I only used a slide rule the first two years, so I didn’t get much practice. Interesting thing was, on tests professors often made the actual math really easy; the hard part was remembering what equation to use, what units go where, and figuring out the number of decimals.
We could take in an 8.5" x 11" crib sheet. I wish I still had one or two of those . . .
I have 2 slide rules, one mini and one regular sized. I think they’re beautiful things and I can clearly see how they could be much faster (and not need batteries). But I never really learned to use them. 
Tried on a couple of weekends, but it seems to be the kind of thing that needs routine practice and use like you would get in school, and I was born too late for schools to teach that.
I used to find them in thrift stores occasionally. Typically cost $1-2, and would resell on ebay for significantly more - there’s a thriving collector’s market. I sent classic American-made slide-rules all over the world. I was already roughly familiar with them because my dad has one he used back in the day (regular size) but I was really charmed by some of the miniature pocket-size ones I came across. I wish I had kept one, but at the time I needed the money.
I do think routine use is key to learning how to use it; like you I tried a few times and though I could follow instructions to do some simple calculations (there’s a nice “aha” moment when you realize how it works), none of that got anywhere close to retention and I’d be at square one if I picked one up again now (I think even the “aha” understanding is gone, so there’s that to look forward to at least).
For sure. Four years of engineering and math courses got me pretty good at it, but now…well, I think I could still multiply 2 times 3. 
There’s a small muscle memory component to it, as well as the brain aspect.
When my son graduated as a chemical engineer, I gave him a slide rule I found at a garage sale for $1. Just last week I was in an antique store that had half a dozen or so, unfortunately in a locked case. Prices seemed to be in the $10-$20CDN range.
Famously, the Apollo astronauts carried 5-inch Pickett N600-ES rules as a backup to their flight computer.
I’m proud to say I was never such a colossal nerd as to use one of these to keep my tie from getting caught in the machinery.
I’ve owned 4 manual transmission cars over the years, they all had cruise control. Even the ‘76 Datsun. Not terribly useful on the freeway (because traffic), but great around town to keep me from speeding in known speed-trap areas.
My first car, a Fiat 600 (1960 I think) had cruise control. Well, Italian cruise control, i.e. a cable under the dash that could be pulled out to hold the gas pedal in the desired position. No, I’m not kidding.
In that car, speeding wasn’t really an issue.
With the 280 Z and the RSX, cruise control has saved my butt around town a few times. With both cars, it didn’t/doesn’t feel like your going too fast until you’re going about 80 mph.
Also a great explanation why self-driving cars have to go total or not at all. The guy at the wheel of that Tesla the other day may or may not have been “driving”, but without the autopilot any schmo wouldn’t have just gone into the wall.
I always just rested my foot against the gas.
THAT’S why domestic car gas pedals are always so fucking stiff! Yareekuh!
I have just pre-ordered , a CD. Compact. Disk.
In 2018.
I’m going to have to find an optical drive. (This is a trivial task, but still…I’ll need to rip them once)
(Audiophile Note - I did give vinyl a shot about a decade ago. Too bulky and pretensions for my life style)
If you buy a CD or DVD, then when your device has a meltdown, or the streaming company has one, or decides there’s some copyright issue, you can still watch/listen because you own an actual physical representation of the work. We recycle the jewel boxes, and keep the discs in a binder. I’m a firm believer in having old-school backup, not just the digital kind.
(But then, I’m old school in general.)
I’ve bought like… a dozen or so this year alone? We still listen to cds in the car (although at home I often stream music).
Do not have this “total devo” though, which I may need to pick up.
The original was the beginning of the Enigma Records era. (n.b. - Most critics and people in general do not like the Enigma era albums) I have a soft spot for it though.
Alan had left, David Kendrick was on drums. Heavy Synth, very “pop” feel. Arguably better than its predecessor Shout and the last Enigma studio album Smooth Noodle Maps. The best album from this time frame though is Now It Can Be Told which was the live album for Total Devo tour.
Does anybody else miss MiniDisc?
Laserdisc?
DAT?
My minidisc player still works.
Minidisc - I thought it was great tech but never owned one.
Laserdisc - my main group of friends bought 3 or 4 laserdisc players and all of the “cool” laserdisc movies from the rental place when it went under.
But, honestly after watching Highlander and a couple of other shows, I’m not sure what ever became of all of the stuff.
DAT - not even enough of an impact to feign nostalgia.
I had a MiniDisc player and a dozen or so blanks that I copied CDs onto. Some of the first stuff I bought online, since there wasn’t anywhere local I could get it. In some ways I miss physical media. It encouraged album listening, rather than streaming stuff at random.
I never had, or even saw a DAT in person. I know some musicians were using them to record on, before it was practical to record to hard disk, but I couldn’t afford it at the time. I vaguely remember an X-Files episode with “the digital tape” though. Nobody ever just called it “the tape.”
I really liked DAT, but it definitely seemed like a niche technology, at least in the consumer product space.
See also: Olds go nostalgic for the good old days of tech
I’ve no experience with minidisk or laserdisc, though.
I have a four-track MiniDisc recorder. Still works great, AFAIK, but it needed the MiniDisc Data format, which was always harder to find, in order to record on more than 2 tracks. I soon got an 8 track recorder that records on a hard drive, so gave up on the 4 track.
I had my brother’s old Laserdisc player, and a few dozen of his Laserdisc movie collection, until I moved a couple years ago. I always liked the format, especially when fast-forwarding or rewinding, which always felt more intuitive and predictable and tapelike than it ever did on DVD or Blu-ray. But I can’t stand to watch bad standard-def transfers anymore, so I put the deck and most of the discs on the curb and they were gone within the hour. I kept the most collectible ones, like the boxed set of The Day the Earth Stood Still autographed by the late Robert Wise.
I still have a DAT deck too, somewhere, but I doubt I have any media for it.
You’d love techmoan’s channel on YouTube.
