A Credit Card What?

I was just clearing out some junk from my cupboard when I chanced upon a bunch of technology relics such as this Xircom “CreditCard Modem”. I’m sure kids a few years down the road are going to find this amusing. What is a modem? Why would you want to use a modem? Notebooks used not to come with modems, so you needed a PCMCIA card like this one. Then, all notebooks started to come with modems built-in. Ah, and then now, modems are disappearing from notebooks again, because no one uses them anymore. My PowerBook G4 had a built-in modem, but now the newer MacBooks don’t.

What do you use a modem for nowdays? The current generation of PC users probably only need to care about Ethernet and Wireless LAN for their network connectivity. Or use USB or Bluetooth to a 3G device for mobile broadband connectivity. Few people use modems nowadays.

Some things have stuck around for a long time. 1.44MB floppy disks for example. There were many attempts to replace it. I think USB thumb drives were quite successful. But still, some behind-the-times offices still have floppy disks around.

One thing that has “moved on” irks me though. Serial ports. Nowadays you’d be hard pressed to find any notebooks with serial ports on them. But I need serial ports for my work. The console access for most network devices (i.e. switches, routers, etc) all tend to be serial ports. But I suppose I’m one of the few people left who need serial ports. I wouldn’t complain so much if USB-to-serial convertors that are Mac-compatible were more easily available.