What new-school revelation have you had?

having the guide button on the remote. I remember using the paper or waiting for the tv guide channel to scroll by again

Direct injection seems OK. Texting seems better than email for me.

DVR - My mother still hurries to get home by 8pm to catch her show. To me, a DVR is essential so I can watch shows when I have time. IT revolutionized my TV watching. More and more though, even a DVR can't keep up with the schedule changes. I foresee everything going to on-demand eventually.

iTunes - Thank goodness for no more physical media and dedicated players. Once I downloaded my first song, it was a true revelation.

Thermapen - Now I can't cook meat without it.

Sim racing. I find it amazing that it exists.

GameboyRMH wrote: I'm a real-life cyberpunk dystopia character and it totally sucks.

I want a thread describing how this works and where can I sign up for the tutorial. I want to work for Cosa Nostra Pizza!

Solid-state disks. Just put one in my computer last night, and can't believe I went so long without one.

Xenon headlights. Had them on my last car, sure would like to have them again.

singleslammer wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: I'm a real-life cyberpunk dystopia character and it totally sucks.

I want a thread describing how this works and where can I sign up for the tutorial. I want to work for Cosa Nostra Pizza!

You're already the right age so you're 1/3 of the way there. The other requirements are being highly skilled in something computer-related and working a job that pays peanuts, and then the rest will follow naturally. Wearing fingerless gloves and goggles on your head are optional.

The closest you can get to working for Cosa Nostra Pizza is working as a courier, but instead of letting the customer kill you if you're late, they just fire you and then there's only a slight chance you might eventually die of exposure as a result.

YouTube.

Now this sounds stupid, but I've been using YouTube wrong for years. I never realized until recently that you can subscribe to "channels". I picked up a PS3 last year and now use it primarily to watch streaming video, and I find myself using the YouTube app the most. It is so awesome.

Also, Bluetooth in cars. I can't live without it now. The streaming audio is especially awesome.

Functional, reliable EFI.

DVR's for the rare case that there is something that I want to watch.

I just got a Iphone from a basic smartphone and holy moly has my productivity jumped up.

Big cheap high quality computer monitors.

singleslammer wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: I'm a real-life cyberpunk dystopia character and it totally sucks.

I want a thread describing how this works and where can I sign up for the tutorial. I want to work for Cosa Nostra Pizza!

First, go for drinks at the Chatsubo.

In reply to SilverFleet:

if you like Bluetooth in cars from streaming audio look into a set of quality wireless Bluetooth speakers for at home. You'll start listening to music like it's high school/college all over again.

Leaf Blower.... clears the deck in minutes without having to remove any of the furniture and dries the car.

Dryer vent Linteater... attach it to a cordless drill and shop vac and the dryer vent is clean in about 2 minutes.

I got nothin'! Still tryin' to figure out how to use these newfangled fax machines!

IPOD / MP3 players to replace CD and cassettes in the cars. No more CD cases, skipping or scratched disks.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to SilverFleet: if you like Bluetooth in cars from streaming audio look into a set of quality wireless Bluetooth speakers for at home. You'll start listening to music like it's high school/college all over again.

The nice ones are really cool and sound great. Last year, I bought my wife a Bluetooth Jukebox that she uses all the time. I've had some pairing issues with it with my phone, so I rarely use it.

Speaking of phones...

I have an older Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Android phone that a relative gave me a few years back. Looks like this:

I could never get it to work well as a phone, but recently it dawned upon me that I could use it to run emulators for classic video game systems. Now, I have a portable device with good battery life that can play NES, SNES, Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 games. I never thought this could have been possible 20 years ago when I was playing these games. We live in the future!

I think the internet and it's availability via tablet or smartphone has been the biggest game changer of my lifetime.

Fancy super hi def wall mountable cheap giant TV's are also pretty awesome.

When I was a kid touch screens were super scarce and seemed like the most awesome thing in the world. I take for granted that most technology I use these days utilizes them. I still hate touchscreen keyboards though.

Videogames have come a long way since I first started playing Super Mario Bros. for the NES.

smokeless powder

Speakers that aren't made of paper. Seriously, it's like night and day.

Tom Suddard wrote: Solid-state disks. Just put one in my computer last night, and can't believe I went so long without one.

I used to copy CDs and other media to thumb drives when using my laptop as a media device, because thumb drives need a lot less battery power.

You know what else is awesome? Laptops with built in SD card slots.

Disk brakes are the cats ass.

A beer in the shower..., or wait, is that old school?

Butt connectors with built in heat shrink are my new jam. Specially when I can buy them super cheap at harbor freight.

OBD scanners. When I was a teenager all I drove were carb cars and when I drove my first efi car I was lost when it came to diagnosing problems. Who knew we could buy a tiny box that would let the car tell you what is wrong with it.

In reply to Mitchell:

They read Motor Trend.

calteg wrote: 8 speed transmissions are the realness My 5.0L V8 gets almost identical gas mileage as the wife's 3.5L V6....provided I'm not stuck in traffic.

bah- moar speedz is just a gimmick... the bone stock carbureted 305 backed with a mere 4 speed overdrive trans in my 86 Caprice would average just shy of 30mpg with the cruise set at 80 on the interstate with the AC blowing ice cold and 27 in day to day around town driving. granted, it wasn't as fast as a more modern car, but damn if it wasn't an awesome cruiser..