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."
I prefer #79 (TASER X26, 2003) If you have one of these you can probably eventually get everything else on the list.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
personally, I would have opted for the red swingline stapler.
The PowerBook 100 was a great machine and all, but let's be serious.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
d33r 54nt4, 1 b33n v3ry 1337 th15 y34r..
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
They might as well be running their webserver on #50...
This might get modded funny if people could actually get to the site and figure out which one #50 is.
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
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Congratulations to the BBC for making the gadets list!
I would have thought the abacus (ranked on the list, but lost in the middle) would have been more important in the overall list than a Tivo... the transistor or vacuum tube before computers and digital cameras...
Fun article, but could have been researched a little better. In its bit on the Fisher Space Pen, it repeats the myth that while we blew millions developing a pen that could write upside down, the Soviets just used pencils, which is a common myth. As one cosmonaut said, "pencil lead breaks...and is not good in space capsule; very dangerous to have metal lead particles in zero gravity"
Any list that includes the POPEIL POCKET FISHERMAN in a list of greates gadgets isn't worth reading any further.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
My SO swears by hers!
Now that is a gadget that deserves some recognition in the top 100! http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
..the printing press? I'm pretty sure most of this list couldn't exist without the proliferation of knowledge this allowed.
Seems like the Vic-20 or Commodore 64 would be in there somewhere. Certainly they were much better gadgets than something like a Panasonic Toughbook or two flavors of Apple laptops.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
However, it is not the only gadget that is misplaced or missing. There is no mention of the Babbage Difference Engine. Where are all of Sinclair's devices and gizmos? Where's all the award winners of the Prince of Wales Awards for Innovation?
Where's 99.9% of the stuff invented between 10,000 BC and 1970 AD?
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)
I'd love to see a "top 100 gadgets of the pre-industrial age" - say, anything before 1700 just to be arbitrary.
Special notation to any gadget that was still in common use in the 20th century.
The abacus of course, and the pen and the first hand-carryable printing press come to mind.
The lantern and numerous gadgets used on the farm and by doctors and scientists would also make the list.
If you have a favorite pre-1700 gadget, please reply here.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...the wheel? Most of the gadgets in the world could't live without one.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
The sextant and the abacus did more to shape the whole of humanity than the rest of the list combined. The abacus is still in use today, and probably by more people than there were Powerbooks made, let alone sold and still in use.
The top ten items on the list are almost all entertainment based or related rather than scientific acheivements or technical enablers. They ought to have split this into two lists: one for "fun" stuff and one for science and industry.
When I was a boy, the Greeks attacked and killed the Latins only to steal thier words.
In no particular order..
Perhaps it doesn't appeal to the stereotypical geek, but the vibrator. The pocket calculator as well as; The calculator/remote control/radio controlled/FM radio *wristwratch* (surely the pinnacle of minitiaturization!).
Of course, the bonefone: link. The transistor radio. The world receiver radio. The wind-up/clockwork radio/charger. The intimidating maglite flashlight. Glowsticks! Neither electonic, nor moving parts, but who can resist luminecence!
7" 33 1/3rpm vinyl gramophone records; or I can do you even better than that - 7" 33 1/3 rpm plastic gramophone records that were given away as inlays with MSX Magazine, that you'd dub on tape, and you'd "load" programs off of the tape using the regular "data cassette recorder".
CB (Citizen's Band, 27 "megacycle") radio. ZX80. C64. Nuff said. The lava lamp! Duh! The strap-on (wait for it) keyboard (keyboard guitar).
The hearing aid. The answering machine remote control/handheld DTMF tone dialer. Also; the blue box! The minox sub-miniature "spy" camera (as seen in james bond). The SLR Single Lens Reflex camera. Automatic tweezers (They don't work particularly well, but they have a gadget-esque movement)
The portable DVD player. Toys robots (remote controlled, especially; the robosapiens is a good stab at the concept). Magnesium firestarters. (I'm the firestarter!)
Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (P-EPIRBs) RC cars, helicopters. E.g. The translator pen (scans text when you move across it, translates) The penman robotic plotter and of course the closely related concept of the Logo turtle..
The random movement printer (If and when it becomes widely available..) Lego mindstorms (programmable bricks..)
The most important hand-helds historically; the Smith&Wesson and the AK47.
Also, though not an autonomous device, nor mechanical, nominated for achievements in disrupting the global economy, I'd like to recognize bubblejet printer ink, for costing more than its weight in gold or oil.
Aerosol spray canisters; specifically,
every graffitti artist's friend: spraypaint and every gadget-minded geek's friend: deodorant (especially the miniature cans) and of course; aerosol cheese! Also, perhaps slightly more
palatable, mace pepper spray.
The electric toothbrush (with induction-loop-charging-circuit magic!)
Not the greatest gadget in history until you consider it's "dual use" nature, and the fact it's marketed so widely.
Sattellite TV. Not the most portable of gadgets, but come on! Windscreenwiper glasses. (Though more of a chindogu) The mac. The iMac for doing it twice. The aibo.
The "orgasmotron" (actually just a head massager, not at all naughty) Stylish pin clock. The keyghost hardware keystroke logger.
The digital camera. The digital photo frame.
The credit-card sized Anything, but in particular, the cre
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
While true technically a Dildo does not belong to the realm of 'Gadgets'. The site defines a gadget as:
It has to have electronic and/or moving parts of some kind.
Scissors count, but the knife does not.
It has to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device.
The flashlight counts; the light bulb does not. The notebook counts, but the hard drive doesn't.
It has to be smaller than the proverbial bread box. This is the most flexible of the categories, since gadgets have gotten inexorably smaller over time. But in general we included only items that were potentially mobile:
The Dustbuster counts; the vacuum cleaner doesn't.
Now had you said Vibrator instead of Dildo you would've made a valid point!
ohyeah, rtfa!;-)
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]