Slashdot Mirror
Top 100 Gadgets of All Time
akintayo writes "Mobile PC released its list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. The number one gadget was the Apple Powerbook 100. And the list does include some older gadgets, most notably the Abacus at #60. The BBC also has an article on the list."
In case of slashdotting, break mirror:
/ 2005_03/top100gadgets.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-2.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-3.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-4.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-5.html
Page 1: http://www.mobilepcmag.com.nyud.net:8090/features
Page 2: http://www.mobilepcmag.com.nyud.net:8090/features
Page 3: http://www.mobilepcmag.com.nyud.net:8090/features
Page 4: http://www.mobilepcmag.com.nyud.net:8090/features
Page 5: http://www.mobilepcmag.com.nyud.net:8090/features
All ratings of this type tend to be biased towards the present. I think this is because how good a thing is roughly equates to someone considering how their life was prior to invention of product and how their life was after invention. In the case of the abacus, we can only speculate at the effect the device had on the lives of people when it was invented. With things that are more recent, we do not need to speculate, we know. Additionally newer things tend to have more funcitonality than previous items, and therefore are more useful in an absolute sense (I can only do math with my abacus, but with my PowerBook 100, I can play solitaire).