For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored with technology.

I’ve used computers since the age of nine, and that unfortunately was many years ago.  And since that time I’ve grown to appreciate how we as a people, effect new innovation, and how that innovation has in turn, affected us as people.

After using the internet for almost twenty years, I’ve noticed trends that have developed over time. No longer the play-things of geeks and nerds, computers are commonplace for most.  New generations of people have never been without a computer, or witnessed a society without them.

Remember how you felt when you played a CD for the first time, and had the jaw-dropping experience of hearing audio quality you had never heard before?  How about the first time you used an ATM?  Was the convenience of being able to perform some simple transactions after the bank had closed, without having to wait in a teller line, unbelievable?

Now look again.  There are kids today who never realized that music came on some form of media.  Just 1s and 0s quickly downloaded from the net.

Now you can check your bank accounts and pay bills online without ever leaving your bedroom.

Over the last month, we’ve witnessed the release of new smartphones – the Palm Pre, the iPhone GS, enabling you to not only stay connected to whomever you choose, but whatever information you want and need at your fingertips, at a moment’s notice.

More importantly though, not only are you more able to receive information more easily, but now more so than ever before, you have a voice.

The newest iPhone (GS) allows you to create simple videos, edit them, then post them to the internet immediately.  And you thought youtube had an unbelieve amount of videos before….

And are you a user of twitter?  Then surely you must be seeing firsthand how Iranians – more specifically the 60% under the age of thirty, are using technology to permit the world to hear their voices, see their images, and witness their experiences, while their government is doing all that it can to stop them.

These are interesting times…

No doubt that all this technology and convenience comes at a price.  Now more than ever, people are becoming sedentary creatures.  Surrounded by immediate gratification, even the most minor inconvenience seems to rock our world, and throw us off-course.

Technology is simply nothing more than tools.  And tools in the wrong hands with the wrong means can lead to undesirable results. 

But that’s not what this blog is about.

I’ll let you watch your evening news for the daily horror, or read your slowly disappearing newspapers for the latest dismal forecast.

This blog is about celebrating technology.

In future posts, we will….

1. Meet some of the innovators who are using technology to create a better world for you and me.
2. Examine web sites you may not have seen before, and learn why they are or not relevant.
3. Learn how to use the latest technology, define some terms, so we can at least appear to know what we’re doing.
4. Remember that technology is not inherently good nor evil, and examine objectively how we shape these tools, and how they shape us.

Feel free to leave comments, ask questions, suggest topics for discussion; as this blog is not only mine, but yours as well.

And one more thing.

Don’t forget to have fun.