Any way, the email was titled "end of an era" and had this picture attached.
Those are a pair of Shiva LanRover/8Es he had just retired from service. The LanRover was an early dialup remote access box, forerunner of the modern VPN. The /8E designation indicates a LANrover with 8 serial ports and Ethernet (vs. Token Ring).
I installed those LANrovers. In 1993. Do the math.
I have been doing this for a long, long time.