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25 Years

 

When I was 16 years old, I remember that my world was hanging out with my best buddy, Jim, and we would play Atari games on occasion and draw huge pixelated stick figures on his TV. His older brother, Tom, had a ham radio in the basement and occasionally, we would hear Tom CQ'ing for other parts of the world with rare success.

Remember this?

Fast forward to today, 25 years later. My son, Nick, is 16. He and I frequently play HALO together on XBox Live. Recently, one of the people in his group, Psychopath, went to my web site and then sent me some of his computer art. Psychopath is actually Paul, who also is 16. And he's Australian.

He did this with a program called Bryce 5. As you can see, it allows him to create complex renderings. Look at this close-up:

See the reflection on the water?

It is utterly remarkable that my children regularly interact with people from all over the world through XBox Live. Paul, a high schooler in Australia, is doing things far beyond my grasp when I was his age. It gets my head to spinning when I think of the achievements they will make in this accelerated curve of technology and connectedness.

As I watch both Aaron and Nick do this, I've noticed something. They've found their groups (Aaron's are more British and Irish, and Nick's are American and Australian) and with more frequency they'll just talk in these groups, and not just play. XBox Live allows for voice-over-IP (VOIP) and it's often as clear as the telephone.

The acceleration of change in our world today escapes most of us. 25 years is not that long a time span. While Atari was not available for my mother's generation, ham radios were, and the technology was pretty much the same from her generation to mine. But the changes are lightning fast now. I can't imagine what my son will enjoy as he enters his 40's, 25 years from now. It's bewildering to try and guess what his 16-year-old will be able to do.

What a great time to be alive, this is!

 


by Brett Rogers, 1/13/2006 6:54:26 AM
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Comments

haha good story brett only because its ALL ABOUT ME! lol thanks brett

 

 

Posted by Anonymous, 1/13/2006 7:59:04 AM


Holy WOW, Psychopath, that's terrific stuff.

Brett, I was totally into the Atari computer too. In my seventh-grade year I went to a school that was only for seventh-graders, and I was part of a group of about three who were pulled from the entire student body to work in the...

...wait for it...

COMPUTER LAB.

It was a new concept. There was only one, and it was enshrined in a secret room in the center of the building. We were taught BASIC programming and came up with the typical little "games" that could be done in BASIC.

I credit this early introduction to my ability to understand and work with computers today, but I can also see that my six-year-old son who's never known a world without total computer immersion is waaaaay ahead of my game.

 

 

Posted by Anonymous, 1/13/2006 9:05:04 AM


hey,brett i wander y im not mensiond in any thing(sorry 4 the spelling)im at school right now and were tacking iowa test but becaus im specal i dont have to take it.we now have 20 or 21 members now.c u later olde locks.

 

 

Posted by Mr Krackerjack, 2/2/2006 2:18:10 PM



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