Today’s TTT is one part philosophical, two parts fun. Technology has advanced so quickly in my lifetime – exponentially during my parents’ and grandparents’ lifetimes – and the pace of innovation continues at the speed of light. Technology allowed us to focus on more than just hunting and growing our food, helped us transport our goods and ourselves more quickly, and automated many of the formerly cumbersome tasks of daily life and business.

In a family of early adopters, I remember being one of the few kids in college to have an early edition Apple laptop. The thing was heavy, ugly, and was only good for word processing and playing slow-moving grayscale games. Yet, the happy little chime it played upon booting up became a symbol of freedom from cursive longhand and typewriter tape. That sound represented progress, and the possibility of an “A.” And now that sound is obsolete.

If that brings a little tear to your eye, then you might enjoy checking out the Museum of Endangered Sounds. It’s an auditory trip down memory lane lovingly compiled by geekster audiophile Brendan Chilcutt and includes sounds like my old faithful Mac start-up, a dot matrix printer, a pay phone error message, and the sound of a VHS tape being loaded into a VCR. What’s that? What’s a VCR? Kids, go ask your parents and head on over to the online museum!