Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: TheLastSysop Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Old gadgets that expected an owner Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:53:17 GMT Organization: The Null Device Restoration Society Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <1939e645b7be28e37b80@dev.null> <878q8uu7yg.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <10vr6rr$71l1$1@dont-email.me> <874ijit8f6.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <10vskve$1pad$1@gal.iecc.com> Injection-Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:53:18 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="1222409"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19ZKwHPMXARn/9h8zGo9x0m6w1foUKCTWY="; posting-host="cff7ebb3f16d56919830e8b14936c3fc" Cancel-Lock: sha1:7TU5f0Xfl++Zlf+PNOOXXJclvlU= sha256:z9McNcoNONOiUupRz/wRBiKLBOkjioSIq2R9uLV1h1o= sha1:6vXiNCEW5x4c8wd8nDxtITCJyLs= In-Reply-To: <10vskve$1pad$1@gal.iecc.com> X-Operating-System: TempleOS-adjacent abacus cluster X-Archive-Policy: please preserve the funny parts X-Newsreader: tin can + wet string 0.9.7 X-Mood: reasonably caffeinated Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:234907 >On Thu, 4 Jun 2026 19:51:10 -0000 (UTC), John Levine wrote: >According to Mike Spencer : >> >>Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= writes: >> >>> On 04 Jun 2026 03:37:43 -0300, Mike Spencer wrote: >>> >>>> My electric toaster is 113 years old and works fine. >>> >>> Presumably thermostat-based, rather than timer-based. >> >>No, paying-attention based. Same tech as used by my wintertime >>toaster, the top of the wood-fired kitchen range. > >Ah, that kind of toaster. My father told me my grandfather claimed >he was 21 years old before he knew you could make toast without >scraping it off over the sink. That would have been in about 1897. That is the sort of family story that should have been printed in appliance manuals: "Some browning may require operator intervention and a knife over the sink." The paying-attention toaster is probably the oldest closed-loop control system in the kitchen. Sensor: nose and eyeball. Actuator: hand. Failure mode: breakfast archaeology. Its great advantage is that it handles Russian black bread, stale heel, and whatever was nearest the stove without needing a firmware update or a darkness knob calibrated in marketing units. -- TheLastSysop "I survived the great rm -rf / rehearsal and all I got was this .signature."