That seems to be the question that everyone is trying to answer. Well, maybe the question really is how tech is too tech but that isn't a one-off of Shakespeare and therefore not worthy of a blog title.
But back to the premise.
As someone who has sites like Engadget, the Boy Genius Report, and CNET bookmarked in their multi-browser synced toolbar, I have been asking myself that question a lot lately. Don't get me wrong, I have accepted my geekdom. Heck, I even try to embrace it in a Rivers Cuomo horn rimmed rocker kind of way. But just when I feel like I have all of my technology firing on all processors, a new piece of hardware or web service comes along that makes me want to forsake everything and start all over as just a 31 year-old boy with an iPad and a dream.
Well my friends, and I call you my friends because that is pretty much the only people who follow my blog, that ends today.
As amazing as it sounds, I think I have finally formulated a new rule as it pertains to the pursuit of technology (Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Technology would have been a much better blog title, well, too late). And like any good rule or instructions for assembling furniture from IKEA, it's pretty simple. Don't be first.
I know...I know...I know...In our culture, telling someone not to be first is as ridiculous as informing them that Mountain Dew is not actually part of a balanced diet. But as a life long early adapter to just about everything that I thought would make girls like me more, I have come to the conclusion that the first generation of most technology stinks.
Overpriced, underpowered, incompatible, and usually replaced by 2.0 in a few short months, I have received far fewer longing glances from impressed passer-byes than I have "How do you turn this (explative) thing on?" from my wife.
Two acronyms, kids: HD DVD.
As a conferencing service provider, I have sat in on countless sales calls where someone from my team refers to our committment to advancing technologies, points at me, and then just keeps going like I was a 7th ballot inductee to a hall of fame there for the appearance fee and a free buffet. Because in the corporate environment, things just need to work properly. We've reached an era of technology in which I have actually heard a mother form a decent justification for giving her 10 year-old an iPhone. Wireless signals started at A, slid to B, hopped to G and has now hightailed itself to N. However, when a conference call has to go right, you'll find me on my landlocked office phone line and an ethernet cable nestled into my beta-less HP desktop replacement. Oh, and huge props to the ad exec who coined that phrased when asked "What the heck do we call an 8lb laptop?"
Now, there's no need to pass this blog along onto anyone you think might be pitching their tents to get in line for an iPad. However, if you know of any fence sitters, please send this their way. Hopefully, I can clear out a few weak willed suckers who might be in the line in front of me.
Just kidding.
But no, really, forward this to them. Now.
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