Columnists

Geek Speak… Constant Change

Issue 14.17

We live in a time of constant change and the adoption of new technologies even as old ones fade away. The rate of change is accelerating. I guess I am old, but the new technologies that I saw growing up seemed new and exciting. 8 Track tapes were cool because you could actually take the music you wanted in your car and didn’t have to listen to the radio station playlist. Then came cassette players which took over and the 8 track gradually disappeared. Now we play CDs and DVDs in our cars – even including movies.

When VCRs came on the market they were for rich people. The Sony Betamax could easily cost $1000 when it was first available. The price quickly dropped, then VHS was introduced and either could be purchased for $300-$400. Movie studios started releasing movies in the new formats and people could actually watch movies in their own home for a price. When Star Wars was released on VHS, the wholesale cost was $125. I have watched as those technologies have been replaced by CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and now the 4k and 3d enhancements. The rate of change has increased and older technologies fade away, sometimes suddenly. You can now buy multiple movies on one DVD for under $10 as long as they are not the new and popular ones.

Computers such as the IBM Personal Computer (PC) came out in the 1980s and were around $4000 for a basic unit that displayed orange or green text on a black screen. Innovators like Apple, Texas Instruments, Radio Shack, Atari and Commodore created smaller, lighter and much cheaper computers that introduced color screens, graphics, sound, music, Midi, and many other features for a much lower cost which forced PC makers to follow suit. Today we have computers on the market for well under $500 that are thousands of times more powerful, faster and hold massive amounts of data, pictures, videos, music and anything else you can imagine.

The introduction of laptop or notebook computers made all this technology portable and the linking of laptops to large screen tvs or projection systems has made the information and sharing of it easily available to large groups. The sharing of information through the internet has created probably the biggest societal change in history in an extremely short time period.

In the last few years a new change has been created that is altering everything again. So far it has not done away with normal computers and laptops, but it has changed how we use them and moved much of our activity away from them. This change has been created by “smart” phones and tablets – many of which have the elements of both phones and computers.

The phones of today are more powerful computers than you could get in a large and expensive desktop a few years ago and they fit in the palm of your hand. They are seemingly extremely expensive but we pay for them as they feel like a necessity. If you had told me ten years ago that I would pay $600 for a phone that I would likely throw away in two years I would have thought you crazy. Tablets are becoming as powerful as laptops and have most of the same capabilities and some include things I can’t get on my laptop. Change will continue. Be sure you stay tuned – and always make sure you remember to protect your data, documents, pictures and your computer, phone and tablet by always backing up anything important.

Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 34 years, 27 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently works as a computer consultant. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or shaun@musicomp.net.

 

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