View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard
I’ve frequently had the fortune of being on the cutting edge of technology, starting with my time at the University of Western Ontario. There, I took a computer science class that introduced me to email and websites, both of which were relatively new. Then, when I studied broadcast journalism at Fanshawe College, we were in transit from traditional tape-to-tape audio editing to digital editing. Then, when I went to Loyalist College for photojournalism, our year was the year that the industry as a whole moved from film to digital cameras.
It’s only recently that I realized that I’m behind the times. I’ve never really caught on to Facebook (I’m stuck in the email/web generation), and my interest in MySpace lasted about a day. Social networking is the new internet, and often I feel left behind. Until last year, I didn’t even have an iPod. I occasionally used the one I got for Christmas, usually for running (which wasn’t very often).
But we’re in a new year again, and times have changed for Angela and me. We got rid of our CDs after I received a higher end iPod (see mom’s article), which I now use for long rides in the car including my weekly commute to Toronto. We’re contemplating canceling our home phone after discovering Skype, a computer program that allows us to call anywhere in North America for $3 a month using our internet connection. It’s even better for the newspaper because I can record conversations directly into iTunes using Call Recorder, a program I bought for $20. This is especially useful for journalists or anyone else who needs a copy of a phone conversation (legally, of course).
So what’s next? I’d love to see the day when we all can download the Grand Bend Strip as it appears here, without the costs of printing or mailing (both of which have gone up this month). It might seem far-fetched, but I think I’ll see it in my lifetime; maybe next year?
P.S. Big news from our household: my dad is feeling much better, and this week received his license with ease. Congratulations dad! Watch for him on the road.