I should dig out my old photos and make a "museum" of technology that did
not survive regular daily commercial apiary use, as some of the failure
stories are pretty funny in retrospect. But off the top of my head...
Olympus Pearlcorder L400 - Tiny little thing, barely bigger than the
micro-tape cassettes. Worked ok, but transcribing took forever and a day.
Also tried a Panasonic Digital recorder US450, cheaper toy, good audio
quality, but transcribing was the barrier for it too. More recently,
transcribing has become an automated service, but you can set your recorder
down by a workstation, and use the free Google Docs tool, as described here:
https://qz.com/work/1087765/how-to-transcribe-audio-fast-and-for-free-using-
google-docs-voice-typing/
https://tinyurl.com/yavzbqj8
Kaypro 2000 laptop - a very early (circa 1985) laptop with an LCD screen,
do it was useful in strong daylight. Ran CP/M, notes were taken with
Wordstar, there was only a floppy, no hard disc. It survived less than a
summer, despite the sturdy aluminum case. Batteries failed to recharge, not
unexpected with a 10-year old machine. Mechanical unsealed keyboard had to
be constantly cleaned.
AT&T Safari Laptop - a circa 1991 laptop - lived for several seasons, died
when dropped onto pavement.
Apple Newton - a circa 1993 device, bought used. Lasted OK, but needed to
be kept in a zip-lock bag slid into a foam cushioned bag, as they were very
very fragile. Put away in a drawer when Palm Pilot appeared.
Palm Pilot - circa 1997, bought several in a row as each died a violent
death, thought they were great. The most famous death was the realization
that pants with thigh pockets may LOOK like the perfect place for such
devices, until one gets down on one knee by a beehive, only to find that one
has placed one's full weight on the screen of the PDA. Crunch. I got good
at repairing these, as I was also handing them out to my teenage employees.
Again, LCD screens are easier to see in stronger light.
Smartphones - a number of them, Propolis simply does not agree with
smartphones, PDAs, or any high-tech device. The struggle to find a solvent
that would remove propolis without melting plastic was a bit of a saga.
Lenovo S10-2 Subnotebook - a circa 2009 10-inch subnotebook, where I
replaced the stock display with a color transflective color LCD display, for
use in bright sunlight. I still have this, and use it outside if I must
work from poolside or whatever.
Paper notebook and pencil - True Zen achieved, low cost, impossible to
break, never needs recharging, "never needs winding, never needs winding
step right up" ( https://youtu.be/A2_snSkpULQ )
It is also important to note that beekeeping (once one downsizes to "hobby
size" from "business scale") is one of a very few opportunities to
legitimately get AWAY from the cellphone, the text messages, the tweets, the
voice mails, and the newsfeed.
I have the same as you - a collection of small boxes of calm in the midst of
a world gone stark raving mad.
I try to take full advantage of that, so I leave the phone over at one
corner of the roof with my bag of beekeeping junk, and ignore it for a bit,
and just listen to my bees.
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