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

[calizen.livejournal.com]

Yep, I feel this whole cyber-world is pretty amazing. I'm always feeling breathless just trying to keep up with some other new-fangled computer device.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Another marvel is that I can talk to someone halfway round the world- face to face- in real time and it costs me virtually nothing.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

The Interwebz still grabs me with awe and excitement too! :-) Not only do I remember where our local phone exchange was, I knew the lady who ran it, plus I remember having to water the telephone line in the summer to stop the dry earth from damaging it! LOL

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It makes me happy to have lived into the era of this world-changing technology.

I wonder what comes next...

[ron-broxted.livejournal.com]

What is happening "on the ground" with the by-election?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I could paper a wall with all the leaflets we've been getting.
Labour and the Lib Dems have been canvassing vigorously. I haven't seen hide nor hair of the Tories. Elwyn Watkins' latest "news" sheet says he's ahead in the polls but I reckon he's the only person who thinks so.

[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?"

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Technology amazes me, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Internet is one of the things that makes me happy to be living in the 21st century

[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.