The introduction of Apple’s Macintosh computer just 33 years ago kick-started the personal computer era. It also presaged the end of the then-ubiquitous floppy disk. True, the Mac used what they called a floppy disk—a tiny 3.5-inch diameter 400-kilobyte affair compared with then standard 5-inch and 8-inch floppies—but its revolutionary hard plastic casing didn’t actually flop. For the next 14 years, these 3.5-inch non-floppy floppy disks were standard equipment for storage…until Apple launched its see-thru iMac G3 in 1998. Goodbye floppies, goodbye SCSI, Geoport and ADB serial ports, welcome to the new world of USB.

The lifetime of the floppy is a mere blip, however, compared to the venerable phone jack. Invented in 1878 for telephone switchboards and memorialized for all time by Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine: “One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy…” The old round switchboard jack—optimized for quickly inserting into a socket without orientating it up or down—was somewhat replace 52 years ago with the common 3.5 mm. headphone jack (although the old 1/4 inch diameter ones still connect microphone and guitars with their amps). Apple, however, are now obsolescence-bound again, doing away with the ubiquitous headphone jack; it’s notable for its absence in the iPhone 7.

As if it isn’t enough to be nagged at until I download the Newest and Improvedest version of iOS/ Windows/ Word/ Yahoo/ Acrobat/ Photoshop…sigh.

It all reminds me of a talk I heard a few years ago. I could barely believe it: a friend — worldly-wise and tech-savvy — was dissing WD-40. “They came up with the formula fifty years ago, and haven’t changed it since. That’s no way to run a business! You have to constantly improve and reformulate your product if your company’s going to grow. Otherwise you’ll lose out to mean, lean, hungry competitors,” he insisted.

Well, I dunno. This is a company with annual sales of nearly $400 million a year, in 160 countries around the world. Their flagship product, WD-40, has been unchanged since a guy by the name of Normal Larsen invented it in 1953 as “Water Displacement, formula #40.” Is there anyone, anywhere, who isn’t familiar with the stuff? Would the world still turn without it? Seems to me the company takes the “If it ain’t broke…” saying to heart. This site lists over 2,000 uses for the magic spray.

Apple aside, look what happens when companies do try to improve and innovate on an already successful product. Remember New Coke? What a bust that was. (I remember Old Coke, that is, Coke in glass bottles—don’t tell me aluminum cans or plastic bottles don’t change the taste. I’m still trying to recapture the first time I encountered Coca Cola — outside Birmingham, England, at a Boy Scout jamboree. Coke was a sponsor, I suppose, since there were little booths with free bottles everywhere, as the company hooked us post-war Brits onto the irresistible lure of dark brown sugar water. That’s what Coke is, the Real Thing, none of this new-fangled aluminum- or plastic-enclosed stuff.

Meanwhile, in Mexico… (Barry Evans)

Next they’ll be messing with sacred duct/duck tape. Somewhere in Peoria, there’s a marketing genius trying to convince his partners that two-inch wide is so last century. “All we have to do is make it half an inch thinner and we’ll corner the market!”

Not this guy’s market; you’ll have to pry it from my cold, sticky hands. 

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Barry Evans gave the best years of his life to civil engineering, and what thanks did he get? In his dotage, he travels, kayaks, meditates and writes for the Journal and the Humboldt Historian. He sucks at 8 Ball. Buy his Field Notes anthologies at any local bookstore. Please.