A birthday greeting

...term for the arrival of a new consumer site.

Alerted to this anniversary by the “double money” offer in September (oh dear I’ve totally missed the boat on that one!) I have, in spite of being extraordinarily busy, been giving some thought as to just how I should pay a personal tribute to this remarkable institution.

As a late starter in most things, contrary to what many may think, I was not around here when Ciao was “born”, ...
...was only really viewed as a business tool, certainly I, and I suspect the majority reading this, did not have a computer at home, and even if you did, it was unlikely to have been connected to the internet.

Like so many other aspects of modern life, the internet proved a rapidly life changing one – for me this occurred actually during late 2000 as I started to use this media for social purposes. In business terms I had already been using ... more

Please forgive me but, frustratingly, intensive research has failed to enlighten me as to the day that Ciao actually “launched” - assuming that is the correct term for the arrival of a new consumer site.

Alerted to this anniversary by the “double money” offer in September (oh dear I’ve totally missed the boat on that one!) I have, in spite of being extraordinarily busy, been giving some thought as to just how I should pay a personal tribute to this remarkable institution.

As a late starter in most things, contrary to what many may think, I was not around here when Ciao was “born”, but nonetheless thought the tenth anniversary of this site an occasion to be marked. Indeed, back in 1999 the internet, for the majority at least, was only really viewed as a business tool, certainly I, and I suspect the majority reading this, did not have a computer at home, and even if you did, it was unlikely to have been connected to the internet.

Like so many other aspects of modern life, the internet proved a rapidly life changing one – for me this occurred actually during late 2000 as I started to use this media for social purposes. In business terms I had already been using various specialised applications via internet for some years, although back in 1999, not in my wildest dreams did I think that it would become the ordinary part of every day life that it has turned into during the ten years that followed, not only for myself, but also the majority of the populace, young and old alike.

Such accelerated rapid change was highlighted in my thoughts only last week as I cleared out my desk at work. I came across an old A4 pad, in which I used to keep notes and indeed write an early form of what I now recognize as reviews, long before I had any idea that a reviewing site such as this existed. Extraordinarily, this particular one recorded my thoughts as the very last day of the century drew to a close, quite what inspired me to sit down and write the following four pages on that grey afternoon I am not sure, but until this moment in time nobody else has read it.

Whilst ten years later, having completely forgotten about it, I actually found it interesting to read myself – in view of this tenth anniversary - I also thought it an appropriate piece to publish in celebration, not only of Ciao, but also, in a sense, of the last ten years.

I am a different person to the one who wrote this piece almost ten years ago – indeed in a sense “RICHADA” had not been born, yes, I was “Rich”(ard), but not until the autumn of October 2000 did I meet “Ada” (Adrianna), a year later that meeting bought about the marriage which created “RICHADA”. When written, the following piece was written by someone as single as it is possible to be.

Whilst reflective in tone, in some respects it has proven to be remarkably prophetic, rueing the pace of change in 1999 seems positively ironic to me now ten years later – thanks to modern technology, particularly information technology, it simply defies belief just how much more productive we have all had to become.

The following I have copied verbatim from my hand-written, title-less “essay”, written on the last day of the twentieth century:

BACK TO 31.12.1999

I write this on the final afternoon of the 20th Century, with, on the television in front of me, the BBC broadcasting powerful images of the last 100 years, this inter-dispersed with live broadcasts from countries already entering the New Millennium.

Being a natural born pessimist I, along, I suspect, with millions of other computer dependant Westerners, have just sighed a huge sigh of relief as the clock ticked over midnight in Auckland, New Zealand and……

……the lights didn’t go out.

There is no doubt that the much vaunted “Millennium Bug” will cause problems, large and small, but it looks as though civilization, as we know it, is unlikely to come to a swift end in the morning.

There is certainly no doubt that the Britain of 2000 is a vastly different place to that of 1900. From a personal point of view I would have to say that it is in the fields of communications and information technology that have had the biggest impact on every day life. We sit, in our own homes, viewing broadcasts, live, from the remotest corners of the globe. Landscapes, foreign tongues, even tribal dress, are really no surprise or threat. In 1900 news stories about savages (fear of the unknown, rather than blind prejudice) in faraway lands either simply would not have existed, or if they did, would have taken many weeks to reach the English newsstands. In those far off days we still had a huge Empire, over which the sun never set. Queen Victoria still reigned over much of the globe – a slow and bureaucratic process in itself.

My own very limited experiences and memories of the 20th Century really only cover the relatively peaceful last thirty years, however, in terms of technological progress, affecting daily life at least, the last three decades have probably witnessed the most rapid change of all.

You may well notice that the term “progress” has so far been surprisingly absent. This is quite deliberate as, in many respects, new technology has merely bought about an acceleration in the general pace of life, that, not necessarily, being a quantifiable improvement in the general quality of life. However, whatever ones’ interests and view of modern society, it is not possible to stop the clock, and being unable to stand in the way of progress, we might just as well make the best use of it.

1999, personally speaking, will go down as one of my main ‘consumer’ years. Of the many new items acquired this year, there are only two that, in fundamental form, I would not, given sufficient funds, have been able to purchase during 1899. Without going into the minutiae of my purchases, I wear both watch and spectacles bought during the year, am currently driving a three month old car, have purchased a colour computer printer and, lastly, for Christmas, received that symbol of Y2K Britain – my very first mobile telephone!

It is of course the last two items that would, in 1899, have been unavailable at any price and represent classic examples of communications technologies now taken for granted. But what price technology in regard to my other listed items?

The watch is an automatic, mass produced, Japanese model. At £180 it was not exactly cheap and I do expect it to last around ten years, as indeed did its predecessor. Had I purchased a watch 100 years ago, it would not have been of Japanese manufacture, would not have kept perfect time for six months at a time, would probably have been a fob watch and would have been expected to last a lifetime. In terms of both appearance and function though, my Victorian predecessor would have no problem in recognising this as a timepiece and would have been able to use it without any instruction.

Even closer to Victorian technology are my spectacles. Boots Opticians may have struck our hypothetical Victorian gent’ as an alien experience, but the nitty-gritty, the eye test itself, the trial and error method by which the final prescription is arrived at, would have been quite familiar to him. My steel frame / glass lens combination would hardly raise an eyebrow either.

Whilst 100 years ago the watch and spectacles would require little explanation, my motor car would most certainly have done. Only the very well- to-do and some city dwellers would maybe have used, but at least seen a horseless carriage, for in 1899 that is what the early motor vehicles were. The infrastructure for running a modern car simply did not exist, roads were not metalled and fuel stations were not around. Obtaining a sufficient quantity of fuel from the local chemist would have been unlikely too. My 1999 Vauxhall Omega would not only have looked extraordinary in 1899, but importantly, would have been entirely unable to cope with road conditions at the turn of the last century. If I had a time machine and wished to motor on late Victorian roads, it would be a Land Rover that I would need to take.

In order to operate any modern vehicle, an enormous amount of education would have to take place, however the concepts of road, rail and even air travel existed. Personal transport, at least for the well off, existed in the form of the horse, as indeed it had done for hundreds of centuries before the nineteenth. The transition to motorised transport, whilst initially elitist, became unstoppable once Henry Ford pioneered mass production.

To truly baffle, even the Victorian scientist, you would need to show him the two cheapest and most modern high-tech items acquired this year. The first of these items, in its end output, actually takes us back far into history, the printed word having for hundreds of years provided information, education and even entertainment for the literate minority to make use of. However, the concept of spending little over £100 to produce, in seconds, at home, colour copy from a source of one’s own choosing would have been entirely alien 100 years ago. In some respects, when compared to the technology of laser printing, the bubblejet is now, in technology terms, simple – to the Victorian it would have been little short of a miracle.

Those who know me would expect the motor car to be my 20th century “subject of greatest influence” – even if its roots had been in the 20th century it would not top my list. The availability to all of electricity has to be a far more fundamental benefit, but no, it has to be radio, thanks to Marconi, that tops my list. The invention and breathtakingly fast spread of radio technology has indirectly benefited all in every sphere of life. This also neatly leads to my very last acquisition of the century – the mobile telephone.

In my teens the ultimate convenience and status symbol would have been to possess what was then known as a car phone. A radio telephone, far more bulky and unreliable than any land line, efficient radio telecommunications even for the emergency services, were not widely available until the 1970’s. Within 15 years these bulky sets had been reduced vastly in size thanks to the widespread use of microchips, they also rapidly became available in shops not as car phones, but as true cordless, mobile, telephones.

By the time that I had grown up and spent ten years driving, the very last thing that I desired in the car was a telephone! I had come to view the car, when travelling on business, or for pleasure, as my own haven from the ever increasing demands in life. However, eventually refusal to carry a mobile phone became akin to standing in the way of progress; in particular, customers no longer accept that you are not contactable when in their area on business. 1997 and 98 found me increasingly away from both home and office and on occasion wishing for a mobile telephone.

Under these circumstances, and with the technology available from as little as £40, I enter the 21st century in possession of a mobile phone.

Of my items listed, this tiny device is the one that would entirely baffle someone of my age and standing 100 years ago. Taken back in my hypothetical time machine of course this device would be completely useless, mobile or not, the infrastructure to support it was totally absent. To an extent this applies too to the printer, without some digital input (and an electrical current!) I would after all be completely unable to impress my Victorian compatriot with its brilliance!

BACK TO THE FUTURE IT’S 2009!

Well if you are reading this in 2020 I guess the whole picture will have changed again, I don’t have a crystal ball and, as in 1999, am attempting no future predictions whatsoever!

Wracking my brain about the items purchased in 1999, as far as I know none are still operational today. I predicted a ten year lifespan for the watch and, of all the coincidences, have this very day replaced it – just like its predecessor (of the same make) it gave up the ghost at ten years old.

My colour printer is long gone, replaced several times over with ever better and cheaper technology.

Coincidentally, both the car and the phone have been replaced twice during the past decade – in terms of technology, it is the phone that has advanced far more than the car that I drive.

However, the last ten years, as indeed reflected by patterns in reviewing here, have most strongly been marked by the digital revolution. Items that spanned 100 years of development during the twentieth century appear to come and go in less than a decade now. Witness the demise of the humble VCR, CRT television and the typewriter, that stalwart of office life. For our children all will be viewed as museum pieces.

This may well be a sign of my own advancing age, but one is left musing as to where we can go from here. How out of date will our tiny iPod Classic be in 2020? Containing over 600 albums, just how small a space will that much music be compressed into in ten years time? I well remember marvelling at the first CD’s and how space saving a design they were – not to mention offering such a leap in quality over the audio-cassette.

During the last ten years one of my main hobbies, photography, has undergone a massive revolution – digitisation. Now, instead of taking maybe 150 photographs a year, I am regularly taking between 7,000 and 10,000. More extraordinary, in a sense, is that my Nikon D90 camera looks hardly any different to its 35mm predecessor. Indeed a Victorian would have no problem in recognising it as a camera, even though it would be of no use whatsoever.

The very idea of creating and showing slide shows on a huge flat screen television back in 1999 would have been as incomprehensible to me as carrying around 600 music albums in my top pocket!

Quite where this digital revolution will lead us is anyone’s guess, but in many ways, just as during the last ten years, this very site will be one of the best places to keep abreast of it all.

Cheers Ciao, from time to time we may all have had a moan about you, but all in all, you have done a great job in keeping up over the last decade of huge changes in consumerism - here’s to the next 10!

© RICHADA 20.10.09 / 31.12.99
 

...less