| I often find myself thinking about the ways | | | | that Pong would evolve into a myriad of video |
| in which my everyday life has changed over | | | | games that my family could play on the |
| the past twenty years. Usually, I take a step | | | | PlayStation, Xbox, and GameCube. Yes, I had a |
| back and wonder how my mother - who passed | | | | VCR, but I never would have conceived that |
| away seventeen years ago - would view today's | | | | the VCR would make room for the DVD player, |
| world. Aside from the geopolitical changes | | | | and that my TV screen would grow to such |
| that have taken place in the past twenty | | | | large proportions. Nor could I have imagined |
| years, and the ways in which the landscape of | | | | that my TV would host such a myriad of |
| our city has changed with explosive growth | | | | systems: PlayStation, Xbox, DVD player, and |
| and development, there are the wondrous | | | | DVR recorder. |
| developments in electronics that have changed | | | | |
| the ways we do business and the ways we spend | | | | And then, of course, there's the digital |
| our leisure time. | | | | revolution in cameras. Not only can I take |
| | | | photos and share them via the Internet, but I |
| Twenty years ago, I started using my first PC | | | | can also run slide shows on that same TV. I |
| at work. I recall having to put in a floppy | | | | can take my digital camcorder, burn home |
| disk every time I wanted to do any word | | | | movies onto discs and send them to relatives |
| processing. It would be another six years | | | | half a world away. |
| before a friend told me about what he thought | | | | |
| would be the next big thing - something | | | | What's even more amazing to me is that |
| called the World Wide Web. Today, of course, | | | | virtually all of the electronics consumer |
| it's crippling when my DSL goes on the blink; | | | | goods that I own have been given to me as |
| my work grinds to a halt and I marvel at just | | | | gifts. I've been fortunate enough to enjoy |
| how dependent I am on the Internet. | | | | the bounty of an electronics revolution that |
| | | | I couldn't have imagined twenty years ago. |
| I look around my house and see all kinds of | | | | Which, of course, leads me to wonder what the |
| electronics that I couldn't have dreamed of | | | | next twenty years might bring in the wondrous |
| twenty years ago. Sure, I had an Atari way | | | | world of electronics. |
| back when, but I never would have imagined | | | | |