As my second son was born last week (13/06/08, 6lb 11oz, Edward Oakes Handford - thanks for asking) I thought it was time to discuss again on this blog - where did my relationship with technology all go wrong?I remember building PC's, upgrading hard drives, talking in near binary about types of BUS systems (On PC's not on the roads...) I remember amazing family members with tiny walkmen and analogue cable Television - not to mention being able to programme the video player!
I thought it was just an age thing, after all I had built PC's for my Dad and older brother, but the problem is, these peopel have caught up and passed me! maybe they wouldnb't be able to build a PC from its raw components - but in todays even more disposable world why would they need to?
It's the gizmos and gadgets I show myself up with. It's when my dad turns up and starts talking to himself - I'm thinking it's time to sign him into the retirement home (Shady Pines if you're reading this dad) - when I realise it's his Star Trek like Blue tooth ear piece! What is that all about ?
It's my older brother and his ever changing laptop, or his 54 speaker cinema THX dolby super dooper surround sound mega enhanced 82 trillion pixel even doews the washing up mobile telephone. or something like that.
It's the (pesky) "kids" at work with their IPODS the size of buttons! I like to point out to them that the last walkman I had was barely bigger than the tape it played (roughly the size of a standard IPOD) The only problem was you had to carry a rucksack of tapes around with you.
Another walkman I owned was made from thick yellow plastic and where it sealed up there was a band of rubber to - you've guessed it - make it water proof! The only problem was, as soon as you wanted to plug in headphones, you would break the seal and flood it with water !So yes, it was great for rewinding and fast forwarding tapes under water.
Taking all this on board I decided it was time to at least try and enter the modern world (For the sake of my children if nothing else) and look to start downloading music from the internet. My loft is currently overflowing with Vinyl Long Players and tapes and Compact discs, so to save space and a bit of money - what a better place to start.
I can imagine you all screaming "What! you planned to pay for it ?" and the answer is yes. I am basically law abiding, but at the same time am fully aware that if I decided to go "illegal" I would be the one caught and made an example of!
I looked at a couple of sites and eventually found my self at Napster, signed up for the free trial, and within ten minutes cancelled my memebership.
What an absolute scam.
Am I missing something or is it really expensive? pretty much all the albums I looked at were about £8 each. I can go to a shop and buy it on compact disc for less.
Here's the choice as I see it -
a) Go to a high street shop which has all its bills to pay, staff to pay pick up a real item which has been manufactured somewhere, in a case with a printed booklet full of pictures and useful text and lyrics and stuff for about £5. I can then take the CD home and stick it on my PC as MP3' s.
or
b) Download the exact same album as a serious of electronic 0's and 1's on a fully automated system and receive nothing physical and pay £8.
Would it be easier if I just gave the multi-national "media" companies my banking details and let them empty my current account?
What makes this all worse is the fact it all appears to be goverment sponsered! I was recently listening to Andrew "Andy" Burnham, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the radio where spoke about how the goverment would do everything in their power to aid service providers and the record companies crack down on music Piracy and illegal downloading.
He then spoke about how he had been downloading an album by the Wedding Present earlier that week (I must admit he went up in my opinion a little at this point). He than laughed to himself, totally missing the irony in what he was saying, that it was the fourth format in which he had bought the album since it came out in the 80's.
The fourth time he had paid for the same thing. What a moron.
Now where did I put that walkman and sack of cassettes...
