Hi-Tech, Low-Humor: My Son’s ITouch App Collection
By Roberta Rosenberg on Jan 11, 2009 in Occasional Rantings, Uncategorized
Every once in a while I purchase or read about a nifty new tech gadget and I think about my dad. He died in 1975 and loved everything technology.
We had a color TV in 1959, before there even was color broadcasting.
We had push-button phones while the rest of the world was still using circular dials.
An army photographer in WW2, he absolutely had to have a Nikon F camera when they first came out. (I think the only pictures he actually took with it was me getting ready for my senior prom, but I digress.)
No matter. If it was techy, he was all over it. He would have loved my just-bought Acer notebook in deep royal blue. There’s more power in this teeny pc than those large, clunky mainframes from even 20, not to mention 30+ years ago.
“Hey, Daddy … Check this out. I have access to the WHOLE WORLD in here.”
And I do. It’s like my own personal tricorder and who wouldn’t love that.
Dad also would have loved my son’s new ITouch. Loved and been amazed by it. (I love the whole ‘drag your finger up/down and side to side thing myself.) However, it makes me laugh to see the apps my 11 year-old adds to his latest toy.
Yes, this is the culmination of, what, 50 years of computer technology? So that my son’s tech-toy can make fart sounds? Like he doesn’t generate those kinds of sounds himself practically on-command?
Do they sound different on an ITouch?
“Hey, Daddy. Check this out. Touch this button right here and it farts.”
“Oh, yeah. I know. You’d be happy to do this for free. Yes, I remember the long car rides during the winter with the windows pulled up tight. We all do. No, I don’t want to pull your finger.”
At least my Acer, unlike my son’s ITouch, has manners. 
The Copywriter Underground | Jan 11, 2009 | Reply
My dad wasn’t a techie (probably because he worked on the stuff all day long), but he’d spend hours poring over seed catalogs, which had the added attraction of not farting.
Anyway, it’s always good to see technology put to use in the service of humanity.
Query: Do Acers make better fart sounds than Dells?
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Graham Strong | Jan 12, 2009 | Reply
My father used to be into tech, but now he’s into practicality and the “tried and true” rather than the “next greatest thing”.
We were the first on our block to get Atari, and we brought it with us when we went to visit my grandparents. My grandfather wanted nothing to do with it, though I couldn’t quite understand why. He must have been into tech as well — he was a flight engineer flying B-24s for the RAF before even the American forces had them.
But I think we all reach a point where we decide to get off the merry-go-round and say “enough, what I have now is all I need…”
Then again, maybe shooting down cartoon planes on a TV screen when you were once shot at yourself doesn’t hold the same appeal.
Alls I know is that I’m starting to feel the allure of stepping off the ride myself. And I’m not happy about that.
~Graham
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