200!

Hard to believe, but this is my 200th post on this humble little site. That seems to be fitting, as it was 199 days ago that I started blogging - about once a day seems right. About 2250 visits, so thanks to all y'all for the traffic and interest.

Anyway, since I'm apparently getting old, I was also thinking about technology changes. Not just since the beginning of the year, or last year, but even since starting college in 1995 (gasp!)

It wasn't until I went to college that I got my first computer. It was a Macintosh Performa Power PC, and I thought it was really cool because it had a 1 GB hard drive and a blazing-fast 75 Mhz processor. To its credit, it did last about 7 years before I got a refurbished replacement through Dell's eBay store (which no longer exists, otherwise I would link to it). It had to, with as much as it cost back then!

How things have changed. Two weeks ago, in getting ready to go back to school, I again visited the store for a computer, but this time, for a notebook computer. I'd been thinking about it for a while anyway for work items, and with school coming up figured it would be a worthwhile purchase.

So, thanks to online purchasing combined with Georgia's tax-free weekend, I took the plunge and got a new Gateway notebook at Best Buy. This one, though, has an 80 GB drive (slightly more than the old Mac) and a 1.8 Ghz processor (24 times faster than the old Mac - again, a slight improvement) and has a whole bunch of other nice bells and whistles (DVD/CD RW, built-in ethernet card, wi-fi capability) that will do just fine. Especially since it only weighs 6 pounds and fits in my briefcase.

The strangest part was that, with all of these new features & technological developments, was that it cost less than one-fourth of what we paid for that big, hulking Mac 11 years ago - unbelievably, less than $500, which would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago.

And I sure didn't think I'd be doing this blog, own something like this, working in this field, in this city, or returning to school 11 years ago, either.

How times change. Technology for the budget-conscious.

And, thankfully, I have it ready for a Fantasy Football draft on Sunday.