Memories are made of these

Objects and Memories.

I think in pictures. I do. Sometimes I wonder if other people do too. Seeing things brings back memories by the tonne. Have, hold, heft, see, rotate, remember - whether that be Cold War aero-models or spurious pieces of engineering. Detail. Always. Then, and now.

On doing some work in long-term storage today, some colleagues returned with an item for me. "I saw this and thought of you" kind of thing.

Completely ready for something distinctly mocking and derogatory - I was relieved to find they approached with something small enough to fit inside a hand. As they walked towards my desk, I could see it was some connector or Gender Bender. Oh, how many times I have played the "My Kingdom for a gender bender" in the past. Hell, these days it is not a phrase or object you would safely mention in conversation without a need for an explanation. We are in a world free of knowing your EPP, ECP, Null Modem, and LapLink cables apart. They are not even in the technical lexicon).

Whatever it was they were pleased with themselves.

They presented me with this:

Okay - so this is nine-pin serial - nothing special there. Other than they are so rarely used for anything these days. I would wager you would be hard-pressed to find anyone under 30 outside of networks that know very much at all about minicom, let alone what 8600-8-n-1.

So - sure - female serial cable - fair play.

*flips it over*

OH, MY GOODNESS - it is a mouse converter.

Before optical mice, there were mice with balls.

Before USB nice - there were PS/2 mice

*named after the exquisite IBM PS/2 - all hail the PS/2!

Before PS/2 mice - there was serial.

How had I forgotten this?

A moment of permitted retrospection - the two knurled screws or screwdriver heads either side of the serial socket.

Things - well they have moved on.

But don't forget where we came from... things make more sense if you keep that in focus.