This morning on the way to the bus I wanted to check something on the ‘net. I reached into my pocket at pulled out a USB Sprint Networking device for my laptop.
The device sits in the palm of my hand. It’s about 2 inches long and maybe 1/2 inch for the other two dimensions.
I pulled it out and stared at it.
I thought about the first typewriter I ever touched in my father’s office. It was one of the new electric typewriters with a metal ball that would pop up and rotate to the position that the key imprint was on.
I thought about my father’s answering machine. An industrial looking, metal box a little larger than a tivo with one of those tiny, red, press buttons on it. One of those buttons that left a divot in your finger because you had to hold it in to record a message. This was the only thing visible on the box.
Then I thought about my first computer and how I would use a 300 baud modem to call a BBS to exchange text information. The only graphics back then were ascii. For the record, Standard DSL is 1.5 Mbps, about 5 times as much data. Ethernet talks about Gigabit and 10 gigabit. which is 1000 and 10000 times as much as DSL.
I reflected for a moment on how unbelievable the technology was in the palm of my hand.
As a kid, all I really could do was talk about my favourite TV show. (At the time in the late 70’s it was an old show called “Doctor Who”). Some people would write their own fiction based on the TV Shows. (I remember beta reading some stories by a woman I used to chat with named Diane Duane)
As I talked about this nostalgic memory with shimmeringjemmy she looked at me and said, “And now you can do it all again. See how far technology has come :)”
Kind of puts it all in perspective
