Smelling the Digital Roses

The Technology and the Interweb allow for some weird things now and then. For instance a little earlier tonight I was chatting with an old friend when at around 10pm he left to go find some lunch.

I've been using the Internet for about ten years now, and it still blows my mind that I can chat with a friend in Arizona, Kentucky or, in this case, Australia as easily as someone just up the street.

But the wonder of technology can also swing both ways.

Early last November we had municipal elections here in Ontario. I'd been working on a local campaign and the night of the election we had our "victory party" in a local restaurant. (You call it a "victory" party no matter what the outcome). At these events it's traditional to watch the results come in on the largest TV available. In this case we had a nice big large screen TV, but a little issue. I flipped through the channels looking for local coverage. There were hundreds of channels, but none offered what we were looking for. As it turned out the restaurant had satellite TV, and no cable. We could watch the local news in Tampa, Florida or one of seventeen action movies, but getting local election results just wasn't going to happen.

I ended up calling my dad in Orillia and having him look up the Windsor results on the Interweb and read them to me, so I could announce them to the crowd. I had to call home to get local news.

In the end technology fixed the mess different technology had created.

An example that is a little similar is what happens when SouthernKitten gets lost in a strange city. She calls me. Not because I am at all familiar with the city in question. Nor am I very good with directions in general. But I am good with Google, MapQuest and Microsoft Streets and Trips.

It's great. I've never been to Las Vegas but I can find and direct SouthernKitten to, for instance, somewhere nearby where she can get Thai food. Sometimes even by cell phone text message.

None of this is all that new. The Internet, MSN, MapQuest and the rest have all been around for years. I just like to stop now and then and smell the digital roses, if you will.