tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338557.post115431230214992052..comments2023-08-18T04:37:47.001-04:00Comments on Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie: Can I have a green ray instead?Kelly Sedingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10704114189919711467noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338557.post-1154377681356155452006-07-31T16:28:00.000-04:002006-07-31T16:28:00.000-04:00Wow, you have a Discman? Lucky. I guess I will h...Wow, you have a Discman? Lucky. I guess I will have to break down and buy one. My Walkman is sounding a little rough.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338557.post-1154320681185912752006-07-31T00:38:00.000-04:002006-07-31T00:38:00.000-04:00I'm always surprised, bemused, and befuddled at ho...I'm always surprised, bemused, and befuddled at how the geniuses of high-tech seem to work so hard at solving problems which I didn't even know existed. I live in Japan and here the big thing is high-tech payment methods; one drags a card across a reader and the amount owed is debited. A step beyond this, I guess, has one sliding one's cellular phone across the reader. This is all very Flash-Gordony, but was cash really so difficult to use? Were credit cards and checks really so cumbersome that we needed to mobilize the forces of high-tech innovation to come up with an alternate means of parting us from our cash?<BR/><BR/>I guess that's the key, though. The most important thing for businesses to do in a capitalist world is to work out ever more attractive means of parting customers from their money. The quicker and easier it is to consume, the logic seems to run, the more quickly and easily people will consume, and that's what it's all about.<BR/><BR/>DVDs in their current incarnation look fine (and videos didn't look that bad). CDs sound great. Couldn't high-tech creativity be put to a lot better use than replacing these eminently servicable technologies?<BR/><BR/>Best,<BR/><BR/>DavidAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com