Blogpods

As I am composing this , half of my web browser shows the usual web page panel, and the other half has a window that plays, using the USB TV tuner, a little television. This saves me from craning my neck to look at my real television when I hear something that I want to see. This is one example of how electronic (including computerized gadgets) have changed soooo much, even in the last ten years.

I understand that I have more of these things then the average person ( what - you don't ALL have a TV tuner card??), but I would bet that all of you have a number of the same devices that have changed the way we do certain things. I will set this up comparing 1975, 1995 and 2005.

Movies

1975 You had to go to a theatre, or hope it was played on a local tv station (cut to shreds).
1995 You could go to a theatre, or rent or purchase the VHS tape. If you had 2 VCRs you could rent a tape and copy it. You could subscribe to pay-tv and watch/record it.
2005 All of the above, plus download it from the internet (not really legal) or rent/buy the DVD
(which you can illegally copy at home with a DVD burner).

Television Shows

1975 Pre-cable: You had 5 or 6 channels to choose from and you had to watch the broadcast or wait for the re-run.
1995 The above, or tape it on VHS and watch it later.
2005 All of the above plus many options including a DVD or a TV tuner box attached to your computer, or download the show off of the internet. For the digital options you can watch it on your PC as well as your TV.

Home Music/ Sound (pre-recorded)

1975 You went to the store and bought the vinyl or 8-track or casette. You could record your friend's record but there was a definite quality loss.
1995 mostly the same except CDs had replaced records. CD burners were new, so you could copy a CD with no quality loss at all, but this was expensive and nobody yet had it.
2005 The above for a "hard copy". If you can live with MP3 (I can't tell any quality difference) you can play it on your computer, stereo or hook the TV and the stereo together. One DVD can hold about 30 albums worth of MP3 on a single disk. A hard drive can store hundreds of albums. You can hook-up your portable MP3 player to your computer or your stereo...well, you get the point. I didn't even deal with "DAT".

Portable Sound (pre-recorded)(not including cars or boats)

1975 nada; squat; bupkes. You brought your guitar with you to the park.
1995 Casette players and CD players that skipped every 4 seconds.
2005 CD and casette players, MP3 players, portable DVD players.

Portable, personal Phone

1975 What????? What do you mean?? Your words: they say nothing. Banacek, on TV, had a phone in his car but he was f^&*'n rich.
1995 Analog cellphone - very big sized phone. expensive.
2005 Digital cellphones that take pictures, play MP3s, use GPS, surf the web and, oh yeah, make phone calls with airtime that is not very expensive. In Japan you can pay for parking with your cellphone.

Portable Radio

1975 small and not good sound, or large and took 8 "D" batteries that lasted maybe 3 hours.
1995 Much smaller radios - batteries last for hours.
2005 same as 1995 plus you can download radio files (podcast) and play on your portable audio
player.

Y'all see what I mean.

Tom.

Fromage

There isn't much French about me anymore except a mostly French name and a love of wine and (especially) cheese.

Now did you ever do something, you were pretty sure what the outcome would be, but you did it anyway? I was at the grocery store after work the other day and I was "out" of Brie (yeah like normal people are "out of milk" - [I had friends at unversity, a couple and the wife once said "honey, we're out of drugs"] but that is a double diversion).

Brie ain't cheap - not the stuff from France, anyway. But I saw a big wheel of the generic brand for a fraction of the price of the French stuff. So I decided to try it, but since my name, "Fortin", in the original French means in some regions of France (the ones that do not appear on the map), "he who hedges his bets" I also scooped the usual chunk of Brie as well.

Guess what folks - Brie made in Canada tastes just fine, as a nice cheese - BUT IT AIN'T BRIE - heck it's not even "runny" as The Monty Python "Cheese Shop SKetch" would phrase it.

Oh it won't go to waste -but before it's last tidbit is gone there will have been several real Brie slabs purchased and consumed.

Viva La Brie Libre

TF