Fielder's
Choice
By Barry Burleson
Technology
I got into
one of those discussions last week about how times have
changed since “we were young.”
It started
at a high school basketball game. We were talking about
the uniforms the players wear today.
First of
all, we didn’t have the money “back then”
to spend on the nice athletic outfits they wear these
days, plus they didn’t make them as fancy back then.
And we
didn’t wear those long, baggy shorts – down to
the player’s knees. Our shorts were the tight kind
and short lengthwise.
I think I
would prefer a happy medium between the two.
Technology
and gadgets today are ever-changing.
I used to
own a bright red eight-track tape player. It thought I
had hit the big time. Then when I graduated to a cassette
player, and then even had a cassette player in the first
car I owned at age 16 - wow!
I assume the
only place you can buy eight-track tapes these says is at
a garage sale or antique shop. Cassette tapes are still
hanging on, but likely not for long.
I still have
a cassette player only in the “old” Explorer,
but I haven’t bought any new cassettes in years.
Pam and I
still have lots of albums from our teenage years, but we
have not listened to them in years. We need an attachment
of some sort for our turntable to make it work, and that
hasn’t been on our priority list lately. I think I
have an old box of 45s somewhere, too.
Today
it’s CDs, and downloading music off the Internet,
and MP3 players which store lots of your favorite songs.
I saw last week where Macintosh has unveiled its new MP3
player, the size of a chewing gum package, that holds
more than 100 songs and comes at “an affordable
price.” At the same time the company announced a new
mini-Mac computer for less than $500. But you have to
come up with the accessories – the key board,
monitor and such.
I’ve
grown up on Macs. That’s what most newspaper offices
use in producing the newspaper, and The South Reporter is
no exception.
These MP3
players and small CD players are big among the young
people today. I know you see them, too, walking around at
ball games and such with the ear plugs and the device
hanging around their neck or tucked in the pocket.
Even my
3-year-old is latching on to the technology. Her favorite
pastime is coming up to the office, logging on to the
Internet and playing educational games on the Noggin web
site. Just last night about 9 p.m., she came to me in
that voice that is so hard to turn down and said,
“Daddy, Daddy, I want to go to the office and play
Noggin.” I managed to put her off – at least
for yesterday.
She also
gets on our Mac at home by herself and plays all sorts of
games left over from Emma and Andy’s younger years.
Today our
South Reporter readers and customers bring us pictures
off small digital cameras which we’re able to
download straight to our computers. They even bring in
stories, pictures and such on small flash drives that all
connect to our computers for downloading.
Play
Stations are amazing - how close to reality these
athletic games are, like NBA and college basketball and
the NFL. I haven’t played them any myself yet. I
know if I start I might get addicted, too.
The cell
phone craze keeps changing, too, with text messaging,
built-in cameras, and the phones seem to be getting
smaller and smaller, too, if that’s what the
consumer wants.
Oh well,
it’s time to wrap this column up, go finish laying
out the newspaper and sending it to press on a zip drive.
In between, I have to go coach basketball – fifth
graders wearing those long baggy shorts.
Report News:
(662) 252-4261 or south@dixie-net.com
Questions, comments, corrections: south@dixie-net.com
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