Shooting at Bubbles

I sometimes wonder what drugs some of these so-called early adopters of bleeding edge technology are smoking, especially when they come off of these trade show junkets. They all start spewing all kinds of hot air about revolutionary this and an end of an era that; while tossing about dollars and cents that would feed a low income family for a month, just for some new toy that probably hasn’t even seen a production line.

Yesterday it was Robert Scoble joining the legions of orgasming Apple fanboys over a $500.00 cell phone that Om Malik claims will be the end of the PC era. At least today Robert seems to have shaken off the effects of the Apple Kool-Aid and has re-assessed just how practical the iPhone really is. Guess what .. it isn’t especially considering the fact that it doesn’t exist yet beyond a glass covered prototype and that any of the high end Nokia phones already cover just about all the features.

But Robert lets me down and totally gives into the early adopters phraseology by declaring that Netflix is dead the moment Adobe ships the next version of the Flash Player that will bundle Verisigns P2P technology for delivering DVD quality movies. Pssst .. Robert … here’s a hint .. VeriSign maybe ready and Adobe might be ready but guess what it won’t matter because not everyone in the real world has big enough pipes to put up with downloading movies; if they have broadband at all.

Not everyone lives in the rarified air that the early adopters fly in Robert and Om. Things like real life affect the technology we can afford both now and in many cases for many years to come. This doesn’t even take into account that some of these so-called revolutionary technologies; while being far from anything revolutionary, are just plain stupid in the eyes of the real world. Like paying $500.00 for a stupid ass cell phone – come on give me a frikken break … it’s a cell phone. A pain in the ass tool that everyone wants to flaunt in your face at every turn by making sure you can hear their conversations. Whoop – di – doo. Ask me how is that going to help the folks trying to recover still from Katrina.

I don’t even have a cell phone and likely never will because I can’t justify the cost. I have a hard enough time each month keeping my overpriced DSL service, food on the table and meds for my wife. Now while you bleeding edge types spew forth your words of technological wisdom the rest of us trying to make it through a real life are just happy to have a one year old machine that we hold together with spit and duct tape.

New technology is cool, don’t get me wrong I love it. I love technology of every kind but it is a love tempered with reality and a real life which is something you folks up there in the rarified air of geekdom might like to remember.