On Skype

[poliphilo]

I've just been talking to Mike on Skype. It's late evening in Tokyo when it's early afternoon in Oldham.  Mike has a webcam. He gave me a virtual tour of the flat, his girlfriend waved to me and I got to see the city lights from his balcony window. There was some art work he wanted to show me and all he had to do was press a key and there it was in my documents file- much as if he'd handed it me across the table. Excuse my breathless excitement and remember that I come from an era when phones were made of bakelite and you had to ring the operator to ask for a connection.  

Comments

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I still find myself marveling at cellphones. I finally got around to installing a wireless network, here at the house, a couple of weeks ago, and was dancing down the stairs like a little kid, excitedly waving my first printer test page.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess our parents and grandparents felt this way about TV.

Actually I can remember feeling this way about colour TV. I saw a prototype on an exhibition stand when I was about 9 or 10 and thought, "Wow, how can that even be possible?"

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. My father says that his father returned from the Chicago World's Fair and told him of a demonstration he had seen of closed-circuit TV. My grandfather thought it an amazing toy, but nothing more. When it finally arrived in his home, he was fascinated by it til the end of his days, even with only two channels and both of those so snowy, sometimes, that they were nearly impossible to watch.