End of Year Thoughts

by Bob Seidel

I sit here feeling fairly mellow; it is early in the morning. I suffer from retiree insomnia - after all those years of getting up early to get to work, I can't seem to shake the habit. But life is good. My consulting business is doing extremely well - I especially enjoy the nice people I have met and the appreciation they have for my work.

While in bed last night, my thoughts drifted to thinking about how much the world has changed in the 55 years I have been around, or how much it actually hasn't changed despite all the hype in the technology industries. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Take cars, for instance. Today's cars are quite nice, run well and have all kinds of nifty features. But back in the 50's (I was born in the 40's but don't remember much of that) we had cars too. They had four wheels, a steering wheel, automatic transmissions, radios with pushbuttons, etc. Without looking "under the hood" (pun intended), you can't really tell a late 50's car from today's. And I wish I had bought some of those cars and put 'em in storage - what I wouldn't give for an original Thunderbird. And if you look at some of the 60's cars, today's cars don't hold a candle to them in terms of size and roominess - and I remember my Olds 88 with the 425 engine - did it zoom!

How about telephones and communications? We still have a piece of plastic mounted on the wall, just like we did in the 50's. The sound quality is better and long distance is cheaper, but it's essentially the same system. What's new, of course, is the wireless phone. Now, what is interesting is that we have not shifted to an all-cellular system. Why still have a piece of plastic on the wall? If somebody wants to call YOU, they want to call you, not your piece of wall-mounted electronics. But I see this continuing - the wall phone will be around for a long time.

Home electronics? Well, back in those days we had TV, and soon color TV was prevalent. Oh, the quality was much worse, but again pretty much the same system. And we still use the same 525-line NTSC system - why hasn't HDTV taken hold? Come on, its been 50 years! And today's shows are mostly mindless violence and dumb sitcoms - hardly an advance.

Despite the "worlds-fair" type hype, home automation has never appeared at all. I have a little in my home, but very few people do. We still turn on the lights with switches on the wall and turn our appliances on and off manually. This is an area where the technology actually exists, but we just don't use (or want to use) it. Why can't we just say to the dishwasher "Please start the dishes at ten o'clock"?

Stereo systems are fancier today, with multi-speaker systems and subwoofers. But I remember a high-end stereo system we had in my college apartment, with lots of power and two huge, sand-filled Wharfdale speakers - the sound was pretty awesome!

Magazines? Again, about the same. Still there and still colorful, but smaller. I remember when Life magazine arriving was the high spot of the week, entertainment-wise.

And, quite frankly, people haven't changed much either. Oh, I think we are healthier, more highly educated, world aware, and politically correct, but some of the same old prejudices still manifest themselves. Some of the religious themed letters to the editor that I have seen recently scare me quite a bit.

So, what has changed? Well, PCs, the Internet and e-mail of course. The availability and flow of information was something only dreamed of back in those days, if dreamed of at all. We are now united into (dare I say it) a global village. But when these changes actually manifest themselves in a better, more tolerant mankind, please let me know.

Anyhow, off to make the morning coffee. I extend my best wishes to all of you for a great holiday season and a healthy and happy new year.

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).