You wouldn't be wrong. I am the IT dictator. I get my way about 99% of the time.

Hmmm.... All the different versions of Microsoft Office out there, law firms still using some version of Word Perfect, Open Office, iWork, Google Docs, etc.

Anyone who's taught concepts rather than the specifics of one particular version of Microsoft various products should have no problems using any GUI based software written in the last 25 years.

I am the IT director of a school in the US. I can see first hand that the only thing the "educators" are interested in is training students to use application software. Not only that, it must be the absolute latest version of a certain company's office package. It's so the students will get "real world" training. WTF?

While it indeed is important for students to learn to use these tools, by the time some of these students make it into the workforce, the software that students are trained on (and cost so much money to 'license') is 'obsolete.'

What happened to the concept of teaching concepts? How to produce a document using a word processor and not Microsoft Word 2007? I learned word processing with AppleWorks on an Apple //e. I can churn out a basic document in minutes with any word processor I use. How many kids 'trained' in the exclusive world of Microsoft software will ever be able to do this? I'm very lucky. The administration in the school I work at is not like this. The administration mostly use Windows machines, but the students and teachers all use a mix of Linux thin clients (LTSP!) and Macs. The office package we use is Open Office.

I have lots of old Apple II floppies (both 143K 5.25" and 800K 3.5") from the early - mid 80s. The vast majority of them still work even though I've done nothing to properly store them.

I think the reason older floppies like mine still work while nearly new ones have tons of defects is due to both the media being better manufactured and the much lower storage density.

I just installed it on my rooted, custom ROMmed and overclocked Motorola Droid.... and it worked! I played with it for about 10 minutes. It didn't crash my phone, reboot my phone or damage my phone in any way.

It's absolutely alpha quality software at this point, so don't expect much from it. But it has lots of potential and I'm absolutely confident this will turn into a great browser on Android.

I have a small garage in my house that I converted to a man/tech/beer/doctor who cave. No, I don't live with my parents.

It contains (mostly on wire rack shelving):

My Linux machine and iBook.

And old iMac I just picked up. Works.

5 Apple //e computers, an Apple II+, two Apple IIgs machines, three monitors for the machines, an assortment of floppy drives, craploads of floppies, and boxes of parts including cables, various cards, manuals, etc. Most of the hardware is from eBay, some is mine from the 80s. It mostly all works.

A working Commodore 64.

An Atari 2600.

A collection of computer magazines I had in the 80s & 90s.

A collection of my 80s & 90s computer books & manuals. Some I picked up off eBay as well.

A Vector Graphic Vector-1 computer system with manuals a friend's dad built in the late 70s. Doesn't work, but I can't part with it.

Two Magnavox Odyssey2 game systems. One is mine from 1978 and the second from eBay. Both work.

10 old rotary and touch tone phones. 8 work, four are hooked up and working. There's a few more scattered about the house which my wife tolerates.

Plastic crates full of old IBM Model M and other keyboards, assorted cables.

A real IBM AT system board that works.

Beer related stuff.

Doctor Who related stuff. And Star Trek & Star Wars...

What's left of my LP collection and a bunch of CDs.

Over the couple of years few years, I have given away or tossed the following due to needing room because of kids:

2 Mac SE machines. Regret this.

A Lisa 2 that I tossed. Still have the keyboard and a few parts. The electronics were extremely corroded.

Some old desktop 486 boxes.

Two SGI machines. I got rid of a bunch of Sun machines before I moved to this house.

A few hundred LPs that I gave to a collector friend who has about 10,000 LPs.

I think I need help...

I'll keep my land line at my house active as long as possible.

I have three small kids and I need something absolutely reliable in case of an emergency.

While I do absolutely love modern mobile tech (Droid!), I prefer using a land line while at home. I simply don't enjoy having long conversations on a mobile phone. The newest phone at my house is a Nortel Meridian M9616CW which was (for me) the ultimate geek phone in the mid 90s. They seem to fetch a good price:

http://www.telephonegenie.com/customer/product.php?productid=16149

The rest are all Western Electric, Automatic Electric and ITT phones from the early 40s - 70s that I've collected and repaired. They all work perfectly (even rotary dialing) on the Cox Digital phone service.

As the article mentioned, POTS is preferable in disaster areas. I live in an area of New Orleans that didn't flood in Katrina. The only way I was able to contact people in my neighborhood who stayed for the storm was on their land lines.

In the area of New Orleans where I live (and didn't flood), the only way for people to communicate with the outside world was with land lines and old phones which are powered completely off the line (no wall warts).

Much of the cellular system didn't work. The remaining working systems were nearly impossible to use.

I hate using cell phones for more than a few minutes and always use a land line for long conversations. I also need to keep the land line for our alarm systems.

I was amazed to discover that my collection of 40s - 70s rotary dial phones dial perfectly on the Cox Digital phone system.

As someone else mentioned, how about a Commodore 64, Apple II or Atari 400/800 with a floppy drive?

You can get these machines very cheap on Ebay or free if you look around. They're extremely durable and easy to fix. Best of all, they're easy to understand. You insert a disc, apply power and the desired software runs. No complicated OS gets in the way. Gobs of quality edutainment software available.

I've got a stack of Apple //e's ready for my kids when they're older.