And in my high-school computer class, I programmed one of our Commodore computers to display the exact same message that'd be displayed when the computer was first started up (like, the amount of free memory, something about BASIC, etc.) Then when someone started pressing keys... weird things would happen.

And I programmed one to display the time and outside temperature. There was a system variable ti$ that always had the time; I had a few folks convinced that there was a te$ that always had the outside temperature.

No Franklin consoles, either. Hubby still has his old Franklin because it's the only thing that plays what used to be his favorite Star Fleet game. Now, of course, he plays networked Warcraft and stuff. I suppose I'll have to bury him with the Franklin and the cartridge, just so he has his favorite toys with him. That and a sword.

I still have my Colecovision.

I also have a CP/M machine down in my parent's garage that is in a plywood case and features an 8" floppy. I'm pretty sure I've got wordstar for it.

Some day I should put pictures of my vintage laptop collection on-line.

I have the first Tandy laptop, the next generation Tandy laptop (with the screen that flips up like a modern laptop), the first Epson laptop (with built-in printer and cassette drive), and the first Apple laptop. Plus the first and second Tandy "pocket computers."

I'm wondering - what was the first Intel 8086 or 8088-based laptop? I need one of those....

And the flashdrive currently hanging around my neck, being one of the lesser ones at 16 mb, would be considered a piece of giddy-inducing technology back then. Then again, I was thrilled when I got a calculator in high school that could do square roots. It was well timed, I was having serious slide rule dread.

I've got a suitcase sized portable computer, heavy as undeclared sin, that's a 286 (I think). The keyboard is a separate panel that detaches from the front. It works like a dream, probably sturdy enough to stop bullets. Is it destined for a landfill? What can I do with insanely out of date technology that work perfectly well but which has no place in the modern world?

We used to have a Kaypro like that.

Either hang on to it for the antique value, or put it on eBay. Don't toss it out.

I used to have one of the old Kaypro lunchbox computers. I think those may have been 8086 or 8088.

I remember having a 5 MB hard drive. That seemed massive. I ran a BBS on an Apple IIgs off of it.

Now my cellphone has a 512MB memory card in it and I'm sitting in a train lounge with a laptop that has a 17" screen surfing the web without wires.

I remember when running two applications at once on one machine seemed decadent. Heee, MultiFinder!

I've thought about eBay, but the shipping on this monster would be horrendous.

I've seen computers like that on eBay, connie. Just be upfront about how much the shipping will be - someone might still buy it.