I remember years ago, shortly after catching glimpses of the internet through a 2400 modem, I managed to sign on with a low tech device. I built a serial cable to interface my HP48 calculator to an external modem, and found a real basic terminal program. I managed to sign on, and post to a newsgroup my success. All while sitting on the cable to prevent it from moving, due to a lack of soder.

I continued to sign on to a few BBSes and do the same thing. I still find it amusing to this day that I even bothered, but it did show a proof of concept to me that small devices might actually be useful down the road for connecting to other people.