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Retro Tech May - Day One - May 1st
Today's been pretty straightforward. Aside a bit of difficulty with finding a USB flash drive that Windows XP will like it's been quite smooth sailing. Took me no time to get back into transferring music to iTunes and installing games from DVD as I've done back in November. An unrelated hardship came by with my vaccuum cleaner not working however I have a good idea what's wrong with it and thankfully there's no urgency to fix it right now so I decided to give it a look one of these days again. Cooking was also not an issue since I've been using a physical cookbook already so there's no concern in that regard. Anyway, you're not reading this to find out more about my cooking endeavors, you want to peek into my thought process beyond.
I decided to settle for a dual monitor setup for increased productivity (writing this on one monitor with the other being used to refresh the page for example). The CRT monitor is how I'll play video games and the modern display is for videos or web browsing (or anything that doesn't work well within a 1024x768 resolution). And here's where I have to say: I originally wanted to do a strictly 2000s tech challenge but then I realized the goal isn't specifically to go back to an era from my past but to reject some degree of technological reliance by both embracing the past and ever so slightly in big and small ways have a digital detox.
And sure if I just wanted digital detox I could've just uninstalled apps on my phone and stick to my regular PC but what would be the fun in that, right? Plus if I had the option to use everything I've used so far there is a good chance I'd go back to using them just as I always did. But the way I do things now I have to reconsider how I approach a lot of things. When I wake up I'd usually check my notifications but since my current phone doesn't have the social media apps and I'm leaving it in my computer room (not to mention the first gen iPhone SE has such a bad battery life that if you just look away the battery loses 20%, something so frustrating it made me consider switching to the iPhone 5s that I bought last week for 7 bucks since it has a much better battery life). If I wanted to check notifications I'd have to turn on the XP computer, wait for everything to start then open up a browser window and only once it's done loading can I check notifs. As for music I only have my iTunes purchases and mp3s plus my CDs. No Spotify or any other streaming apps which I normally use quite a bit. With this I stream less therefore I have more of an attachment to my music, I use my phone less (daily phone usage for me would be about 2-3 hours a day which is apparently less than average but I still wanna do better) and I have to make a choice on what I can focus on with my computer.
And now I know at least one person will scream into my ear: "But Molly, isn't merely just thinking about Windows XP enough to get you hacked by every suspicious person and their dog? I've seen a video where a guy got hacked by doing nothing." and I'll tell you that it's quite incorrect and that video actually has someone use Windows XP while directly connected to the internet raw (which isn't done anymore), using a non-updated version of XP and with pretty much every potential security measure disabled. If you do this on Linux or Windows 11 you're likely to get hacked too. Maybe it won't be as widespread, maybe not as easy, but you WILL GET HACKED. However if you connect through a modern router (and most routers these days come with their own firewalls), keep your system as up to date as you can and don't go on shady websites you'll be fine. I'm not saying "go use XP you're fine" because I wouldn't recommend anyone who isn't at least somewhat tech savvy to do this. However if you got an old PC laying around and you connect it to the web to download a GOG installer or whatever you'll be most likely fine. In fact, the same guy who made that video also made a video where he did everything I just described you should do and even he has stated that you'll be fine. If you still think that video still holds water the same then I have some news for you: Houses are unsafe too if you open every door and window, brag about how many expensive items you got and put up a sign in front of your house saying "please rob me".
Anyway rant over. TLDR; I could've used the same hardware I usually use for this but I decided to use different hardware specifically to inconvenience and deincentivise wasting my time on apps and helping me prioritise what matters most to me! Stay tuned for tomorrow's yapping session because I got more of it coming up!
Anyway rant over. TLDR; I could've used the same hardware I usually use for this but I decided to use different hardware specifically to inconvenience and deincentivise wasting my time on apps and helping me prioritise what matters most to me! Stay tuned for tomorrow's yapping session because I got more of it coming up!