Time marches on

Stop the Internet I want to get off. Now the future is here and it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle. As the authorities belatedly embrace “online” as a way of reducing administrative costs for their services how long will it be before every one of us will need a compulsary Government version of a “Facebook” page as a way of interacting with them for Healthcare/Pensions etc. Newspapers and similar are searching for ways of charging for visiting their sites. BitTorrent will be neutered and new Internet “crimes” will become law. In another 10 years time the Internet we know now will have changed beyond all recognition. We will look back on 2009 as “the good old days”.

Apparently tomorrow will be 2010. How on earth did that happen ?? By my internal clock it should now be about 1985 !! Isn’t time speeding up !! Of course when you are 10 years old a year represents 10% of your life. When you are 50+ it is down to 2% and falling. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be either. People are celebrating things from 25 years ago that still seem to be modern stuff to me.

So I think soon in the future there won’t be any past !! All the music/books/comics that ever were and to come will be available digitally forever. But you may find yourself paying someone for the privilege. (But perhaps the younger generation won’t be interested in much of it anyway and will continue to pursue new fads and trends). From my point of view I’ll not be spending much more money on tangible media you can stack on a shelf. I’m not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. There are already virtually no more limited edition 45rpm singles, LPs, tapes, and videos. Perhaps in a year or two it will only be a minority buying DVDs, books, magazines and comics (although there will have to be some fantastic improvements to the “Kindle” and similar before I am tempted). I used to buy LPs or old comics thinking that if I didn’t grab that elusive copy I would never ever see it again. 30 years ago although I hoped by now I’d be flying round in a George Jetson style jet car I never ever expected cbr/cbz and mp3 files. I never expected to have too much choice.

Anyway, Happy New Year, take care and I’ll leave you with this thought………………..

Seasons Greetings

 

Old Computer

My computer is getting old. I’m driven to distraction by a message on startup saying that I didn’t shut it down right the last time I used it. Look Bill, I tried to, but clicking “shut down” just doesn’t make it shut down !!!

Anyway I understand that new ones actually fit on your desk these days and you don’t even have to type cd\whatever after you’ve slotted your floppy disk into the A drive……….

So I’ve junked my desktop and in 5 minutes my antique laptop goes the same way. (But I’ve kept a Sinclair ZX80 and pre-Windows Amstrad 8086 for nostalgic reasons.) Hooray!! For the first time in 30 years I now don’t have a working computer at home !! I just hope Santa got my letter……………….

They wish you a Merry Xmas

I wish you a Merry Xmas too.

Snails

Twenty years ago (good grief!) Syd Meats appeared regularly with the anarchic Boothby Graffoe on Radio Lincoln. Syd’s speciality was comic songs, often only written a few days earlier concerning topical news items. “Snails” was always a favourite of mine. I posted an audio clip featuring it last year. (Incidentally, according to WordPress statistics that, along with my post concerning A.P.Dangerfield remain the least-ever viewed items here!!!!). Nevertheless, as I continue to champion things that amuse ME and not the world at large, I proudly present another (better???) version of this legendary moment in the history of Radio Lincoln…..

Syd Meats – Snails

PS: If you’re wondering what on earth the song is about. 20 years ago there was a news item that the EEC were going to re-classify as Fish (for beaurocratic reasons no doubt) that French delicacy Snails, much to Syd’s chagrin. I’ve no idea if they ever actually did or not though…………………