The cover photo was taken before the book was written, for an early mock-up,
around 2004, and I liked it so much I decided to keep it, but for different
reasons than I originally envisioned. Nearly all of the "vital" tools of the
techie shown in this photo have become obsolete in the last decade or so.
Look at the list:
- a plane ticket — for a long time I've used
"paperless tickets," which is what the airlines seem to prefer,
but I still have to print out a boarding pass
- a paper roadmap — made obsolete by GPS and
smartphone, but I still bring one as a backup anyway
- a printed itinerary — I still bring one of these,
mostly to prove to hotel clerks and car rental agents that I
have a reservation
- a data CD-ROM that I burned myself — nowadays I
would use a thumb drive, or else just upload data to a cloud
service for later download
- several pens — I still use these
- an audio CD — replaced of course by an iPod or
smart phone
- a data CD-ROM from a software vendor — usually
just a download from a web site these days
- a bunch of business cards — I also still use these
- a Java manual — with "internet in my pocket" I
usually just search for documentation on-line these days
- a Palm Pilot — remember these? "personal digital
assistants" we called them; my smart phone does all it did
(except recognize the stylized handwriting it used)
- a analog camera — no more costly chemical developing
(which used real silver) now that we have digital cameras in our
phones by default
- a flashlight — though I can use my iPhone as a
flashlight, I still like having a real one
- a calculator — there's an app for that
- a guide book — though I occasionally check these
out of the library and bring them on a trip, these days I mostly
use web resources
- a book for pleasure reading — I will still bring a
paper book for reading for fun; it's a personal preference (I
noticed I still have the same copy of Thoreau's
Walden [ISBN/ASIN: 0486284956]
shown, and I still haven't finished it!)
- a CD player — see audio CD above
- a stopwatch — although there's an app for this as
well, I still carry an old analog stopwatch mostly as a prop for
anachronistic reasons (see section 1.6.5
"Dining Quickly")
- a GPS unit — built into most smart phones and most
rental cars
- a compass (not visible) — there's an app for that
on newer smart phones, but still like to have mini on my keychain
- a cell phone — the one piece of tech that swallowed
all the others, and
- an aluminum briefcase to hold it all — I didn't
even use one of these back then; I just thought it looked more
dramatic than the laptop bag I usually carried on planes
It's mind-boggling to attempt to predict the scale of changes and obsolescence
that will come with the next decade of innovations.
