The Makings of a Dinosaur

The other day I was reading in Cnet about the post laptop era – as evidenced by the crowd at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin Texas. The participants at at SXSW roamed the streets with their iPads and smartphones setting up meetings, arranging dinner dates and texting each other ad nauseam with barely a laptop in sight besides a MacBook Air.

After reading this article I realized that I have the makings of a real technical dinosaur. Not only do I not have an iPad or interactive smartphone, I have no intention of ever owning one.

When I worked back in the Pleistocene era, I was happy to have a desktop system and be incommunicado when I wasn’t in the office. A laptop in those days was considered a perk for the managerial types, but I always felt it was a perk not to have to take my work home every night. Times have sure changed and working stiffs are now glued to their Blackberrys and iPhones, not to mention that everybody carries a laptop back and forth to the office. Ball and chain.

But not me. I need a big screen now for my aging eyes. I haven’t even been able to get used to a touchpad, let alone a touch screen. I have a netbook but it’s so slow and frustrating that I switched to a powerful quad core laptop. If I ever buy another computer it’ll be as big a honking desktop system as I can afford. And don’t even get me started on trying to type on a virtual keyboard.

Sorry you interactive bleeding edge people, but I won’t be making the SXSW scene anytime soon. Just call me Laptopadon or Desktoposaurus.

Published by Ray MacDonald

Ray MacDonald is a retired food scientist who lives in Almonte, ON.
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