Around Christmas-time back in December and during our celebrating the beginning of 2010, I started thinking about the computery, gadgety, techy goodies that I so enjoy, that we didn’t have (or barely had) back at the beginning of year 2000. Since we have so much technology now that we take for granted, I wanted to make a note for posterity. The day will come when we can’t imagine our lives without these benefits, even as our memory fades of how we lived before they came along. Already I know I and my wife wonder how we got along without cell phones, not having the ability to “reach out and touch” anyone anywhere at any time. This has also been our family “decade” for having kids, and so I know for them the personal computer has been a constant all of their young lives. Will some of what I list below be in their oldest and fondest memories of electrical gadgetry?
Here’s my list of the best from the past 10 years:
Digital Video Recorder (DVR): I honestly can’t remember the last time I scheduled myself to watch a show live on TV. To me that would be a horrible waste of time to watch a one or two hour show, and be beholden to the time frame that some producer schmuck decided was best for his ratings for a show to air. To be stuck to watching little 7 or 8 minutes segments of a show around which I have to get something to eat, or get the kids ready for bed, or take a leak. That falls under my definition of retardity! TiVo really kicked off the DVR revolution, but being the cheapskate hacker I am, about five years ago I built my own dvr box out of an old PC with a nice TV adapter card (the only part I bought) running Linux. Such liberation! So many options! So many commercials to be skipped!! I could schedule a show to record while sitting at my desk at work. I could even schedule a whole season of shows to record automatically. The rise of the DVR marked the beginning of the end of broadcast television as we know it.
BitTorrent: While the DVR changed how and when I watched television, my method of acquiring shows has changed just as much. Along with the rise of the DVR is also the mainstream use of bittorrent. Yes, it can be used to download movies, music, and software illegally. I cast no stones. But for TV shows, it gets a bit murky for me. I could set up the DVR to record shows and watch them, skipping the commercials. I also could use BT to download shows to the DVR that have the commercials cropped out. The downloaded shows transfer to my laptop quite easily so that I’m even not attached to the TV itself. Let’s say that I choose what is most expedient.
High Speed Internet: And of course, what good would bitorrent be without fast internet access? Sure, we had high speed 10 years ago, but today it’s about 10 times faster and the price is not much more than it used to be back then. We also have better options, with cable and DSL offered to most homes close to town and satellite for the unfortunate county folks. The US still lags behind some of the Asian countries (Japan is getting 100Mb/s to the home?!?) but at least some of the phone companies like Verizon are stepping up and getting more fiber to the curb. It’s great to see the cable companies and the telcos fighting each other to give consumers more options. And it’s only been in these past few years that the “triple-plays” (internet, phone, television) have been worthy and affordable options.
Smartphones: This would have to be my personal, all-time favorite category from the past decade. In my view, the growth and acceptance of regular cell phones in the past 10 years, and now smartphones in these recent years, is what has really changed people at an integral level. By smartphones I refer to the class of phones that have PIM options, internet access and sometimes wifi, can download new software, and have full QWERTY keyboards (hard or soft). Cell phones are now so integrated into our lives, we think of them like electricity or water service in our homes. We feel naked and vulnerable if we leave home without them. They might cause cancer? We are more than willing to take the risk (besides, the smarties keep proving and disproving that fact… just like the detriments/benefits of coffee!). Most kids down to age five have them now; they’re ubiquitous. The jump from “dumb” phone to smartphone was complete in 2007 when Apple released the first iPhone. Simply said, this phone absolutely dominates the smartphone market at least here in the US and is spreading around the world. I have always been after “One Gadget To Rule Them All” and I think the iPhone fits that almost perfectly (given the level of technology we have today). Sure, there are many people who are content with a normal cell phone that lets them talk to people, and perhaps do a little texting. But the iPhone and Android and Windows Mobile phones give you access to so much more information… all only a few keystrokes away. Any time you need it.
Global Positioning Systems / GPS: Thanks you, tech gods, for giving me a device that means I never again have to ask for directions! =D Surely I jest, but this is a class of devices that is so practical and fun, I can’t imagine not having it. I got a portable Garmin GPS device four or five years ago and I still remember the fascination of taking it on a trip and being able to watch it record a track of every point along the way. It told us how far we’d gone and how far we had to go… and how long it would take to get there. It told me how soon and when to turn (or turn around!). It gave me POI along the way. It could mark exactly the tent site where we camped or the hotel where we stayed. We also quickly got into geocaching which is awesome for family togetherness, and one of our favorite things to do when we travel. It is also pretty cool, after getting back from a trip, to plug in the recorded tracks to Google maps and show exactly where we were. Again, the GPS is such a practical device, it’s hard to imagine not having it. Many vehicles have it built-in now, and the day will come when it is a standard option. Please come quickly…
MP3 players: Lastly, the humble digital music player. The first one I ever had was won at a tech demo from one of our company VARs. 256MB of digital goodness, baby! Of course, at an average of 4MB per MP3 file, it didn’t hold more than a few albums… but still! Music that was infinitely reproducable, would never degrade, which I had copies of on all my computers, and could now carry in my pocket. I could listen to my music at home, at work, on a plane, in the van. Of course the memory sizes and types of MP3 players have skyrocketed in the intervening years (again, Apple raised the bar early on and still dominates to this day), but it’s just so cool to know that all the tunes I want are really only an earbud away. Any time, anywhere.
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All in all, a great decade for tech that makes life more interesting and, well, more fun. Here’s to 2020 and what we’ll take for granted in those future days!