Comments on: A random post about random accumulation

By: ash966

ash966 — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:16:25 +0000

I had to look back in the Closet of Forgotten Tech, but I still have an old tape Walkman with a radio that I could theoretically listen to in an emergency. I technically have AM/FM on my receiver, but in practice reception is so poor* (at least for stations I have any interest in) that all my “radio” listening is on my computer, my Apple TV or my iPod (not that I listen to Shoutcast on it at home, but I could).

For CD drives, I have my Macpro, my old G4, the external CD burner that went with the G4, an old CD Walkman, and the Samsung Blu-Ray.

I wonder how many people have stand-alone CD players these days. I only had one for a year or so. Are there CDphilic audiophiles who consider DVD players and Blu-rays inferior for audio playback? Or do they buy SACD players instead?

*19 concrete-walled units + high bluff above a river=death to over-the-air signals, apparently.

By: walt

walt — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:43:14 +0000

I don’t think any of these are particularly *big* accumulations, but it’s notable just how much of this stuff does find its way into our homes. Hmm. And I’d forgotten the tower PC “backup unit” in the garage, which has two CD drives (one of them a DVD drive). I think I’ll stop counting while I’m behind.

By: bibliotecaria

bibliotecaria — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:22:50 +0000

Hmm, let me see, well, for one person I have:
one radio/CD player that is my alarm clock
one truly ancient radio/tape player that hasn’t been used in years
one radio/CD player in the car
one stereo with radio/DVD/CD player
one laptop with DVD/CD player
one work-provided desktop with DVD/CD player
and oh, I almost forgot, one DVD/CD drive that is currently unusable because I am cannibalizing it to go into another desktop computer

So that’s: three radios, seven CD players, one tape player.

I hadn’t actually counted it up that way, but I don’t really think of it as that big an accumulation because I don’t use all of them.

I do think that I am going to get one of those emergency ones; it’s been on my list for a while.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:38:21 +0000

Hmm … I tossed all the CD-only drives years ago, except for one real CD-*player* (which, oddly enough, is the only drive I actually use to play music CD’s). Counting spare DVD drives I’ve accumulated, and old computers in the closet, it’s got to be at least ten also.

Technology’s great. I wish there was more support for the sort of pro-technology social criticism I wanted to do.