Even the Amish
A 1999 Wired article by Howard Rheingold on the un-cliched use of technology by the Amish:
Amish settlements have become a cliché for refusing technology. Tens of thousands of people wear identical, plain, homemade clothing, cultivate their rich fields with horse-drawn machinery, and live in houses lacking that basic modern spirit called electricity. But the Amish do use such 20th-century consumer technologies as disposable diapers, in-line skates, and gas barbecue grills. Some might call this combination paradoxical, even contradictory. But it could also be called sophisticated, because the Amish have an elaborate system by which they evaluate the tools they use; their tentative, at times reluctant use of technology is more complex than a simple rejection or a whole-hearted embrace. What if modern Americans could possibly agree upon criteria for acceptance, as the Amish have? Might we find better ways to wield technological power, other than simply unleashing it and seeing what happens? What can we learn from a culture that habitually negotiates the rules for new tools?
Yes, we do windows
Gizmodo reviews Byte magainze’s first-ever (1983) MS Windows review.
Mouse, what’s a mouse? And why would I need it when I have this great keyboard interface here?!
Steam Tractors
Dark-roasted Blend gives plenty of images (as usual) of smoke-belching, steam-filled tractors. We are particularly enamored of the wheels.