Not so useful tools...

[teyrnon]

I was going through the pockets on my travel pack and found an old WiFi signal detector. It just had some lights to indicate signal strength. I recall using it to figure out how far into the yard the wireless network extended. That worked back when there were much fewer wireless networks in the yard but nowadays with a wireless router in every house near me knowing the signal strength isn't helpful without knowing which network it's picking up.

Nowadays a cheap low end Android tablet or even an iPod Touch would probably work better as a handheld device to determine the reach of a particular wireless network.

So, what kind of tools have you had over the years that were useful at one time but aren't so useful now?