Monday, May 15, 2017

Advancing technology vs. advancing age

Although I spend a lot of time reading, composing, listening to and watching programs and lectures on the computer, I’m a number of years behind on the technology—always have been since I got my first e-mail about 25 years ago. I’m so long at this I can remember when a colleague in TN asked the other Vet Med Librarians about 20 years ago to take a look at Google as a search engine, which was very new. Long before I had a blog I wrote several times a day on several Usenet groups, particularly one for writers. There were mean and nasty people then too, and trolls trying to destabilize the group and friendships. So the down side of social media goes way back.

But I took a HUGE leap forward yesterday. I looked at my little Mother’s Day package and wondered how my daughter could fit a new outfit into that! (Love it when she buys my clothes) But it was a Roku stick. Looking forward to new challenges. As I understand it (it's still in the box because I'll need her help in setting it up) anything I can watch on my computer I can now watch on TV, plus 4,500 other channels. Horror movies, old TV westerns, documentaries, fashion shows, religious programing. Then I can take the stick out and take it to the Lake and watch my stuff there.
"Roku devices are simple to set-up and easy-to-use. They come with a simple remote, and powerful features like Roku Search which makes it effortless to find what you want to watch. Roku devices give you access to 450,000+ movies and TV episodes from top free and paid channels, so you can stream almost anything: Roku How it Works "
Our son works in the automotive repair field, manages a shop for a major auto dealer, and for some time I've been dropping hints about how the automotive industry is changing. Good article in Atlantic about the Uber/Waymo (Google) wars, but it introduces the novice and elderly to the other players in the self-driving auto changes to come.  The author argues that self driving cars will probably change the world--fundamentally. "Mass adoption would create and destroy entire industries, alter the way people work and move through cities, and change the way those cities are designed and connected." Billions are at stake in personal profits. Big winners and losers.

No comments: