Can you believe how far we’ve come in such a short time? It really wasn’t "that" long ago that these ads were being seen in current issues of the latest magazines and newspapers. Oh wait, you remember newspapers don’t you? Maybe it was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Get a good laugh yourself with PC World’s The 25 Funniest Vintage Tech Ads

Post from: EveryJoe

PC World’s 25 Funniest Tech Ads

In the interview, the discussion started heading towards the idea of a potential government bailout or other options for the newspapers. President Obama said he hadn’t seen any detailed proposals, but would be open to options to help the struggling papers.

We’re advancing technology right? Why do we need to support an industry that doesn’t need to be saved? I believe the reason they’re failing is because the newspapers haven’t adjusted to the changing of media and the economic impacts of those changes.

Barack says he’s concerned that if there were no newspapers or other official media outlets, and all the news was left up to the blogosphere we’d be at a loss. I find that a bit interesting since the blogosphere is what he used so effectively in his campaign.

Why can’t the newspapers exist purely online and in a digital format? Why can’t the same people that have been writing for print media, just write for the web? Advertising they sold for the print edition can now be sold in their digital format and they can get an even wider subscriber base. For example, I’d love to be able to subscribe to my little hometown paper from the tiny city I grew up in. It’s not worth them printing and mailing me a copy of the paper, but to give me access to it electronically or all the stories on their website. That’s a great deal!

Bailing out the newspapers to keep printing birdcage carpet isn’t a great idea!

We might as well go ahead and bailout candle makers, blacksmiths and typewriter companies?

Post from: EveryJoe

Is Obama Open to Newspaper Bailout?

When I was first learning and teaching myself HTML, I always enjoyed the way information was presented in the "Bible" series from Wiley. I felt the way the book was organized and gave the reader a nice overview of the information was very helpful. I’ve also read through a couple of O’Reilly books and also enjoyed them. The "For Dummies" series are really popular, but I’ve never used one to learn something.

Here’s another question for you, the readers, what books have you enjoyed. Which ones have you read that helped you really grasp and understand that topic at hand with whatever technology you were trying to learn and teach yourself?

If you were going to buy a single book to learn a topic, what series would you look for first on the shelf? Let us know in the comments below.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Best Computer Books for Learning Something New

In my lifetime the things that come to the top of my mind of having died would be the following:

• vinyl records
• cassettes
• 8-tracks
• beta max
• VCR
• floppy disks

If I were to guess about some other items that won’t be here in five years I’d add landline phones. I think incandescent bulbs will probably go away along with places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

The challenge these days with all of these changes is the persistence of the market that’s available through Chris Anderson’s Long Tail. These days I can’t really imagine anything completely dying, but easily getting out of general availability and usage.

With regards to online use. Will email be around? Or will it be replaced with services like Google Wave? Will services like Facebook still be around, or will the next bigger, better deal replace it? I know I sure hope MySpace goes away for good. Will we at some point decide that twitter’s 140 characters is just too much to take in and we’ll drop to some service that allows us to update everyone with one word poetry?

Post from: EveryJoe

What Will Be the Next to Die

Let’s start the discussion on what you think the best examples of technology design are these days and in recent history. We don’t have to focus on items that are just beautiful aesthetically either. Great design can also encompass a great user-interface too. I don’t like iTunes to manage, but the simple interface of iPods are a great example of design in my opinion.

I’ve mentioned before my love for my first personal desktop computer with the Toshiba Infinia. It was one of the first non-beige desktops. Bummer that my monitor for that machine is no longer working. It’s got a short in it or something. Doesn’t detect a signal sometimes and doesn’t turn on.

What’s more important to you with your devices? Should it look great or work great? Nice to have both, but would you give up features for a flashy design? Would you forgive a little ugly if things "just worked" like you expect?

Let us know in the comments.

Image: Product images from product websites

Post from: EveryJoe

Top Technology Design Discussion

Taking a break for a few days from being plugged in. It’s a battle for me. Most of the time when I’m “attached” to the network I’m in the process of making money for my family. I think I do a good job of balancing work and play/family, but I do work a lot. For me I usually try to get it done after hours when the kids are in bed. In the summer that’s a little more difficult since the kids are up later and there seems to be more activity going on.

The best way for me to unplug is to get away and go somewhere where being connected to the machine is challenging. For me, that’s camping. Electricity and wi-fi are hard to come by when you’re out in the woods. Cell phones are frequently in roam which doesn’t allow me to connect for data transfer.

What do you do? Do you call “technology free” days or nights? How do you get away? Do you get away? Do you think it’s important? Let me know your thoughts.

Image: Modified flickr photo by Pulpolux

Post from: EveryJoe

Going Offline – Unplug from Your Tech Addictions

Money Motherboard graphic

My thoughts were just wondering if the features and benefits of the World Wide Web and Internet provide a little bit more of an opportunity for cushion on the ups and downs of someone’s personal and professional finances. Is the ability for a business of any size to really market itself to any other business regardless of size a way to avoid your market dwindling away to nothing. As for individuals, you’ve got the opportunity to start your own business, or to simply network and market yourself for other potential jobs that may be available to you.

What are your thoughts? Is technology a cushion in tough economic times? Maybe you think technology (or too much of it) could be a part of the cause of all these problems. After all, we didn’t have all these gadgets, gizmos and applications back in the good ‘ol days. Is that what made them so good in the first place? Life was so much simpler then right?

Post from: EveryJoe

Recession in the Internet Age

Clair, over at New Linux User, wrote a post about the wrong way to go about showing people what Linux can do. And I agree with her completely. The wrong way of showing someone why they should switch is to force it down their throats — and besides, this leads me to my first point (or is it second) that there is a reason that you need to force it down their throats. I can not imagine how difficult life would be if an IT guy had to explain why the kernel needs to be recompiled or why they only make that software for the PC (which everyone else uses). This would be a headache and a half.

On the other hand, learning about new technology is a great thing. We would still be in the dark, using the dirty holes in the ground to relieve ourselves and be trying to put squares onto axles to get the car going without learning about and embracing new technology. Linux has a great deal to offer both the personal and commercial front but they may not be there yet — or the users may not be there to accept it yet.

Either way, forcing new ideas and programs on people can only cause them to push back. It’s like and argument between a child and his mother about how much he wants the brand new Power Ranger toy (are they still around?). The more the parent pushes back, the more the child fights. Give it a rest, they will come around.

Post from: EveryJoe

I hate Linux, give me Winblows