The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
There's a quote that is almost getting to be a clich now. It goes like this: the only thing constant in today's world, is change. I think about this a lot. While things have certainly always changed, it seems that they are changing at an ever quicker pace today. With the constant stream of information coming at us from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and websites, it seems like we can't flip a page without hearing about something new. Looking back over the five years of weekly columns I've written, it's easy to see that this is true. Each week there has always been something to write about. From online shopping and the danger of viruses in 2003 to the beginning of podcasting and the first mentions of the $100 laptop in 2005, the tech world has always had something show up. What has changed more than anything is our acceptance of this change. If you go back even 10 years in our history, new things were marvelled at and splashed across newspapers and magazines. They were something that we all talked about with our friends. Now, new things come out in a constant stream, so much so that it is almost impossible to keep up. There is now a constant stream of improvements to almost any product imaginable. Computers two years old are outdated. TVs a few more than that need to be replaced. We accept the fact that software is now more of a rental that will need to be replaced every few years as well. It's also become amazing the kinds of things that we are now willing to pay for. Storage space online for us to keep our files organized and clothes for our avatars all need to be paid for and replaced. Can you imagine trying to explain to your grandmother how you shelled out $100 for a sword that only exists on the Internet that helps you kill orcs in World of Warcraft? There is simply no easy way to explain it to someone who doesn't get it. All of this change has brought me to the decision to end this column. I think it has run its course. When it first was published in 2003 our society was learning to be digital. We were trying to understand never-before-seen wonders like the virtual world of Second Life. Content like music and movies showing up online was something that we still were working with. Then the explosion of podcasting, blogs and Facebook came and the fact that anyone could say anything at anytime to almost anyone gave us all voices in an entirely new way. Over the last few years we have seen massive changes and shifts in our society. Entire industries have had to learn how to live with their customers in entirely new ways. People have learned they have a voice in any medium they choose. We have seen new TV shows and stars emerge from videos on the small screen. We have seen the rise of real-time information and free contact with people in all corners of the world. But most of all, we have learned that these aren't things just for teenage boys hiding out in their basements who have not seen the sunlight in weeks. We've learned that there is a little bit of geek inside all of us. Whether we're gamers, bloggers, picture-takers or moviemakers; the skills we need to do these things are shared by all of us and we can all find someone online to teach us the new things that we need to know. Geek skills have moved from the basement to the living room and from teenagers to people of all ages. So a new year will continue to bring new things. TVs will get bigger and sounds will get cleaner. In this new year a few companies will go broke and some will be sucked up by others. A service we've come to depend on will die, but even more importantly, a new one will emerge and we will learn to depend on it as well. Things will change and we'll all find our own path through the swamp once again. Thanks for your time. ([email protected]) (Editor's note: The Reminder sincerely thanks Clarence for his five-plus years of interesting and well-researched columns. Beginning next Monday, in the place of Tech Notes, we will present a new column, "This Week in our History." It will look back on the stories that have made headlines in The Reminder over the decades.)
