40 year reflection (Top 15)

So - sporting a bit of a hangover today, thanks to Deb 'n'Em, I want to continue on this series of reflecting back over 40 years.
As i mentioned in yesterday's blog, i wanted to touch on a few of the things that have CHANGED over the years.
And so here's the short list (feel free to add more in comments - cuz I WILL miss some).

1) When I was a kid, (around 8 or 9) I was taking public transportation by myself. No one in their right mind would allow their child to do that today!
2) It cost 0.25 cents to take the bus. Today, over $3 !! WTF.
3) Games I played when I was a kid: Operation, Life, Monopoly, Risk, Pick up Sticks, D&D. Games kids play today: Rockband, Grand Theft Auto, Live 4 Dead, Quake. Game I play today: D&D, Rockband, Sims3, Live 4 Dead, Mass Effect, Guild Wars, D&D online.

4) Tv's were 14'' tube and black and white. They had 13 channels, of which, you would typically only watch 5 channels: Channels, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 13. Now we have a gazillion channels, and 60 inch flat screen TV that have Standard Definition and HIGH Definition.

5) There were no remotes on TV's ... My remote control was, "Yo, Dan get up there and switch the channel (by turning the knob) to channel 13 !!!

6) WE can pause live TV.

7) To listen to music, you had to put a piece of circular vinyl on a turn table, and sit by the stereo. Now. We have solid state re-writable media ... in OUR PHONES! and we can listen to music, WATCH TV, or Movies anywhere. Which takes me to 8, 9 and 10.

8) To talk on the phone, you had to go to that thing on the wall, and lift it up - and could only go as far as the cord could stretch. You had to DIAL a phone... now we have cellular phones, and can talk to someone on the other side of the planet while you're doing groceries. With the use of Smart Phones and Application and services like Twitter, little ol' me can send a text message to an astronaut working in SPACE for crying out loud!

9) Our phones are portable stereo system and can plug into our cars. Soon, phone will have programs that TALK to our cars.

10) To watch a movie, you had to go to the Theater. And if you wanted to see that movie again - you had to pay for it again. And once that movie was done and out of the theaters.. chances are, you wouldn't see it ever again. Now.. We can download movies from NetFlix, and watch them on our PHONES - or even buy the DVD's and play them in our cars! The idea that we could watch movies in our living rooms was novel at the end of the 70s, and in the 80s to watch shows which highlighted our favorite bands perform their music in our living rooms was ... WOW!!! look at this!!!!

11) Cars talk. They play music. They play movies. They can see the road ahead and the way behind you. They are smart enough to tell you you're about to run over your kid while you're backing out of your laneway. There are tv screens in the car that tell you where you're going, and it tells you HOW to get there. Radios were turn dials, which gave you only a limited number of station - and are limited to the station's ability to transmit singnal over the air waves... Satallite Radio give you whatever channel you want anywhere on your continent... perhaps even all over the world...

12) In the 80's we connect to BBS's at 2400 Baud, and that Intranet was limited to 14 users at any one given time. The internet is now a global net, with connection as fast as 1GB/sec. If you wanted to send a letter to someone - you WROTE IT BY HAND, and mailed it. The recipient of that letter would get it a week later. The corresponding letter, would then be mailed back, and the equivalent of one conversation done via 'snail mail' would take over 3 weeks. Now, we type our letter, push a button, and delivery is instantaneous (well give it a few seconds!)

13) To read a book, you had to walk to the book store and buy a book. Then you had to sit down and read it. Now? You can use a tablet or a device that downloads a book - and that device will read it TO YOU!

14) To take a picture, you took a camera, aimed the lens at your subject, pushed a button until it clicked, the flash cube on the top of the camera would flash, then you had to crank the camera to switch frames on your negative reel. After 4 shots, you had to pull the flash cube off, throw it out, and replace it with another one. You would take 12 pictures, and you had to remove the reel, and bring it to a developer, and wait two or three days before they would give you paper copies of your images. If you're lucky, some pictures wouldn't have red eyes.

Now? We have cameras with hard drives in them. They can take THOUSANDS of picture. If you didn't like the picture, you can delete it and have a do-over. The flashes last forever. And red-eye is a thing of the past.. as flashes flash in sequence to eliminate that. You don't have to develop picture anymore, you transfer them to a computer. If you wish to frame them, there are frames now that show your pictures in a slide presentation.

15) Planes FLY THEMSELVES. I don't have to explain that one. They FLY ... T.H.E.M.S.E.L.V.E.S!!!

There are many more!!! Feel free to add your input in comments!