Inspired by my friend's post over on ALA TechSource, I decided to take a brief look back at the technology that I was using in 2000 and see how it compares to the gear I use today.

First up is my camera, which back in 2000 was a Nikon F100, which used film. I paid about 50 cents per print ($6 for decent film + $12 for good processing / 36 exposures) and I used a Nikon LS-2000 Coolscan scanner to (slowly/tediously) digitize the film. I then spent a few minutes per print in Photoshop (v5) just trying to remove the dust from the scan. It was costly, cumbersome, and I don't miss it at all. If I wanted to share a photo I either had to email it, print and mail it, or use one of the cumbersome online services like Ofoto.

Today I use a Canon 40D and a Panasonic Lumix GF1. Both are digital and the per-picture cost is zero. I take hundreds of photos every month, use Photoshop (v11) and Lightroom to manage and edit them, and use Flickr to share them with my friends and the world. When I want to print something out I use MPIX Pro to make a long lasting print on true photo paper.

In 2000 my desktop computer was a Gateway with a 600MHz Pentium III. It cost over $2,000 and had a 15" CRT monitor. I connected to the Internet via a buggy and slow 384 Kbps DSL connection. I don't even want to think about how slow my work connection was.

Today my home desktop computer is an Apple iMac with a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and a built-in 24" LCD and webcam. I connect to the Internet through a 12 Mbps FTTC connection. My work machine is a Dell Precision 7400 with dual quad-core Xeon processors and a blindingly fast 100 Mbps Metro-E connection to the net. Any slowness is due to the other person's server.

In 2000 my cell phone was a Motorola StarTAC. Its claim to fame was its ability to make decent phone calls. Oh, and it vibrated. And it made a cool sound when it snapped shut.

Today I use an Apple iPhone with 16GB of storage. With it I read my books via Kindle, surf the web, read and respond to email, get directions, find my friends, locate great places to eat, keep tabs on my kids, watch videos, take pictures, listen to podcasts, read the newspaper, and update my to-do list.  It also makes phone calls.

In 2000 I had a rather pricey Samsung DVD player. It required several firmware updates to keep up with the DRM changes that the movie publishers were instituting. DVDs cost me over $25 each, or about $6 to rent. Otherwise, I watched broadcast TV.

Today I (rarely) watch DVDs, and when I do it is on my Sony PS3 which can play Blu-ray DVDs and also play games and stream Netflix movies. Most of the films I watch are streamed direct via Netflix for $10 a month, or via AT&T's U-verse, or they are downloaded via Apple's iTunes to my Apple TV. I also use the Apple TV to watch video podcasts.

I got a lot of my news online in 2000, but I still stopped at the coffee shop to read the print edition of the morning Times. The NY Times was, and remains, my primary source for international news. But today I read it almost exclusively online. I make great use of Google Reader to aggregate many other news and information sources. In 2000 I read the paper version of Foreign Affairs, the Economist, and Technology Review. Today I read many of these journals on my Kindle and iPhone, making far greater use of what used to be my down-time (doctor's offices, car repair shops, delayed meetings, etc.) My drive to work is now filled not with broadcast radio but with podcasts and music synced to my iPod. I'm definitely taking in more data today than I was in 2000. Whether I am remembering it all, well, that's an issue of biology and not technology.

Looking forward, I wonder how my life will be improved with the technological advances we're currently experiencing. I remain optimistic that the changes are for the better, and not for the worse. I look back to my grandmother, who died in 2001, and remember how she used to stay up late into the night, reading the latest hard covers of her favorite authors. She would only go to bed when the book got too heavy to hold. I imagine, were she alive today, just how much she would enjoy reading from the lightweight Kindle and listening to audio books via Overdrive and Audible. I can also see her in a modern kitchen, looking up recipes on the Cooks Illustrated website, commenting about something she read, and following her kids and grand kids on Facebook and Flickr.

I need only look back to realize how exciting the future will be.

Wishing everyone a wonderful decade...