Saturday, July 31, 2004

Technology Run A Muck! (Part 1 of a 3 part series)

My recent trip down memory recently took on a life of its own. You see, I have the coolest parents. My Dad is only eclipsed by me as agadget nut, and my Mom cruises the Internet like Tony Hawk rides a skateboard. Still, as I reflect upon times when I coded Pascal and executed said programs on punch cards, I sometimes wonder how receptive I will be years from now as technology continues to creep along. Already, I find myself resistant to the winds of change. Me! The Gadget Guy! Surely, I can't be the only one who holds “ancient” technologies in high regard? To test this theory, allow me, if you will, to go down memory lane on some of my favorite technologies that have...err...fallen out of favor—to put it nicely.

  • Albums, LPs, & 45s
    - Aaaaah. Analog. When music was pure and Napster was just a disaster waiting to happen to the music industry. I used to work in a place called the "Turntable" in Willingboro, New Jersey. As its name implies, it was a record store—for you Gen-X’ers out there, a record is slab of vinyl that had music embedded on it before there was such a thing as MP3s...but I digress. As a young man, I spent every cent on buying records, taking care of them—storing them vertically, keeping them clean, and keeping them in a cool place. Records are like fine wine. Play a half-speed album on the best equipment through a Carver amplifier and only the best audiophiles could decipher distortion. But alas, records fell victim to CDs, the older, illegitimate cousin of DVD's, and soon only DJs cared to use them anymore. What a shame. Now don't get me wrong, I like CDs, too and I have acquired many more CDs than records if only because the storage is much easier. That said, there's something to be said for getting your friends together and doing karaoke to a nice Earth,Wind, and Fire tune that just doesn't have the nostalgia when you play a
    CD. Sure, the records occasionally have that "Snap, Crackle, Pop" that I love to hear in Musiq's songs, but that's what gives them character. How much character do you get
    from an iPod?
  • 8-Track tapes -
    Okay...I'm dating myself here, but I did leave reel-to-reel playerss off the list! 8-Tracks
    were among the early random access mediums in audio...and when I say random, I mean RANDOM! Again, for the Gen X-ers, Audio is recorded in two tracks. The tape in an “8-Track tape” could accommodate four pairs of these and the players typically had a button that allowed the user to sequentially shift to the next pair of tracks. Hence
    the name. I used to have an Emerson boom box with an 8-Track player that could record!—a verrry rare find in the 70s. I'd buy blanks from Radio Shack and then make custom tapes for playing in the boom box or the car—yeah , some of you know what I'm talkin' about...you weren’t rolling in style if you didn’t have an 8-Track in your ride. My
    fondest memory of 8-Track tapes is from pressing the polished aluminum "Track" button on my boom box. The playback head would emit this great "Cha-chunk" sound each time the button is pressed and the next thing you know you're listening to Marvin Gaye instead of the O'Jays. “Cha-chunk!” Stylistics song—somewhere in the middle. “Cha-Chunk!”
    Stevie Wonder song, somewhere near the end. Several things worked to the 8-Track's demise: First of all, the problem with the 8-Track was that you never knew for sure what section of a song you would end up in when you heard that "Cha-Chunk" sound. Secondly, while many people with Classic Cadillacs had 8-Track players, very few were able to record an 8-Track tape. I suspect the music moguls liked the idea of controlling the medium, but technology ultimately sank this bad boy. That technology was—surprise—cassette tapes!
  • Cassette tapes - Whew! Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the 80's! Cassette tapes flew off the shelves and spawned the SONY Walkman because consumers now had better
    quality in a smaller package and you could custom record your own Tom Joyner anthology at a reasonable cost--*Note to record industry: Are you listening? Good. Quit schlepping lousy acts and one-hit wonders, and quit asking $18 for a CD that we know
    costs less than a couple of bucks to mass produce. Back to Cassettes. The problem with cassettes were they were...well...predictable. Allow me to elaborate. Listen to a side, flip
    the tape, listen to the other side. Over and over and over again. Like 8-Tracks, after you listened to the same tape a few times, the monotony drove people crazy. Manufacturers
    countered with the 80s-version of commercial-skip. The better players could fast-forward to the next blank space in the tape—but if you mixed your songs together, there were no blank spaces to fast forward to! Then along came technology that put the cassette in the grave: Compact Discs (or CDs).

Whoa! Look at the time!—I blinked an 90 minutes just zoomed by! More to come down memory lane in part 2, and I've got some predictions on things we use today that (I think) are on a short roadto obsolescence....the list may surprise you!
Peace,
+THINKER









Thursday, July 29, 2004

Miscellaneous ramblings on the "Global Economy"

Greetings, Sports fans!

In this time during the Democratic convention, I had a chance to reflect on Sen. Edwards' "Hope is on the way" theme. You see, I am among many of the technology workers who were affected by the influx of H1B workers and off-shore labor. I have several college degrees--so it isn't about "getting educated," Mr. President. I have consistently gotten "Excellent/Superior" ratings on my performance reviews—so it isn't about "job performance," Mr. President. In fact, up until last year, I had never been fired—ahem , "laid off"—from a job. The fact of the matter was that while the company—that will remain nameless—treated its workers with dignity, it made no effort to retain individuals based upon merit. Let's see, the workers doing the right thing and working hard are ousted while the people keeping themselves busy by coding themselves a vacation bonus get retained? Yikes! "We're going to supplement, not replace our workers," the CEOs say. What this really means is that regardless of how educated you are or how hard you work, if someone across the pond is willing to work for a pittance of what we're paying you, then your days are numbered. Anyone remember Ross Perot and his talks of that "giant 'sucking' sound?" He was right!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, you can often hear CFOs reporting numbers that never seem to be good enough for Wall St. Gurus managing your portfolio. Something has to give, right?

Thoughts from the journal of a CEO: Let's see...we're losing tons of money, but what the hell, I'll make some waves and then get that sweet severance package and get that loan for my house in the Bahamas forgiven. So what should I do? I guess I could:

a) Lay off more workers and ask the ones who stay to do more with less (ADP)...dang...already did that...but hell, a few more will help cover my bonus this Fall
b) Kick off a marketing blitz that will far exceed our revenues (TIVO)...only way to stay in business while losing money is cover it as a market share acquisition strategy...LOL...works like a charm every time!
c) "Concede" product X to the competition and spin it as our re-focus on legacy products. (Lou) Gerstner did that even while having a better product that he could have marketed better—what the hell was he thinking???!!!
d) Make mo' money by using our insider information...Nah, the SEC is watching too closely these days. Maybe the climate will cool after Martha finishes her appeals and Michael Jackson goes on trial.
e) What the heck, we didn't lose that much this last year. That's gotta be worth something! Time to give myself a FAT raise despite the fact that we're (still) losing money! Yeah, yeah…that’s the ticket!


To come correct, I'm as capitalist as they come, and I have no "Hater-ade" for the "Over-paid." I'm just continually stunned about the lack of conscience or ethics in the anals of corporate America…so much so that I walked away from a job with good money on the table. As good consumers, we regularly must make decisions that minimize risk to our families in order to meet our financial responsibilities. Why don't (most) CEOs do the same? I "get" that executives are beholden to stockholders, but the disparity between those who have and have not has become the ultimate barometer in my never-to-be-humble opinion. Which brings me back to the eloquent speech made by Senator Edwards on Wednesday. Isn't it ironic that our Democratic candidates-in-arms have made the issue of jobs and opportunity a cornerstone of their campaign? I don't think so. Sen. Edwards may not have the fluency of John Kennedy, but I must admit his message rang loud and clear: "Hope is on the way," indeed, but only if those who care step up to participate in our political process.

I periodically remind my sons that voting is a privilege, not a right. For instance, those who are incarcerated and serve their terms don't regain this privilege, and it wasn't that long ago when women and Blacks were not permitted to vote in this country. Al Sharpton said it best: "We never got our (40 acres) & a mule, but we're going to ride this donkey for all its worth!" We have few opportunities to collectively make a difference in this country and in this life. Make yours count.

Peace,
+THINKER