Electronics: May 2008 Archives

I remember as a kid when my grandparents would come over to our house. I would be playing with some sort of technology gadget. My grandfather would sit down and begin questioning me on what the device was and what its capabilities were. I would explain the details as best as I understood them and we would talk about the various uses would be for the device. This inevitably would lead to my grandfather uttering a sentence that began with, "Back in my day..." followed by a dissertation of what society and more importantly technology was like when he was my age. I remember snickering whenever he started thinking there is absolutely no way I am ever going to do that. First off I never thought nor do I still think that the "good old days" were all that good. I am a technologist and an avid collector of gadgets. I am an early adopter and hence get involved with the technology before it is quite ready for primetime. Sometimes this is good and other times it can be quite expensive.

"Would you mind stopping at the store on your way to work and picking something up for me?" Never has one sentence contained such a veiled attempt. It seemed like a fairly innocent request. After all, Trina does so much for me how could I possibly decline when she asks me to do something? I have no answer to that last question but after today I can tell you that I do plan to do some research to find an appropriate way to say no if she ever asks me to stop at a store again. Before getting this request it was a pretty run-of-the-mill Wednesday. The week would soon be half over and with everything we have going on today appeared to be the calm before the storm. I just didn't realize how close the storm was.

"There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true." Never have the words of Winston Churchill rung more true. For the past 11 months I have been trying to come up with a good justification for replacing my cell phone. I have a Motorola Razr that I have had since they first came on the market. My service provider is Verizon and despite what that squirrelly guy on the commercial thinks, I really can't hear him. For as long as I can remember I have had poor cellular service especially at our house. It is not as though I live on a remote mountain somewhere in Tibet. I am pretty much in the middle of a city of over 100,000 and yet from a cell tower perspective I may as well be on the planet Neptune. Neptune is still a planet isn't it? Ever since the whole Pluto fiasco I just don't know any more.