February 13, 2007
Toshiba Tecra 530CDT RIP
It's amazing how attached we get to lifeless chunks of technology, and how hard it can be to part with them. My Toshiba Tecra 530CDT notebook computer was a recent addition to the scrapheap. I tore it apart a couple of weeks ago -- it hurt, but I wanted to make sure nothing could be recovered from it, should someone try to scavenge data from it.
I bought it back in 1998, when I learned my Dad had prostate cancer and I quit my job in Tokyo and flew to Saskatchewan to see him. Even then it was a discontinued model that I got at a deep discount, but it kept me in touch with my wife while I was away, and it helped start the business I am still running today, when we moved to Canada in January 1999.
The Tecra sat for years on my desk, though I used it less and less, and replaced it with an IBM T42 about a year and half ago. With a 166MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, a 2GB hard drive, and Windows 98b the Tecra had become a door stop long ago. It was a solid machine, though, and I miss its presence in a strange way. A lot of good, and bad, times flew from my fingers into its keyboard, to wife, relatives, friends, and clients.
