rate of change

Yesterday seemed so far away

posted: Mar 28 2005

So, I learned something new about the family I married into: my father-in-law has a virtual museum of electronics and gadgets dating back to the late 40’s… we’re talking cameras, radios, recording devices, and things i couldn’t begin to identify or relate to their future counterparts we use today. And he’s got stories about each thing.

I was blow away at how much evolution, err, rather revolution, has happened in electronics. I mean, I know things have changed dramatically over the years but that fuzzy knowlegde has always just been, well, fuzzy; like, “oh, that’s a picture of whatever from the ‘old days’ when…whatever”. But I was actually touching the old days. Pushing, twisting, dusting off the old days. In one hand I was holding my digital camera, which can take a 12MB uncompressed Tiff image at 2400×1800 resolution (approx. 32×25 inches), and the other hand was positioning an old flashblub “Brownie Hawkeye” made by Kodak which produced a 2 1/4” square picture. Made me think about the day my daughter (now two-years-old) might one day come over with her family, and her husband marvels at my old Fuji. I can’t image what will be technologically possible in another 25 years.

I honestly don’t know much about electronics. I like elecronics, and I’m a 100% gadget-geek. If something has buttons or wires or gears or uses batteries then I’ll most likely dig it, but I’m not a “that’s-a-42-alpha-niner-zip-draliphutator” kind of guy.

So far, my favorite piece of “junk” is the circa 1947 SX-43 Hallicrafters… uh, draliphutator… thing…receiver, shortwave radio contraption full of tubes. (What’s a tube?) I think I vaguely recall seeing a device similar to his in the movie “Frequency.” I could be way off though.

Anyway, yeah, he’s got some really cool, old technology piled-up in boxes in the basement. If the battery on my camera would have lasted longer, and if I would have remembered the I did bring the charger, I’m positive I would have run out of hard drive space this weekend.

“What’s that honey? You want to go to your parents’ house next weekend? Fine by me!”

-- jase