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Top 10 Gadgets of All Time
pulski sent in MSNBC's list of the top 10 gadgets of all time. It's a fairly interesting list, although I think some of the more ancient gadgets were overlooked - cutting tools, dams and other fundamentals of civilized life.
I hate to tell you this but the Log Roller is by all accounts a wheel.
If you want, I could arrange for you a meeting with the man who invented them, mr. Avum Morrow...
LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS LEGOS
How much you wanna bet that you get lambasted for placing a link to eToys on this site? :)
Get a life. You do use electricity don't you? You need it to write you're sill post. Dams provide millions of people electricity. If we left the world entirely up to you greenie weenies we still would be living in caves (maybe, if we didnt disturb some bear or something).
And, the specific name of your gadget is a P-38. Distributed to soldiers in the U.S. Armed Forces to open c-rats. They are still widely available at Army/Navy surplus stores across the U.S. for 25 cents.
If you look back through history, you'll see that men had LONG hair for the vast majority of that time. It's only been recently that men started having short hair; but then a short-sighted, unimaginative person like you wouldn't know that, would you?
I agree, the ho has been giving men an alternative to their wives for millenia now. Definately a good gadget.
Give me a break. The electric hand dryer? Who cares.
They didn't plow the ground to plant fruit trees; they used shovels.
Yeah, the printing press has got to be way up there. Can you imagine how slowly we would have progressed technologically in the last 100 years if all knowledge had to be passed on orally.
I read an interesting article - I think it was in Focus magazine - where they did some tests and found that the warm air produced by these things encouraged bacteria on the hands and actually made the hands contain more bacteria than before the subjects washed their hands. I guess the author was trying to be hip and off-the-wall but came across as a bit of a prat.
1. natalie portman 2. natalie portman's left butt cheek 3. natalie portman's right butt cheek 4. natalie portman's left breast 5. natalie portman's right breast 6. natalie portman's genitalia 7. natalie portman's left thigh 8. natalie portman's right thigh 9. natalie portman's stomach 10. gwen stefano
Year
1 + 1000 = 1001
1001 + 1000 = 2001
No, the millennium is not 10 centuries plus 1 year; it is 10 centuries.
Year
1 + (100 * 10) = 1001
1001 + (100 * 10) = 2001
When have "we" always celebrated the new century and the new decade? Me and my hamster have always celebrated 1801, 1901, 1981, 1991. When have millions of lemmings celebrated the new century and the new decade? I really dont know or care. One should never seek the truth through public opinion.
A year is not missing, people simply may have chosen to celebrate the new decade/century a year early. Of course people have the right to celebrate it when ever they see fit. But if 1,000,000 people think that linux is a communist plot, does it automatically become one?
There is no missing year. The problem is not that they have their watches set 1 hour too fast, its that they decided to eat 8:00 dinner at 7:00.
5-7-,5 the comma is a lace holder for a pause. the length and drame of the pause is considered to be more significant then strict 5-7-5 . yes your joke was noted, and I probably should of let it be, but after studying them for a couple of years, I think it's important to understand the fundlemental meaning of the art, and not just losely translate the rules and it be considered 'poetry'
There is religious significance to making it start at year 1 AD. I would personally celebrate the new millennium every year, but who am I to argue with 10 billion christians armed with pitch forks?
You sound like the same person that was telling people with incomes of over 50 thousand dollars to stay away from San Francisco.
Harnessing hydro-electrical power is one of the oldest ways to "live off the land." Maybe you'd rather burn coal, have everyone in the U.S. move somewhere where solar power is practical, or switch back to nukes?
Get a life. Everything changes over time.
I THINK THAT THA BIBLE IS THA BEST GAGET EVER INVENTED. NOT ONLY DOES IT OFFER ETERNAL REST AND SALVATION TO ALL NERDS AND GEEKS BUT IT TELLS ONE FINE STORY TOO. IN SUMMARY THA BIBLE IS THA BEST GADGET EVER INVENTED. ANYONE WHO THINKS OTHERWISE IS JUST HATING
TROLLING FOR JESUS
I would argue that they where 'cool' and 'novel' when they where invented. The fact that they became cornerstones of our civilization is irrevalent.
Plow, nothing after pulley would even exist if it wasn't for the plow(tm).digital computers? what have they done really? they allow us to do the same thing we have been doing for 1000's of years, albeit faster.
Aww, MAN I HATE SITES THAT PUT MUSIC ON THEIR WEBPAGE FOR NO DAMN REASON.
I was enjoying a music video and then this crap begins spouting from my speakers.
Sorry, just a warning...
..You've seen an automatic soap dispencer?cool. I always thought the pumping action would be a little more difficult on a small quite scale, as opposed to the gravity system toilets and faucets use.
I also hate those damn hand dryers.
Ahh, but I must ask - Did he invent them for easily accessible bathrooms where paper can be easily added, or for bathrooms that are so far away the people using them are lucky electricity got out that far?
I ask this because hand dryers don't work, and if the latter was the excuse for their invention (the "It is better than nothing" attitude) I'll let him off. >:-)
Then again, who but me still uses 1.0 :)
Wow, this is something I clearly did not know before. I've always considered electric air dryers rather unpleasant to use, but this gets my attention even more. Looks like it'll be an obvious decision if I go into a bathroom that has both electric air dryers and paper towels...
I'll bet 1 hand dryer that there is at least one heat sensor in hand dryers to allow them to pass UL listing.
That would make them at least semi-electronic.
And the timing circuitry that turns the dryer off after a while is CERTAINLY electronic in modern dryers. It might have been geared in old ones, but not now.
And what about the automatic ones? It isn't even worth saying.
hehe, I think i'll have to dig this up and listen to it, now that you got it dancing aroung my skull
He defines cellular phones to be private two-way radios, thats not entirely true, yes, they are two-way, but not directly, they go through the tower first. But they are certainly NOT private, any good scanner can pick up cell phone frequencies (although it is illegal), digital phones (PCS and the like) are still not truely private unless they utilize some sort of high quality encryption.
how about the wheel maybe......or say writing, the printing press...whomever picked these was either very STUPID, and/or VEEERRRYYYY shortsighted...must have been a reporter, they have attention spans of about 7 days total..... these are all recent and I think the fax machine is more important than telegraph and outdates it by several years if not decades....
MSNBC home of shortsighted stupid NEWS, brought to you by the Nitwit Broadcasting company and M$...exactly as expected....
I need to make a point for my favorite tool(gadget) of all time, the plumb bob. Something that has remained unchanged for over 4000 years,yet is to this day the most precise and elegant solution to constructing our arcitectural legacy, be it the Great Pyramids or the eternal edifices of Greece or Rome or our modern high rises.It always amazes me that a simple piece of string with a weight attached can hang from a point in space and point to the center of the Earth, everytime.
excellent idea...how about the harness that allowed the animals to pull a plow w/o choking to death :)
Two gadgets missing in the lists are 1) the stirrup Note how heavy cavalry was able to repel invaders of Western Europe from the north (Vikings), the East (Mongols, etc.), and the south (Moslems). Without this military capability, a transistor would just be another rock. 2) the horse collar By making the horse economically more efficient than human labor, the horse collar effectively eliminated slavery. Think about it.
No, the last entry, was electric hand dryer, so obviously that is the best invention of all time. Wait a minute, WTF?
Not inventions that change society. Gadgets.
Yes, he got the two confused also.
And please, get a sense of humour. The dryer mention was a JOKE.
bravo.....
The serrated bread slicing knife, of course.
You'll look pretty darn foolish flicking that knife switch back and forth in great haste to encode your voice message, if your phone doesn't include analog components in it's handset.
Silly little digital geek.
But Lego is like sheep, the singlular and plarual are the same
the controll of water is essential to civilization. if we can't control water we can't controll agriculture, and with out agriculture we don't have civilization.
You are of course forgetting the one invention that started everything: The knife.
Of course, the first 'tools' are what make us what we are today and a knife is practically the same today as when it was created (sharp edge and handle)
From the original article, the author states that the telegraph was the first way of sending digital information. Looking at it conceptually, the telegraph is a three-state device, dot, dash, and space.
:)
Digital means two. Sorry to be nitpicky, but this article is read by people that should know the difference!
The dots and dashes can't be interpreted into letters without the spaces; they are an integral part of the code.
I don't want children. I don't want the strain of being pregnant. I don't want the pain of giving birth. I certainly don't want an abortion. I don't want to conceive. I don't want to worry about conceiving.
I want my job. I like working.
I think my husband also likes, er, the act of reproduction. I think this is common in many heterosexual men.
Also, say I was going to start out my own business, no big company to pay for childcare. Forget the state, you're living in a dream world if you believe in that. Why should I be denied the opportunity to go ahead with the stuff I want to do by having children? Screaming babies, nappies needing changing (ugh!), the fact I'm not mature enough to look after someone younger than 10... And you think this can be cured with day care and maternity laws? Get a grip, and live in the real world! Oh sorry, you're at a university. Well never mind.
up until the 1900s all civilizations used the same form of waste disposal: dump it in the nearest river. that goes for the British in the 18th and 19th centuries as much as for the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
In East Asia, they used human waste as fertilizer for farms. The "night soil" (as it was called) was even brought in from the cities -- I believe there was commercial trade in it. There's an account of this practice in Farmers of Forty Centuries, a book written in ~1912 by a US Agriculture official travelling in China. This partly explains why Chinese agriculture has been productive for so long.
I don't use Netscape 1.0 but I like to use an old version of lynx when I'm just reading news and their pages don't work with that either.
It makes me cringe to read it when folk type an 's' on the end of Lego.
Dams are not gadgets, they are sick and wrong, choking our beutiful rivers of life. They just are not right, and are definalty not fundamentals of civilized life. Please stop the sterilization of our rivers.
http://www.suwa.org
http://www.wasatch.com/~urc/
It's called the "Plow".
I second the nomination, though admittedly my first reaction was...
The stick. Closely followed by the rock.
No, seriously. The simplest tools, observed in use by apes and birds to obtain food, and required precursors to the wheel. The stick extends the reach and strength of the wielder, even in it's simplest form. Pointed and/or used with a stone point, the stick became the seed drill that was the start of the development of the plow.
Even today, put someone into a survival situation with minimal equipment, and it's likely that one of the first things they'll do if they can is get themselves a good stout stick.
Sliced bread is the greatest invention since when? I mean the computer was the greatest invention since sliced bread, what did slice bread replace?
"whatcha' got there groogg?"
"a Wheel!"
"WOW!, your wife let you get the Wheel, how cool"
"I am a gadget neanderthol"(sp?)
"What are you going to get next"
"Portable Fire!"
"Wow.."
If this is still up when I get home I'll give you source material.
Yes, if they did start using it for other perposes, We would be living in a completly different world.
>Is the hand dryer small? No. Once again, read the definition... "often small". Does "often" mean "always"? I think not. >Mechanic? No. Does it have a motor? >Electronic? No. Does it use electricity? >Used as a novelty? I don't. Do you consider hand dryers a necessity? Most people don't.
Just ask any early adopters.
The clipper should be the godsend to you. Get rid of that hair and start looking like a man you hippy!
as countless hand dryer scratch poetry go....
Push Butt(scratch out rest)
Rub hands gently under (scratch out W) arm (scratch in H) hair.
(Scratch in) Wipe hands on pants.
I'm sure he heards lots of "nobody is ever going to use that" kind of comments.
Kudos to the early adopters of that gadget tho'
However vacuum tubes are analog and have an infinitely variable throughput.
Ditto for transistors -- your post implies that transistors are not analog.
I prefer the ho.
Go, go, gadget!
what the the greatest thing before sliced bread???
It isn't even on the list! It's the handyman's secret weapon... Duct tape is like the Force - It has a light side, a dark side, and it binds the universe together.
How about those wire stripper pliers (just clamp onto the end of the wire and squeeze).
*That* is a gadget.
Peter
No, everything invented post Sliced Bread (the year 1 S.B.) has been acclaimed as being better than sliced bread.
We cannot really compare anything invented after sliced bread to sliced bread, because we approach an infinite number: if object A is the best thing invented since sliced bread, and object B is the best thing invented since sliced bread, then by logic object B is the best thing invented since object A. However, since object B is already the greatest invention since sliced bread, then we can logically say that sliced bread is the greatest invention since sliced bread, which brings the total number of inventions since sliced bread to zero, as it is impossible for an infinite number of inventions.
Please tell me your kidding?
1. Lacey Chabert, naked and petrified
2. Jessica Alba, naked and petrified
3. Natalie Portman, naked and petrified
4. Mae Ling Mak, naked and petrified
5-6. The Olsen twins, naked and petrified
7. Lisa Dwan, naked and petrified
8. Linus Torvalds, naked and petrified
9. Britney Spears, naked and petrified
10. B*Witched, naked and petrified
I hate them because they put a META refresh of 0 seconds on their pages so it's impossible to use the f*#%ing back button in Netscape! ARGH! Die die die!!!
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Even more so that it could very well be the impetus which led to the wide scale adoption of agriculture...
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
The title says it all...
Hey, if the Electric Handdryer made the list, then surely MS Windows should make the list too. After all, MS Windows is as useful as an Electric Handdryer, and it is as stable as one too. Then again, I always thought a gadget is something useful, but no as useful as a tool. And MS Windows is definetely useful as a humour generator, albeit at its own expense.
I think a neat gadget is a hiker's can opener I have. About 1.2" by 0.5" with a little notch to grab the rim of the can and a tiny, hinged, knive-like gizmo to cut the can top as you lever the thing around the can. Works better than some electric openers I've used. Brilliant!
BTW, a "gizmo" is characterized by not having any better designation and may be just a part of something else. Both gadgets and tools can have specific names.
it takes two straight sticks. you can do insane amounts of rapid calculations sliding them back and forth. used for navagation and construction for 400 years. they went with the astronoughts to the moon! how could they miss that?
>Is the hand dryer small? No.
Once again, read the definition... "often small".
Does "often" mean "always"? I think not.
>Mechanic? No.
Does it have a motor?
>Electronic? No.
Does it use electricity?
>Used as a novelty? I don't.
Do you consider hand dryers a necessity? Most people don't.
10. They're stupid.
9. They're arbitrary.
8. They're made by people who have too much time
on their hands (oops).
7. They leave out too much.
6. They include too much.
5. They make you think you learned something.
4. They are a way for the listmaker to get off
on some kind of freaky powertrip.
3. They remind me of David Letterman, and he really bums me out.
2. Lists replace actual writing. Listing
things is not actually writing. It's just...listing.
1. It's hard to come up with number 1.
Whoops, I worded that badly. By "criteria," I was referring to the quality of improving the opportunities for working women, not to the Top 25 requirements.
Again, keep in mind that I've been referring to artificial birth control.
Don't employers by law have to grant maternity leave? As for who's going to pay, that is another question of responsibility. What about options like Natural Family Planning? I once heard a speaker talk about various scientific studies showing the benefits. I asked for some references, but never got them. I wish I had. For me, the jury is still out on its effectiveness, but I'm wondering if anyone here might be able to cite publications.
--
They're just so much more gadgety than those boring old pop-tops! :)
--
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As for sparking the "sexual revolution," what is that, exactly? Really, what does it mean?
I'm just trying to understand your reasoning.
--
I don't follow you here. Women can't work straight for years at a time if they have kids? Why? If the answer is that they have to stay home to take care of them, then I ask, where is the father? Why can't dads stay home?
Yes, they do need to take that into account. Does pregnancy count as a "disability?" It's an awful, loathsome term for it, but it's the best my small brain can come up with to get the point across. Legally, why is it different than the case of someone who throws out a back?
A woman (and man too, BTW) can always choose to avoid pregnancy. Contraceptives are not necessary to do this.
This seem like more an issue of equal rights and responsibilities than anything else. I still don't see why artificial birth control is necessary to have this.
--
Yes, you're right of course. I was being sloppy with my terms. My apologies. My questions were phrased in the context of all artifical means of birth control, contraceptive or not.
But why, apart from the ridiculous notion that "the woman's place is in the home?" I think the outcome had more to do with the unwilligness of men to take on childrearing responsibilities.
What jobs would be unavailable to women? I guess my fundamental question concerns why these jobs are unavailable to moms, but dads have no problem keeping them. Really, what is the difference, and what does artificial birth control have to do with any of it?
By choice, much, much more often than not.
*raises hand*
I do. It is a 100% guaranteed method. Why this stereotype against men?
This is the part I see as unnecessary. I don't think artificial birth control is a miracle answer to the problem of wrong attitudes. If the problem is with men, then we men have to suck it up and realize that we have equal responsibility in this world. No, it won't change overnight, but I think it is changing.
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1. Push button.
2. Rub hands under warm air.
3. Dry hands on pants.
This is a list of the top ten gadgets, not the top ten scientific or engineering breakthroughs. Dams, birth control, the external combustion engine, and the printing press do not qualify.
This is a list for things like telephones, digital watches, and remote controls.
Keep that in mind.
external combustion engine = steam engine
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I think it's fairly obvious that the author threw it in as filler, for whatever reason, but it brings up the topic for conversation.
As previous posts have noted, the hand dryer is fairly loud, frighteningly ineffective and inefficient in comparison to paper towels, and spreads bacteria more readily than previously thought--contrary to the sanitary claims that we all have read on the devices.
So why do we have them? Do we save that much time and money in comparison to all the resources needed refilling the paper towel dispenser and emptying out the trash (picking up the few stray towels that are on the floor?)
And strangely, if I walk into a nice restaurant, or any other establishment, and they have an elegant bathroom *without* an electric hand dryer, I find myself wondering what's wrong with them. Were they too cheap to buy one? I dare say that if I walk into somoene's home and I see an electric hand dryer on the wall in their private bathroom, I would come to the conclusion that they were worthy of my respect and awe, no matter how annoyed I would be using the damn device.
While I am on this rant, I have only seen once in my life a soap dispenser that was automatic, only requiring you to pass your hand under to dispense liquid soap. If a bathroom has an automatic faucet, and an automatic hand dryer, why don't they have have an automatic soap dispenser? No longer would we have to touch the lever with crusty liquid soap.
And finally, do those hand sanitizer things work? I don't know of any product that I use on my hands that creates the urge to wash my hands more than Purell Hand sanitizer. There's something about drying out my hands with grain alcohol and then feeling off-sticky-almost-vaguely-oily that makes me get up and wash my hands with soap and water...which is exactly what I should have done in the first place.
Just one more time "Hand Driers?" where is this
guy from, another planet?
Where is the incline, which leeds to the screw.
I think screws are pretty important. Especially
since most of the devices listed are constructed
with screws.
What a screw-ball.
--Fac Iustum Nec Time-- --Veritas Prevalibit--
Missing are such things as:
the assembly line
the laser
the airfoil
I don't think these things can qualify as "gadgets". since they helped advanced civilisation to another level
To add something to the list you have to asked yourself how has it changed society, and what would life be like without it.
Its spelt "L-I-N-U-X", but pronunced as "Free Beer"
dude, you forgot "pockets"
where would we be today without pockets?
Its spelt "L-I-N-U-X", but pronunced as "Free Beer"
Hmmm... plough is not bad. I would have picked: the ramp, the lever, and rope as the first three. The wheel is nothing more than a continuous rolling ramp... put an axle on it and it is a continuous lever. The plough is also a form of lever. The threads on a screw are just a ramp wrapped round.
"Don't sweat the technique."
But the plow comes first- so that we can put food into that can. It can be argued that food generation and distribution technology is up there with waste collection and relocation technology as the two infrastructures necessary to have a civilization.
We needed the plow in order to have farmering as a specialization; Without it, there can be NO specialization.
OK, so if we get decent nanotechnology it all changes, but that will force some kind of a phase change. If hate still exists by then, we're all toast...
OK, I admit to having been influenced by James Burke's "Connections"...
-soup (GNUrd, Speaker to Machines) "Laugh at yourself- Why should everyone else have all the fun?" -Romanchek's 6th Ru
3. Inclined plane.
Mine was a hurried list. But if the plow deserves an entry of its own, what does one remove? Note that I missed the electric light. Artificial light could be covered under fire (flint and steel). What would you take off to make room for something else?
Decisions get tough and certainly you can't take off too many of the other items. You absolutely cannot take off the printing press. Don't you think that the telescope should belong as well? How about the steam engine? It's an interesting exercise. All the items on my list have had extreme impact on the growth of mankind. Yet there are others as well. Maybe the list should be longer than ten.
The virtues of writing are pretty clear. As for numbers, try and balance you check book in Roman numerals.
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Earth first? Oooh, and I was thinking of paying the rent.
Most cans of sardines have those little keys attatched. That way, you don't need a plow or a can opener.
--------------------
Earth first? Oooh, and I was thinking of paying the rent.
She touched on the lightbulb, but it's obvious that she doesn't have the extreme technically in-depth knowledge to properly acknowledge the light bulb.
The premise of the lightbulb was to burn a conductor in a vacuum. The lack of an atmosphere prevents oxidation in bulbs, and the incineration.
The lightbulb is the father of modern computing. Take a lightbulb and a relay, cross them and you have a vacuum tube. The vacuum tube works very similar to a lightbulb. They both exist in a vacuum and generate heat. When a vacuum tube is excited, electrons pass through it like a transistor. However vacuum tubes are analog and have an infinitely variable throughput.
An interesting thing about vacuum tubes is that they emit RF radiation, radio. Properly controlled they can be used to broadcast radio. Even today, many radio stations still use a vacuum tube transmitter, called a 'klystron' (sp?) I believe.
You wouldn't have instant heat microwave popcorn without the vacuum tube either. In microwaves, there is a special vacuum tube called the 'magnatron' which emits microwave energy. This is routed via metal ducting and used to nuke your food.
The CRT is a direct decendant of the vacuum tube. It's basically a vacuum tube turned on end, with the phospor end being the collector and 1 or more guns being the emitter.
We wouldn't have radio, television, microwave popcorn, or computers if the lightbulb hadn't been invented.
First and foremost, it's a list of Tech in general, not gadgets.
Secondly, too many of the items, are just an extended/improved version of a previous item. Personally I'd roll Tele-graph/phone/vision, into a more generalized communications category.
Thirdly, wtf is with the hand drier. Hasn't he noticed that every batroom that is cursed with one of those infernal machines, has snowdrifts of toilet seat covers on the floor, from the ppl that improvised a way around the stupid machine?
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
This would be a great theory, except that it's wrong.
If you check historical newspapers, you will find that the New York Times, for example, ushered in the new century on their front page on January 1, 1901. There has never been widespread confusion about the starting day of a new century until now.
Stephen J. Gould gives this a good treatment in his book Questioning the Millennium, which is a pretty good read.
You'd need nothing close to an infinite tape to do useful stuff. Do you know how big infinite is? A tape that is googalplex cells in length is just a tiny tiny speck compared to infinite. Actually, it's even smaller than that.
The Turing machine is theoretical, but it defines a pure form of a computer.
Where does it say that the gadget needs to be something that you can hold in your hand?
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
--Jim
What about Joannes Gutemberg's gadget, the printing press, without which the diffusion of scientific idea wouldn't have advanced enough for you to read this on glowing phosphors???
-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
In approximate order:
- Bow and arrow
- Harnessing fire
- Agriculture
- Breeding livestock
- Ore smelting & ceramics
- Naval implements (ships, sails, compass, astrolabes, locks)
- The wheel
- Fortifications
- Roads (à la Roman empire)
- The printing press
The rest (water, steam & electric power) will come naturally...-- ----------------------------------------------
Vive le logiciel... Libre!!!
Perhaps, you mean "sextant" (found in www.merriam-webster.com):
Main Entry: sextant
Pronunciation: 'seks-t&nt
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin sextant-, sextans sixth part of a circle, from Latin, sixth part, from sextus sixth
Date: 1628
: an instrument for measuring angular distances used especially in navigation to observe altitudes of celestial bodies (as in ascertaining latitude and longitude)
"And besides that, the guy writing the article wishes us a 'Happy New Millennium'... sorry, one year too early, my friend."
I've been doing some thinking about this (hey, I was on vacation Ok) and I'm not sure that this year isn't the new millennium.
The standard argument that I hear is "there was no year 0 so the millennium isn't till 2001" However, even though there was no year 0, when have we always celebrated the new century, decade? 1800, 1900, 1980, 1990. So by the above argument, shouldn't these actually be 1801, 1901, 1981, 1991, etc (after all, a one-off error doesn't just affect the millennium). So really, a year may be "missing" but by a matter of convention this should be the new millennium. Just to take this further, if this is the new century or a new decade but not a new millennium, we'd have to say that a millennium is 10 centries plus 1 year, or 100 decades plus one year - either way its just messy. I think I would rather just have one "missing" year that's not accounted for.
Any thoughts?
\forall code \in C, \frac{\Delta readability(code)}{\Delta t} < 0
But plumbing brought hygiene to everybody in the industrialized world, and even to a great many folks in the Third World. In the process, it's played a major role in the planet's population boom, which is due not to higher birth rates but lower death rates. Dysentery, typhus and cholera just don't go as far as they used to, and plumbing is why.
Three cheers for flush toilets!
Hiawatha Bray
Tech Reporter
Boston Globe
A brief history of the steam engine.
Q.
OK, I found an even better page that contains Hero's treatise on pneumatics. Has a whole slew of nifty Greek gadgets. Whether any of these gadgets were actually used I have no idea.
Q.
What about the moist towlette? Not only has it brought about world peace, but it has cleansed thousands upon thousands of "Finger-licking-bad" hands at Kentucky Fried Chicken (at least back when they weren't so cheap as to NOT give out moist towlettes. Certainly this device should be placed right next to the electic hand dryer.
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
I've seen no mention of it yet. Simple, useful,
and ingenious.
god n. : the Supreme Being, indistinguishable from a good random number generator.
For a list that includes the electric hand dryer, of all useless things, there's a lot left off.
Where's the Washing Machine? Hot Tub? Food Processor? Ice Cream Maker? Bread Machine? Electric Mixer? Electric Steam Iron? Hair Dryer?
Where's the Flush Toilet?
Heck, where's the electric coffee maker?
Does pregnancy count as a "disability?"
(US) Federal Law requires that Disability benefits be paid for pregnancy on the same basis as those for any other disability. Maternity leave is typically 6 months.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
The electric hand dryer does not even qualify as a gadget, period. Those things are awful - it takes forever to dry your hands, and they make as much noise as my roomful of boxen :). Seriously, I'd have put something like Ethernet in its place - without networks, we'd never come as far.
"If ignorance is bliss, may I never be happy.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
I doubt it. Anyone who gushes like this over a hand dryer probably spends the 15-20 minute drying time lost in rapt adoration of the POS in front of him.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
gadgets which evolve, like you say the vacuum :P~~~
tube to the transistor, but also, the telegraph
to the telephone, and radio to television. As
for the electric hand dryer, not exactly a good
choice, but it's certainly more hygenic than a
grubby towel. wait, hmmm, memories of Madonna
drying her face in 'Desperatly seeking Susan',
gotta love that
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
Deeply boring fact of the day:
The most hygienic way of hand-washing-and-drying is to wash your handies for five minutes (not four, not six. Seven is right out), and then to dry them with a paper towel, and then to use a hand dryer. I'm not sure why I know that, but now you know it too. You read it on slashdot, so it must be true.
Now here are some gadgets that were/are awesome for their time! (and in no particular order)
1) Cyberscope
2) Trebuchet
3) Picavet Suspension
4) Cameras
5) Cordless stuff
6) Standard based home automation
7) Scale combat
8) Webcams
9) Thermos
10) Slashdot
"With the industrial revolution, more jobs required long hours away from home, and women (esp. those with children) were largely excluded. "
What about the sweat shops of the early industrial revolution? They employed, among the lower classes, many women of child-bearing age.
It's not the pill. It's the shift from strength-based criteria, which men have a tendency to win, to skills and thought based criteria; along with a more egalitarian view of the world that excess has allowed us, that have allowed the shift towards as complete-as-possible equality.
I'm sure I'm missing plenty, but I doubt even a person with more complete knowledge of human civilization would agree that the pill is so much more responsible. Would the pill have even existed if it wasn't for the equality shift?
Sure, I am going to stand there five minutes. I think I would rather be irradiated. No germs and a nice healthy glow.
I can just see you standing at the sink when some guy comes in to take a dump. Man will he be surprised when he walks out of the stall to find you still scrubbing away.
Drifting further offtopic: When I am in a restraunt and I see the chef go into the bathroom, I always check to see how he washes his hands. Even in the better places splash and go is the norm. Of course around here they usually lick themselves clean. Im pretty sure that everyone is with me on this one: If you find pubic hair in the Chinese food, send out for pizza instead.
And now for my half serious top ten gadgets:
10. Canned air. It sucks at its intended task, but turn one upside down and watch the antics.
9. Pocket calculators. Arithemetic for dummies and less burdensome calculation for the inspired.
8. Cameras. Ruin the moment and save it forever
7. Cell phones. Cool idea, but they should come with an "Inconsiderate Bastard" forehead tatoo kit.
6. Multi-tools (Leatherman and others) Many tools, one small package. Fix stuff anywhere.
5. Night vision goggles. Fun at the movies, and out on the street. The funny looks you get all glow green!
4. GPS. Damn, I had to park 300 meters away!
3. Recorded music and stuff to play it on. Better than having an orchestra pit in your living room. Well, maybe not, but cheaper.
2. Digital camcorders. Only because I lust for a 3CCD camera with firewire. BWPII here I come.
1. Wearable computers. OK, not quite yet, but when these become mainstream I am having mine implanted.
-BW
I know that it's MSNBC, however, even for them, I am surprised at this article. It is far too onesided towards geeky gadgets and ignores some of the key advances of our time.
:-)
:-)
/. article on these). There about a zillion things that I doubt he even considered when writing the article and should have ranked more important than an electric hand dryer!
Why is there no mention of medical imaging devices, genetically engineered viruses (which I would arguably say are gadgets of a different kind).
My point is that the list doesn't really seem worthy of being the top ten inventions of all time.
1). The telegraph. I agree that the telegraph served so many useful perposes. One of the key things which our friend over at MSNBC doesn't mention is the way in which the telegraph connected the corners of the world. For the first time, this little island that I live on called England was able to communicate with you guys over it the US and others in Europe.
2). The telephone was a great invention, however, had it not been for some of the advances in amplification technology and routing since then (the people behind these advances aren't at all well known) then the telephone wouldn't have gone very far. The invention of various amplification technologies took years and it was some time before someone on the East coast of the US could speak directly to someon on the West coast.
3). I can't argue with the vacuum tube - it's a great one.
4). The transistor - yep another good one. Am I wrong or does the article say:
"We must give thanks to Bell Labs for more than inventing Unix."
that's not like MSNBC
On that subject, why don't they mention Unix or in fact _any_ OS. Modern computing is just about sophisticated hardware full of densly packed transistors, there is a hell of a lot of extremely advanced software driving this hardware. Perhaps they should have mentioned some of the first OS's, job scheduling, or Programmable machines that accepted _MACHINE CODE_, leading on to other great advances such as High level programming languages (ADA, FORTRAN, PASCAL, C, LISP, PROLOG, C++, etc.....)
6. Radio. Fine that is a good idea, however, let's not forget satellite technology. Satellite technology has allowed us to overcome the inability to broadcast radio signals (of sufficient frequency to carry comms traffic) right around the globe. It may be technically possible to get a signal from one part of the world to another (taking advantage of the ionosphere), however not without great signal loss. No, I would say the good old "eye's in the sky" rank as more important gadgets to us than radio. One could argue however that Microware "radio" signals are essential communications tools for personal and mass communications. I guess radio can stay.
7. Television - An excellent invention, now all I want is the invention of the next big form of entertainment - the hollodeck - coupled with the USS Enterprise and Judsia Dax all to myself - yum
8. Computers. Yep, bug or not, they are damm useful things. The sheer fact that we got concerned over the Y2K effect shows how assimilated we have become by these machines. Not that I'm complaining as I type on one...
9. Electric Hand Dryers. Oh yeah, these things are desperately important. Did you know that the average hand dryer contains around 3 million germs? that's far far more than a handtowel or paper towels. I can live without an electronic dryer, my hands will dry with or without it.
Which brings me back to my original point that the story is far too one-sided and doesn't consider the larger picture.
What about the camera, the Compaact Disc, Mobile Telephone (gotta hate them), Medical Imaging Devices, Genetically Altered Viruses (see ealier
Jonathan.
http://www.jonmasters.org/
Of the four questions you posed to yourself, one was a personal opinion (novelty), one was relative (small), and you got the other two wrong. The fan inside the dryer is rather important to its operation and quite mechanical. Seeing as how no hand dryer I've ever seen had a crank on it, I would certainly classify it as electronic. Come on, big guy, if you're going to make up questions for yourself to answer, at least make up questions you can get right.
-ODB Jr.
... then he could have added Crusoe to the list. :P
I had a similar reaction to this article. In fact, just to be sure, I even looked up "gadget" in Webster's:
...
Main Entry: gadget
Pronunciation: 'ga-j&t
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1886
: an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty
And thus, with the exception of the hand dryer, none of these really qualifies too well. Personally, I think something like the lava lamp, or "personal webage" would be a better cadidate
everyone wants a FUFME! ^_^
-confidential
The knife. Think about it. Where would society be without the knife? It probably came (in some form) before fire. Just a sharp rock. you could put it on the end of a big stick and have a spear, or on the end of a little stick and have an arrow, or on a log that you drag behind your local dromedary and have a plow. spinning knives to mill things and drill things, knives and a spindle to make a lathe, a knife and a gear to make a can opener (thus making canned good practical).
The knife has essentially not changed since it's conception. sure we use better materials on it now, but that's about the only major change. ask most people and they probably carry a knife of some form....they have a billion uses in everyday life.
a knife is the only tool that you can live off of by itself. put someone in the middle of the wilderness with a knife and they have all they need to survive (granted, most people these days couldn't do it....just don't have the skills, but THEORETICALLY it's possible).
knife. worship the knife.
-Andy Martin
-Andy Martin
If y'all don't like me, blow me.
Not exactly a gadget, but I couldn't resist pointing out the best invention of the millenium that seems to be overlooked: the Toilet Paper. Imagine your life without it :)
Not to mention that hand dryers make your hands sticky, at least I always thinks so. Never use them, I prefer to just wipe my hands on toiletpaper instead.
And even if you're not a hygiene freak it does strike one as stupid to take air from a bathroom, with pretty much the highest concentration of germs and bacteria in your house, heat it up a bit (so the germs are really happy) then blow them on your recently washed hands.
Great idea? Yeah, right!
I can't disagree with you about it's importance, but I just can't see birth control as a "gadget". To me, gadgets have some sort of "active" function, and most birth control mechanisms could best be described as a "substance". Maybe an IUD would qualify as a gadget, but it's properties are primarily chemical, if I understand them.
Of course, some of the other things on that list are stretching the limits of the term "gadget"...
I must say that I found this list to be not only full of bad choices, but rather elementary at best. Besides the fact that the hand dryer made the list, and the light bulb, plow, gun, internal combustion engine, nuclear reactor, dam, and flat screen LCD's (my fav) didn't make the list, the journalism was lacking. I think that lists as journalism are generally poorly done(read Time Magazine), and should be left undone.
No it's not! It's called a "plough"!
:)
D'oh...
~Tim
--
Rushing on down to the circle of the turn
Yeah, I know. Couldn't resist.
doh, forgot about those luscious-lock-havin' gentlemen in the crowd. Having recently-de-hippified myself (on the outside ;) 'twas a simple oversight. carry on.
+&x
I can't believe both the transistor and the vaccuum tube made it. They're the same thing, really- solid state switches (what's this about a vaccuum tube not being solid-state?). Of course, the author has no idea what either device is- just that one is "really big and clunky" and the other is "tiny, and Spawned The Internet As We Know It(TM)".
Hands in my pocket
Then maybe that's just me.
RP
You mean those POS things actually work? All they seem to do is make the water on my hand warm, never removing it, not matter how I rub my hands or fling water off of them. Give me paper towels anyday. I'd rather kill an old ceral box (recycling) than look like I dont know how to use the bathroom right.
:)
I'd have to say the chair kind of beats this one out.
FunOne
FunOne
If something is the greatest thing since sliced bread, that means that sliced bread is greater than it. If something is the greatest thing since [insert invention made before sliced bread here], then it is greater than sliced bread.
Mneme.
Not to mention that making mild wine is a great way to keep water potable for long journies or storage..
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
Except that the wheel has an Axle - Log Rollers don't.
>I hate to tell you this but the Log Roller is by all accounts a wheel
rbb
If you open a LEGO box and dump it in a bowl, which of the following would you say.
a) the bowl contains MUCH lego.
b) the bowl contains many legos.
I would say "why aren't you dumping that much lego on the floor, where it belongs?"
Hey, if you're really an English Teacher, then maybe you should do a class on this instruction, which is quoted from the Top 10 Gadget list:
Electric Hand Dryers.
You follow the instructions, press the big chrome button, place your hands underneath the air outlet and rub them gently.
In every public washroom I have been in, the tin instruction sheet has been vandalized. "Hands" is replaced with another word, which, if rubbed gently in public, will get you arrested. (This is what ACTUALLY happened to George Michaels.)
Please, for the sake of all humanity, bring up this subject in your next English class. It could save a pop music career.
Mike van Lammeren
Mike van Lammeren
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.
Yeha well they shouldnt really call them gadgets! Gadgets to me says something a geek wears on his belt to look cool to other geeks....not a tv or a handdryer (or a wheel for that matter)
But then again, i could be all wrong in my interpretation...Its all the media's fault! After all, they got us all thinking it ws the millennium...
Logic just doesnt prevail with reporters...
Hahahahhaahha, well yeha i gues..
:)
its all relative in the end...
so its just a matter of, if they said '20th century gadgets' or not
Is it me or are all (most of htese tings not even gatgets of any description? Hand dryer? I thought thats what we wore pants for? to wipe your hands on!) Transistor? Maybe... Computers... I guess...
/gadget/!!
but theres no gadgets here!!!
How about wearable computers with heads up display, internet connectivity and live webcam feed?
television is nothing but a waste of time, and I dont know about you but I'd say the wheel was practically the basis for civilisation! Not a freaking
Do I smell media b/s in the house? Looks like another attempt by incompetent reporters to make a half decent article on something they are nott remotely familiar with. Im getting sick of this!
The guy busted on him twice in a row in this article. What's his problem? Howard brings us fartmeisters and naked chicks! What more could you want!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
The Colt .45 1911A1 Government Model.....without a doubt.
...no, I don't mean the polyester leisure suit. I mean Polartec, nylon, bulletproof fabrics, firemen's stuff, spacesuits, etc etc etc...
Oh, okay, so I DO own about 50 items of PolarTec. But I still think that the ability to take things that are inflexible/inorganic and then find a way to wrap them around your body has been one of the greatest "supporting players" in mankind's progress...especially in the last 100 years.
Ah, but he was obviously referring to tins of fish, for which you don't need a plough, just a tin opener.
Anywyay, since when did people plough fields to plant fruit trees? Though I suppose if you consider the tomato to be a fruit then maybe it needs a plough.
The pen didn't bring literacy for the masses! Quills/paintbrushes/whatever were around for bloody ages before any attempt at educating the masses was made. The printing press was far more influential in this domain, as was paper.
The Turing machine's not a gadget. It's purely hypothetical, can't work in practice except for trivial problems. You'd need a near infinite amount of tape to do anything worthwhile.
Yes it is like the force: It has a light side and a dark side and it holds the universe together.
oops should have said "for a word from [insert name of fave politico here] place 1$ in the slot below"
It seems that they could have combined some of them into one, like the telegraph and telephone. Both send information over electrical wires. Same concept, difrent tools.
Transistor and computer. Hmm..... The computer is a big set of transistors!! And portable fire, but not fire in general? Huh? Vacum tube and television?!? The radio??? Let's not forget wirless communications as a whole, just radio... And Electric hand dryer?!? Maybe heaters in general, but that goes with fire.
Ok, enough ranting.....
--Justin Mitchell
"2nd Place is a fancy word for losing" --Bender (Futurama)
What about digital watches? Isn't that why we left the trees and started moving little green pieces of papers for?
There are only 42 really useful gadgets ever made; infinite room full of monkeys notwithstanding.
I used to think MSNBC was a professional, if tainted, operation. What's with those crappy, poorly cropped images on the page?
Looks like someone's first attempt at page design on GeoCities.
-Sharv
Without the plow, there aren't many uses for a can opener. Fruits, vegetables, meats, pastas, etc. don't exist without a plow.
Sorry, but the electric hairdryer was a godsend for men, too. I should smack you with the cluestick for not having the forsight to realize that men with long hair are inconvenienced by wet hair, and there are a great many men whose vanity exceeds that of the average woman.
Yes, I am the spitting image of a 1960's hippie.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Sure. It's called a wind tunnel.
Where is the CD-player remote conrol on this list? It's the greatest thing ever invented.
;)
It's too late for me to write a serious comment
- JoJo
A "gadget" is defined by The Merriam Webster WWW Dictionary as...
:-)
an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty
You want a device that is super useful, almost too useful to be called a "gadget"? Try a Dremel! Is it a screwdriver? Is it a drill? Is it a saw? Heck no! Its all of the above! For small jobs, the only thing you can't do with a Dremel is hammer!
The only other modern tool that could be considered as useful would be the duct tape! Where would mankind be without duct tape?!
you got to remember, at the top it said MY top ten. And i assume that it was a man that was speaking. Most men don't think that Birth control changed their lives.
I AM NOT AS I CRAZY AS I THINK I AM! or am i??? -GODriel
Only dead fish swim with the stream...
that list had too many redundant items... the telegraph and telephone are both bi-directional communications widgets, pick one or the other. the radio and television are unidirectional broadcast communications widgets, pick one or the other. The vacuum tube and the transistor are both examples of solid state logic, pick one or the other.
:-)
and none of those (or the personal computer) are as fundamental to all modern electronics as the transistor. simply leaving the transistor on the list and dropping the others would have freed up 5 slots for more important inventions.
also, i think software might deserve a spot on the list. its not a physical, tangible thing, sure, but several large software projects are among the largest most complicated things engineered by man. and remember, the discipline or science or what have you of developing software is only ~60 years old. so its impact on humanity is mostly still in the future.
and the hand dryer? i won't bother commenting on that one
so the civilizations of ancient Rome, China, Persia, Inca, etc. and modern civilizations like the British Empire were the size of small city states?
up until the 1900s all civilizations used the same form of waste disposal: dump it in the nearest river. that goes for the British in the 18th and 19th centuries as much as for the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
Don't forget transparent aluminum!
Seriously, though, I think the ball bearing should be on there somewhere. That's the first thing I thought of.
Hmmmm.... In no particular order: Multi Tool, (I prefer the Leatherman Wave) Glasses, (I like to see what I'm doing) Compass, (I like to think that I know where I am) Lighter, (Zippo: What else?) Combination Locks, (No keys) Wrist Watch, (Keeps me from over-dosing) Solar Powered, (Anything but flashlights) Spill Proof Coffee Cup, (My wife's idea; Is she tryin' to tell me sumthin'?) Wind up Anything, (Flashlights, radios, clocks) And Last but not least: The Tweaker! I'd be lost without it. (The ultimate original multi tool)
When he mentioned BellLabs, he mentioned Unix being good! ;)
When he mentioned the PC, he said IBM, Apple, and Amiga. But he didn't say anything about Microsoft or DOS.
When he said the electric hand dryer, I thought "WTF", but then I realized: It saves trees, reduces waste (probably reduces energy used/wasted as well), it's supposed to be cleaner than towels (since you don't touch anything). But everyone (including myself) hate them! Let's get some conscience.
Hello little man. I will destroy you!
I think penicallian (sp?) should be on the top ten list. Sure, it's not a "gadgit"; hell, it's not even really an invention, but without this bit of bread mold, would the world population excede a billion today?
Also, I think this poor author is communication fixated. Granted, the computer is marvalous, but in it's present form, it is just the logical (20/20 hindsight) outgrowth of the transistor. Really, the quill pen (mentioned elsewhere) should replace the computer. And in all actually, phonetic writing should score higher than the pen, because without writing, the pen is not of much use (until you invent mathamatics, and I'm not sure that math could be invented without a written language).
-- Intelligence reports are useful only to the intelligent. -RAH
o/~ Old mother regan, she's so dumb, she's so danerous, how come she don't go faaaaar way o/~
All hail the mighty femes
_________________________
Yeah I know almost everyone has seen the link before, but what about the Fu-FMe Remote Sex Solution. Sure it may not be real (yet), but should some horny geeks decide to actually build off the idea, it could mean endless hours of sexual pleasure for geeks like us without the hassle of actually dealing with members of the opposite sex *shudder*
/. readers could use :)
Now that's something all of use
Ok, i agree with you guys... hand dryers!?!... it may be percieved as a joke... i mean.. there are much greater inventions... it didn't revolutionize everything... people use paper towels...
Anyway... getting to my point... if you look at the hand dryer... you can see "Handdryer.com"... i may seem a little skeptical... but is it possible that this is a little bit of andvertising... seeing that this website is "Allied Hand Dryers"... the "Nationwide Distributor of World Hand Dryers".
"Paranoia paranoia everybody's coming to get me..."
Hmmm; from my (admittedly quick) reading of those documents, it appears the greeks primarily made a motor through the rising of steam turning a wheel (actually a ball); kind of like a reverse water-wheel. Is that correct?
If so, then the big steam engine advance was the invention of the piston/valve-style motor. The greek engine would have been pathetically inefficient, which explains why it was never more than a toy. So it wasn't as if they had it and didn't know what they had.
---
Probably a bad idea... I might be tempted to paper mache him in brown paper towels.
---
Do you have a source for that? I find it very surprising that a civilization as advanced as the greeks would invent a steam engine, and then not think of doing something useful with the power.
Heck, the Romans stole everything from the Greeks, and you know they would've thought of some uses for steam power!
---
The axle is the gadget without which the wheel would be pretty useless. Think long cylinders used to move rocks to build the pyramids. How many long cylinders do you need to get to work?
A previous exchange ran thusly: With the industrial revolution, more jobs required long hours away from home, and women (esp. those with children) were largely excluded.
But why, apart from the ridiculous notion that "the woman's place is in the home?" I think the outcome had more to do with the unwilligness of men to take on childrearing responsibilities.
Certainly that's part of it, but even when men are willing to raise the children they require mom's help until the kids are weaned. Looking back at my anthropology classes, I recall that in hunting-gathering societies children nurse for as long as 2 years, adding in solid foods slowly beginning at 6-8 months. Modern societies transition children off nursing much earlier but they still are exclusively "milkivores" for several months, and until refrigeration became widespread in the last century that meant some woman had to provide the milk. That woman was not necessarily the birth mother (especially among the upper classes who could afford wet nurses) but among the working classes women with children had to bring them along to work so the kid(s) could be fed.
Jenny
Seriously, though, none of those things--with the exception of the electric hand "dryer"--is really a gadget, is it? I always thought a gadget was a fun little toy that isn't really essential but is nonetheless neat to own or use. Like a cell phone or a Palm Pilot or one of those little boxes with four buttons that utters cute little phrases or makes various electronic weapon sounds.
The telegraph wasn't a gadget; Joe Consumer of the 1800's didn't have one laying around his house, couldn't pick one up at Wal-Mart or what have you. The telegraph in its heyday was a professional communications device that required specially trained operators, a situation that really doesn't have a widely-used modern analogue. (Maybe it does, but I don't know what it is; we can dial phone numbers for ourselves now and send e.mail and so forth without the need for someone to translate our messages into dots and dashes and tap them out. Communication is a lot more direct now.)
The transistor isn't a gadget. You can buy one at Radio Shack, but it doesn't do anything by itself. You can't play with a transistor. Well, you can, but you'd be fairly eccentric.
"Portable fire" in the form of lighters...yeah, I can see that being a gadget.
And so on. I thought the inclusion of the electric hand "dryer (no, they don't really get your hands dry and they're a waste of time compared with the approximately two seconds it takes to dry your hands with a paper towel) was actually pretty funny. I don't think it was really meant to be taken seriously as one of the most significant inventions of all time.
Instructions on electric hand dryer:
Push Button
Hold hands in warm air flow while rubbing gently
Wipe hands on pants
He chose this over the light bulb?
No sig? Sigh...
Note how some of the items are precursors to another item on the list. Vacuum tube->transistor, telegraph->telephone->television.
That would be like saying "The Wheel" followed by the Ford Courier.
Anyway, here's a few alternate picks:
Batteries - I'm writing this on a laptop. Need I say more?
The airplane - Boston to London for $300? I'm there!
Penicillin - I think this was on someone else's list. Sure it's causing trouble now, but look at how many lives it's saved!
Ball Point pen - it's the little things. And I hate them marker-based pens. Reminds me of fingernails on a chalkboard. Which leads to:
The Whiteboard - write, erase..write, erase. Sniff cleaner. write, stare, wonder what you just wrote, erase.
-- Ever notice that fast-burning fuse looks exactly the same as slow-burning fuse? I didn't... (Edgar Montrose)
But the printing press. Allowed for the spread of ideas. It allowed the communication of common man. And gave society a tool to fight "untouchable" governments. Ever since it's conception, it's been a thorn in the sides of dictatorships, communism, and yes'm even the USA.
"Neat gadget"? Perhaps,... but I'd much rather have the printing press around than them stupid hand dryers (paper towell for everyone!@#$%^%).
I would definately put Duct Tape on the list. What can't it do??? The applications are endless, you name it, Duct Tape can accomplish it.
I sure would list the pill as the most influential invention of the twentieth century, but a gadget it is not. (Too useful)
All opinions are my own - until criticized
Why is this crappy list on /. ? Just cause it says "Gadgets" in the title?
Please. Enough with the top ten _ANYTHING_ lists.
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
No, no. Sliced bread _was_ the greatest thing, but plenty of things have been referred to as the greatest thing since sliced bread, so one of them has got to be better. Mike
Sure, I have a thankless job. That's okay. I have a lot of (non
That's easy.
The greatest gadget of all time (well, it's not really a gadget) is the "make" command. Duh.
Mike
Sure, I have a thankless job. That's okay. I have a lot of (non
The top gadget of all time should simply be tools. If we had never learned to use tools, we would still be running around naked in the woods being eaten by predators.
"Reality is less than television."-Brian Oblivion
Yeah, the thought of blowing warmed up, contaminated bathroom air onto my wet, just-washed hands is one of my favourite things to do. I'll take the paper towels, thank you very much.
I'm surprised that I didn't see something more significant. There are at least two inventions that helped make our civilization what it is today, they are,
a. The steam engine
b. The printing press
The steam engine allowed countries to distribute goods and transport people longer and faster than had been before. It also made the world seem so much smaller than it was before, making a trip to faraway place easier and safer than it was to go by sea.
The printing press made it possible to mass produce information. It put more books into the hands of people who would normally not know how to read a word, now had a reason to learn to read.
Arguably, the time, place and people who invented these are contested, they contributed greatly to our civilization, which would be very different without either.
Stupid is as stupid dies.
John W Campbell, Jr once wrote an editorial nominating the horse collar as one of the top inventions of this millennium. It allows the heavy-load work to be shifted from strong-but-slow oxen to strong-but-fast horses. Prior to the horse collar, you had to keep the load drawn by each horse very light to avoid choking the horse. Thus you get Roman chariots with two or four horses to draw some pretty lightweight chariots. With the right coupling, these loads can be drawn faster with a single horse.
With all this millenial list-making going on, has anyone produced a list of the top 10 lists? A "meta-list", if you like.
That would then put the Hair Dryer on the top ten list too which of course leads to big hair and the seventies...
All of this really leads to a time where polyester suits and disco ruled the day...
I feel that someone has gone vastly astray from reality on this one!
AF-Design, web development.
I like to put a combo of 2 things as the best ...
gadgets refrigeration + Beer = Cold Beer hmmmm
"THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT"-Death
42
This type of story really irks me. Of course, if you don't like it, don't read it, but I'll rant anyway. Newspapers, magazines, and the newer "web-only" media all do this: they ask their reporters (seasoned or otherwise) to do this kind of "vanity" assignment which really requires little of what journalists are supposed to do: get the facts and present them fairly. Who is Gary Krakow, and why is HIS list worthy of promulgation? I say it belongs on his homepage along with his hobbies and pics of his cat. But hey, he had a deadline, and probably thought it was a dumb assignment anyway.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
So how about it? What do we get when all those people can suddenly SEE what they're doing? Do we have any reliable idea of how much "practical blindness" existed before someone hung lenses on our noses?
"What jobs would be unavailable to women? I guess my fundamental question concerns why these jobs are unavailable to moms, but dads have no problem keeping them. Really, what is the difference, and what does artificial birth control have to do with any of it?"
My Job, to be precise...unless the woman elected to be celibate or was post-menopausal. Some terrific teratanogenic effects from excessive chemical exposures in my line of work...
ti_dave
I would have to agree with this. With the dramatic increase in average life expectancy brought about by modern medicine, the world's population would today either have ballooned far beyond supportable levels, or in doing so triggered corresponding famines, epidemics and other crises bringing about untold suffering. The infringements on personal liberty which would be required to control population in a medically advanced society without taking recourse to contraception would be perhaps less horrific but still far worse than our present condition.
It should also be pointed out (not that it is entirely relevant, as this is a poll of the gadgets of all time) that contraception is not as new a thing as you might possibly surmise from reading Enoch's statement (no offence meant - I do not suggest that Enoch assumed it was) - it has in fact been practised in many different forms in many different societies for thousands of years.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
Lego has gotta be the number one invention. Look how much pleasure people have got out of playing (and learning) with Lego (notice, not LEGOS).
-= Active Studios =- Web Design www.activestudios.net "Press any key to continue or any other key to quit"
Hey, instead of carving things into rocks or clay tablets, we can write it down, roll it up, carry it long distances without a hernia, store 20 tablets worth of harvest records in half the space, and a 100th of the weight! And you thought PDAs were cool. :)
...will work for Chick tracts...
Why does it seem when all these Top Ten lists come out they are always about the latter half of this century. There is the Wheel and Portable Fire in this one. Then it is straight to the modern world. All the modern inventions were "Built on the shoulders of Giants" to paraphrase. How about a few others.. The Handy Cutting Tool - Say what you will but man has defined almost all of his existence by force. Use the blade (or axe or what ever) for Killing, gutting and cleaning you food or your enemies. The Stirup - Try to do a lot mounted without it. Sure you can. But give it a whirl. The Sail - Yeah, we would have rowed to the Americas. The Sextant - No, I think we need to go this way! Gutenburg Press - Printed media for the masses. Gunpowder - Nuff said there. Steam Engine - Where the other engines got there start. The microscope - Well, you try an come up with a meathod of vacinating people with out one. Penicilin - Ok. I cant spell. But most of the other inventions would have never come into being if the creator of them had DIED! Then where would spell checkers be :P Pasturazation - Still can spell, but at least I can eat.
The wages of sin are unreported and back taxes are hell to pay.
Well, ok the title's misleading, but it insures a greater readership... :P anyway, i noticed that all of the top 10 had to do with communication: The tv and radio and computer obviously, but also others: The Matchbox has for decades now been used as advertising for bars and hotels. And of course for writing down members of the opposite sexes phone numbers when in bars and resteraunts. Blow driers also serve as communication: the American Poetry of Bathroom Graffiti oft resides here. Just my 2 (well, i'd use the cent button but i've never found it). ********************* V3rgEZ@hotmail.com ********************* Don't tell me you haven't read your shakespeare? (Hint: MUCH ADO 'BOUT NUTHING)
I think they forgot one of the most important invention of all times: immortalizing, recording audio, video, photos.
When I think I can press play 5000 times in a day to listen to my favorite tune, or watch my favorite movie whenever I want, or put on paper the most dazzling landscapes I have ever seen. I think these are awesome gadgets that shouldn't be avoided.
Video games could be taken in consideration, but I think they can already be classified in the Computers section.
What about Beowulf clusters? Those are some handy gadgets. But seriously folks...How many top ten lists are we gonna get around this time? You could argue that things like silverware, toilets and qtips are pretty handy.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
I would havt to say the the printing press is one of the greatest gadgets of all time. It had a profound impact on society since its creation, and printed media still have a profound impact on society today. Its a shame that MSNBC left something this fundamental off for the electric hand dryer.
The wheel. Okay. The telegraph. Okay. Electric Hand Dryers? I doubt I'm the only one who could easily live their life without an electric hand dryer. The light bulb narrowly missed my list. But the electric hand dryer makes it. One word: WOW.
The REAL sam_at_caveman_dot_org is user ID 13833.
WTF??? The guy didn't put the light bulb on there, but the vaccuum tube and an electric hand dryer made it??? That guys must be paid by microsoft. I'm surprised he didn't put down the dang intellieye mouse while he was at it...
=======
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
This is exactly the kind of crap that's been filling the media for the last 2 years or so. This stuff makes computers out to be the most important thing of all time, and it is as reputable as whatever it was that called 'Internet' the defining word of the millenium. The final 10 years of a millenium don't define it.
I have to put in my vote for the slide rule as perhaps the cleverest gadget. Simple and elegant, and leads to a surprisingly intuitive way to solve more math problems than you'd think. I know, calculators are more precise, but precision isn't everything .. ;-)
73 de N5VB (ex-KD5BIV) AR SK
What the hell is "farmering"? Is it anything like "farming"?
Yeah, well I remember seeing some film in 7th grade about history of foreign cultures, etc., and they showed an East Indian dude taking a small branch off a tree, chewing on the end to fray it, and then brushing his teeth with it. The film said thats how people have cleaned their teeth for the past few centuries. Therefore I cannot in good conscience give much creedance to your "origin of the toothbrush theory". (OK, I might be making up that "past few centuries" part)
It seems that this article is mostly about inventions (ie the Wheel, Portable fire, etc). And not gadgets. M-W.com defines a gadget as "an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty" The only one in this article which really qualifies as a gadget is the hand dryer, but who really likes those things anyway. Of course to correct this article I offer my top ten gadget list (in no particular order): 1. The PDA 2. Stereo Headphones 3. Cellular Telephones 4. Lego Mindstorms 5. Sony Aibo 6. Rubiks Cube 8. Nintendo Gameboy 9. Zippo Lighter 10. Anything in the Sharper Image Catalog
1. Rocks - serve as weapons (ouch!), kitchen utensils (mortar and pestle) and paper weights
2. Can opener - canned goods not so good when opened with a rock
3. Electric can opener - reduces risk of carpal tunnel syndrome
4. Finger nail clipper - provides a cleaner cut than your incisors
5. Scissors - coupons now far less messy
6. Wallet - try sticking baby photos, credit cards and coupons in a bill fold
7. TV remote control - remember the required body movement to turn the VHF and UHF knobs? (What? How old are you anyway?)
8. Paper clips - no more folding the edges of paper together with a wad of spit
9. Stapler - trash cans now free of paper clips bent into odd, useless shapes
10. Laser scalpel - made bovine mutilation cheap and affordable
Disclaimer: if you think I post this list in jest, please note I did not include The Clapper.
Do you carry a hand dryer in your pocket as a novelty?
Ok, but this is a bit offtopic since this is Top 10 Gadgets of All Time--there is a big difference between gadgets and inventions.
Who doesn't have an algegra book with them as a gadget?
Is the hand dryer small? No. Mechanic? No. Electronic? No. Used as a novelty? I don't.
Electronic does not mean electric.
unsliced bread, duh
Username taken, please choose another one.
Interesting article, though like another reader I disagree with the electric hand dryer. One that perhaps should have been included though is the internal combustion engine. Without that many things today would not be possible (automobiles, trains, planes, electrical generators, etc.) How about a slashdot poll to see what people think should be the number one gadget of all time.
1- computers
2- linux (arent i kewl ?)
3-10- linux sum more
linus is a gawd
seriously tho, im suprised so few of us have mentioned computers. at the very least palms and mice(mouses?) could be considered gadgets.
my personal favorite is velcro
...but what are the system req's ? what are my chances of running this (sane) on my slak7 16mbram system which cant even run kde ?
i didnt see any FAQs or anything, but if there are any, please email me
remove the obvious to send mail
What kind of moron votes the electric handdryer as one of the top ten gadgets of all times? What about a swiss army knife? A wrench or hammer or some other too that helped build the damn handdryer this moron is so fond of?! I swear, this is probably the guy who thought that scene in "Bean" was funny when he jumped up and got a hummer from the damn handdryer.
It's even more of a shame that the guy has that much public attention to do some good and wastes it being a twit.
Failure isn't falling. Failure is staying down.
Mostly portable, it is small, it is big, it allows one to view the future, as well as the past. It requires no batteries. It is platform independent, requires no operating system, even can teach you how to use it. It allows one to travel instantly to other countries, planets, and read minds. Together they store the whole sum of human history and all knowledge of mankind. It is the subject of great controversy. It has caused many deaths and has saved the countless lives. It is the best source of genius, true wisdom, and intellect. It is the only hope for mankind when all electricity fails and the internet cannot not exist. There are millions upon millions of other reasons why this portable gadget is THE gadget of the millenium (or of all time). If you haven't guessed it yet, you need to use it. It is the book.
This
maybe Legii?
... the polyphase electric motor. Singlehandedly invented by Nikola Tesla, who also invented the flourescent lightbulb, the wireless telegraph. Without Tesla's invention, we wouldn't have electricity as we know it. So much else fell into place afterwards, its now almost impossible to imagine a world without it! Tony Christney
How could that be percieved as a joke? I mean, saying a nose hair clipper would be much funnier, because at least it works. Everyone know those hand dryers DON'T work, and therefore this goes far deeper. This guy REALLY thinks the hand dryer is great(because it save trees maybe), and therefore he must be mad. I will quote from step 3, which is scratched into the steel of nearly every hand-dryer in the world. "Wipe Hands On Pants"...... MSNBC is just awful
Without which we wouldn't have been able to build gigantic cities so far away from food production areas and having a ton of people in one spot has always helped with the communciation of ideas.
Was I the only person that found the inclusion of the electric hand dryer on that list funny? I don't see why you all took it so seriously, especially considering the source...
Two very important gadgets. I don't have any special insight into the history of exploration, but I would bet that the Europeans couldn't have conquered so much of the globe without these.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
Now, since we've had so few millennia since we've started counting, we're still fixated on making it start with year 1 AD. But with decades, there's been so damn many of them, we don't really care about making it line up at the beginning. So it's more convenient to count the ones that make the pretty numbers line up.
--
The filters clog with dust, warm air from the dryer rises and warms up the dust, germs breed, and you get a stream of air that is thick with germs onto your wet hands. Luvly!
The definitive top ten gadget list of all time? I don't think so.
Other than an extreme bias for the past century, your list achieves nothing other than taking up space on a page.
Three different pairs of items on your list serve identical functions. The transistor is just a vacuum tube which uses quantum mechanics instead of electrical properties. Isn't the telephone just another way to telegraph a person's voice? Radio and television use an identical technology to do basically the same thing.
Electric hand dryers? I'm incredulous! Aren't these the insidious things found in public washrooms on Interstates and fast food restaurants which use several amps of power to not quite completely dry people's hands? For crissake. You could run an electric chair on that much power! If they work so damned well, why don't people have them in their homes? They don't because they don't. Bah!! Idiocy!
You didn't work very hard on this list did you Mr. Krakow?
I hope people use your list as a firestarter at the earliest opportunity.
Without even exercising my brain cells too much I can come up with a far more representative list. As far as the impact on the history of mankind, here are the gadgets that make up my list.
Here they are, fast and dirty:
That's it. Please comment.
They put the transistor and the vacuum tube in the same list. Both of those devices can be used for the same thing. Sure there's differences, but those are just minor details.
My list, not in any order:
1) the Turing machine
2) wheel
3) fire
4) reaction engine (rocket)
5) internal combustion engine
6) the escapement on clocks
7) moveable type printing press
8) vacuum tube
9) gunpowder
10) algebra
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Indoor plumbing has been in rich people's houses
in some of the oldest cities dug up.
But its popularity really picked up when someone
discoer a u-shaped kink in the pipes would
prevent smelly backups in rather recent history.
I read somewhere (don't remember where, and I don't have a link) that these electric hot air driers actually increase the level of bacteria on a persons hand by 400 percent ! So instead of washing your hands, you're infecting them. Apparently the hot and moist air in these things is the perfect breeding ground...
And besides that, the guy writing the article wishes us a 'Happy New Millennium'... sorry, one year too early, my friend.
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
so the civilizations of ancient Rome, China, Persia, Inca, etc. and modern civilizations like the British Empire were the size of small city states?
No, but many if not all of them (Rome and London for sure) had sanitation. I'm not talking elaborate sewage-treatment methods, but some system of canals or ducts or something to keep the sewage away from the drinking water.
up until the 1900s all civilizations used the same form of waste disposal: dump it in the nearest river.
That's the same river they drink from and bathe in. That system works for low population densities (most of those ancient empires would have been low-density). But for the empires' urban administrative centers, sanitation becomes vital.
Birth control is just what it sounds like - control over whether and when to give birth. It includes such things as abortion and even fertility treatments, which do nothing to prevent (the latter may even encourage) conception.
Contraception includes only those birth control methods which work by preventing conception. It includes methods like abstainance, chemicals like "the pill", and gadgets like condoms and IUDs.
Did birth control really free half the population to "reliably join the work force?"
Depends on which work force. Throughout most of history, women of childbearing age have worked. They have worked whether or not they had young children. The babies and/or children accompanied their mothers as they worked. This tended to keep women out of jobs that required a lot of travel, or long hours without a break, or dangerous (to children if not adults) conditions. With a few exceptions, it was the same work men did. For most men and women, work meant farming. With the industrial revolution, more jobs required long hours away from home, and women (esp. those with children) were largely excluded.
Why is artificial contraception necessary to hold down a job?
It's not. But without it, most women of childbearing age would be effectively kept out of most jobs. Exceptions would be women who remain childless, either by choice or by biology. Birth control (including contraception) vastly increases the jobs available to women. And it's all but neccesary for survival in a world where most children survive to adulthood. Without some kind of birth control, it's not all that unusual for a woman to have a dozen kids in a lifetime. This might have been a good thing when most of the kids died in infancy, but if we're going to have nice things like low infant mortality, we're going to have to breed less kids. That means birth control, whether by low-tech methods like abstainance (how many guys are going to applaud that decision?) or inventions like pills, condoms, and abortions.
Perhaps things like maternity laws and day care would better qualify under that criteria.
What criteria? Those are even less like gadgets than birth control is. Maternity laws and day care are nice things, but they're hardly necessary for women to enter the work force. Like birth control, they broaden the choices available to women, but in the absence of birth control, they become quite unworkable. Who's going to grant maternity leave to someone every time they get knocked up, just because they won't use some kind of birth control? Who's going to pay for day care for a dozen or so kids?
Not just indoor plumbing, but outdoor plumbing as well, was vital for civilization. Without proper waste disposal, civilizations would not advance beyond the size of a smallish city/state before disease brought the whole works crashing down. Proper waste disposal is easy in low-density rural populations (the old open-holer was quite adequate for disposal of small amounts of sewage) but for larger cities it becomes quite a problem. Grand projects - even gadgets - are developed to deal with it.
Indoor plumbing is one form of this in the same way that the Zippo lighter is one form of portable fire. Sewage sanitation definitely belongs on the top 10 list!
Okay... maybe not.
:)
The article was about the author's perspective of what was important to him. Not necessarily society. If this is the case, then it stands to reason that the author may be more boring than myself!
It also makes me wonder what I would have done without some things like the combustible engine,
toilet paper (not until the 1800's... can you belive it?), ramen noodles, and of course, the
crybaby and wah-wah guitar pedals used by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend.
Seriously, though-
The list in this thread goes to show that indeed, we wouldn't last a nano-second in the 18th century. No wonder we make Luddites sick!
The fractional horsepower electric motor. (spurred what is called the second industrial revolution)
The horse collar. (needed because of a labor shortage caused by the black plague). Advanced the standard of living in Europe immensely.
The chimney. (Made use of fire indoors possible - made cities practical)
The moldboard plow. (made planting the US midwest possible)
The Browning Automatic Rifle. (Invented prior to WWI, was so far in advance of anything else that the Army wouldn't equip soldiers going to Europe with it for fear Germans would copy it. US soldiers instead got crappy French machine gun that jammed and didn't have interchangable parts until Army wised up. The BAR design was still in use essentially unchanged in the Korean War).
NMR - see inside stuff on several scales; made modern chemistry possible by unambiguously identifying molecular structures. Same principle is used in MRI to view inside people.
Fourdriner paper machine - makes high volume production of paper cheap. A modern Fourdriner spits out paper 20' wide at 80 miles per hour when fed ground up tree parts suspended in water at back end.
Concrete - without it Rome would have been impossible.
THE
Static Byte Dwinkelizer!
Woohoo!
If you hate him for posting a link to eToys, you'll probably hate me even more when I note that you can get these for only $6.75 (!! They are $30 at eToys!!) at Amazon... Or use the 110% price match at eToys to really stick it to the evil toy company!!! We ordered ten for our pre-new year's Armageddon Nerf War at work.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes the phone has had a big impact on our lives, but it's a fairly recent invention and I see it disappearing quickly.. at least in the analog form we know. In the grand scheme of things, the phone is just a novelty that just lasted a bit longer than the telegraph. I think we will always have something called "the phone," but you won't have a "phone line."
-- Virtual Windows Project
Where on this list of the top gadgets is the Transcapacitor? This is going to change everything.
Did birth control really free half the population to "reliably join the work force?"
Yes. It's not just a matter of being able to "return" to a job after a pregnancy, but also to be depended on to work straight for years at a time if necessary.
Perhaps things like maternity laws and day care would better qualify under that criteria.
These still have to take into account the 6-9 weeks that a woman is physically unable to work for 8 hours a day (for most of them, some don't need to stop). Birth control means that, if a woman chooses, she can avoid pregnancy (and therefore forced in-home time) and stay working consistently at a job for an arbitrarily long length of time.
As for sparking the "sexual revolution," what is that, exactly? Really, what does it mean?
It was equality for women. Before the pill, if a one-nite stand occured, it was the women who bore sole responsibility for anything spawned at the time. That is the same, mostly, but after the pill a women could, arguably, protect herself from unwanted pregnancy, and was there fore "free" to explore her sexuality in any way she wished without fear of conception. This kind of thinking, women are free to explore sexuality, was a revolution in this county. Especially when one considers the contrast of the straight-laced (and boring as hell, IMHO) nature of the 50s and the hippie, pot-smoking, acid-dropping, free-love, ride that was the 60s. 'Course I wasn't born till '74, so this is all pre-mystory to me...
+&x
Except that the wheel has an Axle - Log Rollers don't.
CORRECT. Johnny, tell this man what he has won...
The great advancement with the wheel was the axle. There were 'rolly' type things before, but it was the axle that made wheels useful.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
In no order...
1.) Refridgeration systems
2.) Toilet/sewage systems
3.) The Lightbulb
Those are some of the many things us humans depend on, and deserve recognition for their purpose and for their inventors.
-PovRayMan
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Check out my blackbox styles
Subject says it all.
Bread is tasty, portable and relatively spoil proof.
The lever was probably invented before the wheel.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Refrigeration granted the ability to ship food products all over the world by rail, road, air, or sea and have them arrive as edible food.
It also allowed people to store food for longer periods of time.
And, finally, it led to air conditioners - refrigeration for entire buildings!
Websters definition:
gadget - an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty.
How about the TV remote?
okay english teacher in me coming out...
Brand name is definiteky LEGO
Piece of plastic with holes and dimples: a LEGO piece or ONE LEGO?
If you open a LEGO box and dump it in a bowl, which of the following would you say.
a) the bowl contains MUCH lego.
b) the bowl contains many legos.
IF LEGO can be counted, then it is a countable noun. Regardless of the brand name, I say that LEGO pieces can be counted. Witness the guides that show how MANY LEGO PIECES you need of each type in each step.
So, the real issue is not wheter LEGO peices can be counted, but wheter it's more correct to say "I have 6 lego pieces" or "I have 6 LEGOs"
Personally, I think that common usage wins out for LEGOs.
Can't believe he missed duct tape.
Also add Swiss Army knives (or your favorite variant).
BitPoet
Easy one.. Coffee machine.. it's simple, it's handy, it's essential :) and I must admit that the shoe was a pretty decent idea too
//rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
Kill two birds with one stone. Clear your nasal passages and show your distaste for paper towel-less bathrooms.
Blow your nose on the electric hand dryer.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
Sliced bread is the greatest or so I have been told.
--
This list was so out of touch with reality and chillingly useless I was surprised A.C. Clarke didn't write it.
What ever happened to the printing press. Can't see the library from all the stacked books eh?
I'd love to meet him and shake his hand. Maybe his hand is lukewarm, clammy, and moist after using the dryer too!
Although I think the list should either pick between the transistor or the tube and between the telegraph and telephone she does make a point with the hand dryer.
Its an amazing device because of its popularity and acceptance into mainstream culture if you consider that it doesn't work. Not at all.
Its brought back the simple and elegant act of wiping your hands right on your pants. What could be more eco-smart and efficient. Its a deterant to using paper not a hand dryer. Most people change their pants every day so this primitive system remains safe and clean in our age of germs.
Many 'primitive' cultures wipe a lot more than just their hands onto their clothing and they're better off for it. Someday the big advancement will not be the wearable computer but the Bounty-suit quick picker upper. Only after we've achieved this next evolution in fashion will society aspire to its greatest creation - a wearable computer that cleans and wipes even the filthiest technophile.
Where's A.C. Clarke when you need him?
I have to pity the write of this article, and his obvious passive-aggressive hand washing fetish. Who else would include the electric hand-dryer on a 'Top 10 gadgets of all time' list, omitting both the light bulb AND the electric espresso maker?
Owner of a caffeine fetish and proud of it.
.sig: Now legally binding!
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
The wheel was fine for awhile but now it's similar to a sharp rock as a knife - it's outdated and ill-suited to the demands of todays transportation needs. However, we're locked into its use for the time being if only for the way it's held our imagination captive on this front.
Now don't get me wrong - circles are a very important development in other areas, one of which the author mentioned - as gears, specifically. With the circle came ideas of continuous motion or action as well as higher, non-mechanical ideas (i.e. round earth, time, returning karma, you get the idea.)
IMHO paper has to be on that list. It has definitely played a major part in the invention of everything else in the list except the wheel. Electric hand dryer I can live without, paper, hmm...
Gadgets are typically things that perform some useful function, but are considered "cool" or "novel". The wheel is an important advance but it's not a gadget in any sense of the word. Electronic organizers are gadgets (although I wouldn't say top 10); those little electronic stud finders you hold up to the wall, that's a gadget. James Bond's laser watch, now THAT'S a gadget.
--- Dirtside | "Spirituality" is the irrational belief in the supernatural
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
By far, the greatest invention of all time.
And for all you dufae who complain about the inclusion of the electric hand dryer over the plow, lightbulb, internal combustion engine, or transcapacator...
--
Casey
More scratches on the cave wall, thanks be to anonymity.
Of course, I hate to be a party pooper, but the invention of beer was simply an extension of a natural process that long predates humanity. Basically, fruit is good for you. After a certain amount of time, fruit ferments. This releases the pungent odour of alcohol, and attracts creatures of all kinds to feed and get merrily drunk. Hence at certain times of year birds fly into walls, fruit bats fall out of trees and elephants are definitely to be avoided. The flavour of alcohol is intrinsically attractive to us - and without it, beer is not. (Have you ever tried non-alcoholic beer - yeargghhhh!) In fact, in moderation, alcohol is good for you - 'moderate' or 'social' drinkers live significantly longer than the teatotal. So think on this next time you're down the pub with your mates.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
Ok fire I can agree with, but the telephone, telegraph, television? Bah! For one week, share a bucket in your living room with family and friends for waste disposal, live without everything except fire on this top ten list, and then tell me: who's your daddy now, television or toilet? Thought so.
And all such optical goodies, but especially eyeglasses. I, for one, would be in a bad way without mine, and I bet they originally had a gadgety air to them. Matches: Earlier than the Zippo lighter, and more universal. The ballpoint pen. The definition of "gadget" is definitely a problem -- like the contact lens, it appears to be in the eye of the beholder.
OK, now what?
I'll say this. Some of these were good (portable fire, telephone) but some were just downright stupid (Cough Electric Hand Dryer Cough). Now, in the event that this was a TRUE gadget list, I might agree with that. But with Portable Fire and Vacuum Tube, the author obviously strayed away from the point a bit and made it more like "The Top 10 Really Handy and Vital Things of all Time" list. Going back to the original gadget list, I'd do this, in no particular order:
;P
10. Mirror- How handy is this, without it, we'd never truly have a look at ourselves, until many years later with the development of the.....
9. Camera/Camcorder- Used to capture memories straight from time. Speaking of time....
8. Clock/Portable Watch- I don't know about you, but I could not live without my watch, used to so diligently tell the time. Simple as that.
7. Television- I won't change this, TV is pretty cool. I mean, no one can disagree with the fact TV is the old fashioned center of our world before the computer.
6. Video Game Consoles- Took the TV one step further and made it psuedo interactive. Some say it rots the mind, but in general, people love it and still do as a great alternative to possibly hard to setup computer games.
5. Those Hand-Held Fan things- Now, who hasn't encountered one of these before? This is truly a gadget keeping you cool at the flip of a switch.
4. CD/CD Player- Now this was good, an easy way to keep songs, better than bulky 8-tracks/cassettes/whatever, and were more durable and lasted longer. Data for computers could also be stored here and all was good.
3. Cell Phone- Just like a watch intergrated with a telephone, Cell Phones now enabled you talk to anywhere and anytime you felt like it.
2. Flashlight- Portable light anymore, poof, you want light you got it. It's all right there.
1. Hair Dryer- You may disagree, but for me, this one console harnesses electricity, wind, and heat to handle situations of excess moisture.
My top 10 inventions of All Time (in no particular order, historical or preferential):
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Face it, we're lazy, and what better way to be lazy then to let some computer control exactly how fast our wheels spin. Not only that, but it's fun to watch people freak out when you pass them with your legs crossed on the dash.
Portable fire was great
How did I learn Morse Code? I had one of those cheap walkie-talkies with Morse Code on it. It was so much fun pressing that little red button that made the annoying beep, so annoying in fact, that my parents will never let me near anything that makes noise again!
If it wasn't for this little device, Doom and deathmatch would never have become as popular they are, and id Software would never be as close as they are to world domination (move over Redhat)!
All right, technically, this isn't a gadget, but who would've known that an actual moth would've climbed inside one of those mothers and caused so many problems? And now, us IT professionals have yet another excuse to pull the systems offline for, what else, playing deathmatch.
Leave it to the tiny transistor to allow us to have portable music. Where would America's youth be today without those headphones covering their ears and allowing them to completely drown out the wise words of their elder statesmen? They certainly wouldn't be leading the computing world, now would they?
They may not technically be radios, but certainly the idea of wireless communication culminates in those annoying little devices that give some people a reason to drive poorly and others a reason to say that everyone is going to die of brain cancer. Plus, you can play games on some of them now! Can anyone say 'deathmatch'?
Whoa Nelly! The Nintendo made console gaming fun again and gave us yet another mindless, brainless activity to do with our televisions.
Computers are great, but small computers are better, because they can become as portable as cell phones while becoming ten times more useful. The idea that the computer could become as important a tool for everyday life as the pen started with the idea of taking it all with you, and the Palm Pilot embodies that spirit.
Again, technically, not a gadget, but really, when you're done with that hand-dryer thingie (which honestly, really never does work), where do you wipe your hands?
NOTE: This post not for the humor (or humour) impaired.
...has to be a cutting device that is at least 4000 years old.
It's called the "Plow".
-soup (GNUrd, Speaker to Machines) "Laugh at yourself- Why should everyone else have all the fun?" -Romanchek's 6th Ru
But the electric hand drier? they don't even work right. Although I did once see one of those optically trigered ones with a sign "for a word from place 1$ in the slot below" .... it sounded just like him
I can't believe contraception was not on the list. It seems to me that birth control (specifically, the pill and other "drug" methods) freed half of the population to more reliably join the work force along with sparking the sexual revolution. I would think such an impact would qulify this. Of course, it is no electric hand dryer (which I am hoping was added as a pathetic attempt at comedy).
Jeremy
1) one, one 'cause you left me.
2) two two for my family.
3) three three for my heartache.
4) four four for my headache.
5) five five for my lonley.
6) six six for my sorrow.
7) seven seven no tomorrow.
8) eight eight I forget what eight was for.
9) nine nine cause I've lost god.
10) ten ten ten ten for everything everything.
_________________________
The one person in the world that actually likes hand dryers! Clearly the man should be stuffed and put in a museum somewhere.
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Ever try to blow your nose with one of those? A curse on bathroom designers who leave out the paper towels.
Erector sets with motor: to heck with Mindstorms. I was building destructor the robot with this thing when I could barely walk. That was a concept ahead of it's time.
Here's a great quote: "The first artificial heart constructed at Yale was powered by an Erector Set motor."
The remote control: Let's face it. We still don't need the dang thing and we couldn't live without it. It fits the definition perfectly.
No Zen is good zen
So what does count? The hand dryer, while not one of my top choices, is definitely gadgety. The television and computer and radio have moved out of gadget status, but certainly started that way.
What else? Digital watches. Palm Pilots. Viewmaster. Gyroscopes. Those little models of the solar system which have all the planets geared so they can all rotate and revolve at the proper relative speeds.
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