What a Toaster Teaches Us About Tech Innovations
Old-school techno-boffins often rail at newer “innovations,” sometimes with good reason. System updates brick older devices. When a popular software program is rewritten extensively, mystified and confused users shake their skinny wrists to the heavens in anguish.
This mindset goes beyond the “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” maxim. Sometimes the latest version of anything is far from the greatest, as users of Windows Vista, an operating system released by Microsoft for consumers in 2007, can attest.
Staying on top of the ever-changing technoscape can be maddening as OSs and apps/software morph and cycle through editions. Patch this, don't patch that...enough to make support personnel despair or long for the simplicity of an earlier machine.
Go retro
Despite our up-to-the-minute shiny toys, many computing chores are still executed on machines at the level of a Commodore 64. “Retro is the new modern” touts My Retro Computer, whose website features a bulky keyboard with clackety-clack keys.
The box harks back to the beloved C64, which debuted in 1982. The machine entranced many a geek ― Wikipedia says that in 2011, 17 years after it was taken off the market, “research showed that brand recognition for the model was still at 87%.”
Florida-based company Commodore USA attempted to leverage that brand equity. In 2011, the firm released its flagship product: the Commodore 64x. According to Wikipedia, the "C64x Extreme" featured an Intel Core i7 CPU with 8GB RAM and a 3TB hard drive using the Intel Sandy Bridge chipset.
Commodore USA failed to re-ignite sales of the boxy rig, but growing interest in home-builds sparked by the U.K.'s Raspberry Pi drives a retro trend. Users nostalgic for pixelated videogames can build a Raspberry Pi box to run Retropie ― software that can emulate the 64 and golden oldies like Atari, Apple II, various gaming setups, or Radio Shack's TRS-80.
With any tech/security decision, there's a trade-off between convenience and security
Proponents of retro computing say the older operating systems are primarily virus-free compared to their contemporaries, but security-through-obscurity is never a good practice. Security researcher Graham Cluley, writing for the Naked Security blog in 2011, lauded Commodore USA's relaunch with a review of the retro box.
“Although viruses were largely a PC and Mac issue in the latter half of the 1980s, there was also malware written for other types of computers,” wrote Cluley. “For instance, the C64/BHP-A virus appeared in 1986. It wasn’t just a virus capable of infecting files on Commodore 64s; it was also fully stealth ― effectively exploiting the Commodore 64’s memory structure to 'act invisible'.”
As many virus-writers piggyback on the code of existing viruses, security experts must be conversant in older viruses. The BHP virus is chronicled on the Wiki dedicated to the C64, revealing that the 1986 virus clocked in at 2030 bytes.
But a better example of technical excellence in design pre-dates semiconductor technology.
The perfect toaster
Is it possible that some designs are so intrinsically superior they can't be topped? Fans of a 1940s-era toaster think so.
In an essay titled “Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today,” Sean Hollister of the Verge details an electric machine that makes full use of the “smart technology” available in the 1940s. ”in 1948, Sunbeam engineer Ludvik J Koci invented the perfect toaster,” he writes. “No button, no lever, no other input required. Drop bread, get toast.”
Collector Craig Rairdin explains why the Classic Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster now commands high prices on eBay: “From the late 1940s to 1997, the upscale toaster market was dominated by this classic from Sunbeam. Its sophisticated lines, art deco styling, and consistent toasting quality made it a pleasure both to the eyes and the palate,” writes Rairdin, adding that many “have dumped their [USD]$9.99 plastic Walmart disposable wedding-gift toasters and have come back home to a warm, shiny friend.”
Technical excellence in design pre-dates semiconductor technology
Hollister details the requisite tech: “The heat radiating from the bread itself warms up a bimetal strip (one of the simplest kinds of thermostats) which, being made of two different kinds of metal that expand at different rates, ends up bending backward to sever the connection and stop the flow of electricity when the toast is done. And here’s the most ingenious part: when the heating wire shrinks as it cools down, that is what triggers the mechanical chain reaction that lifts your bread back up.”
The tech is also future-proof, writes Hollister: “That mechanism doesn’t just wear out after nearly three-quarters of a century of use: there’s a single screw underneath the crumb tray to adjust the tension of the wire, and it alone is enough to bring many aging toasters back to life.” In a time when tech headlines concern right-to-repair legislation, this is notable.
Smart design
Toast may not seem a critical tech function, but modern designers sometimes need a concrete analogy to detach their heads from the clouds. Do we really need touchscreen controls in, for example, an automobile? Or are physical buttons that can be located by touch, thus not requiring a driver to take their eyes off the road, a better design principle?
Years ago, the IoT was a popular concept, as manufacturers introduced products operated via Internet control. Nowadays, the IoT has devolved into a standards fight between Amazon, Google, and Apple et al. for supremacy on their competing systems.
Some users enjoy using voice control to turn on their house lights, etc. But as with any tech/security decision, there's typically a trade-off between convenience and security. It's more convenient to yell rather than flicking a switch, but when the voice controller requires an ecosystem connected to a consumer tech monolith for the privilege, perhaps we can live with the switch.
In the case of toast, a bimetal strip with an adjusting screw.
Stefan Hammond is a contributing editor to CDOTrends. Best practices, the IoT, payment gateways, robotics, and the ongoing battle against cyberpirates pique his interest. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/lucadp
