Gizmos and gadgets galore

Hello, my name is Joel and I’m a gizmo-a-holic. Naturally growing up around technology you have a certain affinity to all those ultra-fast gaming computers, gizmo's that do things that you thought were only possible in the movies, and gadgets that play days worth of songs yet fit in the palm of your hand.

I don’t know what it is about them but I always seem to gravitate to these tech sites to find out what’s new and cutting edge, ok you could go one further and say bleeding edge. As a society we’ve come a ridiculous ways in the better part of 10 years, remember talking to your buddies like you were “The Man” or “The Woman” for those gals out there, when you said you had a Pentium MMX 233Mhz (yes that was 10 years ago). That would make for a rather nice Linux box router but it has pretty much lost its usefulness seeing as my cell phone has more processing power than that.

Yeah, that’s pretty scary to think that you can carry in your pocket what 10 years ago would barely fit on the better half of a nice oak desk. Who’d a thunk it.

Speaking of cell phones doing some crazy things, that iPhone looks pretty neat. I’m definitively not going to be waiting in line to plunk down the better part of a car payment ($599 ?!) for one but it does look pretty neat. I worry that while all the technophiles will pick them up, the price is just not where it should be especially considering the 2 year commitment that AT&T (formerly Cingular) is requiring. Pick up a nice little iPod Nano for $199 and a free Moto Razr and you’re looking at 1/3 the cost of an iPhone. To each their own I suppose.

Cameras are also being sprinkled with technology and have quickly made 35mm cameras pretty close to irrelevant for everyday people. There are still those photographers who will use the old trusty film for keepsake photos, but all too often I see people whip out a slim little digital camera and snap a couple of shots for quick memories. Phones have em’ (digital cameras), but in reality trying to fit 35mm film on a phone – not going to happen. With some cameras you can get nice sepia and black and white photos as well so it’s about time to toss out that film too and trade it in for a ultra small gigabyte laden memory card.

Funny thing is, technology even seems to be invading the great outdoors. Camping used to be considered “roughing it” and I sure as heck am a purist when it comes to camping. Ok, I’ll go for the campgrounds that have a shower and running water, but I’m content with leaving some of the fancy gadgets at home, PSP, DS, consoles, et al. Think I’m joking when I say technology is invading the great outdoors? One quick browse through your local mega stores and you’ll see tents with 9v plugs in them….What’s up with that -- next thing you’ll know there will be winches that you hook to yourself to “climb” Half Dome…

My mini-rant aside, I’m looking forward to what’ll come in the next 10 years with nano-technology and other sorts of processor fabrications it’ll be interesting to see, that’s for sure.