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Archeological Discoveries: The Year 3050

The Career Coach, Pamela Kleibrink Thompson, offers up some hot career tips for the summer.

ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES: THE YEAR 3050

A page from an archeologist's notebook reveals a scary future...

In the garbage mounds of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, new evidence is being uncovered of a fierce war that raged between different electronic platforms.

A study of the gadgets thrown away during these years tells the sad story of a decadent society bereft of electronic standards. Note the acceleration of abandoned devices as the 20th century draws to a close.

As with all archeology, the dates are plus or minus a few years, so lighten up.

2008 Internal combustion cars Windows culture

Internet culture

2007 Macintosh computers Mac Culture

2006 All film cameras

2005 NTSC standard TV sets

2004 Video Cassette recorders

2003 DVD standard

2002 DIVX standard

2001 Zip drives

2000 Year of the bug; end of DOS culture

1999 3 1/2 inch disk drives Dos Culture

1997 Sega CD

1996 3DO CD format

1995 Apple Newtons

1994 CD-I CD format

1992 5 inch disk drives

1991 Amiga computers Amiga Culture

1989 8 mm film camera

1988 Comodore computers Commodore culture

1985 Beta VCR format

1980s Turntables

Electric typewriters

Slide projectors Analog culture

1970s 8-track tape players

Rotary dial telephones

1960s Vacuum tube stereos and radios

Black & white television sets

Manual typewriters

Slide rules