10 GOTO 10

I hope I haven't jinxed myself, but I finally got a new cell phone.

Purchasing a new cell phone always seems to be the kiss of death for me. Let me explain. I rarely use the telephone, but when I do I always have a reason and get straight to the point. I never call someone up just to chat with them. It's a complete waste of time in my opinion.

The only occasions that I've needed a cell phone were prompted by work necessity. Sadly, it seems that each time I've bought a cell phone I either didn't use it at all or found myself seeking employment elsewhere within a matter of months. I'm hoping to break that streak and actually keep my new job for a while. Especially since I just signed a 2-year contract...sigh.

It's really amazing how far technology has come in the past 20 years. I remember my very first computer, the Commodore 64.







Commodore 64 w/monitor & 5 1/4-inch floppy drive







I also remember that I didn't even have a floppy drive to begin with, but had a tape drive instead. Talk about speedy access.








Vic-20 Cassette Drive










I thought I was really "uptown" with my fancy home computer. It's actually a bit of an eyesore though, isn't it? Without much in the way of games or true functionality (by today's standards, at least) I spent a lot of my time learning BASIC programming language and creating my own entertainment. I would be surprised if most of you don't recall this simple program.

10 PRINT "HELLO"
20 GOTO 10

Brings back memories, doesn't it?

It's so funny how children nowadays react to technological blasts from the past, such as this. I recall a few years ago my niece discovered an old Beatles album and as she pulled it out of the sleeve, eyes wide with amazement, she said "This is the biggest CD I've ever seen!"

If that doesn't make you feel old, I don't know what will.

I'm sure that in the near future we look back at our current gadgets and gizmos with the same laughable regard. It turns out that my new phone surpasses the memory of my Commodore 64 by a massive amount (by about 8,000 times, if I did that conversion correctly). It has 512MB of memory, holds about 7 hours of music, takes pictures, shoots video, stores phone numbers, etc. If we consider the rate of technology, then in 20 years a cell phone will have about 40GB of memory and hold 720 hours (30 days) of music or approximately 6 full-length movies. There's no telling what else they'll be able to do, but I'm sure it will be nothing short of amazing.

If my Commodore 64 could send me a message right now I imagine it might look like this.

10 A$="HELLO"
20 B$="MOTOROLO SLVR L7"
30 C$="BURN IN HELL"
40 D$="THANK YOU"
50 PRINT A$
60 PRINT B$
70 PRINT C$
80 PRINT D$
90 GOTO 10

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to compile an appropriate response that won't take more than 64K worth of memory. Hmmmm....small words...small words.