40 years of gadgets come out to play

Technology, even equipment that's long outdated and shunted aside, can still strike an emotional chord.
Just ask Kimon Keramidas, curator of "The Interface Experience," an exhibit that rounds up tech milestones from 40 years of personal computing for visitors to see and touch. He said almost everyone has a favorite item they make a beeline to and greet like an old friend.
"It's either 'Oh my God, it was so great!' or 'Oh my God, that was so hard to use,'" Keramidas said. "It's an emotional thing. People are connecting at more than just an intellectual level."
The show, which opens Friday at the Focus Gallery of the Bard Graduate Center in New York City, offers visitors a trip through history with what is essentially a gadgety greatest hits. On display are more than 25 different devices, as well as a wall of more than a hundred mobile phones (what Keramidas calls his cell phone "petting zoo") -- all of which can be touched and, in some cases, played with.