Terminator 4 - The Rise Of The Geeks

Not sure where that title came from but inside my head is a strange place at times and usually it's best not to ask ! I've also only had one cup of coffee so far this morning so as the intro on some 60's tv show used to say.......anything can happen in the next half hour.

Anyway, as friends will tell you, I am a bit of a geek, although the word has many definitions these days. My whole career involved working with computers and despite being retired for almost 10 years (wow !!), I'm still rarely away from one. I love technology and can still just about keep up with current advances even though they are coming thick and fast.

In a post last year I mentioned how, in the early hours of the morning, I'd been able to lie in bed here in Florida and watch live tv images on my phone being sent from a web camera which had been lowered down a mine shaft in Chile showing the trapped men finally being rescued.

In bed. Television. From Chile. From inside a mine. ON MY PHONE !!

Sorry....didn't mean to shout but it was very impressive.

I mean if this technology had been around in 1969, I could've watched the moon landing from my bed.

Anyway the reason for this bloggette is that last night Deb/Den had just gone to bed early (by my night owl standards) when I read a tweet from Stephen Fry which included a link to a cute photo. Knowing Deb would like to see the photo, I sent it on to her via email, thinking she would "pick it up" this morning. About a minute later I got her "awwwwww" reply as she had picked up the email on her phone and sent me an email back.

As she was only 50ft from me in her bedroom, this was not exactly as impressive a demonstration of the power of modern technology as the one I mentioned earlier but as she has no intention of ever (voluntarily) going down a mineshaft, Chilean or otherwise, it'll have to do for now.

We are a growing bunch, us geeks. Just a few minutes ago my friend, Daphne, sent me a phone photo of a dessert her hubby was having at that very moment in a pub in Leeds. As I sit here relaxing in my recliner, I can get news articles and video clips from anywhere on my laptop or phone. People all over the globe are sending each other emails and texts, photos and live video clips. Geeks rule.

A nice sunset in Singapore ? We can watch it.

A holiday photo from the banks of the Nile ? We can see it.

Jackass wannabees going over a cliff on a shopping cart ? We can look on in disgust.

What a small world we now live in !

I wonder if they said that when those seafaring explorers came back from discovering countries they never actually set out to find ?

"So, Capt Cook, just back again. Where from this time, eh ?"

"Donno really, mate. Some place with bouncing animals and bent sticks that you can't throw away."

"Travel far did you ?"

"Donno really but it took us 2 years."

"Only 2 years - what a small world we live in."

"Yeah...wanna see some photos ??"

And on that note, I think it's time for my 2nd coffee !! I really shouldn't be allowed to blog this early.