pretty amazing, even if most people never came close in either need or application. The Power Macs had an admirable 16mb of ATI video memory, while the iMacs had a paltry 2mb. And, perhaps a lot more meaningful at the time, Power Macs shipped with DVD support, something the first run of CRT iMacs completely lacked. Apple billed the Power Mac as the first personal supercomputer, and it was both the last computer to run the classic Mac OS and one of the first to run OSX. Even back then, as a staunch PC-only guy, I was envious of Apple’s design philosophy. PCs were huge, ugly squares, in beige or off-white, and they looked more like appliances than electronics. Apple was one of the first companies to depart from the design cues that flowed from the scientific computing world (or the lack thereof), and make computers look different and cool. I remember being super envious of Mac users, even if I wouldn’t admit it. I loved the clamshell Powerbooks, the CRT iMacs, and these G4 towers. When Apple switched to the pearl white plastic, I went nuts. I still wish Apple was using it. I had a 27" white iMac, the last model before Apple switched to the aluminum/black glass aesthetic they still use today, and I think it’s my favorite of all the computers I’ve ever owned. It seems appropriate to put this post up today, on the day that Apple unveils its iPhone 6/6+ and Apple Watch in the same auditorium that the first iMacs were unveiled. To see this guy, once regarded as a personal supercomputer, sitting next to a garbage can and some grass… I think it puts things in perspective. Even though we’re all obsessed with their newest labors of love today, those devices might be in a garbage can sooner than any of us realize. I think it shows how far Apple has come since 1999, too, but also how similar their design goals still are. They’re still thinking differently and making beautiful things. Here’s hoping it’s a long time before we see an Apple Watch in the same spot.

California Blue Line Pay Phone If you step off the train in Logan Square, you’re likely to encounter this disturbing piece. Nestled into the heart of an abandoned pay phone, an unexpected visage stares at the passers by. 702-972-7574. That is the number to Brian, my childhood best friend’s house. Not that the area code mattered. Where I lived, you didn’t even have to dial it because there weren’t enough people to necessitate more than one area code. It was committed to memory over 20 years ago and remains one of the only numbers I know by heart. The rest are replaced by iCloud, digital address books, and the modern white pages: Facebook. If I met you in the last five years, I probably couldn’t name a single number in your area code. Your ten-digit identifier is quickly replaced with your name in my iPhone, never to be seen again. I had a cell phone in high school because my dad was convinced I’d be in some kind of emergency situation necessitating instant medical access. I hid the phone. It wasn’t punk at all and I refused to carry it around. I was the only one of my friends who had one. The last time I remember using a pay phone was to return a page. I was 14. My pager had the anarchy symbol air brushed (which my mom paid for) on the case. A guy in his twenties asked me, “Do you even know what anarchy means?” and I didn’t know enough to say something clever like, “Yeah, it means fuck the government.” I didn’t even know that much. I just knew it was a cool “A” symbol and I would be cool if I had it on my pager. It looked really rad.



I remember keeping a quarter in my shoe and fearing the answering machine. You had to memorize how many rings each person’s phone had before it kicked over to the answering machine. If you didn’t and the machine picked up, the call would have technically have been completed and you didn’t get your quarter back. I have made hundreds of three-and-a-half ring calls in my life. If this project is to be a chronicle of abandoned electronics, it seems only fitting to include the forsaken pay phones, orphaned at the dawn of the digital era. This one is a lone phoenix rising from the ashes of obsolescence to become a haunting piece of street art. We should all be so lucky; though I fear will will not be.

Office Space in Downtown San Francisco But probably not the kind you’d want to put down an offer on. I drove past this crime scene in bumper to bumper traffic, and had to circle back a few blocks on foot after I left my car in a parking garage. I passed by the spot later in the day and the whole mess was gone, which made me feel awesome; it had been properly disposed of, but I’d also gotten these great pictures before someone cleaned it up. Score! This is in the heart of San Francisco’s SoMA (South of Market St) district, which is at the heart of San Francisco’s current tech boom. Chances are the slickest, coolest, most cutting-edge app you’re using right now was developed blocks from this spot. Yahoo (which owns Tumblr) is about four blocks away, Twitter is about six, and there are literally thousands of start-ups, video game studios, and software developers taking up space in the few miles around this street corner. It’s been pretty big news that San Francisco is in the midst of an incredible real estate and culture clash, with long-time residents of the city being pushed out as tech money drives rents and real estate fortunes higher and higher. You can’t go to lunch in a cafe in SoMA without paying $15 for a mediocre sandwich, and you can’t eat that sandwich without listening to some dude talk about his latest round of funding or the UI/UX on his new app. It’s obnoxious at best, life-ruining at worst, and I couldn’t help but feel that this printer was emblematic of the city’s struggle. Did someone take out their aggression on this guy? Who left it? Was it abandoned by some start-up, and then smashed by someone about to be evicted from their apartment? Or did someone in a $100 polo shirt go Office Space on it because it wouldn’t work with their wifi? Either way, it told a pretty interesting story for the few hours it was on the street, before it got swept away. - JCP

Dell 17" LCD It’s finally happened: our first LCD. Until now, nearly all our finds were analog CRTs, VCRs, and boom-boxes. We’ve finally found our first bit of modern technology. And it is a doozy.



Despite being functionally inferior to CRTs in most respects, liquid crystal displays (LCD) have dominated the market in the last decade. With inferior contrast, slow response times, and disproportionately high cost, it’s difficult to see why LCDs were so popular.



Until you look at it in profile.



Thin is in. And not just in fashion. Consumers were ready to reclaim their desks from the behemoths that dominated their valuable real estate. LCDs are thin, light, and bright as hell. The fluorescent backlights bled through the tiny transistors and made an entire generation see purple or grey when they should have been seeing black. But no one cared.



“LOOK HOW THIN IT IS!.” An entire generation of consumers traded their curvy pin-up girl with a PhD for an anorexic and vapid model. Even plasma, the thin technology with great response time and contrast fell prey. Because plasmas don’t have a backlight, when a pixel is off, it’s actually off. LCDs are like a giant beach umbrella. Sure they block the incoming light, but you could hardly say it was dark under the umbrella. But plasma looks dimmer next to an LCD on the showroom floor. And consumers like bright and shiny things. Despite the fact that in a living room setting, both provide ample brightness. Yet the mighty also fall. The grave of this tiny display is the coffin of its successor. One can only assume that this little guy was replaced by the big-screen Vizio LED box (pictured above). The branding of LEDs is a bit of a misnomer. LED isn’t actually a different kind of television. It only refers to the type of backlight being used. A cheap marketing tool to make consumers think they’re buying new technology, but the television itself is still a sad little LCD.



I make no secret about LCD being my least favorite current consumer HD technology. They spit in the face of quality for size. They betray contrast for footprint. And they’ve never gotten very good. And while consumers may love the way it looks in their living room, once they turn the thing on, the honeymoon is over. - NED