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  • I have a sony mini cassette video camera. Got a new battery for it and works like a dream. Really fun to record modern events in that format.

    I also have a Sears VHS video camera. Working on getting a battery for that.

    A functional electric Smith Corona typewriter

    8mm slide projector

    Too many CRTS

    It's a good time being a Junkman

  • I can do one better than that, I have a battery powered handheld TV that only works with analog NTSC broadcasts and does not have a composite input on it. It's therefore damn difficult to get it to display any kind of picture at all these days. The only way is to broadcast at it with one of those short range toy transmitters, or hack up your own.

  • 2 Garmin GPS, one handheld and one for the car. I've been using my phone for directions now for years, but I suppose I'll hang on to both units for a bit longer.

  • Tape device so you can plug your phone into car stereos that don't have Bluetooth. Some cars just have cd deck/player and no aux input, no Bluetooth. Really new cars will have Bluetooth for phone control. Really old ones with cassette players you could use the tape gadget. Not so much in between.

    Old flash drives, that were only like 1gb when that was supposedly sufficient back then.

    Headphones with audio jack because most new phones have usb-c ports only now. Although I bought an adapter for only 10 bucks.

    A/V cord consoles and devices.

    I had a VHS rewinder too. Also that reminds me I had a mechanical "crank" playing card shuffler which would probably be an antique now. Lol.

  • I have an old PCI TV tuner card. It predates the digital TV switchover so I have a card that can't be plugged into modern motherboards for which no signals are broadcast. Plus I'm sure there are no 64-bit drivers ever made for the damn thing. At this point it's ewaste.

  • I have a Blackberry Playbook on my desk that I am trying to figure out how to crack. I also keep my Sharp EL-50 scientific calculator around. We had to buy that specific model because it didn't have a persistent memory. We could turn it off and on in front of the invigilator and they would know there was nothing stored in it.

  • If I dig down into the drawer with several layers of old iPhones I can find my palm pilot at the bottom right next to the Treo that replaced it.

  • I am going different on this one.

    An awl on a utility knife.

    Nowadays, 99% of camping, hiking, and "survival" equipment is light weight composites that can be better fixed with glue, tape, small needle and thread, or a patch with one of the above. There are very few alternative uses for it that aren't better with a different standard tool.

147 comments