Tech Blogging

I'm apt to write about almost anything, but the subject that got me into blogging was tech. It's only fitting that I end up participating in this current iteration of the blogging question challenge.

I was challenged by Kyle - Blog Questions Challenge: Technology Edition - Kyle's Tech Korner

When Did You First Get Interested In Technology?

I started late. For years, I avoided anything related to computers because I thought they required something I didn't have — advanced math skills. I associated them with the brainy guys who read books on physics from high school. My brother was one of those guys, and he had a computer, so that reinforced my belief. It wasn't until my uncle, whose twin passions were coon hunting and tractor pulls, got a computer that I thought I might be able to learn something about using a PC. It was his DOS 386 where I first logged on to an online community, Prodigy and learned that what you can do with technology is practically limitless. It was December 1993. I was 28.

What's Your Favorite Piece Of Technology All-Time?

It's a toss up between the first computer I built myself and my first Mac, but I'm going with the Titanium Powerbook G4 my job provided me soon after it was released in January 2001. It's the computer I used to transition from the Classic Mac OS to Mac OS X. I used it to run old Mac admin tools like Mac Manager and Network Assistant and the late, great productivity suite, Apple Works. I even had a painfully slow copy of PC Anywhere on it for doing Windows chores required by my job. I was so enamored with Apple tech that I learned more in six months of using that Powerbook than I had in years of Windows usage.

What's Your Favorite Piece Of Technology Right Now?

I have almost every bit of Apple kit one can get apart from AirPods and that dumb ass strap on face computer, no disrespect to anyone who spent $4K on one. And, although I love my phone and never, ever worry about using it too much, my favorite piece of gear is my M2 MacBook Air — the fastest, most responsive laptop I have ever used. I have an M3 iMac at work, but I prefer the MBA. I associate it with fun and learning and all the emotions that come with having done so much writing with it over the past year of non-stop blogging.

Name One New Cool Piece Of Technology We'll Have In 25 Years!

It's my sincere hope that whatever we have in 25 years is a tool developed outside of Silicon Valley and the disturbing privacy invading, autocrat coddling, wealth extracting tendencies of today's big 5 predators: Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Amazon and Google. I love what Apple tech has provided me over the years, but the recent trend by the company and its leadership has been to flout as many laws as it can to extract as much wealth as it can from people like me. There is no longer even any lip service to making the world a better place. In 25 years, I want to be able to use affordable tech that provides value in a 100% ethical way — whatever it looks like.

Final Thoughts

To me, the primary value in tech is and has always been to connect me with other humans. I am still impressed by tools many take for granted — instant messaging, email, web publishing viewable by anyone in the world within seconds. Computers can and do bring people closer. They can and do spread good ideas and empower people. Of course, they also do the opposite some times, but I have hope that the arc will swing into the light.

I'd like to see what @jarunmb@techhub.social, @dhry@mastodon.socialmastodon.social and @mbjones@social.lol have to say.

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